'Special since Day 1'

Two years ago, when the rest of the Post Falls High boys basketball team headed for home after its Saturday afternoon third-place game at the state 5A tournament in Nampa, Trojans coach Mike McLean and his wife Jessica remained in the Treasure Valley.

The eighth-grade version of the Runnin’ Rebels, Post Falls’s AAU boys basketball program, was playing in a jamboree of sorts down there against teams from the Boise area — perhaps to get a taste of the future.

One of the teams they played was from Rocky Mountain of Meridian.

Two years later Post Falls, at state for the 10th time in 12 seasons under McLean, boasts six sophomores on the varsity.

The Trojans’ first-round opponent on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa?

Yep, Rocky Mountain (21-3).

“Obviously, we knew this class was pretty good,” McLean said.

Three sophomores — Caden McLean, the coach’s son and a member of that eighth-grade team two years ago, Alex Horning and point guard Cole Rutherford — start for this year’s squad, which takes a 17-6 record into state. Three other sophs — Isaac Ballew, Josiah Shields and Tommy Hauser — come off the bench.

There are just four upperclassmen on the roster — junior Colby Gennett, a three-year starter; senior Gavven Desjarlais; senior Jake Rutherford, a three-sport athlete who has signed to play baseball at Gonzaga; and junior Terrell Mitchell, who played with this year’s sophomores on the junior varsity team last year.

Coming into this season, Gennett was the lone Trojan player with much varsity experience.

“When you sprinkle in Colby (with the sophomore core of players), you’re pretty special,” McLean said. “Jake Rutherford is an unsung hero as far as his maturity. We have Terrell, who is a nightmare matchup for most high school teams — he’s big and he’s strong and he’s quick ... I don’t know what position he is, other than he’s a good basketball player. Gavven is a big body. And these sophomores ... I guess they’re still sophomores, but by this time in the season, they’re no longer sophomores. They’ve played too many games.”

AS WITH most young teams, there were struggles early.

There was the loss at King’s of Seattle, the start of three games in three days in western Washington. There was the loss at Flathead in Kalispell, hours after an emotional win the night before at Glacier. There was the Monday night game at Ferris where the Trojans “absolutely laid an egg,” McLean said.

But there was also the championship of a tournament in Auburn, Wash., two victories that immediately followed that loss at King’s. There were three wins in the Lake City Invitational, over three teams that challenged the Trojans in different ways. There was the comeback win at North Central.

“I think the learning curve was just the speed and physicality of varsity basketball,” McLean said. “I knew this group was pretty skilled; our JV team last year had a lot of success running through the league.

“I think the most challenging thing for this group was to bring it every day — especially in games. They always seemed to rise to the occasion when we had a big game with a good crowd, but sometimes when we were on the road, or sometimes it was a back-to-back ... they had to learn to bring their own emotion every time.”

“At first it was kind of difficult,” Caden McLean said, “but as the season went on we got used to playing at a higher level — because we had been playing against kids our age, and now we’re playing against juniors and seniors.”

The wakeup call was probably the game at Moses Lake, a 64-59 loss.

“It was the most physical game we’ve been in,” Caden McLean said. “They were a lot bigger and stronger than most of us, and we realized we had to play different to keep up with them.”

LAST YEAR’S Post Falls’ team completed a stellar two-year run surrounded by high expectations. They were led by Jake Pfennigs, now a freshman pitcher at Oregon State, but who also attracted attention from Pac-12 basketball coaches; and Tanner McCliment-Call, now playing basketball at Community Colleges of Spokane.

On the outside, this year’s Trojans were not expected to do what those two Trojan teams did. But they did, going 6-0 in the 5A Inland Empire League like the last two Post Falls teams did, and winning the Region 1 title, like the Trojans did last year.

“If we were not in the situation we are in, I would have been unhappy,” Mike McLean said. “I thought they could run through the league, and win regionals with this group ... because this sophomore group is pretty special. I think you saw a little of it during football season (when several sophomores helped a young Trojan squad claim a surprising berth in the state playoffs).”

