The seeds that Kyle Donahue planted in Centralia took a season — and a bit more — to break the surface. Now, he’s ready to see what the tree actually looks like.
Last season was always going to be about building for the Tigers, who had to replace their entire starting lineup, only had one senior on the roster and went into November already down one of their key pieces.
Now, the experience is there, along with a whole lot of new energy.
“That’s one of the things we’ve already talked about, this is the (middle) of that two-year process,” Donahue said last week. “It feels really good, because walking into the gym this year, it doesn’t feel like we’re starting over; it just feels like a continuation of last season.”
That change has become apparent, even with the Tigers still only running against themselves in practice.
“We’ve been running offenses from Day 1,” Donahue said. “I can just call out an offense this year, I don’t have to teach the offense. We’ve already put in two, three new plays and normally it takes me four weeks into the season before I start adding new things for these guys but we’re already starting to build on the stuff we had last year.”
In the middle of it all, the Tigers have David Daarud, who started his varsity career last year as a sophomore trying to hold his own physically with the likes of Soren Dalan, Gunnar Harroun and Keagan Rongen. A year later, and Daarud, listed at 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, is suddenly one of the most experienced post players in the 2A EvCo, coming off a football season which saw him earn second-team all-league honors on the defensive line.
“He’s a lot stronger, he’s been really working in the weight room,” Donahue said. “He’s been a really good presence, correcting some of the things he needed to work on.”
Around Daarud in the middle, Centralia brings a rotation seven or eight deep, of smaller pieces that can fit in multiple spots.
“Other than David, who clearly we’re going to utilize as a post guy, we’re really versatile with our other seven or eight guys,” Donahue said.
Brady Sprague is back along the perimeter, as is Cohen Ballard, who has more starting experience than anyone else on the court for the Tigers. Aidan Haines and Jordan Yeung logged significant minutes last season, and Von Wasson is back at full strength after playing at less than 100 percent.
With so many returning faces, there isn’t a whole lot of room for anybody new, but Centralia gets one key addition in the form of Landon Jenkins, who missed all of last season while rehabbing shoulder surgery. He’s set to fill out the starting five this time around, giving Donahue another weapon to use offensively.
“He’s very versatile,” Donahue said. “He can go inside, he posts up really well. He shoots the ball really well, he’s shooting really well from the outside. He fits in right along with everybody.”
And with so much of the 2A EvCo in flux, with all but four of last year’s all-league team now graduated, Centralia — which went winless in league play last season — might just be in a position to get back on the board in Year 2 of Donahue’s two-year process.
“I think we can do some different things defensively,” Donahue said. “And rebounding — rebounding has been our achilles heel for years now, so we’ve been stressing that hard this year. If we do those two things, if we play good defense and take care of the rebounds, I think we can compete with anybody, because we’ve got scorers this year, we’ve got guys that can put the ball in the bucket.”
