2021-22 Boys Basketball Player of the Year: Bobby Siebers

It’s no secret that Bobby Siebers can get buckets.

Whether he’s spotting up for a 3-pointer, driving to the hoop or putting his back to the basket in the post, the slick-shooting lefty has proved during his high school career he can score from any spot on the court.

The stats certainly back it up.

Siebers racked up over 1,000 career points between his three seasons at Glacier Peak High School and one at North Kitsap. He set a single-game GP program record with 36 points against Cedar Park Christian in December of this season. He then broke that record in a bi-district tournament game with 38 against Bothell. He even dropped 46 and 47 points in back-to-back AAU games between his sophomore and junior seasons.

“He’s always been a fantastic scorer,” GP coach Brian Hunter said. “He has a great knack for getting into position where he can utilize some of his skills and his left hand. He’s just a really tough guard because he can shoot the ball from the outside plus he’s very comfortable inside posting up, and he’s a good free-throw shooter.

“… There’s a reason why we ran our offense through him. He’s probably the best offensive player we’ve had as far as inside-outside and being able to operate in both spots.”

But the offensive numbers don’t quite tell the full story of the impact Siebers has had for the Grizzlies, according to Hunter.

There’s an obscure stat that helps further paint the picture — charges.

Siebers, a two-time all-league selection, has drawn around 70 charges during his tenure at GP, including shattering the program’s single-season record of 16 with 39 as a sophomore in 2019-20.

“If your best player is taking charges, you’re in a good place,” Hunter said. “As a program, if you’ve already got the buy-in from your best player, you are so much farther ahead than you could possibly be. Probably the number one thing you could have for your program is to have your go-to guy on the offensive end be willing to do the dirty work.”

Siebers took 21 charges this season and delivered on the offensive end while averaging 21.7 points per game and shooting 36% from 3-point range and 75% from the free-throw line. He added 7.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.5 steals and led the Grizzlies to the Class 4A state regionals.

For his stellar senior season and standout prep career, Siebers is The Herald’s 2021-22 Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Siebers spent his freshman season at 2A North Kitsap and played a key role off the bench while providing around 10 points per game for Vikings team that finished sixth at the state tournament. But transferring to GP — a school with about 600-700 more students — brought some uncertainty.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know where I see myself on this team. Am I going to get enough playing time? Am I going to play JV? Am I gonna play a good amount on varsity?’” he said. “So, yeah, I was a little worried about that.”

Hunter said he and his staff were aware Siebers was already an accomplished player coming in and thought at the very least he’d add some competition to what they believed was already a strong group. Siebers quickly settled into a prominent role coming off the bench to provide a spark as the sixth man for his new squad, scoring 20 points in the season opener against West Seattle.

His ability to draw charges also proved fruitful in big moments. He drew five of his 39 for the season in a pivotal come-from-behind win over Wesco 4A foe Mariner. He also hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in the fourth that put GP in the lead for good.

“That may have won the game for us to be honest,” Hunter said of the charges, “because we had no business winning that game.”

Siebers said his propensity for stealing possessions from opponents by drawing charges stems from his time with North Kitsap.

“There was this kid on the team, Jameson Moore, he was big on charges and everyone just followed him,” Siebers said. “I kind of looked up to him in the charge aspect and thought if I could translate that over when I come to Glacier Peak, that it could get me minutes on the floor and help the team with a boost of energy.”

Ultimately, the addition of Siebers for the 2019-20 season helped GP take a 25-0 record into the 4A state semifinals before dropping two games to finish in fifth place.

“The fact that he came off the bench as a sophomore … just speaks volumes about Bobby as a person that he was that guy,” Hunter said. “I think that our best teams over the 13 years have always had a guy that makes us a little bit better when he comes in the game off the bench, and Bobby provided that spark for us.”

“To give up your body and to be that smart of a player to get yourself in position to take that many charges, that’s a special basketball player and also just a special teammate to be willing to do that,” Hunter added.

After six players graduated from that team, it was clear to Siebers that it was hit turn to be the go-to guy entering his junior year. He upped his scoring average from just over 10 points per game to 19.9 during the shortened spring season and became an unquestioned leader while helping the Grizzlies finish 7-2.

“It was really just a whole different mindset from being the second, third, fourth option my sophomore year to being the first option, the guy that we go to whenever we need a bucket,” Siebers said.

Coming into this season Siebers said his focus was to leaving a lasting impact on the program’s younger players.

“I wanted to focus my leadership on the youth,” said Siebers, who noted the Grizzlies had a strong freshmen class. “… It was also towards the senior guys. It was like, ‘Hey, if all of us come to practice and games ready to go every single day, those guys will follow us, too, and it will keep us a great program.’”

Siebers hit the ground running during his senior season. He scored 24 points in GP’s season opener against North Creek and netted 34 and 36 back-to-back wins over Issaquah and Cedar Park Christian despite going 22 days between games.

When the Grizzlies matched up with Wesco 4A rival Jackson in a January top-10 showdown, Siebers kept a short-handed GP team in the game early by scoring 11 of his team’s 14 points in the second quarter. Then with a chance to win, Siebers took the ball on the final possession of the fourth near midcourt and was met by a double team at the top of 3-point arc. Rather than forcing up a shot, he kicked to open teammate AJ Cline for the game-winning 3 at the buzzer.

“I think it does just kind of talk about what kind of a teammate he is,” Hunter said. “… He’d rather win the game than take the shots. That was fun. Nobody was more excited for AJ than Bobby was.”

Siebers saved his biggest performance for the postseason when he went off for 38 points to lead GP past Bothell in a loser-out bi-district tournament game.

Those outings often came with Siebers taking on the challenge of guarding the opposing team’s best player. The Grizzlies’ roster didn’t feature the type of height and length it has in recent years, so the 6-4 senior was asked to matchup with players on the perimeter or in the post on any given night.

“You’re asking him to guard a guy versus a position,” Hunter said. “We just said, ‘You need to play against this person because we need your ability in that moment with that assignment.’ It’s tough when you’re asking someone to lead you in scoring on one end and then also shut down someone who is really good on the other team for 32 minutes on the other end.”

Siebers plans to continue his basketball career in college. He said he’s been in contact with NWAC and NAIA schools. He plans study journalism and communications with a goal of getting into sports broadcasting.

Regardless of where the next step is, Hunter believes Siebers is ready for the challenge.

“You put the right pieces around him, he’s a kid coaches will love to have on the floor,” Hunter said. “He’s the kind of kid that will have a good college career wherever he ends up landing.”