On Friday night, the Jackson boys basketball team lost to a conference opponent for the first time in more than 50 games, a streak that dated back to the 2011-12 season.
The run is not all that surprising given the talent that has come through Jackson the past five years. The fact the streak extended so far into this season — after the Timberwolves lost 10 seniors from a group that placed fourth at the Class 4A state tournament last year — might have surprised some, but not the Jackson players.
Jackson rolled through the first half of the Wesco 4A schedule with an unblemished record and beat Mount Vernon for a second time last Tuesday, adding eight victories to the streak before losing to Snohomish on Friday.
“I certainly thought we’d be in the mix,” Jackson head coach Steve Johnson said. “I still think, and I know it’s a lot of coach speak, that’s it’s a very even league, a very balanced league and there’s a lot of basketball still to be played. I really think anybody can beat anybody. I really do believe that.
“I thought we’d be in the mix and we’d be a contender and that’s where we are, we’re in the mix and we’re a contender.”
Despite Friday’s loss, Jackson (8-1 in league) still leads Snohomish (7-2) by one game in the Wesco 4A standings.
While the Timberwolves’ conference record looks similar to that of recent teams, their overall mark of 10-5 is a bit of a change from the norm. Jackson lost its first two games of the season by 20-plus points to Glacier Peak and Stanwood, respectively. The Timberwolves didn’t lose their second game last season until the state quarterfinals.
“We really came together (after the second loss of the season) and really buckled down and just said, ‘We’re not going to let this define us,’” junior guard Sam Saufferer said. “A season is a long time, so we’re going to show what we’re capable of.”
With an inexperienced group that, for the most part, is getting its first taste of full-time varsity action, Jackson put much of its focus on its league games.
“I don’t want to say we wanted to lose non-league games or that we really played them in any different way,” Johnson said, “but I think the kids have showed some maturity in that they realize the league games are obviously what count the most.”
Led by Jason Todd, Dan Kingma and Brian Zehr, last year’s Jackson team had a group of senior leaders with a wealth of varsity experience. But it was the depth of the roster that forced many of the players who are excelling this season to wait their turn.
“The starting five were pretty well celebrated and that wasn’t a big mystery really all over the area that they were really good players,” Johnson said of last season’s team. “The five seniors that didn’t start, they were good enough that you had to give them the nod over some pretty good (younger) players.
“You usually have a situation where a guy might be a role player as a junior and then as a senior he goes from a role player to more of a prominent player. These guys had to go from not even on the roster to a prominent player. There’s no question that was challenging.”
Guard Frank Rossi was listed on the varsity roster last season, but saw limited action. Guard Dolan Tierney and guard/forward Yegor Gorbenko didn’t see any varsity action. Now seniors, all three have been a major part of the team’s success this season.
“The change of roles from going to a starter from a complete end-of-the-bench player made me more hungry as a player and made me want to come out this season and give it my all because we’ve only got one year,” Rossi said. “You might as well, right? That’s what we all came out here to do.”
Another senior, guard Isaiah Patrick, saw some varsity time a year ago, but won’t play this season because of a torn ACL in his left knee. He’s remains with the Timberwolves in a mentor/coach role, and downplays the team’s fast start in league play.
“Considering the past five or six teams have all done it, there’s no reason that we should expect different from us,” he said. “Nothing against any other team, but we should expect to go undefeated in league. That’s just what our program produces. We should expect, not perfection, but we should definitely expect greatness.”
Saufferer leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game. Although he saw varsity time last season, he’s still adjusting to his new role.
“I think we still have a lot of room for improvement,” Saufferer said. “I don’t think we’ve peaked yet. We’ve played some good games, but we need to clean up our play. I think that will happen within the course of this season. It starts with practice and we come in every day ready to work.”
The other coaches in the league voted Jackson third in the preseason coaches’ poll. The 0-2 start to the season made that prediction look kind, but the Timberwolves never lost faith in themselves — and never paid any attention to the polls.
“We knew nothing about that and, frankly, we don’t care,” Saufferer said. “We’re coming in here to play our game with each other. We’re a family — on and off the court. We’re just trying to do what we can do best. We don’t really care what anyone else thinks. We just care (about) what we can do and what we’re capable of.”
Johnson said he expects his team to have a target on its back the second half of the season.
“Sort of another step in their progression is how they can handle success,” Johnson said. “It’s nice to have a program that can quickly turn it around after losing such a great group of guys and be competitive. I can see why it’s newsworthy, but by the same token, handling success and trying to beat teams the second time we play them and the third time we play them is kind of a whole different deal.”
Each year brings new challenges and experiences, Johnson said, but he said he relishes coaching this group, just as he did those that came before.
“I really do believe that high school sports are about developing kids and leaders,” Johnson said. “Having some of these kids stepping into a leadership role and trying to give them some tools and some structure and letting them kind of understand that they can become leaders and they can become good role models for others, that’s been, so far at this midway point, really rewarding.”
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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