Yelm High School’s 2024-25 boys basketball team will feature a young but talented group of Tornados athletes, with a team goal of reaching its fullest potential as a unit this season.
Head coach Dave Wasankari said the Tornados are a young team, led by seniors Alex Segarra and Josiah Hardie, and although they don’t know what their fullest potential looks like as a unit this season, the coach and the team strive to reach that potential through hard work at practice and in-game.
“I don’t know what that potential looks like yet, but I know we do have talent, and we’ll have to really figure out how we’re going to work as a team to really reach our potential,” Wasankari said. “Offensively, we’re going to push the ball and try to get early looks. There’s no doubt about that. Our goal is to get it in bounds and go see what we can find early. If not, get into our offense and work the ball side to side to find a good, clean shot. Defensively, there’s a different game plan every night based on who we’re playing.”
Wasankari highlighted a duo of freshmen, Raziah Patterson and Zayden Homann, as young athletes who have stood out early in the current season. Along with Patterson and Homann, Yelm’s JV team features all freshmen, giving the coach a bright outlook for the future.
“There’s a good core group of freshmen and sophomores in this program. We have a couple of juniors and seniors, but it appears right now that the two freshmen who are playing on varsity right now are standing out,” Wasankari said. “Playing varsity minutes as freshmen will help those athletes grow, as anything does through time with practice. If a kid is willing to know he’ll make mistakes, and the coaches are going to help them grow and get better, then they’ll get better. There’s a big difference between a 14-year-old kid and an 18-year-old kid, but they do have the right mentality to come in and compete.”
He added that the young athletes in the Tornados program have been learning how to act, compete and practice from Hardie and Segarra.
The Tornados are off to a 1-3 start to the season, including a 85-72 victory over Hockinson on Saturday, Dec. 30, a 71-59 loss to Black Hills on Dec. 2, an 82-53 loss to Bonney Lake on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and a 60-59 loss to Bethel on Friday, Dec. 6.
“We played Bonney Lake the other night, and they have a lot of length and a lot of height. There’s going to be a lot of teams in this league that are long, and everybody can coach. Everybody can play. Obviously we’re young, so we’re at a disadvantage as a whole, but these kids can play. There’s really good teams in this league, and we’ll have to find our way through this year and find out what it’s like,” Wasankari said. “Bethel came out and led by 20 at one point. It took a while for us to settle down and figure some things out. After that, I believe we went on a 21-0 run and came back and took the lead. It was back and forth all throughout the rest of the second half. Bethel found a way to win it at the end.”
Despite the loss, Wasankari said he was proud of his team’s ability to compete in the face of adversity while trailing by 20 points.
“Winners find a way to compete, no matter what. We fell short, but at the end of the day, that’s who we need to be in order to compete in this league,” Wasankari said.
Wasankari said, although his team will always compete every time it is on the court, it does lack height. The team will rely on MJ Wadley, 6 feet, 2 inches, and Comboni Loku, 6 feet 3 inches, to defend bigs in the SPSL as tall as 6 feet, 7 inches.
“We’ll have to double the post and recover. We’re going to have to pressure the ball. Sometimes you can do everything right and get a man on the ball who can box out, and we’re still at a disadvantage. We can take care of what we can take care of and not worry too much about the size,” Wasankari said. “MJ brings a lot of toughness, and so does Josiah, too. MJ is incredibly tough and incredibly coachable. He’s physical, and that certainly helps. They’re not 6’6” or 6’7”, but they’re coachable. Combo, in his situation, is a guard, but he’s going to have to defend. He’s 6’3”. He’s long and he’s going to have to defend multiple positions. MJ can run the floor and is super athletic and is a good leader based on how he plays.”
