Cougars prepare for competitive EWAC season

Nov. 27—WARDEN — The Warden Cougars boys basketball team is returning to the court for another intense season in the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference East. After a tough end last season, the Cougars are working to stay competitive.

"Last season, we had our ups and downs with a lot of injuries, sickness hit us pretty good," said Cougars Head Coach Brent Erdmann. "It wasn't a bad season, but we didn't quite reach our potential."

The Cougars finished the 2024/25 season with a 5-16 record, going 4-6 in league and pushing themselves into the EWAC postseason tournament. Warden won in their first game against Goldendale, but were eliminated in a tight game against Kittitas. That put them two games out from districts.

Erdman said the big lesson for the Cougars was holding one other accountable and learning to truly play as a team. Seeing how tough the league was last year was another learning moment for the team as they realized they needed to build up their basketball IQ to stay competitive.

"Over the summer, one of the big things we worked on is making sure everyone's healthy, being held accountable, playing as a team and building their IQ," he said.

During the offseason, Warden graduated five seniors off the basketball team but will be seeing two strong senior returners in Eli Cox and Hunter Golladay, said the coach.

Golladay spent the majority of last season injured, which kept him off the court. Erdmann said this was very frustrating for Golladay, but he kept a positive attitude throughout. Golladay is ready to hit the court strong this year.

The coach said Cox brings tenacity to the game and never slows down, which will be a great asset to the Cougar's success this season.

"They just gel together as seniors," said Erdmann. "This is my fourth year (as coach), so this is actually the class I started with and I'm really excited and really hoping to do something with these two young men."

In both summer and early season practices, he said that the Cougars' team aspect of the game has looked very different as the players have really shown how much they enjoy playing alongside one another. This, alongside the amount of effort put into the offseason, has the team feeling good about the start of the basketball season.

The goal that the Cougars have set for themselves this season is to build onto the successes that they found last year and work hard to improve their record against a tough league, said Erdman. Staying healthy this season will be of the utmost importance in their path towards their goal as they enter the season with a smaller roster than they had last year.

One thing that Erdman said he wants the players to really focus on this season is keeping their heads in the game. During the season if the score gets away from them and they get down, he wants the team to just continue playing their hardest since in a game like basketball the score can flip, and a team can make a comeback.

With the start of each new season, it's always a fresh start and gives both the players and coaches an opportunity to grow, he said.

"Just excited to be here and hoping I can teach them and make them better and at the end of the day, if I can make them better young men, that's more important than even basketball," said Erdmann.

The Cougars will start their season on the road Dec. 4 to face Naches Valley at 7:15 p.m.