The veteran players of the Mercer Island boys varsity basketball team make no bones about their early-season goals for the 2016-17 season: they’re banner-hunting.
“The first goal that we’re setting right now is the KingCo championship,” senior captain Shain Scott said. “We’re kind of having that mindset that it’s KingCo championship or bust really.”
Such a goal is in line with a program that prides itself on having a winning tradition. But in Mercer Island’s pursuit of its first KingCo 3A title since 2013, both players and head coach Gavin Cree acknowledge the Islanders will have to find success on the hardwood with a team that doesn’t feature a lot of varsity experience.
Of Mercer Island’s six varsity returners, only three routinely saw playing time last year. Scott, a point guard, boasts two years of varsity experience. Fellow captain Griffin Emanuels, a junior wing, was a starter for the Islanders throughout last season. Senior forward Jacob Evans saw rotation minutes as a post player for the varsity team last winter.
“This is a team with a lot of youth and inexperience,” Emanuels said. “I think one of our goals is trying to overcome that and I think we’re doing a great job. We have some young guys who are really stepping up, they’re looking great and they’re gonna have great years.”
Cree, in his eighth year at the helm for Mercer Island, said what the Islanders lack in experience, they make up in basketball IQ. The Islanders have depth at the guard position, with senior returners Blake Swanson and Jack Delay.
“We have a lot of really good guards that have all been ball-handlers in their past and they’re all coming together on one team,” Cree said.
Scott said one of the team’s strong suits is its passing and perimeter play.
“We’re a really unselfish team this year. We like to swing the ball around,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who’s gonna be the leading scorer each night. I can guarantee you we’re gonna have multiple different leading scorers each night, and that just builds off of our unselfishness.”
The varsity team currently carries 14 players at its practices: five seniors, six juniors, two sophomores and a freshman. Of the 14, Cree said it’s possible 10 players will routinely see playing time.
“We have good depth,” he said. “We’re comfortable with all those guys being in there.”
“Really, there is no player on our roster that I wouldn’t want on the court,” Evans said. “I can’t think of any. We’re really deep.”
Cree noted that the Islanders weren’t alone in KingCo 3A when it came to depending on younger players to step into bigger roles this year. Scott said he could potentially see five teams in KingCo 3A competing for a league title between Mercer Island, Bellevue, Lake Washington, Liberty and league newcomer Redmond.
“The league right now is wide open and there are a lot of teams who are pretty even and competing for a KingCo title,” Emanuels said. “That’s why we’re trying to get into the mindset of one game at a time, because the league is deep and there is nobody who is a clear favorite.”
“It should be pretty balanced [around the league],” Cree said. “Every game is a big test. Every game is a championship opportunity, as the Seahawks say. It’s true. You just gotta be ready to go every night.”
