The Evanston High School boys’ basketball team made it to the 4A State Tournament for the first time in the Rob Watsabaugh era last season, and with a roster loaded with seniors who have been with Watsabaugh since the start, a return trip to Casper looks well within the team’s reach.

Practice for the 2024-25 season began the week of Thanksgiving, with the season set to open this weekend at a tournament in Riverton.

“It’s been good — we went twice Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, and we’ve gone two-a-days all of last week, so we’ve gotten a lot of touches and contact,” Watsabaugh said. “Just trying to get back up to speed, refresh some fundamentals on offense and defense, trying to get everyone in a little bit better playing shape. I like what we’ve got, and what we’re seeing on the floor — it’s been pretty good on the varsity level.”

This year’s team is a talented bunch, featuring a mix of seniors and juniors who have been playing in Watsabaugh’s system since middle school, and have embraced the off-season workouts.

“There’s eight seniors on the team,” Watsabaugh said. “There’s some good experience there with those eight, having been around the program for multiple years.”

The Red Devils will be led by seniors Clayton Cook, Jordan Mendez, Ryker Lind, Jay Hill, Brenner Lym, Brooks Searle, Ryker Pace and Paul Baxter. All have varsity experience, and have put in the work in off-season camps and workouts.

Cook, Lind, Mendez and Hill have all started on varsity, and return with the most experience. Cook led the team in scoring (9.8 points per game) and rebounding (6.8 per game), while Lind was second on the team in scoring (8.0 points per game), and led the team in 3-pointers made with 39. Mendez averaged 5.1 points per game, and led the team with 1.8 assists per game; Hill averaged 5.0 points per game and led the team in both 3-point shooting percentage (34%) and steals (1.1 per game).

“Some of the players to watch — Clayton Cook on the inside will definitely be a force for us,” Watsabaugh said. “He’s made his presence known over the last couple of years. With Ryker Lind shooting the ball the way that he did last year, same with Jay Hill — both of those guys have been consistent scorers for us. Jordan Mendez and Brenner Lym can make plays for us off the dribble, keep us in rhythm.”

The Red Devils’ three juniors — Raife Wiedrich, Brandon Blackwell and Dom Stuart — also bring hard work and experience to the table.

“Along with a good core group of seniors, we have some juniors who showed growth this summer, like Raife Wiedrich and Brandon Blackwell,” Watsabaugh said. “Not sure if their time is quite this early, but they’re definitely helping us out in practice.”

Offensively, the Red Devils will look to push the ball up the court a little more this season, while defensively, the team will strive to be the tops in 4A after coming close last season.

“Things will look similar to last year, in terms of offense,” Watsabaugh explained. “There are some things we’ll need to adjust for this team — playing in transition can be a benefit to this team, playing a little bit quicker offensively to up our production. Defensively, we finished last year at No. 2, and I’d say compared to last year, we’re right on track to where we were — just a hard-nosed, man-to-man defensive group, and they want to do it again. Except this time, they want to finish on top.”

The teams that finish at or near the top in 4A every season have one thing in common — they put in the work during the offseason. Watsabaugh said he was impressed with the time and effort the team put in during the summer — and well into the fall — to prepare themselves for 2024-25.

“We’re always trying to offer opportunities over the summer and the offseason — whether it’s the weight room, open gym or summer camps and tournaments,” Watsabaugh explained. “We’ve always had a pretty good number — which is awesome — and during football, we opened up the gym at 7 a.m., and had a great showing, all fall, of kids wanting to get in. We showed some improvement and dedication, for sure.”

Now entering his fifth season at the helm, Watsabaugh said this year’s team might be the best he’s coached. Getting back to the state tournament last season lit a fire under this group, and he’s looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish.

“We like our chances of getting back — we want to raise that expectation,” Watsabaugh said. “The goal is to continually get better, each practice, each game, each season — preseason, conference season, postseason. The expectation has been set for a long time when it comes to boys’ basketball, and to get back to the state tournament last year was good. But we want to be able to build upon that, not just be satisfied with getting there.”

As for the future of the program, Watsabaugh said he’s been impressed with the work ethic of the underclassmen, especially the kids transitioning in this year from the middle school programs.

“This year’s freshmen are a good group of kids — not only with their basketball skills, but as students,” Watsabaugh said. “Getting to know them through football, and just the classroom, they’re just a good group of kids to be around. There’s 13 of them running around right now, and they’re a fun group — they want to work. They’ll have some growing pains as they play some different schools they haven’t seen before, but we’re definitely excited to see their development and growth throughout the year.”

The Red Devils open their 2024-25 campaign on the road this weekend with a tournament at Riverton, squaring off against 4A Southwest Quadrant rival Star Valley Thursday, Cheyenne East Friday and Cheyenne Central Saturday.

“We all want to compete, and hopefully steal a couple of games,” Watsabaugh said. “We want to show that we’re ready to play that first weekend — there’ll be a few things we’re a little green at, there always are that first weekend. But I want to see our defense be solid, play really hard. Offensively, we want to push the tempo a little bit quicker than we have in the past, and work on what we need to to be a little more efficient offensively. If we can do that — and play some hard-nose, man defense — I’ll be a pretty happy camper.”