Spring Spotlight: For Butte County’s Bridger Hansen It’s All About Finding Gym Time
A name that popped up onto our 2020 rankings and radar as the prep season progressed in 2017-18 was Butte County guard Bridger Hansen, a tenacious guard that put up some impressive numbers his sophomore year. With his junior year ahead, Hansen has been putting in practice time at the gym in an effort to improve even more.
Hansen averaged double figures in scoring and tallied four assists per game for Butte County last season earning Second Team 1A Division II District 5-6 honors as a result. Hansen and the Pirates finished 8-2 in their conference and 10-12 overall on the season.
For Hansen, there were a couple highlights from last season, “my season was pretty good, I averaged about 13.5 points a game, and 4 assists a game. My highlights were when I had a really good game and would score 20 plus. Those were the fun ones,” Hansen told PHID.
In terms of his work this Spring, Hansen has been doing it with self motivation by working hard in the gym and finding games to run in. “I’ve been in the gym working on the shooting machine. I’ve been going to open gym playing a lot of pick up games. Just trying to play as many games as I can,” Hansen added.
It’s important for a player with upside like Hansen to get in the reps and as a smaller sized guard from a small school he is certainly doing the right things in order to progress on the court for his next prep season. Along with fellow 2020 prospect and teammate Brady McAffee, the two will likely carry a big load next season for the Pirates as the team rostered a number of seniors this past season at the varsity level.
The 1AD2 Rocky Mountain Conference is a tough one, so Hansen will need to be ready to face stiff competition in a likely even larger role for his team as they look to get back at being one of the top teams in the conference.
With that all being said, Hansen has some specific areas in which he is focusing on this Spring, “I’m trying to work on all areas of my game, but mainly on my shot and my ball handling skills. Also, I’m working on my quickness on defense.”
It seems like Hansen has a good grip on what areas he needs to improve on and it will be fun to see this rising 2020 guard potentially flourish next season.
In terms of the Summer, Hansen has a few plans as he told PHID, “This Summer I am going to be going to 3 different basketball tournaments. I am also going to a basketball camp or two.”