West Michigan is covered in White, but it’s time for the OK Green!

On Monday we broke down the Wyoming Park boy’s basketball team and with thanks to all the coaches of the OK Green we now take the time to break down the entire conference for you the dedicated WMA fan. For those who need a little refresher on how last year finished up, The Holland Christian Maroons ran away with the title and took their season all the way to the state quarter-finals where they lost to Gull Lake. Bryon Center took second followed by Unity Christian, Zeeland West and East. The conference trailed off after that with Hamilton, Wyoming Park and Rogers all finishing under .500 in the Green.

Holland Christian will be led by new head coach Kevin Koeman after long time coach Mike Phelps was asked by the administration to step down after 21 years. Citing a change in direction for the program as the reason to let Phelps go, Koeman will look to continue upon last year success and has a solid squad coming back to do just that.

The Maroons are long all over the floor and will be led by an impressive front line of seniors, Bryce Lutke stands at 6’9” in the center and will be flanked by Tyler Dykstra at 6’7” and Luke Flokerts at 6’5”. That long attack should be enough for Holland Christian to defend the Green title this season.

Byron Center will look to contend again this season and Coach Jared Crandell has an experienced group to run with. The Bulldogs bring back 8 seniors of which 7 have been playing together since elementary school so cohesion shouldn’t be an issue early on as we see with many teams. Keep an eye out for Ryan Sabin and Corey Kuipers as they have important senior campaigns ahead of them. Hudsonville Unity Christian finished with nearly an identical record as Byron Center last year but here at WMA we expect the Bulldogs experience to widen the gap between to the top tier of teams.

The pair of teams from Zeeland come next in our preview and the Dux from the west although finishing 7-4 in the conference they did post a 17-6 overall record. First year Coach Mark Werley will have his hands full this season as the Dux lose 7 of their top 8 players from last year to graduation, senior guard Isaac Hernandez will be the lone returnee with significant minutes last season. The Chix from the east side of Zeeland will look to improve upon a 7-14 season last year but that task will be hard as the OK Green seems to be divided in terms of talent.

The Hamilton Hawkeyes will attempt to battle back with a very large team of their own, 8 of the 11 Hawkeyes are 6’1” or taller and Coach Steve Sikma hopes that size can balloon this squad up in the rankings as he enters his 6^th year as coach. Seniors Cody Buresh, RJ Flowers and Cody Westfield will look to lead the Hawkeyes while Nick Kronemeyer who is just a sophomore will try his hand at being the floor general at the point.

As we noted on Monday Wyoming Park will be led by Brock Vander Klay as they hope to return to dominance in the OK Green. Wyoming Rogers on the other hand can’t be feeling good about a last place finish in the Green in 2009. After not winning a game in conference last year Coach Bernard Varnesdeel will have to guide an undersized team through the Green this season, The Golden Hawks will only list one player taller than 6’1”! In a league with lots of size, speed and shooting will have to prevail if Rogers is going to win games.

Look for some surprises and a little shakeup in the standings but overall we expect Holland Christian’s size to just be too much for the rest of the OK Green as they take the title again this season.