“The biggest difference this year is not being favored,” Gennett said. “That’s helped us out, being the underdog. Last year, we thought it was supposed to be our year, and that kinda caught us.”

Cole Rutherford (6.5 points per game, 3.2 assists, 3.1 rebounds) runs the show. Caden McLean (9.4 points, 1.8 steals) and Horning (10.9 points, 4 rebounds) bring the shooting and the defense. Gennett (13.9 points, 8 rebounds, 3.6 steals, 2.2 assists), who is attracting college interest, does a little bit of everything. The powerful Mitchell can get to the rim, and also shoot from distance. Desjarlais (8.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists) can face the basket, but is needed as more of an inside player on this squad.

Gennett (6-foot-4) and Desjarlais (6-5) had never really played with this year’s sophomore group before, so there was a bit of a learning curve there as well.

“Colby had to realize for us to be successful, he didn’t have to dominate the ball — he just had to do what he did well,” Mike McLean said.

Desjarlais began the last two seasons on the varsity squad as well, but, well, didn’t finish either season.

“Gavven is a big body, a strong kid,” Mike McLean said. “He’s been around the program for four years, he’s seen what it takes ... having him here for a whole season is great. It’s the reason why you stay at the high school level and coach — a kid makes a couple of bad decisions, but he’s fallen in line, he’s learned what it means to be successful, and he’s had a very good season.

“I think Gavven has learned his lessons. I think he’s learned there’s rules and consequences for his actions, but he’s also learned that we’re not going to give up on you — as long as you work hard, we’re going to be there.”

“It’s fun to be out there and play, finally,” Desjarlais said. “It feels good to make your family happy. I like to face the basket and drive. It definitely was a change (playing) inside.”

WHEN McLEAN took over as head coach at his alma mater 12 years ago, he started the Rebels AAU program in Post Falls.

He heaps praise on Nick Meeks and Shaun Leery, also Post Falls High grads. Meeks, he said, has coached the current sophomores all the way through AAU ball.

“They have been a huge part of our success,” McLean said.

Meeks and Leery played with Jeremy McLean, Mike’s younger brother. All grew up in the 1990s, during the end of the heyday of Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

“We’re called Rebels for a reason,” Mike McLean said. “We try to do things a little bit different.”

From fourth grade through eighth grade, there is at least one Rebels team in each grade, running the basic offensive and defensive concepts run by McLean on the Post Falls varsity and JV teams.

McLean’s oldest son, Blake, played for the Trojans, graduating in 2016. His youngest son, Trenton, plays for the sixth-grade Rebels, and McLean is an assistant coach for that team.

“I am as involved as I can be,” McLean said of the Rebels.

DESPITE ITS youth, this year’s Post Falls team has several scoring options.

“Rarely in my 12 years here have we had the leading scorer in the league,” McLean said. “We’re pretty balanced. We have some shooters, we have some guys that can get to the rim. We have some guys that can score in the paint. We have ... everything. I don’t know if we are an easy matchup defensively, because we can cause some issues.”

With last year’s team, Pfennigs and McCliment-Call were the scorers, along with Gennett.

“This group’s basketball skill is significantly higher as a unit,” McLean said. “I think this group’s defense is underrated ... you don’t go through a league undefeated, younger than everybody else, if you can’t defend. I don’t think that’s a slap in last year’s team’s face.

“But at this same time, we are more skilled basketball players, offensively and defensively. Do we have the high-end Jake, or a Tanner? No, not yet. But as a group, 1 through 10, I think we’re more skilled.”

McLean said this team reminds him of the young players he had in 2008 and ’09. In 2010 that group won a state title, and four of its players — Shawn Reid, Malcolm Colbert, Connor Hill and Marcus Colbert — went on to play in college.

He said he thinks he’ll have multiple college players on this team — some in basketball, but also some others in football, as well as Jake Rutherford in baseball.

“This current sophomore class is the most talented I’ve ever had,” McLean said. “Never had a more talented class, 1 through 10, in my career. That group’s been pretty special since Day 1.”