Rolling through its first nine opponents to start the 2022-23 season and taking a 15-1 record into early February, the Philomath High boys basketball program is no stranger to quick starts. Longtime coach Blake Ecker believes it’s a trend that can continue with two returning starters and a senior-heavy roster on this year’s squad. The journey begins Saturday with a jaunt down to Junction City for a nonleague matchup.
“The early part of our seasons have been good and sometimes maybe we peak too early — I think that’s what we did last year,” Ecker said before his team took the floor for practice Monday evening. “We peaked early and then fell into a funk and were kind of coming back out of it in the state championships. I think if we would have played like we were capable of playing early on, I think we would have rolled Cascade.”
Philomath ended up 22-4 on the season and had to settle for state runner-up with a 61-52 loss to the Cougars in the 4A finale. Those two schools along with North Marion and Stayton appear to be the top teams capable of making noise this season in the Oregon West Conference.
“Obviously, we lost a lot of firepower from last year,” Ecker said, a reference to Cole Beardsley, Ty May and Chad Russell all taking the diploma walk.
But Philomath does have experience coming back among all of those seniors, including returning starters Preston Kramer and Jacob Peters, as well as Kaden Muir, who was one of the first players off the bench.
“Preston Kramer has done a really good job being a leader along with Jacob Peters, who is doing a nice job to start the season out,” Ecker said. “Kaden Muir is getting there — he’s still a little banged up from football but he’s getting more healthy as we move along.”
Other seniors coming back that had significant varsity minutes last season are Kash Lindsey, Owen Heiken, Mason Stearns and Connor Harms. Another senior, Kallin Albin, was a standout on junior varsity.
“We have Owen Heiken and Connor Harms on the inside — both 6-foot-5 tall guys — so that’s going to help us,” Ecker said. “Connor’s just a really big, strong guy who can move well, has great feet, so we’re looking to see good things from him. And actually all those guys — Kash Lindsey, Mason Stearns, Kallin Albin — will contribute at different times, no doubt about it.”
Ecker also mentioned a few underclassmen that should have an impact.
“CD Nuno, he’s a very good athlete and we’re working on him to become more of a basketball player (in addition to football),” Ecker said. “Hudson Raab is kind of a Swiss Army knife kind of guy. And Logan Matthews does a great job in our 1-3-1 getting his hands up and getting tips of the ball.”
Philomath will hit the floor with familiar offensive strategies but fans and opponents should also notice new wrinkles in the attack. The Oregon School Activities Association’s implementation of a 35-second shot clock goes into effect this season.
“It doesn’t affect us except … you know, we’ll get down (the floor) and we’ll shoot with 30 seconds to go on the shot clock. I mean, let’s run it down a little bit,” Ecker laughed. “It’s not about getting a shot off in time, it’s that we’re shooting too early. If we can finish around the rim a little bit better, that would be nice, too.”
Ecker said from what he’s seen in practice, the team needs to be more consistent on the defensive end and just needs to continue working hard.
“We definitely have some new stuff that we’ve put in (offensively),” Ecker said. “We’re working on that quite a bit, so maybe it’s taken away from our defensive mindset. I’m trying this week to go back a little to working more on our defense.”
Philomath will be tested out of the gate with a road trip Saturday to Junction City and the team will face a pair of 5A opponents in the first week. The Warriors will return to the Les Schwab South Coast Tournament in mid-December, an event that always provides challenging games.
With Philomath not heading to Alaska this season — that tournament falls on the team’s schedule every other year — the Warriors will host its own event Dec. 27-29 with games against Sutherlin, Scappoose and Marist Catholic.
“I thought it would be nice to have some more home games,” Ecker said, a reference to last year’s schedule in which the Warriors made only one home appearance in all of December. “It’ll be a round-robin tournament.”
In the conference, defending state champion Cascade and North Marion will be in the hunt for a league title along with Philomath.
“I think Cascade will be different than they were last year but they’re still going to have some talent,” Ecker said. “North Marion is going to be very good — they’ve got three of their top five back and one was the Player of the Year in the conference.”
In the OSAAtoday coaches preseason poll released earlier this week, Cascade is ranked No. 1 with 11 of 17 first-place votes. Philomath is ranked No. 5 with North Marion at No. 7 and Stayton at No. 10. This weekend’s opponent, Junction City, is ranked No. 9.
Ecker moves forward without longtime assistant and JV head coach Eddie Van Vlack sitting next to him on the bench. His son, former Warriors standout Trey Ecker, moves into that role.
“It’s been a pretty good transition with Trey because he’s been around so long and he did a really good job in the interview and will fit the role pretty good,” Ecker said. “I’ve been pretty happy with him so far.”
Aaron Schermerhorn returns as the JV2 coach.
