Boys varsity basketball has claimed three of the last four conference championships and has been on the hunt for their fourth in the last five years. This season will be no different as FHC clinched a share of the OK White conference title due to its win over Cedar Springs 76-39 and Ottawa Hills losing to Northview Tuesday night. The Rangers are now one game away from clinching the conference outright.

“I think winning the league is the most impressive thing because you have to be a good team for three months,” head coach Ken George said. “To win a district, you really only have to be good for three days.”

After suffering two of the toughest losses in recent Rangerball history earlier this season, FHC has put on a dazzling conference streak. In that nine-game stretch of conference play, FHC has averaged just under 70 points per game, while giving up just over 44. The complete conference domination has been prevalent since the Rangers’ first OK white outing against the Northview Wildcats.

“With the opportunity [to win the league] on the horizon, I think it’s a great time to reflect on a big win,” George said. “We’ve had to go on the road and beat teams we should’ve beat and won, we’ve gone on the road against really difficult teams and won, so it’s just really exciting to be on the verge of that.”

The seniors were the X-factor in FHC’s win Tuesday night, as Ty George, Ryan Dunn, and Andrew Tebeau combined for 35 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists. Ty had 11 in the first quarter alone.

“I was excited with our energy and want to play together,” George said. “We had an hour bus ride on a Tuesday night to a gym that was pretty empty. Our guys played the first quarter like it was the most important quarter of the season. We needed to send a message in a game that we knew we should win.”

FHC led at the end of the first half by a whopping 19 and never slowed down from there. The Rangers came out and played another lights-out third quarter, putting themselves up by 32 in the final 8 minutes.

Senior shooting guard Matis Butlevics was another one of the experienced guys on the floor due to his time in practice along with an injury to sophomore Mitch Wilkinson. Although Matis didn’t light up the stat book, his minutes were extremely valuable in keeping the team’s cohesiveness.

“Matis gave us some really great minutes in the first half,” George said. “He had some really big plays and he’s earned that. Matis is a program-changer. He is, in a lot of ways, the heartbeat of this team right now and I’m thankful for him every day.”

The Rangers look ahead to the Lowell Red Arrows on Friday and with a win, take the conference title. From there they have the Ottawa Hills Bengals and the Forest Hills Northern Huskies to finish the year.

“There is a lot of work left to do,” George said. “We need to continue to improve and not allow success to make us satisfied in any way.”