Columbia Bruins gear up for basketball season

WHITE SALMON — Basketball is back at Columbia High School as both programs started practice for the 2025-26 season on Nov. 17.

Both the boys and girls programs return experienced starters, and both have their eyes set on the WIAA state tournament.

The Columbia girls, under fourth-year head Coach Justin Frazier, are getting ready for their Dec. 3 season opener at Woodland. Frazier has an experienced team.

“We’re looking forward to this year, getting these girls back because they’ve been in the system,” said Frazier. “A couple of years ago, these girls were just freshmen and sophomores playing, and they got beaten up a little bit just being young. Now we’re starting to see the maturity, the confidence starting to come to this team.”

Columbia returns all its starters from the 2024-25 season: senior Halle Kock, senior Sara Miller, junior Joella Posini, sophomore McKena Carlock, and senior Claira Camacho. The 2024-25 Bruins tied for third place in the WIAA 1A Trico League, finishing 14-8 overall and 10-6 in conference.

Frazier said the Bruins have their eyes set on the state tournament, and with high aspirations, Columbia is taking its talents to Las Vegas over Christmas break in preparation for the back end of its schedule.

“We’ve raised some money, and we’re going to do that this year,” Frazier said of the four-game Vegas swing. “We’re looking forward to going down there.”

On the court, Frazier’s goal for the team is to play with tenacity and hustle. Off the court, Frazier praises his program for their gentle touch in the community.

“We pride ourselves on trying to out-hustle the other team,” said Frazier. “Our strength is being gritty on defense. Another thing I like about our girls, too, is that they’re pretty active in the community.

“We do a lot of youth camps. We’re going to have a youth camp Dec. 28-29 for our local grade school girls … our girls give back through that.”

The Columbia boys are preparing for their first game at home against Washougal on Dec. 2. The boys program is led by third-year head Coach Brady Trullinger.

“At the varsity level, we’ve got a lot of experience,” said Trullinger. “We have six seniors this year, and it’s a group that I’ve been coaching for the last four years, from when they were on JV up until the last couple years being on varsity.”

The six Bruin seniors are: Hunter Wang, Aidan Hainline, Jordan MacCormak, Kevin Melton, Hector Orozco and Josh Chiccino. The roster also features junior Caleb Reynolds, and sophomores Levi Connell and Eli Slayton.

“I think [having six seniors] means that we have a lot of leaders this year, a lot of guys with a lot of experience with me and how I run the program, and the expectations that we have for the young kids,” said Trullinger. “We also have a lot of young kids, a lot of freshmen, and a lot of sophomores.”

“[The six seniors] are going to set a really good example for those kids who need to step up from JV next year and fill those six slots, and then the C team kids that’ll have to step up and fill the six slots on JV.”

The Bruins are coming off a playoff appearance in 2024-25 and will look to replicate that and then some in 2025-26 with the depth of experienced players.

“I’m excited about what league play is going to look like,” said Trullinger. “In the Trico, there are a lot of strong teams, historically strong teams with really tough competition. I think there’s a lot of potential this year for it to be a little bit more competitive for everybody, that it’s going to be a little bit tighter than usual.”