Highline Thunderbird’s Men’s basketball team face off against Wenatchee Valley Knights to start the regular season on Nov. 21.

With a young roster and some veteran leadership, led by returning leader Bradley Graham, the Thunderbirds hope to improve on last seasons 5-12 record. Coach Dawson plans to take one game at a time stating, “The most important game of the season is the next one, regardless of opponent.” 

Despite last season’s record this season is gearing up to be a promising one. The Thunderbirds have a young team with many first year players to complement the returning cast of play-makers. 

Coach Dawson was tight-lipped about any emerging stars simply stating that “[i]t’s too early to tell.” So fans will just have to come to game one to see who shows-up to ball-out.

The goal remains the same according to Dawson, who said, “We want to compete for the Region Championship and get a #1 seed in the tournament.” Come March we will see if this team lives up to this lofty goal.

This past Friday we were treated to a preview of this revamped team in a Highline vs. Highline scrimmage. Coach Dawson hangs his hat on his team’s “[unique] depth and versatility” and this was definitely on display.

The defense was mostly clean and the three-point accuracy was on-point; the latter being a particular point of improvement over their league low 26.3 3-point percentage last season.

No matter the outcome, Coach Dawson is spot on in saying that the Thunderbirds should be “a fun team to watch on both ends of the floor.”

Will the season be an Air-ball Apocalypse or a Splash-down Sensation?

We will all just have to wait until Nov. 21 for tip-off against the Wenatchee Valley Knights.