A new era of Boys Basketball

begins at Mountain View

by Mark Butcher

Sports Writer

BREMERTON, WA - Thirty-five male student-athletes, seventeen 8^th graders and eighteen underclassmen, laced up their sneakers Monday (Oct. 28) after school and stepped into the Mountain View Middle School gymnasium for boys basketball tryouts. Only six were returners from last years Junior Varsity team that finished 3^rd in the West Sound Middle School (Large School) league with a 6 win and 4 loss record: Madden Benson, Trenton Bulmer, Oliver Christian, Cody Irving, Jalin LIttleraven-Oliver, and Dillon Lovestedt.

What many of the hopefully didn’t realize in their nervousness is that this year’s boys basketball program is new.

First, Bremerton alumni Marshaun Thompson has assumed the head coach reigns and will oversee the entire program this season. The previous two seasons he guided the Squires JV team to identical 6 & 4 (.600) records.

“Like the boys, I was kind of nervous today too,” he admitted after tryouts. “Now I have to do more than just come to school each day and coach the JV team. Now, I have to make sure all the players paperwork is completed. I have to write the practice schedule for the day. I have to get all the equipment together. I am responsible for both teams, not just my JV team.”

But he has an advantage the past coaches didn’t have. He works Security at Mountain View.

“It is a huge advantage seeing the boys all day and they having access to me,” Thompson explained. “I can keep an eye on those that need a little more attention and I can catch problems while they are small.”

Thompson also works side-by-side with his new assistant coach, Walter Oliver.

Oliver has deep ties in the community, having coach Warren Ave Pee Wee basketball for the last eight years. Thompson and Oliver co-coached the WA Girls D string to a county championship two years ago. So, they have already developed their own chemistry and way of doing things.

The third new element to the program is the addition of 6^th grade student-athletes. Although Mountain View has been a three years school – 6^th, 7^th, 8^th grade – for many years, until this season 6^th graders have not been permitted to participate in after-school extra-curricular sports.

“I see the addition of the 6^th graders as a big plus for the program,” Thompson said. “It gives the student-athletes more time to prepare, three years to play instead of two, and gives us coaches more options when selecting the teams.”

And the 6^th graders represented themselves well against the bigger, stronger, older auditioners the opening day.

Asked to compare his new position at the middle school to coaching pee wee basketball, Coach Oliver stated, “cutting players is the biggest different I see right now. Having to turn away kids that want to play is not going to be easy.”

That process became more difficult with the addition of 6^th grade student-athletes.

“There will be a couple of the 6^th graders that will make the team,” Oliver added.

November 14^th, at home, against the Central Kitsap Cubs will be the Mountain View Squires first test of the season. The varsity game will tip-off at 3:30 p.m. and the JV game will follow at 5 p.m.