After winning the tournament last Winter, Wilsonville will look to repeat this year, bringing back 4/5 of their starting lineup from the State Championship victors.

After taking home another State title, Wilsonville looks to get off on the right foot with their first games taking place in the WIT. In their first game of the season, they find themselves against Ashland for a very quality first-round matchup.

Other first-round contests include North Eugene vs Mountain View, North Marion vs Crescent Valley, and Redmond vs Lebanon.

Wilsonville Senior Kallen Gutridge had this to say about the upcoming tournament: “We are looking to knock the rust off, get back in basketball shape, and play Wildcat basketball.”

Wilsonville has high expectations even starting in the first week of December. The Wildcats have gone to the last 7 State Title games and have won 5 of those games. There is no doubt that Wilsonville has built a basketball dynasty, and the quest for their 8th straight appearance begins this week.

The Wildcats have high expectations coming into the season, with 80% of their starting lineup returning, including Kallen Gutridge, Emmitt Fee, Kyle Counts, and Nick Colyer. Wilsonville will need to take it one game at a time especially in a WIT field that has some very good teams in it.

Multiple teams in the WIT field made the playoffs last year, such as Mountain View, who was the #5 seed heading into the tournament, North Eugene was the #8 seed, Woodburn was the #6 seed, Crescent Valley made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to Wilsonville, and Redmond was the #4 seed.

The competition is stiff, but Emmitt Fee says the goals for Wilsonville are simple: “We want to play as a team, take it one game at a time, dominate the defensive side, and play wildcat basketball.”

It will be exciting to see if Wilsonville is able to take home yet another WIT trophy.