Estrella Foothills will enter the 2009-10 season as two-time defending Class 3A state basketball champions. As scary as that sounds, what's more frightening is coach Ty Amundsen thinks this year's team might be his best ever.
The Wolves have added some height and another Hawkins brother to their team, and had a successful summer. Their 35-10 record isn't overly impressive, but given the caliber of competition they faced, Amundsen was thoroughly pleased with how they did.
"We probably had more losses this summer than we have in the past, but that's not what we're looking at," Amundsen said. "We're looking at how these kids are developing and getting better, and where they fit in the program. I think by what we've done this summer by playing this many games and having this many practices, I think it's definitely been a positive summer for these kids."
Estrella started the summer by playing in leagues, then hosted its own tournament in June, where it went 7-0 and took the championship. After that, it was two more tournaments, one locally and another in California.
The Wolves went 4-1 at the Best in Basketball at Gilbert Mesquite High School, despite Amundsen not being there. He and assistant coach Hersey Hakwins were playing in their own 3-on-3 tournament in Spokane, Wash.
Still, under JV coach Matt Johnson, the Wolves put forth a solid effort, beating 5A schools Mesquite, Phoenix Shadow Mountain, Mesa Red Mountain and Sierra Vista Buena. The first two of those wins came without the services of Corey Hawkins, who was elbowed in the eye in a loss to Tempe Mountain Pointe and had to sit out because it swelled shut.
In California, Estrella played in a tournament at Concordia University in Irvine, going 5-2. The first night the Wolves beat Cathedral High School by 22, despite Cathedral having a 6-foot-8 athlete who is ranked among the top-25 college prospects.
"We handled [him] pretty well," Amundsen said. "I give a lot of props to Nick Malfatti for guarding him, our 6-6 guy. He did a nice job of guarding him and holding him in check."
After that, Estrella had probably their best win of the tournament in beating Ocean View High School by 26. Ocean View also has a top-25 player in Anthony Brown, who has been recruited by both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, but the Wolves manhandled them.
"We played out of our minds in that game," Amundsen said. "They have three or four Division I guys on that team, but they just couldn't handle the pressure on defense. I credit the whole team as far as team defense and how we pressed them. I think they had a really hard time with that. That was definitely our best summer game this year for sure.
"We don't keep stats, but Corey had about 50. He just kind of went off on his own. He just tore it up."
Sibling rivalry
Estrella also played Clovis East High School, the team coached by Amundsen's brother, Tim. The Wolves beat them, 66-64, giving Ty three straight wins over his brother.
"The neat thing about that was we were missing three starters, Avery Boykin, Troy Coleman and Will Smith, our new 6-6 transfer," said Amundsen, who is now 5-2 all-time against his brother. "They left Saturday night for football camp."
Aside from those three, Hawkins and James Pierce also are starters, and Devon Hawkins, a freshman, has worked his way into the starting lineup a few times as he's progressed throughout the summer.
"At the beginning of the summer we figured, OK, Devon's a seventh man, he's going to come off the bench, be a specialty guy where he can come in and knock down a couple 3s, but he's really surprised me defensively with how smart he is," Amundsen said. "He makes really good reads for his age, I just think his feet need to catch up to his brain, because he knows what he wants to do, but he's just not quick enough to get there yet. As soon as we get him into the shape that we want to get him in, he's going to be a really good player."
Absences like the three players leaving for football camp, and a couple injuries to Corey as well as his other basketball commitments with an AAU team, have allowed Amundsen to get a good look at other players who could add depth to the team.
"We got a good mixture of games without Corey," Amundsen said. "We don't ever want a kid to get hurt, but sometimes it's a blessing in disguise because other guys will try to step up and become a little bit better because they become a lot more aggressive without Corey.
"Some of those guys like Troy, James, Nick Adkins - he's another guy that's done some nice things for me this summer - to see all those guys step up while Corey is out, it's really impressive to see that we're once again deep, and I truly believe this is probably our best team in four years."
Estrella opens its season at home Dec. 1 against Fountain Hills.
Casey Pritchard can be reached by e-mail at cpritchard@westvalleyview.com.
