COOS BAY – This was supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Creswell boys basketball team.
But for those who haven’t been paying close attention, they don’t do rebuilding seasons at Creswell these days … and that goes for both the boys and girls programs.
It seems like every year, the Bulldogs aren’t expected to make much noise in the postseason, and their bite ends up being just as strong as their bark.
This season, all-league 6-foot-2 guard Tyler Whitson was coming back for his senior year after starting every game the previous two years. He was the only player on the roster, however, with significant playing experience. The new group featured four players between 6-3 and 6-5 with good athleticism, but it also included three sophomores and four juniors.
So the Bulldogs, even after a 6-0 start, had growing pains. They had their fair share of injuries and illnesses, losing three of their next four, then suffering through another 1-3 skid a couple of weeks later.
But once February rolled around, they righted the ship, winning four out of five entering the playoffs.
Once they got there, they had to play on the road at Riverside on March 1. It wound up being the high-water mark of the season.
“The game at Riverside was one of the coolest coaching moments I’ve had,” Creswell coach Jesse Thomas said of the 66-59 victory. “We were down 17 in the second quarter: Tyler hit a 3 at the halftime buzzer to cut it to 7, then we tied it with about four minutes left in the third, and then we ended up closing it out down the stretch.”
“That was a marker for this season. The way they played in that game was pretty amazing – one of the best environments I’ve been involved in,” said assistant coach Luke Whitson, who has coached Tyler since the third grade. “He was going head-to-head against another player of the year. Tyler seems to play well when he goes up against other great players.”
As shocking as it was to see Creswell reach the state tournament, it might have been even more stunning that Whitson was named co-Player of the Year in the Mountain Valley Conference. Not because he doesn’t deserve the honor – he certainly is worthy of it – but he shared the award with Pleasant Hill’s Gavin Inglish, a first-team all-state player and two-time league player of the year.
“It’s cool knowing that he’s won player of the year the last two years, so the challenge was to be on the same level as him,” Whitson said. “Especially with such a young team and nobody expecting us to do well. This season was all about everybody pulling through together.”
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Golf season still remains – and Whitson says he’s just as serious about golf as he is about basketball. Thomas is also the golf coach, so Tyler has had his dad and Thomas as full-time coaches for what seems like his whole life.
“He’s had lots of familiarity with his coaches,” Luke said with a chuckle.
Once Tyler graduates, it will close the book on one of the school’s greatest family legacies.
Tyler has three older sisters – Kylee (Class of 2020), Emme (2022), and Kendyl (2023) – who were all two-sport stars in basketball and volleyball. All three played on the same volleyball team in Kylee’s senior year, which was curtailed by COVID-19. Each made an all-league in volleyball, but Emme was the shiniest star, earning first-team all-state in volleyball and third-team all-state in basketball during her senior season.
Through the years: Tyler poses with family, above, during his older sisters’ playing careers at Creswell.
PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION
PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION
From left: Kylee, Emme, and Kendyl
“It was fun to have sisters to look up to who always played varsity sports,” Tyler said.
Luke coached all four of his children with the Creswell Zags, a youth basketball program. Back in the day, his two best young players were third-graders Tyler Whitson and Gavin Inglish, who were teammates on the Zags through eighth grade, when they had to go their separate ways to play high school ball.
“Tyler and Gavin were the two younger guys we had who always played up a year (in age),” Luke said. “We traveled all over Salem and different places through the eighth grade. We got lots of medallions and won a lot of tournaments. It was fun.”
Today, Tyler and Gavin are competitive rivals … and lifelong friends.
“I texted him last night and wished him good luck,” Tyler said before Saturday night’s 3A championship game, which Pleasant Hill lost 65-47 to Westside Christian. “It’s cool to see how much better he’s gotten and how much we’ve both grown in the game of basketball.”
Whitson, who averaged 19 points, 10.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 3.7 steals per game this season, became the first Creswell player in five years to eclipse 1,000 career points with 1,326.
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Creswell followed up its 14-point loss to Pleasant Hill with another 14-point setback to defending 3A champion Cascade Christian, 74-60. Whitson, who scored only 10 against P-Hill, bounced back to pour in 21 points against Cascade. Junior guard Ace Arnold added 10 points and a game-high 8 rebounds.
Two bad quarters – both ironically ending with 20-8 scores – proved to be the Bulldogs’ undoing at this tournament.
“We gave up a 20-8 first quarter against Pleasant Hill, then we did the same thing against Cascade Christian in the third quarter,” Thomas said Friday. “We weren’t aggressive enough in both games.
“We had a bad first half against Riverside, too. Some of that is youth and inexperience and discipline and just figuring it out. We were never able to completely get it all together. Against Cascade, they hit three 3s to start the second half and just like that, we were down 13.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t win any games, but it’s hard to get here. It’s another quality year for our program.”
Sophomore forward Mason Schartz, the Bulldogs’ vocal leader and unofficial team captain, wasn’t thrilled about leaving the coast without a win.
“Mason asked me, ‘Is this the first year you came here and went 0-2?’” said Thomas, who won his only state title at Creswell as a player, in 2004. “I said yeah. And he said, ‘Well, we’re going to be the ones to get you your first title.’
“So be it, if that’s the case, fantastic. I’m just really proud of these guys.”
He should be. These ‘Dogs have a lot of fight in them.
