Eastside Catholic boys basketball coach Steve Kramer hopes there’s some mojo left in the tank.
With seven players from the Crusader 3A state quarterfinal football team lacing up their high tops this winter, he likes his chances.
“You can say it’s Bill Marsh’s football team, just moved to the basketball court,” Kramer said. “They’re a tough-minded group — they get after it. They’re very tenacious, good defenders, they’re fast.”
The Crusaders are led by seven returning seniors, including three-year starter Darin Nakatsu. The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 8.6 points per game last season. Troy Perry, a 6-foot-3 forward, scored 8.5 points per game for Eastside Catholic. Other key senior returners include guard Andrew Carlton, guard David Carlton, forward Marion Bactol, forward Dan Gockel and forward Connor Holden.
The Crusaders also get some help from underclassmen, including juniors Nile Kramer, Grant Sutherland, Andrew Villeneuve and freshman Jake Springfield.
While veteran leadership is ample, Eastside Catholic lacks size. The Crusaders max out with Perry and Holden, both listed at 6-foot-3.
“The way we play it, we don’t sit there and try to clog up the low post,” Kramer said. “We need guys driving to it, so we don’t want a lot of cluster in there. We end up shooting a fair amount of 3s with that size.”
Execution will be crucial playing in the Metro, arguably the toughest basketball division in the state. Eastside has Seattle Prep, O’Dea, Lakeside and Blanchet in the Mountain division. There are two other Metro divisions that consist of teams like Rainier Beach, Franklin and Bainbridge. Of the 15 Metro teams, 10 will earn playoff berths.
“There are no gimmes in the Metro, bottom line,” Kramer said.
In an attempt to get EC to the level of other top tier Metro programs, Kramer hired Andrew Coates as the junior varsity coach and Chris Newell as the freshman coach. Both were on the 1999 Eastside team — the last group to advance to a state tournament.
“Here are guys who can look at the current students and say ‘Hey look, I went to this school and we went to state and we were in the Metro then too, so it can be done,’” Kramer said.
Coates played at Pennsylvania University and Newell, who is the grandson of legendary college and Olympic basketball coach Pete Newell, played at the University of California Santa Barbara.
With the new campus, new additions to the coaching staff and riding the wave of the football team’s success, Kramer likes the way things stack up this season.
“I think they are a group of overachievers,” he said. “I think they’re capable of beating anybody on any given night. Whether we will or not remains to be seen. They thrive on competition, they just really do.”
Eastside Catholic, which finished 7-14 last year, started its season off with a 45-43 non-league win over Hazen. The Crusaders have lost their last two league games to Lakeside and Bainbridge. They host rival Seattle Prep at 7:30 p.m. today.
