2022-2023 Cruiser Boys Basketball Preview

Basketball season is upon us, and the Eatonville Cruiser boys' basketball team will be missing a staple who has been roaming the sidelines for the Cruisers for over 20 years. That staple would be Head Coach Mark Swartout. Swartout announced last March that he was stepping down from a program he had guided for 24 years and handing the reins over to T.J. Cotterill.

"I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity, but you can't replace people like Mark and Karen Swartout. When I first met with players in April, the common theme was how close many of them were with them. That's one of the marks of great coaching is the relationships you foster, and that's been so crucial to our staff over the past eight months — building trust and buy-in."

Cotterill will try his best to fill those big shoes of Swartout's as he takes over a program fresh off a 1A Evergreen Conference title, were the Southwest Washington District runners-up, and the teams' first state tournament appearance since 2004.

Cotterill was an assistant last season for the Fife Trojans girls' program and before that, he was an assistant at Puyallup High School for their boys from 2019-2021.

A few former Cruisers will join Cotterill's staff to help him out this year.

"I love the people we've added to our staff. Travis Klumpar is our varsity assistant and he already had a lot of great relationships with the program's families, to go with an outstanding run as a former Eatonville player. He's a fantastic positive role model to go with his basketball knowledge. We also added Josh Bennett, another former great Eatonville basketball player who brings a ton of passion for basketball and building this program. And Wayne Fulmer has so many ties to the youth programs in the area (he also coaches at the middle school), which seemed like a perfect fit to bring his basketball knowledge and have him able to help take our style of play and skill-development philosophies in the high school program back to our lower levels. That's one of the themes of programs that compete for state titles year after year is having great alignment with their youth programs. So it's a big point of emphasis for us.

Eatonville will return four of the five starters from last year's squad. The fifth starting position will be a big hole to fill with the graduation of the 1A EvCo MVP, Reilly McIlraith who led the Cruisers in scoring with 17.1 points per game.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we believe we have eight players who could all score in double figures depending on what the opposing defense is giving us. I don't know if we'll see many players more athletic or more skilled than Shay Brannon this year, quicker than Walker Bruun, or stronger than Kyle Cox. But I've seen a lot of great players over the past decade of being in locker rooms at the Tacoma Dome. The ones that have gone the farthest in the state tournament are those who can rely on and trust their teammates. The best teams are the ones that can go to anybody, any night. Don't be surprised if one night is Shay's night, but the next is someone else's. Most of these guys have played together since they were in the second grade. They have the trust and confidence in each other to be that kind of selfless team."

Eatonville's four returning starters are:

G Shay Brannon, 6-foot-5, sr.

Last year: 13.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.9 steals

*1A EvCo first-team all-conference in 2021-22

*2A SPSL honorable mention in 2021 spring

G Walker Bruun, 5-9, sr.

5.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.0 steals

G Griffin Clevenger, 5-9, jr.

3.1 points, 1.7 assists, 1.7 steals

P Kyle Cox, 6-6, sr.

7.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocks

*1A EvCo second-team all-conference in 2021-22

*2A SPSL honorable mention in 2021 spring

One player the Cruisers will surely miss is senior Jake Wood. Wood averaged 7.5 points and 6.7 rebounds last year for Eatonville and was a 1A EvCo honorable mention pick in 2021-22. Wood is out for the season with a knee injury he suffered during the football season.

Top newcomers to the varsity squad that Cotterill feels will contribute are senior Shane Taylor and juniors Hunter Klumpar and Cyrus-Mark Nueva.

The Cruisers will kick off their 2022-2023 campaign this Saturday, December 10th when they welcome the Morton-White Pass Wolves in for a non-league contest. The game will tip off at 7:00 pm.

Along with their regular season schedule below, they will also travel to Ketchikan, Alaska to play in the annual Clarke-Cochrane Christmas Classic tournament on Dec. 28th - 30th.

2022-2023 Season Schedule

Sat Dec 10, 7:00 PM vs Morton-White Pass High School

Mon Dec 12, 7:00 PM vs Rochester High School

Thu Dec 15, 7:00 PM vs Castle Rock High School

Sat Dec 17, 7:00 PM vs Cascade Christian School

Mon Dec 19, 7:00 PM @ Morton-White Pass High School

Wed Dec 21, 7:00 PM vs Orting High School

Fri Jan 6, 7:00 PM vs Montesano High School

Sat Jan 7, 5:45 PM @ Rainier High School

Wed Jan 11, 7:00 PM @ Tenino High School

Fri Jan 13, 7:00 PM vs Hoquiam High School

Mon Jan 16, 7:30 PM @ The Northwest School

Wed Jan 18, 7:00 PM @ Elma High School

Tue Jan 24, 7:00 PM @ Montesano High School

Thu Jan 26, 7:00 PM vs Tenino High School

Fri Jan 27, 7:00 PM @ Orting High School

Tue Jan 31, 7:00 PM @ Hoquiam High School

Thu Feb 2, 7:00 PM vs Elma High School