By Joshua Washburn
SEQUIM — For most schools, getting one of your varsity teams to the postseason is a job well done, but for the Sequim basketball program, that just wasn’t good enough.
By a stroke of luck or just a well-earned reward, the Sequim boys and girls basketball teams will be opening up postseason play at home tonight.
“I have to tell you, having a postseason double-header on your own court is pretty rare,” Wolves boys head coach Brian Roper said. “Hopefully it works out to our advantage.”
The boys finished the season 9-3 in Nisqually League play, which was good enough to take second place for the third straight year.
“Second place is great, but not being the league champs is a little dissappointing,” said Roper, who is in his sixth year as head coach for the Wolves.
The Wolves will host Hazen High School in opening round action tonight at 6. Hazen went 6-15 in regular-season play.
Roper points out that while Hazen’s record would give most opponents something to smile about, the Wolves are not about to go and let their guards down.
“We really have to stay focused on this game and the job at hand,” Roper said. “We are playing for our lives, our basketball lives.”
While defense will be key for the Wolves, look for them to continue to move the ball around as they have all season, hitting the open man in their arsenal of perimeter shooters.
“We don’t have just one star player,” Roper said. “We look for all the guys to step up and do what they need to do to win.”
On the girls side, first-year head coach Linsay Rapelje will lead her girls into a pigtail game against Peninsula High School of Gig Harbor at 8 tonight in hopes of advancing to district play.
“Playing at home should definitely give us the advantage,” said Rapelje, who led the Wolves to third in league after a dissappointing 2004 losing season. “We are undefeated at home, and let’s face it, traveling is not fun for any team.”
While home-court advantage is a definite bonus, Rapelje said that in order to win, the girls would have to come up big on the boards and on defense.