Of the 24 players that combined to make up the Wesco 4A and 3A first- and second-teams this past boys basketball season, 22 were seniors. That kind of turnover should make for an interesting — and unpredictable — 2014-15 season.
“In my time in the league, it might be the most turnover in the league that there’s ever been,” Lake Stevens head coach Mark Hein said. “It seems like there is always a sophomore or two on that first or second team and a few juniors. It’s the first time in my memory where I remember such a senior-dominated league.”
With all those seniors moving on, this year’s rosters are filled with new names and the coaches don’t quite know what to expect.
“I feel like we’re all kind of in that same spot where there’s a lot of unknowns,” Hein said. “Obviously, there was a lot of guys that were pretty experienced last year that are gone now. There are not a lot of big star-type returning players in the league. We all feel like we have a good chance to be competitive, night in and night out.”
While many Wesco teams are trying to figure out how to make up for what they lost, Hein is in a more enviable position. Last year, the Vikings were young and unproven. It showed with a 1-13 finish in league and a 2-18 record overall. Now, it seems, the Vikings are one of the most experienced teams in the league.
Led by sophomore Trey Pavitt, who was an honorable mention All-Wesco forward as a freshman, and junior forward Jacob Eason, the Vikings have gone from a last-place finisher to a team that some think can compete for a league championship.
Other Wesco 4A teams are in quite a different position.
Graduation was tough on a lot of teams, but nowhere did it hit quite as hard as it did at Jackson. The Timberwolves spent much of last season ranked No. 1 in the state and went on to place fourth at the 4A state tournament, but their roster will look much different this season. Of the 13 players on the Jackson roster, 10 graduated, including forward Jason Todd and guard Dan Kingma, both first-team All-Area selections by The Herald, and forward Brian Zehr, who was named to the All-Area second-team.
“I think I’ve been asked about 27,000 times, ‘How are you guys going to be this year,’” Jackson head coach Steve Johnson said.
“Pretty much every season, it’s pretty natural coach speak to say, ‘I don’t know how good we’re going to be. We have to wait and see,’” Johnson added. “That’s always kind of true, you never really know until the season unfolds. But at least for us, and I think a lot of other teams in the league, that’s really true because every team has so many guys that they’re counting on who are unproven varsity players.”
Snohomish and Cascade, the two teams other than Lake Stevens that return the most experienced varsity players, were voted one and two in the coaches poll, respectively. Jackson was picked to finish third.
Jackson’s biggest competitor in the 4A the past two season, Arlington, is facing its own new challenge after moving down a classification. The Eagles will play in the Wesco 3A North this season. Not only do the Eagles have to prepare for teams that they aren’t accustomed to playing in games that count, but they too were a senior-heavy team last season.
Arlington does return several players who were on varsity last season, but all five of its starters from last season graduated this past June.
“We’re not exactly young, but we’re inexperienced,” Arlington head coach Nick Brown said. “It’s exciting and fun for me as a head coach. I’m definitely teaching a lot more.”
Of the six teams in the 3A north, Arlington was picked by the coaches to finish third this season, behind Marysville Pilchuck and Stanwood.
The Tomahawks graduated just four seniors last season and most of their key players are back.
“Marysville (Pilchuck), I think, is kind of primed to make some noise,” Brown said. “They’ve improved a lot. And, of course, Stanwood is Stanwood. They’re always tough. They’re rebuilding too, but they seem to just reload.”
Stanwood finished 20-0 in the regular season a year ago and went on to finish sixth at the 3A state tournament. The Spartans graduated six players from that team, four of whom were starters.
Of the six teams in the 3A north, Arlington faced four of them to open the 2013-14 season, beating Marysville Pilchuck, Everett and Marysville Getchell before falling to Stanwood. It was one of just two regular-season losses for the Eagles.
This year, Arlington plays each team in the 3A north twice, but it doesn’t start its league schedule until January 9. The first 10 games on Arlington’s schedule are non-league games. Because of the new schedule format, it gives teams with inexperience a chance to grow as a unit before playing the games that count.
“I haven’t really thought a whole lot about (the other teams),” Brown said. “I’m worried about them and we know that they’re there and we’ve got our eye on them, but we’ve really been focusing on ourselves. We’re just trying to get better.”
Stanwood head coach Zach Ward is taking the same approach.
“We’ve got to find our identity,” Ward said. “It’s unique this year in the (Wesco) north where we don’t play a league game until January. We’re kind of approaching December as a month to just figure out who we are. I think we’re pretty deep. We don’t have a solid standout go-to guy, but I think we have about 10 guys that can play.
“I’m not really worried about anything else except our 12 guys for the next six weeks.”
Some people see the Spartans as a team that was depleted by graduation. With Skout Roberson, who is the Spartans only returning starter, Karsten Chaplick and A.J. Martinka all coming back, Ward sees things a little differently.
“The other way to look at it is that we return three of our top seven from last year,” Ward said. “We return just under half of our seven kids that played the majority of our minutes last year.”
Graduation took its toll on teams from the Wesco 3A South as well. Mountlake Terrace, which has won at least a share of the league championship the past three seasons, lost its two best players after last season, Greg Bowman and Loren Lacasse.
“You’re taking out 38 points per game and you’re taking out 23 rebounds,” Mountlake Terrace head coach Nalin Sood said. “Greg and Loren could make up for a lot of mistakes and they could make us look a lot better than at times we maybe were.”
Sood said this year’s team is the youngest he’s had at Mountlake Terrace in his 15 seasons as head coach, but that didn’t stop the coaches in the league from picking the Hawks to finish third, not far behind Shorewood and Glacier Peak.
“I think it’s going to be a league with a lot of good young basketball players, but to predict things right now, I think a lot of us are going into it blind,” Sood said.
No one quite knows what to expect this season, but it doesn’t seem likely we will see as much turnover in the leagues anytime soon.
“I can’t remember a season like that,” Ward said. “It’s part of what makes it fun, too. There’s a whole fresh batch of kids that get an opportunity. The slate is kind of clean.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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