FREDERICK – Leola-Frederick senior Brayden Sumption has been on a mission this season.

Sumption and the Titans have been hard at work in their attempt to get the co-op back to the Class B State Boys’ Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2005, which is a main goal for him this season, among other goals.

“First, obviously, make it out of the region and then hopefully we’ll have a good enough record to play a low seed in the (SoDak) 16 and make it to state,” Sumption said.

Sumption and the Titans have started strong in their pursuit of that goal, winning their first nine games of the season without a loss. Sumption said the team has worked hard since the end of last season to improve for this season, making changes where they were needed.

“We basically changed our whole defense and what we do,” Sumption said. “We press full court and then we run the ball the whole time (on offense), and we also added another two guys to the court, so we have more substitutions so we can do that.”

The Titans also competed at a pair of Minnesota team camps this past summer where Sumption said the team improved in many ways. Sumption was also working on improving himself individually during the offseason.

“I’ve been shooting on the shooting machine a lot and I did summer basketball with (James Valley Thunder) and that was pretty fun. It helped me a lot,” Sumption said.

Since the season began, Sumption and the Titans have been dominant, winning all nine games by an average of 19.7 points per game, with only one game ending in a single-digit margin.

Sumption said hearing the encouragement from the Leola-Frederick coaching staff has motivated him and his teammates to continue to improve and play hard during every practice and contest.

“We just work hard in practice and our coach (Brock Pashen) is running us non-stop in practice,” Sumption said. “He told us how good we could be, but we still need to work hard to get there, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Sumption also has a relational side to the Leola-Frederick coaching staff. His older brother Alex is an assistant coach on the team, and the younger Sumption says having his brother on the sideline gives him comfort during games, and also provides added competition when at practice.

“It feels like you’re more comfortable on the court and it’s pretty nice to know,” Sumption said. “Sometimes when we’re missing some guys, he practices with us, because he’s still pretty young and we guard each other sometimes. It’s pretty fun.”

While Sumption also participates in football, track and field, and baseball, he enjoys basketball the most, especially when the team is winning and having success, as it has so far this season.

After high school, Sumption plans on attending Lake Area Tech in Watertown where he will pursue a degree in Ag Production, after which he can then return and help out on the family farm. But for now, he is focused on finishing his high school basketball career as a Leola-Frederick Area Titan, which he says has added meaning considering the progression that has taken place over the past few seasons.

“It’s meant a lot because we’ve known since we’ve been freshman that we’d be good this year because of all the young kids that we’ve had, and we’ve just had to let it progress and progress, and now we’re finally good,” Sumption said. “It means a lot.”

Sumption says it would also mean a lot to punch a ticket to the Class B state tournament in March in Aberdeen, which he says would also be special for the Titan faithful.

“It would mean a lot to everybody. I’d say we’d have a lot of fans there,” Sumption said. “We haven’t been there in so long. I think it would bring people out of their homes.”