“The Oak Harbor Wildcat girls basketball team opens their season tonight at home against the Anacortes Seahawks from the Northwest 3A League. The varsity game is at 7:30 p.m. in the main gym while C team and junior varsity games tip off at 5:40 p.m., with the C team playing in the Dome. Coach Dwight Lundstrom’s squad returns a trio of starters and enters the season with a ton of optimism. After the opener, they’ll have just two nights before traveling to face another Northwest League opponent at Sedro Woolley. The first league game is a week away when Mountlake Terrace comes to the Island on Dec. 8. Meanwhile, coach Frank Hunter’s Oak Harbor boys cagers tipped it off last night at Sedro Woolley and host Anacortes Friday night in the home opener. Hunter’s troops follow that up with a tough non-league trip to the Pit at Everett High School, where the Seagulls are coming off three straight trips to the Class 3A state tournament and return three starters. The Cats start the WesCo schedule next Friday, traveling to Mountlake Terrace. The Hawks won the WesCo South last season, going 20-0 during the regular season. They won the district tournament and headed to state as the only unbeaten team in Class 4A with a 23-0 record. Longtime coach Roger Ottmar has retired but turned over a very solid program to incoming coach Nalin Sood, a long-time assistant. The Hawk’s JV was 15-5 while the C team went 20-0 last year. Terrace has become a very solid program. For basketball the WesCo will split into two divisions, North and South. The Wildcats are in the North with Sehome, Snohomish, Marysville-Pilchuck and Cascade. They will play each of those schools twice. In the WesCo South are Mountlake Terrace, Shorewood, Shorecrest, Kamiak and Mariner. Oak Harbor will face each of these teams just once. The regular season will wrap up Feb. 9. The WesCo tournament starts the next night and runs through Feb. 17. The survivors from there move on to the Bi-District tournament where WesCo and KingCo teams will fight it out for four berths to the state tournament in the Tacoma Dome. Traditionally tough Sehome looks to be the favorite in the WesCo North. Head Coach Pat Fitterer ranks fourth among active coaches in the state in career wins, having posted a 466-130 record in 23 years. The Mariners finished 24-4 and took fourth place at state last March. Fitterer has both of his starting guards returning, 5-foot-10 Kyle Jackson and 5-foot-11 Mike Harvie, but will not have the size he has enjoyed the last few years. A 6-foot-5 Greek exchange student should help inside. The WIAA changed the rule that prevented exchange students from competing at the varsity level last year. Jackson was an All-League pick last year, while Harvie made the All- State Tournament second team. The other team favored to compete for division honors is Cascade. Coach Jerry Koester, who resigned his job in the spring but was rehired this Fall, has a veteran squad returning. The Bruins are annually one of the most athletic teams in the league, and this year is no different. Koester returns two starters, 6-foot-8 post Carson Hill and 6-foot-3 shooting guard Matt Konsmo. Konsmo is a four-year varsity starter who earned All-League honors last year. Snohomish will be very young but looks to be in good shape with a small, very quick squad while Marysville joins the Wildcats in a major rebuilding year. The next home game is against Lake Stevens on Dec. 9. Enjoy the hoops. “