With an experienced returning cast, the boys varsity basketball team is ready to begin a new chapter, and are relying on their upperclassman to write some history.
The Colts return seven seniors to the varsity squad this season.
“This groups team returns quite a bit of experience and I think that’s going to be huge for the confidence of the team going in to the season,” varsity assistant coach Aaron Mueller said. “These guys have been through it, they played a lot of minutes last year and I think they have a lot of confidence in themselves and in each other because of that.”
The team participated in tournaments over the summer to prepare for the season, and Mueller says that’s where he saw a lot of improvement.
“Everyone had a great summer and got a lot better,” Mueller said. “Biggs improved a whole bunch over the summer, Jarrett improved a lot, and we got better as a team so I think that’s going to help us going early into the season.”
Biggs, who will be starting on varsity for the third straight year, is determined that the upperclassman experience will lead the team to their goals.
“Get 20 wins, win conference and win districts,” Biggs said. “Our starters and our key contributors are all upperclassman.”
Cox-Bradley, who returns as the starting point guard, says he exemplifies his role to his teammates on the bench.
“It’s kind of like setting the tone,” Cox-Bradley said. “I gotta know what I’m doing so people coming off the bench can know what they have to do.”
Although Cox-Bradley is excited about his returning role, he will be playing his last season with teammates who he credits for his success.
“It’s been great,” Cox-Bradley said. “They’ve all been there and have been very supportive of me, so I give all the credit to my senior teammates.”
The varsity basketball teams will get some assurance for a good defensive unit with defensive specialist senior Nick Helmbacher coming back for his senior season.
“We base our team around defense and our motto is defense wins game,” Helmbacher said.”I guard most of the best players on the other teams so I’d say my role is pretty important.”
Also returning to the defensive game is senior Braendon Prude, who transferred from Vashon High School last year. Prude says the team must work well together if they want to accomplish the team goals.
“I think everyone is equally important,” Prude said. “We all have to work together to accomplish our goal for a district and conference championship, and because we have so many returning seniors, this will probably be our best shot for a while.”