Boys basketball hitting the hardwood for new season

This year could look very different for the Wrangell High School boys basketball team.

Already, the team is comprised of anywhere from 17 to 20 players, allowing coaches to modify their training routine. But first, many of their players have to finish wrestling, making it the first challenge the team faces this year.

"We have ... kind of a big group that are still wrestling," said head coach Cody Angerman. "The crossover is tough on both (programs). It's tough on the wrestling program because you have kids itching to play basketball, and then you've got a lack of athletes for (basketball) practice. It's hard to do anything you want to do the first couple of weeks."

One of the pluses to being a smaller school, Angerman said, was students don't have to endure tryouts like bigger schools. Those who want to play, can. "The reality is, we as a small school need all of our kids to not just show up for basketball, but to play all these other sports and multiple programs, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to do them."

Last year's team had around 14 players, making training harder, Angerman said. He would have to put fresh-faced freshmen with seasoned seniors, which wasn't a fair matchup to either group. With more players, Angerman and assistant coach Robbie Marshall will be able to split up players into groups of their own skill levels. "It's going to be really nice to run different drills and different practices," he said. This year's team is made up of roughly one-third of the high school student body.

Angerman believes his team has a good shot at vying for regional and state titles this year thanks to a core group of senior athletes that have been playing together for most of their lives. "Jacen Hay, Leroy Wynne, Devlyn Campbell, Ethan Blatchley, Randy Churchill: All those kids playing sports together, competing and being teammates, it's kind of fun," he said. "It's neat having a core class doing this a long time together."

Wynne, who was unable to play last year because of torn ligaments in his ankle, sees a lot of talent in the team.

"I'm excited. Our sophomores are stepping up nicely. We've got a lot of older guys that have been playing a long time together, so chemistry is pretty good," Wynne said during practice last Thursday night. "And we have a full schedule, which we haven't had since my freshman year. The last two years have been pretty different from most."

The team will be working on actively passing, zone defense and man-to-man coverage. The coaches will also be looking at new plays to see what works and what doesn't. For several years, Angerman used a side out-of-bounds play that was so effective, they used it against many opponents.

"We practiced it and ran it successfully against Petersburg. We've ran it against Craig. We ran it until a (Metlakatla) coach texted me one day and said, 'I found this side out-of-bounds play you guys run. I think I'm going to steal it,'" Angerman said. "I've got a kid who's probably scored a career 60 points off that one play. We can't even run it anymore against those teams."

Other teams, such as Petersburg, recognize the play almost immediately. The Wolves will have to switch up their playing if they hope to beat main rival Petersburg this year. Wrangell made it to regionals last year, only to be knocked out by the Vikings, ending their hopes to at least be the second of two Southeast teams going to state.

Wrangell played Petersburg five times in three weeks, which Angerman believes affected Wrangell's performance.

"At (the regionals) tournament, we played (Petersburg) the second game and lost," he said. "Then we went into the losing bracket and had to play them again. So, five or six times within a couple weeks. It didn't work in our favor but they're a good team and area always going to be tough."

Wynne said he's still not over the loss to the Vikings last year.

"I'm still pretty upset we lost to Petersburg in regionals last year," he said. "I'm hoping we can get some revenge. Metlakatla is going to be tough, if not the toughest in the state. They've got a lot of tall guys, a lot of good shooters."

Wrangell has plenty of height advantage as well, Wynne added. He pointed out that since a lot of the players are also active in other sports, they are healthy and ready to play.

"We're going to be ready for whoever," Angerman said. "For us, we've got our own really good core group. We've got the potential to do some great things."