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Conference Preview

5A Inland Empire League

PRESEASON COACHES POLL
1. Post Falls
2. Lake City
3. Coeur d’Alene
4. Lewiston

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Jack Kiesbuy, Lake City
Colby Gennett, Post Falls
Caden McLean, Post Falls
George Forsmann, Lewiston
Devon Johnson, Coeur d’Alene

One of the premier players in Idaho’s class of 2020 will take for the floor for the Post Falls Trojans this year, which enter the season as the preseason favorites in the 5A IEL coaches poll.

Colby Gennett has been a standout throughout his high school career thanks to impressive athleticism and the ability to fill up the stat sheet.

In addition to Gennett, the Trojans also return All-League performers Caden McLean, Cole Rutherford and Alex Horning.

“Unlike last year’s team that only had one returner with any varsity game experience, this year we will have four of our five starters from last season back along with two of our most experienced players that came off the bench last year returning,” said Post Falls head coach Mike McLean. “This group has been through the battles together and has experienced just about everything a high school team can experience. This year’s team is as offensively gifted as we have had since 2015 and can score from a variety of positions on the court. This summer we never played all 10 together because of various circumstances, but our newcomers coming up from the JV gained valuable experience playing with our returning varsity players. We are very excited to see if this group can reach the full potential they have together.”

Junior wings Zack Rodriguez, Riley Peterson and James Lee are some of the new faces to watch this year.

Regardless of who is on the floor, expect a hard-nosed defensive approach that can help lead to transition opportunities for the athletic Gennett.

“Our program is built around defense, both from an individual standpoint and as a team,” McLean said. “We will defend from baseline to baseline and work together to take away our opponents first and second options. Offensively, this group can really score the ball in a variety of ways. We can shoot the 3-pointer, make the mid-range jump shots and attack the rim. Our ball movement will be key to our success and the ball movement will allow us to break down the variety of defenses we encounter.”

After playing with a large group of sophomores a season ago, the Trojans now have a junior-heavy squad, which will provide the coaching staff with much more experience than last year.

There is not much consensus as to how things may shake out beyond Post Falls in the league standings, although a youth influx at Lake City has the Timberwolves on the radar.

“They have very skilled young players [freshman] coming into the program,” McLean added.

Those new faces join Jack Kiesbuy, who will be one of the team leaders for head coach Jim Winger.

Much like Lake City, Coeur d’Alene is young with optimism surrounding the program.

“This is an almost completely different team, as we graduated seven seniors,” said Coeur d’Alene head coach Tony Hanna. “Last year’s team was filled with shooters. This year we will be focused on the defense.”

Guards Devon Johnson, Mayson Whittaker and Luke McLaughlin join post Alex Karns as returners for the Vikings, who will benefit from the talent of sophomore post Cameren Cope, who moves up from JV.

“This year’s team will be young, but full of quality people with great work-ethic,” Hanna said. “We should have great team chemistry and players who will compete.”

Slowing down opponents will be priority number one.

“We are going to have to focus on defense this year to have success,” Hanna said. “This team is athletic and runs well, but doesn’t have a lot of varsity experience.”

Lewiston is led by George Forsmann and will be a tough out in league play.