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Park head coach Mike Weah enters his fourth season at the helm of a Wolfpack team looking to make big improvements this winter.

“This year’s team will be improved from last year,” said Weah.”We’re older, last year we had a lot of sophomores playing. This year we’ll have juniors and some seniors. We’re going to be more athletic than we usually are. We’ve got guys who are pretty tough. We’ve got guys that have been through the ringer with playing varsity before, so we plan on being a lot more physical, a lot more competitive this year.”

Park was just 4-23 last season, including a 1-17 lastplace finish in the Suburban East Conference. But four key players from that team return to get the ball rolling for the Wolfpack.

Back for the Wolfpack are: Jack Blumberg, a 6-0 junior guard who averaged 10.3 points per game last season, Jayden Lane, a 6-2 senior guard (14.0 ppg), Evan Bearth, a 6-3 junior forward (11.6 ppg) and Pharell Payne, a 6-6 junior forward (6.2 ppg.) All four played in at least 23 games last season.

“I don’t know who is going to be our No. 1 player,” Weah said. “But I do know we can have anybody lead the team in scoring on any given night.”

Others in the mix for serious playing time includes junior guards Brady Perryman and Brayden Fick, senior guard Nico Henderson, senior forward Jakob Leonard, and forward Jamari Walker. “And it might be a younger guy who comes up out of nowhere,” said Weah.

The Wolfpack will strive to play more hard-nosed defense. “We want to be a lot better on defense this year,” said Weah. “We’re trying to plug in that defense, that brotherhood, that teamwork. Defense is going to get us the success we want this year so we’re really hammering down on that.

“Offensively we know we’ve got guys who can put the ball in the bucket so we’re not really worried there,” Weah added. “But if we don’t stop anybody on defense it doesn’t matter how many guys we have put the ball in the bucket.”

Weah lists experience as a team strength. Park lost just four seniors from last year’s team, so the Wolfpack will have more experience than they’ve had in recent years. Weah is confident that game experience will pay dividends this winter. Basketball will certainly look different this season as state and MSHSL guidelines will require high school basketball and hockey athletes to wear face coverings. As of now, no fans will be allowed at the games. That guideline may change after the first couple of weeks of the season.

“The tough part this year will be seeing how well these kids can adapt to wearing these masks,” said Weah.

Weah sees a more balanced conference race this season, unlike last year where East Ridge and Cretin-Derham Hall combined to go 33-3 in the league. But five teams in the conference won 17 or more games last season and a lot of those veterans are returning.

“It’s a tough conference, especially for us,” Weah