By Trevor Finch
The Silverton boys’ basketball began the season strong with a preseason record of 6-3. The team finished fourth in the 5A Mid-Willamette Conference with a record of 8-6, and an over all record of 14-9. The team consists of two seniors, five juniors and two sophomores.
“Smoke and Mirrors,” was this year’s slogan meaning what you see - a bunch of young undersized want-to-be-ballers - is not what you get - a close knit team of talented players with blazing speed.
The team, while inexperienced and undersized, had a successful season for being a “building year.” Three teams in the Mid-Willamette Conference landed in the elite eight 5A OSAA State Basketball Tournament – Corvallis, Woodburn and Crescent Valley.
The players look to improve next season with all of the returning talented players. This season was a big stepping stone for the team as it only had two returning varsity players: sophomore Zach Gengler and senior Daniel Roth.
The Foxes were lead by Gengler who averaged 22 points and 5 steals per game, and sophomore Toby Roth who averaged 13 points and 4 assists per game. Gengler was awarded first team honors on the Mid-Willamette Valley All Conference Team. Toby Roth received second team honors and Daniel Roth received honorable mention.
“We had two great sophomore guards who played well above their age and Daniel played a good senior role,” Coach Darren Shryock said.
When Shryock was asked if he changed the way he coached this team he replied, “A little bit. We were a little bit more lenient from last year. We weren’t quite as demanding of them on defense because of the lack of seniors.”
As this year comes to an end, the team has high hopes for next season “Getting past the first round of playoffs would be great! Also possibly a 360 monster dunk would be pretty sweet!” Gengler said.
