MITCHELL – A different look at the game gave Mason Larson a fresh perspective and the Dakota Wesleyan men’s basketball has been better because of it.

The former Langford Area standout arrived on the college campus and discovered a new role waiting. Instead of being the go-to guy like he was in high school, Larson found himself on the bench watching the game from an entirely different angle.

“I knew that there was going to be some hardship and I knew that I was going to have to embrace a different role, but just the speed of the game, the commitment that it takes, I wasn’t ready to show up to the gym every single day and be as intense as these guys were being,” Larson said. “I wasn’t ready to show up and give it my all every day and be 110 percent locked in on what the team was trying to pursue.”

As a result, Larson had to figure out just what his role on the Tigers was going to be.

Soon, things began to crystalize and Larson came to the realization that he needed to be all in, all the time.

“I had the coaches getting on me trying to get me to comform to think the way the team was thinking. That’s exactly what I needed,” Larson said. “Once I was sitting on the bench and I was watching the game, I was 110 percent locked in on my teammates and supporting them.”

Gradually, Larson became the one who was setting the tone, both in practice and in games.

The Tigers had found a new leader.

“He’s our emotional leader. He’s been awesome to have in our program,” said DWU coach Matt Wilber. “He operates on a really high level of intensity all the time and every day he’s there for us. As a player, defensively he’s tremendous. He’s a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. As a leader on our team, he’s an emotional leader and a sparkplug, and when he’s not out there we’re not as good. It’s been obvious and it’s clear.”

Larson’s game began to take shape during the summers growing up in Langford. He used to get together with his older brother, Chase, his best friend Zac Fries, and Zac’s brother Bo, who was a standout player.

“I was tired of losing to my older brother. I felt like I was better than him,” Larson said. “I was tired of letting Bo beat up on me. I was tired of Zach beating me.”

Then something happened during Larson’s freshman year.

He shot up 4-5 inches and soon the former guard looked more like a post player. The transition wasn’t easy, especially physically.

“That came with a lot of growing pains and kind of an awkwardness with my body. I didn’t feel comfortable in my body all that well,” Larson said.

There was a silver lining, though.

“I think not hitting that growth spurt until that time actually helped me work more on guard skills, become more involved in the game instead of just being more of a down low threat,” he said. “It allowed me to kind of establish more of an outside game and kind of learn those type of skills.”

Then came a night at Warner in Larson’s freshman season when he nailed a last-second three-pointer to give his team a victory. That shot gave him a new-found confidence in his abilities.

“That moment in Warner, man, when I hit that shot, it was surreal, because now I knew that there were highs and lows in this game,” Larson said. “The highs would always outweigh the lows. No matter how many of the lows came, I just needed to keep plugging away because the high moments were going to come at some point.”

Along the way, there have been plenty of highs and lows, and life lessons to be learned. He remembers Langford coach Paul Raasch reminding him that basketball is a team game.

“He never let me really lose touch. Just because you’re the guy, you still need five players out there to win the basketball game,” Larson said. “I give a lot a lot of credit to Coach Raasch, because there’s so many times he had to slow me down and kind of level my head, and make me realize that there’s a lot more to this game.”

Those same values and lessons were further engrained by Wilber when Larson became a member of the Tigers.

He said that the coach allowed him to grow as a player and as a person, all the while providing the mentoring that he needed.

“I can’t thank Matt Wilber enough. He’s allowed me to embrace my true self, the true player I’ve wanted to be,” Larson said. “There’s been up and downs, but he’s stuck with me the whole way. He’s supported me the entire way and I can’t thank him enough, because there’s a lot of people who probably would have given up or wouldn’t have put up with some of the antics I have.”

As Larson prepares to play his final regular season game with DWU today, there is no denying that he has come a long way from sitting on the bench that first season.

He has founds ways to impact the program both on and off the court.

“He’s been a starter for the last three years. He’s at times played the point guard for us and played the five,” Wilber said. “He’s been one of those guys that is so multi-faceted with his athletic ability and his size, that he can do a lot of things on the court.”

That’s another valuable lesson that Larson has learned from his days with the Tigers: there are many ways to make an impact. It doesn’t have to be scoring all the time.

“I just lacked the perspective of things that truly matter to a basketball team,” Larson said. “I thought I needed to be the highest scorer and making all these highlight plays, when in reality I might just need to be the guy to keep the team rallied together and bring some energy that can be game-changing.”

It’s one of those life lessons that Larson will take with him once his playing days come to an end in the near future.

Larson knows it will be an emotional time when he walks off the court for one last time.

However, he also understands that because of the lessons he learned about commitment that he will be at peace once he leaves the game.

“I feel like I put my heart and soul into it and I feel like I did it the right way. And I always did it my way. And the fact that I did that allows me to have some reassurance that I’m ready to get away from it,” Larson said. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot of great things from it, met a lot of great people, and the connections will be forever and the life lessons will be forever.”