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The 2024-25 season will show just how far the Ely Timberwolves have come.
All five starters are back for a high school boys basketball team that showed flashes of brilliance at times, and struggled through other parts of last season while going 11-16 overall.
The Wolves gained valuable experience and figure to be improved as they prep for Friday night’s season-opener against International Falls, set for 7:15 p.m. at the high school gymnasium.
Tom McDonald, who begins his 35th season as Ely’s head coach, is looking forward to see how his team has progressed.
“I’m hoping we’ll be more competitive with most anybody on our schedule,” said McDonald. “Too many times last year we weren’t competitive and got blown out. Hopefully we’ll be better on both ends. We had some high turnover games that killed us and other games where our defense was poor.”
Like most Ely teams, this one won’t have much height but should be able to score from the outside.
The Wolves return one of the area’s most potent shooters in junior guard Jack Davies.
An All-Arrowhead Conference selection as a sophomore, Davies averaged 20.2 points per game and had many nights when he caught fire from beyond the three-point arc.
Also back is senior Caid Chittum, who averaged 16.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest.
The 5-9 Davies and the 5-11 Chittum will form an imposing one-two combination.
“They’re going to have to lead us on both ends of the floor,” said McDonald. “We’ve been looking good in practice, but we’ll see what happens when there’s a real team in front of us.”
Drew Johnson, a 6-1 junior, is Ely’s tallest returning starter and a third scoring threat for the Wolves.
Ely also figures to get a boost from sophomore guard Wyatt Tedrick, who started a year ago, as well as 5-11 senior Wyatt Mattson.
McDonald is looking to build depth on his team and those figuring to be first off the bench are senior Trenton Bishop, 6-3 sophomore Max Brandriet and sophomore Leo McKrahl.
“We have more height coming off the bench,” said McDonald. “Brandreit at 6-3, we don’t get guys like him very often and he gives us some length but he doesn’t have varsity experience. We don’t have a lot of depth, but hopefully we’ll be playing our best basketball at the end of the year. We might take our lumps early just to get better.”
The Wolves host Class AA International Falls to start the season and travel to Hill City the following day, kicking off a 26-game slate.
Once again, Ely will host a six-team holiday tournament Dec. 28-29 as part of the schedule.
Ray Podominick, who was an assistant in the program from 1993-2001, is filling in for Tim Omerza this year as McDonald’s assistant coach.
The Wolves join a host of teams chasing defending Class A champion Cherry, which once again is a heavy favorite in Section 7A and is ranked first in Class A by the Minnesota Basketball News.
Ely Wolves Boys Basketball 2024-25 Schedule
Dec. 6: International Falls Dec. 7: at Hill City. 2:30 p.m. Dec. 10: at Floodwood, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13: at Mesabi East Dec. 17: Cook County, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 27: Two Harbors, Ely Tournament, TBA Dec. 28: Bigfork, Ely Tournament, 4 p.m. Jan. 3: North Woods
Jan. 7: at Greenway Jan. 10: at Nashwauk-Keewatin Jan. 11: Northland (Remer), 2:30 p.m. Jan. 14: Bigfork Jan. 16: Mt. Iron-Buhl Jan. 18: at Duluth Marshall, 2:30 p.m.
Jan. 21: McGregor, 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 24: at Littlefork-Big Falls Jan. 28: Greenway
Jan. 31: at Carlton-Wrenshall, 6:15 p.m.
Feb. 4: Deer River Feb. 7: Mesabi East
Feb. 8: at Lake of the Woods, 2:30 p.m.
Feb. 14: Chisholm Feb. 18: at Mt. Iron-Buhl Feb. 21: South Ridge Feb. 25: at North Woods Feb. 28: at Fond du Lac Game times 7:15 p.m. unless noted. Home games in bold
