The Trinity Bible College Lions Men’s and Women’s basketball teams held Monday Night Madness to help kick off their 2012-2013 season. The night’s events included an inter-squad scrimmage for the women’s team, a scrimmage between the 2012-2013 men’s team and alumni, and crowd contests. The crowd contests included a three point contest, a dribbling skills course and a game of lightning. Prizes were given to the winners of the contests, the prize were generously donated by businesses in Ellendale. Trinity Bible College Athletics would like to thank those businesses who donated:  Starion Financial, Great Plains National Bank, Dakota Plains Credit Union, Mahler's Village Variety, Cenex Farmers Union Oil Company, Pheasant Lanes, and the Bakery.

The Trinity Bible College Men’s and Women’s teams are excited to get their new season underway, as they both look to repeat as NIAC Conference Champions and North Central Region Champions and make it back to the NCCAA DII National Tournament.

The 2012-2013 Men’s team welcomes back nine of the 11 players from the championship team are year ago. Of those nine, four are seniors, Michael Rohrbach (Aberdeen, SD), David Rohrbach (Aberdeen, SD), Cameron Martell (Poplar, MT) and NCCAA Second Team All-American Mikey Rosario (Fort Worth, TX). Joining the four seniors are three juniors, Joshua Bialik (Delta, AK), Pete Enos (Rapid City, SD) and Alexander Anthony (Memphis, TN). Rounding out this year’s squad are sophomores Nick Lentz (Onida, SD) and Barry Bighorn (Culbertson, MT).  The Lions are returning all five starters, and all nine players contributed largely to the team last year that made it to the NCCAA National Tournament.  The Lions will be led and coached by Jordan Nowell, who will be starting his seventh season as head coach. Assisting Coach Nowell will be second year assistant Colby Simonsen.  Coach Nowell has this to say about the up-coming season:  “I am very excited about this year.  We were blessed to return 9 players from last year’s conference and regional championship teams.  Our experience will definitely benefit us.  This team is hungry to repeat and works very hard in practice.  They are very dedicated to their game and in representing Trinity Bible College to the best of their abilities.  I think we are in for a very exciting season.” 

The 2012-2013 Women’s team is returning eight players from last year’s NIAC conference and North Central Region championship team.  The team will feature two seniors, Shianne Montgomery (Charlo, MT) and NCCAA First Team All-American, North Central Region MVP and NIAC Conference MVP Treva Nutter (Thedford, NE). The team will also have three juniors, Kylie Flemmer (Beulah, ND), Kayla Droste (Ingalls, KS) and Andrea Wileman (Neche, ND). Coming back for their second season with the Lady Lions are three sophomores, Mariah Elliott (Thedford, NE), Kelby Wiederhold (Hill City, SD) and Sarah Wold (Labolt, SD). The Lady Lions welcome a big freshmen class with six new faces, Aaren LaRose (Holbrook, AZ), Janae Droste (Ingalls, KS), SaraLi Petersen (Dazey, ND), Lauren Fischer (Spray, OR), Jacynth Drumhiller (Vanderbilt, PA) and Jazmine Barse (Aberdeen, SD).  The Lady Lions will be coached by Rachael Nowell who will be heading into her fourth season and assisting her this season will be first year assistant coach Kristin Ayze.  Coach Rachael Nowell had this to say, “We are excited to return eight players and the new six freshmen have picked up the hard work ethic that the returners display in and out of practice. This is a really fun group of ladies to coach because of how well they have meshed together and come to practice every day with a great attitude and ready to work hard. We are ready to finish where we left off eight months ago at Nationals.”

The Trinity Bible College Lions basketball teams will play their first games of the season on Friday and Saturday, November 2^nd and 3^rd against Association Free Lutheran Bible School. Game times for Friday are women at 6pm and men at 8pm and Saturday’s are women at 12pm and men at 2pm.  The games will be played at Heritage Christian Academy in Maple Grove, MN.