Entering his 23rd year of coaching boys basketball at Philomath High School, head coach Blake Ecker has seen a lot of kids come and go through the program. So when it comes to evaluating the team’s chances with the season opener only a few days away, his words carry significant weight.
In a nutshell, Philomath lost a lot of talent off last year’s squad and there will be players starting on varsity for the first time in the coming days. It basically means the Warriors have some hard work ahead of them to continue to play among the top tier teams in Class 4A.
“It’s a little bit of an overhaul this year,” Ecker said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time and we have a tough, tough schedule.”
Ecker, who is nine wins shy of 400 in his PHS career, knows he needs to strategize effectively to get the most out of his players and create the best chance at success. A new defensive philosophy, for example, has been a major focus in preseason drills.
“We’ve been running a certain type of defense for the last 10 years or so and we’re making some wholesale changes to hopefully make this group successful,” Ecker said. “That’s our goal right now and it takes repetition and it takes time to make those changes.”
On the other end, Ecker said the team basically needs to get better at finishing to the hoop.
“We are athletic, we have some athletes out there,” Ecker said. “In terms of shooting the ball, we need to get better. And we’re working on it, they’re getting better and better. We did a lot of breakdown (shooting) drills that they did a nice job with and now it’s just incorporating those into the offense to make it more successful.”
The Warriors lost several key players off a 19-8 team that advanced last season to the 4A state tournament — Preston Kramer, Jacob Peters, Kaden Muir, Owen Heiken and Connor Harms were part of an all-senior starting lineup in the team’s final two games.
Caleb Russell and Logan Matthews, both seniors on this year’s squad, had stretches of significant minutes as underclassmen and senior Hudson Raab had moments on the floor but for the most part, this season’s starting lineup will have little collective varsity experience.
“I don’t think we’re quite there yet … we need to get better,” Ecker said when asked if he had a feel for where the team is sitting on the final weekend before the season opener. “We need to finish shots and there’s just some things that we need to do to clean it up. It might take some time, we’ll see.”
The only other player listed on last year’s varsity that returns is senior Grant Niemann, who will miss games early because of an injury he suffered during football season. Two other varsity players who were underclassmen last year did not return to the program.
Moving up to varsity to start the season is a group that includes seniors Kaden Wenger and Zack Powers, junior Josiah Peters and sophomores Kaden Howard, Esias Sapp and Jamin Peters.
Two players who transferred in could have varsity impact — sophomore Lucas Lewetag from West Albany and sophomore Hamish McConnell from Corvallis High. If McConnell’s name rings a bell, he was at Philomath in middle school before spending his freshman year at CHS. Another new player that could see varsity minutes is freshman Cole Barron.
“We have some athletic guys, we really do, now it’s just a matter of getting us all on the same page and doing it all together,” Ecker said.
In all, Philomath has 28 players in the basketball program.
Assisting Ecker on the coaching staff will be Trey Ecker (JV head coach), Aaron Schermerhorn (JV2 head coach), Carlos Nuno and John Hanson. Nuno is new to the program this season and Hanson returns after taking time off.
“He’ll come in and work with our posts and he brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm, so I’m really excited about having him back,” Ecker said about Hanson. “And then Carlos is great … he’ll kind of go back-and-forth in between groups and help where he’s needed. That’s a huge help just having him around.”
Daylan Martin and Kynlee Albin will serve as student managers.
Ecker wasn’t exaggerating about the team’s tough schedule. The Warriors will play Crescent Valley, Junction City, Marist Catholic, West Albany and South Albany before heading to high-quality tournaments in Coos Bay and Ketchikan, Alaska. And out of all of those games in December, only one will be played on the home court.
“It’s brutal and we only have two home games in the preseason,” Ecker said, the second one being against Astoria on Jan. 3.
In the Oregon West Conference, Cascade is expected to be tough again and 4A coaches agreed by ranking the Cougars No. 2 behind Baker in the OSAAtoday preseason poll. Philomath picked up enough points for a No. 5 preseason ranking with Newport a few spots below at No. 7.
The season begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at Crescent Valley. The team will play its only December home game at 7 p.m. Saturday against Junction City.
