A fresh start: Young Mount Si boys basketball team focuses on defense and speed

The Mount Si boys basketball team has a handful of varsity returners and a promising group of young players who will seek to step up this season. First up is senior Jonathan Hillel, who returns as guard, in which he saw some good varsity action last winter. Look for the tall, athletic Hillel to be a scoring force. The senior contingent includes Ryan Stewart and Ty Utley; juniors Colton Swain and Danny Tomson bring varsity experience, and Ryan Fischer has moved up from junior varsity last season.

December 9, 2014 5:11 pm

The Mount Si boys basketball team has a handful of varsity returners and a promising group of young players who will seek to step up this season.

First up is senior Jonathan Hillel, who returns as guard, in which he saw some good varsity action last winter. Look for the tall, athletic Hillel to be a scoring force. The senior contingent includes Ryan Stewart and Ty Utley; juniors Colton Swain and Danny Tomson bring varsity experience, and Ryan Fischer has moved up from junior varsity last season.

Parker Dumas, a junior who also got varsity time last year, steps up as post. Dumas has a good presence inside the paint, and should perfect his moves as the season progresses.

One to watch is sophomore Gavin Gorrell. He was the highlight of Mount Si’s tough opener against Cedarcrest Dec. 2, sinking two three-point shots.

Against new 4A opponents, head coach Kyle Clearman, back for his second season, expects high consistency in the league.

“For the most part, we’ve got a fresh, new batch of guys,” said Clearman. This group is still learning, but ready to go: “Anxious, excited and a little too pumped up” in last week’s Valley Cup matchup.

“We’re priding ourselves on being a defensive team,” Clearman said. “We struggled with that last year, so we’re trying to up the defensive energy, just make it difficult for teams to score.

“We want to get out and run,” he added. “The whole team is ‘One shot, get a rebound and not let it go.’ We’ve got the athletes to do it. We just need to keep getting better.”

“It’s going to take a little while to get the flow going,” predicted Swain. A leader will come forward, he’s confident. For now, it feels good to be back on the court, said the junior.