Kamiakin’s coach calls him one of the best in school history, and he’s closing in on a record

Kamiakin High School boys basketball coach Brian Meneely doesn’t mince words when talking about Garrett Paxton.

“He’s one of those guys that’s gonna go down in the history of Kamiakin basketball as one of the best,” the 12th-year coach said. “And there’s been a lot of great ones, but when statistically you look at it, where he’s ranked, the wins and things he’s accomplished, it’s a pretty great career.”

But the 6-foot-2 senior guard came awfully close to missing his chance to cement his legacy. A shoulder injury sustained in the spring caused him to miss the tail end of soccer season and even sidelined him for football in the fall.

“It was a little nerve-racking, just looking at the timing of things,” Paxton said. “I was supposed to be cleared like a week before basketball started, so I did therapy every day before school last year, really worked on it because I was really excited for senior year.”

Fortunately for Paxton — and the Braves — he was cleared to practice in time to make the the Dec. 2 season opener at Eastmont, and despite having to sit out the summer AAU season and going months without taking a jump shot, the four-year starter has shown no signs of rust. He’s the Mid-Columbia Conference’s third-leading scorer at 17.7 points per game this season, and entered Friday’s contest at Hanford ranked third in all-time scoring at Kamiakin, needing 165 points to surpass Steve White (1,192 total) for the top spot — he’s on pace to accomplish that in the regular-season finale Feb. 2 against Pasco.

But scoring the basketball isn’t all Paxton does for Kamiakin. He also ranks ninth in the school’s record books with 422 career rebounds (seven away from moving up two spots) and leads the Braves with 6.1 boards per game this season, while also averaging 1.4 steals, 2.6 assists and half a block a night. Plus, he’s settled into a role as the team’s vocal leader and has been a part of 54 wins so far in his high school career.

“The kid is a complete worker bee,” Meneely said. “I walked into a gym last fall, and he’d snuck in and been on The Gun (automated rebounding machine) and was getting his 1,000th shot in. I laughed and asked him how long he’d been there, and he was just kind of like, ‘Eh, not that long.’

“But it’s just what he likes doing. He has a huge desire to be great; he never takes a drill off, never takes any rep off.”

That kind of determination is to be expected from a kid who loves the game as much as Paxton does. He ran varsity track in his early high school years, was the kicker on Kamiakin’s 2016 state championship football team and was among the league’s best goalkeepers when he played soccer for the Braves last spring.

But basketball is his first and greatest love.

“My mom taught me how to count by shooting baskets in the driveway when I was little,” Paxton said. “It’s definitely my main sport. I’ve been blessed with some athletic ability, and I’ve been able to carry it into some other sports because I’m a competitive guy and I like trying other stuff out. But this is the one that’s really stuck with me my whole life.”

The basketball bloodlines are strong for Paxton; his dad, Dean, had a successful hoops career under coach Mike Guajardo at Pasco. Paxton ultimately hopes to continue playing in college, but is still weighing his options for the next level.

BACK WITH A VENGENCE

After beating Bellingham and falling to No. 14 (in RPI) Prairie at the Yakima SunDome shootout last week, No. 16 Kamiakin (7-3, 4-0) resumes MCC play with two critical games this weekend.

Following their battle against Hanford (7-3, 3-1) on Friday, the Braves will try to be giant-slayers at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when they host the No. 4 Richland Bombers (10-0, 4-0).

In addition to being a supremely talented and well-coached team (ranked No. 15 in the USA Today Super 25 national high school basketball poll), the Bombers pose a unique challenge to opponents in the form of 7-foot-3 senior post Riley Sorn, as well as a host of quick, lanky guards that go at 6-4 or bigger.

“With Sorn in there, he takes up so much space and he alters so many shots,” Meneely said. “You have a really hard time scoring around the rim. So one of the things you’re going to have to do is shoot the basketball really well. And they do a really nice job of getting out to shooters, so they force you to bounce it, and then you’re right on top of Sorn.

“So we’re gonna have to bounce it, if we don’t have a good shot then we’ll kick it out, and hopefully we’re able to knock down some outside shots.”

Richland junior sharpshooting guard Cole Northrop leads the MCC with 21.3 points per game, while Sorn is fifth at 16.4. The Braves handed the Bombers their first conference defeat since 2014 last year, in a 74-71 affair at Richland’s Art Dawald Gymnasium, but couldn’t stop them from winning their fifth straight league title and eventually placing fifth at the state tournament.

Here’s a full look at the local games on tap this weekend (all are girls/boys doubleheaders, with the boys games scheduled to tip off 90 minutes after the girls games):

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Kamiakin’s coach calls him one of the best in school history, and he’s closing in on a record."