Boys varsity basketball has rewritten its story. Over the past three years, the program struggled with a combined record of 8-51, including losing streaks of 14 and 20 games in a row. This year, the team has surpassed its total win count from those three seasons with a record of 13-8.
For senior guard Aman Sterling (he/him), this year feels like redemption. As a freshman, he endured a 0-19 season that left him and his teammates feeling discouraged. Not only did the team have only one senior at the time, but they were often physically outmatched by 4A opponents. Now, the Viking ship appears to be set on the correct course.
Last year, Inglemoor switched to the 3A division, so the team plays against schools of similar sizes and talent pools. Still, much of the improvements can still be credited to internal improvements in the roster, which now includes seven seniors.
“I think our team has really matured since freshman year,” Sterling said. “A lot of us have good experience playing on the varsity level, and we’ve really just grown together and gotten better now.”
The team’s offensive transformation throughout the past few years is particularly striking. Their scoring has jumped from 41.7 points per game in 2022 to 68.1 points per game this season. Class of 2024 graduate and former Inglemoor boys basketball member Elijah Swearingen (he/him) believes in “addition by subtraction” — the notion that losing seniors may help the team succeed by granting more opportunities for the younger players. He used himself and former teammate Kieran Clasen as an example. When the pair graduated last year, the team’s record improved. During the 83-45 victory against Tyee High School on Jan. 17, Swearingen noticed impressive chemistry between the team that he had not seen before.
“Last year, it was kind of a new team, and some people’s first year playing together,” Swearingen said. “This year, everyone got a lot more teamwork and seems like they’re all on the same page. It’s really cool to see.”
The team runs much of its offense through on-ball screens involving Sterling and senior forward Reuhen Bhalod (he/him), whose scoring leaps mirror the team’s overall growth. Bhalod has gone from averaging 5.6 points per game as a freshman to 21.3 this year, while Sterling has improved from 5.4 to 18.6 points per game over the same period. Senior guard Gabe Schutt has also been a major contributor, averaging 12.9 points per game this season. In their win against Tyee, those three seniors combined for more points that game than their opponent’s entire team. More remarkably, the trio accounted for 55% of Inglemoor’s total points, which was actually lower than the usual 77% that they combine for on average. Bhalod achieved a career total of 1,000 points on varsity throughout his four years, and credited Sterling’s passing talent for their time spent together. Sterling is the starting point guard and averages a team-leading 5.4 assists per game.
“Aman is my guy. We’re both just bucket-getters who’ve been playing together since sixth grade. I can always trust him,” Bhalod said. “We’re like Shaq and Kobe, you know? Damn near on that level. I just have a lot of trust in him, and I guess the team does too.”
While this year’s success has been rewarding, the seniors are mindful of the challenge their departure will pose to the program. Bhalod is worried about the team regressing to its prior lack of success, but pointed out the rapid improvement of younger players like junior Eric Battulga as a mark for future triumph.
“Eric made a huge improvement since last year from JV to varsity,” Bhalod said. “He has been cooking. He’s been doing a great job at finding myself and all of our teammates, which might be the most important thing.”
Battulga is third on the team in assists, rebounds and steals per game, and surprisingly, leads the team in blocks despite playing guard. Still, losing seven seniors will leave a void on a roster of only 11 players.
“Losing seven players like that is pretty tough, especially when the younger guys don’t have a lot of experience yet,” Sterling admitted. “Hopefully, they’re learning something from us before we leave.”
Bhalod and Sterling both said it is critical for more underclassmen to step up to fill departing roles if they hope to avoid the same issues the team faced three years ago. For now, seniors can only set a precedent for success and hope that it sticks.
“We want to have a positive record at least, which we’re on our way to do,” Sterling said. “Me and Reuhen decided that it’s our year to really just get this team where it needs to be and where we all deserve to be.”
