While taking a break from study hall on Monday afternoon, Redmond High seniors Kevin Carpenter and Sava Trifunovic kept their brains in analyzation mode by discussing their basketball squad.
The Mustangs encountered some tough competition last week at the Cactus Jam tournament in Tempe, Ariz., and they were ready to jump back into 4A Kingco play on Tuesday evening. By knocking off Skyline, 46-40, Redmond upped its record to 5-3 in league and will next host Eastlake at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
“There were some challenges during the games, but it was a lot of fun,” Carpenter said of the Tempe tourney, during which the Mustangs went 1-2. The point guard said it was a growing experience when they lost their first two games and then dug their feet in and rebounded to win their last game.
“I definitely think we’ve matured a lot as a team. We had a ton of juniors last year, so with all the seniors now, I think we’ve all grown up a little bit together,” added Carpenter, who leads Redmond with an average of 17 points per game. “It’s been a pretty solid start for us. I think we’re confident (against) any team we play now and we’re just ready to get after it.”
Redmond has fed off last year’s stellar run at the end of the season when the Mustangs won three-straight loser-out games in the Kingco tournament, but fell one win short of state.
So far this season, the Mustangs have defeated Inglemoor, Newport, Mount Si and Skyline (twice) in league, and new head coach Todd Rubin — a class of 2000 Redmond High grad — feels the tight-knit, hard-working squad is on the verge of turning the corner and reeling off some more wins.
“I think a lot of us learned that you have to value each possession, because each possession can affect the game equally as the next one,” said Trifunovic, a 6-foot-5 forward who averages 12 points per game. “Our chemistry from last year has improved greatly because now all of us have at least some varsity experience, so we’re all able to contribute to the team equally.”
Defensively, seniors Mitch Potter (averaging six rebounds per game) and Justin Harshman lead the way and the Mustangs have given up an average of just 48 points per game, which is a league best on the low end.
Rubin, who previously coached varsity and JV ball and was an assistant at Seattle Prep, Edmonds-Woodway High and Northwest University, is enjoying his new gig.
“We’ve got a great group of kids — varsity and JV and our C team all are outstanding kids and the families are great. It’s great because of the community aspect of it,” said Rubin, whose Mustang team won the Kingco title in 1999 along with the state academic title. “They’ve struggled the last several years, so we’re trying to change the mindset of what the expectation is.”
Carpenter and Trifunovic said Rubin is knowledgeable about the game and knows how to motivate the players, get them fired up and set for action. Rubin said that he’s confident, detail oriented and passionate about the game and his team, and that will help pave a clear path from taking a team from good to great.
The team’s metaphorical motto, according to Carpenter and Trifunovic, is “Toss the ‘chute,” as in parachute with a nod to banzai skydiving. Before jumping out of a plane, the skydiver throws the parachute outside and catches up with it to complete the jump. (The diver wears a harness attached to a cord extending from the parachute.)
Carpenter applied that process to the Mustangs’ basketball team: “You throw the goals out there and go get them. Lay it out on the line.”
For more photos, see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/40783276@N06/albums/72157663228998306
