SPARTAN SPORTS PREVIEW: BOYS BASKETBALL: BHS boys excited to be stepping up to the 3A game
Published 12:57 pm Sunday, November 30, 2014
This season is already a historic one in the storied annals of Bainbridge High School basketball, and the Spartans haven’t even played a single game yet.
“This is the first year that Bainbridge has competed out of its classification in school history,” explained Spartan Head Coach Scott Orness. “We are 2A in size, and opting up to compete at the 3A level. The 3A Metro League is, hands down, the toughest league in the state and my team is up for the challenge.”
“I expect us to be competitive each and every night,” he added.
Competitive they may be, but against who?
Indeed, even as the BHS varsity boys team roster takes shape and practices begin in earnest, the exact roll call of future opponents – which already boasts some intimidating names – becomes an ominous question mark and the team’s top competition impossible to predict.
“The number of transfers that occur in the Metro League in the off-season is beyond out of control,” Orness explained. “If teams brought back their team from the last year, we would be a front runner. I’ve heard Rainier Beach has four new high level transfers, [Eastside Catholic] got a couple as well as [Seattle] Prep, Garfield and [Bishop] Blanchet.”
Allegiances are exchanged and loyalties tested as 3A hoop-happy warriors around the state ready themselves for a season of rebounds, returns and redemption.
The starting athletes out front for the Spartans is another list as yet unfinished, according to Orness.
“Although we have four starters back from last season and nine of our 11 varsity players (we lost Joey Blacker to graduation and Grant Klausen to a knee injury), I am not sure who our starters are at this time,” he said.
“Many players have made tremendous growth in the off-season,” Orness explained. “I could see our starting lineup change on a game-by-game basis. My hope is that our players don’t care about who is starting and they focus on [the] team and playing our best.”
Besides Orness and his assistants, the team is further led by three senior co-captains: Blake Swanson, Trent Schulte and Riley Irish.
Having lost only one senior last year, Irish explained, the team was coming together more quickly and even better than expected.
“It’s feeling the same and it’s actually feeling a lot better this year,” Irish said during a recent practice session.
“Not to say that we didn’t have a great team ethic and work last year, but we’ve all known each other for another year, got a lot of great chemistry going on right now and it’s just feeling really natural,” he said.
Feeling natural, however, doesn’t come without a deceptive amount of work, explained Orness.
“We have been weight training four days a week since March,” he said. “Many players played spring AAU ball and we played in four tournaments, a summer league, and took 36 players to team camp at Gonzaga. This fall we had four teams in fall leagues in Seattle and Tacoma.”
“The boys have worked really hard this past off-season,” Orness added. “I’m proud of their efforts, and you will see a transformed group of young men on the court.”
“They work their butts off every day,” agreed Irish.
Of Orness, Irish stayed true to the squad’s overall philosophy and praised him in a manner that would make the coach himself happy.
“Coach Orness is a great team player,” the BHS senior said. “He gives us a great role in that we get to work with our guys and be the players that we are.”
The players that they are is exactly what might hit the court for the Spartans’ first game of the season, as they are quickly running out of practice time.
The team’s first game was planned for Saturday, Nov. 29 against Kingston High. The Spartans hit the road for three consecutive games before returning to BHS to host Garfield High at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12.
