Basketball season is upon us, and we’re not talking pro (NBA) or semipro (collegiate).
Nope, we’re talking junior high and high school basketball season.
No sooner had cross country season ended than Henkle Middle School athletes began practicing on Oct. 24 for their upcoming girls basketball and wrestling seasons. These seasons, which began early last month, are running through early December.
Henkle boys basketball season will get under way in January 2017, after a long winter break from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3.
Junior high and middle school basketball also is in full swing at county schools Lyle, Klickitat, Glenwood, Trout Lake, Wishram, Centerville, and Bickleton. The seven-team league’s season ends Jan. 23, 2017.
On the prep front: High school basketball and wrestling practices started in mid-November. Opening games and matches are slated for this first (partial) week of December.
Stoner Bell returns as head wrestling coach at Columbia High School and Chad Myers is back to head up the boys basketball program.
Bell will be aided again by his chief assistant, Dev Bell. The Bruins open 2016-17 on Thursday, Dec. 1, at the Stevenson jamboree, which starts at 5 p.m. On Saturday, Dec. 3, the Bruins are in Longview for the Mark Morris invitational.
Myers, in his second year, will be assisted by returning jayvee coach Evan Wiley and head football coach John Hallead, who is joining the staff as bench coach.
Don Struck is CHS’s new head girls basketball coach. He will be making his varsity coaching debut this season. Struck was the longtime junior varsity and assistant coach to athletic director Howard Kreps, who stepped down after the 2016 season.
Former CHS girls head coach Mike Yarnell is making a comeback at the high school level as Struck’s jayvee and assistant coach.
Both varsities began play Wednesday, Nov. 30, at home against Riverside High of Boardman, Ore. Both teams are at home Friday night, Dec. 2, against Lyle/-Wishram. Tip-off times are 6 p.m. for girls varsity, and 7:30 for boys varsity.
Lyle/Wishram’s girls and boys basketball teams are under new management for the first time in a long time. Vernon Letourneau takes over the girls program from the county’s dean of coaches, Joe Bales, while Josh Padgett succeeds his father-in-law, Scott Myers, as boys head coach. Mike Murphy, a Lyle High graduate who played for Myers, joins the boys program as jayvee coach.
The Cougars tip off the new season on Thursday, Dec. 1, at the Klickitat Jamboree, with 10-minute contests vs. Yakama Nation and Klickitat/Glenwood. The action starts at 5 p.m.
At Trout Lake, Steve Allaway is coaching girls basketball again after taking a three-year break from coaching duties, while Ken BeLieu is back to head up the boys program.
The Mustangs kick off their season Thursday, Dec. 1, against the Columbia High jayvees in White Salmon. Game times are 5:30 p.m. for girls, and 7 for boys.
Klickitat/Glenwood’s boys and girls varsities play their first games on Friday, Dec. 2, at the South Wasco County tournament in Maupin, Ore. The tournament concludes on Saturday.
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