MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Reversing things is at the top of the agenda for Snohomish County Christian School’s boys basketball team.
Not only do the Lions want to improve on their 5-14 league record from a year ago, their focus also has changed. Offense, not defense, is the name of the game.
Second-year coach Jim Myers said that it’s the shooters and core forwards that opponents will need to watch out for.
“Probably right now the best bet is going to be our offense,” Myers said. “The defense will come around.”
One thing has remained the same: the Lions’ speed.
“Our biggest strength is quickness,” Myers said.
The team graduated three seniors and has five returning varsity players in addition to a handful of new freshmen and sophomores. Most of the team played together on a summer league team Myers coached.
Lions players said scoring points, improving their record and making it to the district playoffs are the major goals.
“I think one of our goals is to win our league,” said junior Nate Rheaume. “I think we can do that. We need to play better defense than we did last year. Just the other day in practice we talked about how many points we want to score at each game and what exactly it is going to take to win our league.”
Myers said Rheaume, who grew three inches since last year, will be a critical player. The 6-foot-6 junior is the team’s tallest player and is fully recovered from an ankle injury.
Other key players are senior co-captains Everett Adams and Ryan Grossenbacher.
“My biggest key is going to be senior point guard Adams,” said Myers. “I don’t know who is going to keep up with him. He’s really improving. He has a lot on his shoulders and he’s doing really well with it. And Grossenbacher, he will step up quite nicely and help out the team.”
The Lions open the season Dec. 3-4 at the Seattle Lutheran tournament.
“It’ll be a good beginning to the season,” Adams said. “We’ll play bigger schools and it will give us a feel for what our teams got. It’s kind of like a practice game, like we’re getting ready.”
As a second-year coach, Myers is eager for the season to start.
“The future is looking bright. I’d like to see a league championship,” said Myers, pointing to the green banners hanging at the end of Snohomish County Christian School’s gym. “The last time that the basketball team went to state was in 1995. I want to see more of that. We can get there, I know that we can.”
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