ITG Next spoke with Olympia boys basketball coach Rob Gordon about the Titans’ impressive season, as well as a look ahead to the 2022-23 campaign.
Q: Congrats on the strong season, Coach. As you look back on this past year, what are some of your thoughts on this group overall and what you accomplished?
A: This was a record-breaking year for Olympia boys basketball as we won our first District Championship in school history and made our second straight trip to the Sweet 16 in the playoffs. Our basketball program played the second-strongest schedule of any team in the state tournament. Winning 21 games with such a strong schedule was a huge accomplishment for our team.
Q: What do you think you’ll miss most about this 2021-22 team?
A: I will miss the senior class from this year’s team. Each of our five seniors started playing on our freshman team as ninth graders. This was truly a home-grown group. In today’s climate of transferring, our seniors chose to stay the course and worked so hard to achieve success.
Q: Looking ahead to next year, this Titans roster is set to be headlined by one of the state’s top returning scorers in Jizzle James. What are some of your early thoughts on the potential of this Olympia team in 2022-23?
A: My thoughts on next year are all over the place. While it’s going to be an exciting year with such a high-level player in Jizzle James, we have several players who are going to have an opportunity to prove themselves for the first time on the varsity level. We have a couple of players who will be returning from injuries that kept them out all of last season, and we also have a few kids who will be coming up from our JV team.
Q: Speaking of that group, who are some names that could play bigger roles for this Titans team next season?
A: The one player who we are looking forward to playing a bigger role next year is Sean Owens, a freshman who was a part-time starter for us this season. We are excited to watch Sean’s growth both physically and as a basketball player. We feel that he will be a great complement to Jizzle as a guy who can make shots and really defend at a high level.
