SNOQUALMIE — The Mount Si boys basketball team can make Class 4A history this week at the state basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome
No Class 4A team in history has been to four straight title games. Mount Si last year joined Garfield (1961-63 and 1989-91) as the only teams to get to the championship three times in a row, losing in overtime to Curtis (no tournament was played in 2021 because of COVID-19).
Can the Wildcats get to the championship again? It would be foolish to bet against them. Not only is Mount Si (24-2) seeded No. 2 in the tournament, the team is eager to make amends after coming so close to finishing off a perfect season last year.
Mount Si earned a berth into the quarterfinals of the state tournament with an 80-45 win over Tahoma on Friday in a regional game, and will play the winner of Union vs. Richland on Thursday at 2 p.m.
The Wildcats will always wonder what would have happened last year had their leading scorer, then sophomore Trevor Hennig, had not been knocked out of action just before the state tournament with a stress fracture in his back.
“He was the missing piece last year (in the state tournament),” Mount Si coach Jason Griffith said of the 6-foot-4 guard. “When a play breaks down, he is the kid that can get to the rim. We’ve seen that this year from him. He’s done a great job of shooting the ball consistently from the three-point line, but he’s got the ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim.”
Hennig is the team’s leading scorer again, averaging 19 points per game, but he has a lot of help.
Miles Heide, a 6-foot-9 senior forward who has signed with San Diego State, is averaging 17.8 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.0 blocks (entering the regional round) and is shooting 70% from the field.
Junior guard Blake Forrest, who has played with Hennig since third grade, averages 13.6 points and a team-leading 6.2 assists and 2.2 steals. Bennett Olujic, a 6-5 senior forward who previously played at Eastside Catholic, averages 12.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
It’s a collection of talent at Mount Si that would have been unheard of a decade ago.
When Griffith took the job at Mount Si in the spring of 2016, the team was coming off three straight losing seasons with a combined record of 19-48. The Wildcats had been in the state playoffs just once in the previous 16 years (2006).
Griffith saw no reason why Mount Si could not be successful, and he had experience turning around a struggling team, having done it at Issaquah. After a losing season his first year, Issaquah reached the state playoffs the next five seasons before Griffith left for Mount Si to work in the town where he lived.
“We looked at this program and knew the type of community that it is,” said Griffith, who played basketball for Sammamish High School and Bellevue College. “We have great resources and great families that live here. And ultimately, that was the foundation of the whole turnaround.”
Development at the youth levels, starting with the third grade, was a big part of the plan. That has helped give the high school a nonstop pipeline of good players, such as Hennig and Forrest.
“We really pride ourselves that our program goes down to our third-grade level,” Griffith. “We’re highly involved with our youth. We’ve got kids that come to every (high school) game. And the kids who buy in, they get better.”
The turnaround happened a bit faster than even Griffith expected. After the Wildcats posted a winning record (13-11) in his second season, they reached the Class 4A title game the next season, losing to Gonzaga Prep in 2019.
“There is a lot of pride when you build from within your community,” Griffith said. “Jabe Mullins and Tyler Patterson set the bar and the student athletes that took the baton are trying to meet and raise the bar.”
Mullins, who plays at Washington State, and Patterson led Mount Si back to the state championship in 2020. This time that was not a surprise, nor was it when the Wildcats defeated Central Valley 58-47 for the school’s second boys basketball title, 44 years after the first one.
Mount Si seemed destined to win another title last year, winning its first 25 games — and all but one by at least 12 points. But with Hennig relegated to cheering from the bench, Curtis pulled out an overtime thriller in the title game.
“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through, but I wanted be there for my teammates,” Hennig said of not being able to play. “It was definitely difficult, but I’m glad we got through it and we’re back at it.”
Mount Si comes into this week on an 11-game winning streak. Griffith said this team has a higher ceiling than last year’s team, but that last year’s team was more consistent.
Heide, whose father and mother played basketball at Oregon State, agrees with his coach on that assessment.
“I think this year’s team is a lot better,” he said. “We’ve just got to get it done.”
The team is counting on Heide to be a big part of that.
“In my opinion, Miles is the best big man in the state,” Griffith said. “San Diego State is getting a phenomenal young man who we’re going be talking about in three to four years. People are going to be, ‘Wow, this kid really developed.’”
Hennig grew up going to Mount Si games and was in the crowd when the team won the title in 2020. Now he gets his chance to help the team win one.
“It would mean everything,” Hennig said of a state title. “You strive for that all year and to finally accomplish it would mean the world.”
Not that it will be easy. Griffith said the list of Class 4A contenders is as strong as he can remember. Those include Federal Way, which ended the season No. 1 in The Associated Press state poll, defending champion and top-seeded Curtis and No. 3 seed Olympia.
“But even the next four to eight teams, they’re really good,” Griffith said.
Mount Si certainly won’t be intimidated by any team it plays this week. It has found a winning formula that seems sustainable.
“When I got the job, I was surrounded by people that wanted to be a part of something special and the coaches, families and school all had a role in that,” Griffith said. “It takes a village to run a great program. I am really appreciative of everything, and everybody that volunteers their time and efforts to make our program what it is.”