Height is a huge factor to the sport of basketball. Having a big man in the middle really opens up a wide variety of options for the offense, whether play calling or simple passes to the key. However, in this year’s case, the Arlington boys basketball team is at a disadvantage.
With the tallest man on the team at 6 ‘2”, which is a huge step down from their last year’s big Billy Kooy standing at 6’ 6”, it seemed that they were in for a “Learning” year this season. But Coach Drew Bryson said otherwise, as the young and fresh A-town hoops team began the season with seven wins and no losses. How’s that for a height deficient team?
Arlington faced Marysville-Getchell in the home opener, who we had beat last year by nine points. That changed drastically, as Arlington won 66-28. Shutting down the Chargers offense. Then, the Eagles went on to face Shorewood beating them 76-69, gaining the majority of their points in the 4th quarter. The next two were no different, beating Prairie 63-56, and Stanwood 73-60. But then, the first major matchup ensued, as the Eagles hosted Mountlake Terrace.
Last year, A-town lost to the Hawks by one point in a heartbreaking loss after Mountlake Terrace came back from an 11-point deficit to win 47-46. This year, the boys said otherwise as they beat the Hawks 54-42. With that huge win, the Eagles began to earn more attention as teams can not take them lightly. But the streak did not end here.
In the first 4A Wesco matchup, the boys went to Mariner high school, beating them 57-38. Then back at home, they battled against the Kamiak Knights winning 67-59. Now at 7-0 overall, and a 2-0 conference record, the Eagles were on top of the world. Being featured in the top rankings not only in Wesco, but in 4A as well. Although, the Linsanity streak would end there.
“They’re one of the best teams in 1A” said Carson Rowell (‘27), one of the starting forwards for the varsity team. “I think it humbled us a little bit, and it just made us realize that we need to take every opponent seriously,” Rowell said.
A-town headed to Lynden Christian for what was sure to be another instant classic, as the year prior, the Eagles beat the Lyncs by two points with a whopping 92-90 score. This year, LCHS had other plans as they were determined to end the young squads streak.
It was a back and forth contest up to the 3rd quarter, until Lynden Christian began to pull away as Arlington only scored 9 points total in the entirety of the quarter. But the spark re-ignited as the Eagles battled back to tie the game in the 4th, forcing overtime. But this was where the light finally faded, as the Eagles lost after a very hard fought battle 93-85.
The Eagles did fill the stat sheet that game though, with Mac Crews (‘27) earning a triple double scoring 34 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists. The Eagles had five players scoring over 10 points, but this wasn’t enough for the win.
At this point in the season, the boys are 9-2 overall with a 3-1 record in conference with much more competition coming up. On January 16, the Eagles will play the Glacier Peak Grizzlies who are 11-0 on the season. They haven’t seemed to have lost a step from last year as they have been dominating teams so far.
“We’ve been looking at GP for a while but we’re just gonna take it one game at a time and see what happens” said starting guard for the varsity team Maverick Vaden (‘26). “I definitely think it could be a preview of the WESCO Championship, for sure,” said Vaden.
They look to keep their streak as they play some division games coming up, including Lake Stevens, which gave them a run for their money towards the beginning of the season this year. The Vikings could play spoiler this year towards the end of the season, as they will face off against the Grizzlies on January 23.
As the Eagles move through the season they will only have one non-conference game the rest of the season, as they face off against the 10-1 Anacortes Seahawks on January 29. The Seahawks played the Eagles last year, and lost 69-61. This year once more they look for redemption on the young team. They are placed at 2nd in their division with only one loss to Burlington Edison High school. Other than that, they have beaten teams by an average score of 10 or more.
Mark the calendar for this game, as the Eagles could find themselves battling it out for the WESCO Division title in the final game of the year against Glacier Peak on February 10. By the way the season is going, it could even potentially be a district, or even state tournament caliber game. It will be an important game to their season if they keep their momentum up throughout the season.
So far, Crews clears the board for multiple stat categories on the team, leading in Points Per Game (24.3), Field Goal Percentage (60%), Rebounds per game (8.7), and Assists per game (8.7).
“Yeah, I mean, rebounds like for me personally, the team has helped a lot with those stat wise” Crews said. “Because they are boxing their man out. Like me, my guy usually doesn’t crash, so they box him out of the lane and I just go get the ball” said Crews.
In blocks per game, Rowell and Micah Robinson (‘27) are tied for the lead in Blocks per game with 0.3. One man to not leave open outside the perimeter is Vaden, as he has already reached the halfway point of where he was last year, which was 16 made three pointers. At this pace, he could break his own personal record.
“I definitely think I could get past it” said Vaden who didn’t know what his statline read. “I’m getting more playing time, but yea, I didn’t know that,” Vaden said.
As a whole, the boys seem to show no signs of major drop offs from last year. A couple changes to the offensive scheme and they were set for a great season. They are one of the few teams in the state with 2 or less losses, and won’t let anyone forget it. As long as the supporters keep showing up for our boys, and our band keeps blaring their tunes, we could see that momentum continue, or even increase into something better.
“The team dinners helped build a lot of chemistry. We all have kind of known each other since we were young, so it’s always just been there” Crews said.
