It’s a tall understatement to say that Park boys’ basketball will look much different this season.

“It’s going to be a different year,’ agreed Park head coach Mike Weah. “We are pretty heavy on the guards this year. … Even though we’re not going to be like last year as far as height and everything, one thing that we like about this team is that each player brings something different to the table. You’ve got some faster kids on the team; you’ve got some kids that can really knock down shots.”

Gone to the University of Minnesota Gophers is big man Pharrel Payne. Payne earned first-team all-state honors last season when he averaged 22 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks a game in his senior season. He was a Mr. Basketball Top 10 finalist.

Also graduated were standout forwards Evan Bearth (13.4 ppg) and Jamari Walker (10.5 ppg) as well as versatile guards Josh Hatano (5.4 ppg), Brady Perryman (4.6 ppg) and Braden Fick (5.1 ppg). In all the Wolfpack lost six of their top eight players.

“The biggest thing from those guys was leadership,” said senior OT Omot. “And I have to step into that role. Just leading these guys, even not to get better this year but get better for the future years. And just guiding them to the right track and becoming better men and better basketball players.”

“I actually expect a lot out of these guys,” said senior guard David Ola-Kazim. “They come and they want to work hard and even though we took a toll from last year they’re ready to fill into those roles and do what they need to help the team win.”

Despite the losses, coach Weah and the Wolfpack players are optimistic on the upcoming season.

“Obviously we want to get back to the section championship and hopefully get to that state tournament,” said Park senior standout OT Omot, who will be asked to do a little bit of everything and could play every position on the floor for the Wolfpack this season. “We did lose an awful lot but you know the incoming sophomores and the juniors, they’re scrappy and they want to win.”

“OT, I can see him playing every position on the floor,” Weah said of Omot. “He’ll play some guard for us; he’ll be our big man. He’s a terrific athlete. He knows how to battle down there in the post area, too. We’re going to try and put him in a lot of different positions to where he can get some good looks.”

What the Wolfpack have coming back in spades are guards. Lots and lots of guards. Two veterans guards in Omot and Ola-Kazim and several guards coming up who saw either limited or no time on the varsity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it may take the Wolfpack time to gain experience and find their roles on this team.

“We just have a lot of guards that are going to be able to run the floor and run with each other and that’s what we’re excited about,” said Weah. “The strengths of this team will be being able to run the floor, being able to move off of each other. I think as the season goes on; we’ll be able to build good chemistry – the right chemistry that we need to make sure that our offense is flowing but we’re going to need to be very sound on defense. We’re going to have to be very disciplined and we’re going to have to be very orchestrated as far as hands got to be active, guys got to be disciplined out there and we just want to be a really scrappy team that hopefully can cause some havoc.”

Leading the returners for Park are senior guards Ola-Kazim (6-0, 4.3 ppg) and Omot (6-3, 7.9 ppg). After Ola-Kazim and Omot, the Wolfpack will be mostly inexperienced to start the season.

“David will be one of our stronger guards,” said Weah. “We’re hoping that this year he can knock down some shots for us and get to the basket and just stay comfortable and play the way we know he can play.”

Another key player for Park should be sophomore guard Dom Batts (6-1, 4.2 ppg) who showed a lot of potential late last season as a ninth grader.

“Dom Batts gives us some versatility with his size, even though he’s a sophomore, he’s pretty big for a sophomore,” said Weah. He’s gotten stronger since last year. He’s starting to look more toned out. He’s more physical this year. He’ll be able to help us out in the post plus he can knock down some shots for us. I see him at a guard/forward. I think he’ll step up for us this year.

“From there we’ve got a couple other sophomores battling for spots at the guard position, we’ve got a couple juniors in there that are battling for spots,” added Weah.

Another player to watch is senior football standout DJ Brown who joins the varsity this season.

“We’re really excited to see what DJ Brown can do for us on the basketball court,” said Weah.

Brown will be one of the players counted on to get rebounds and provide in the paint strength. But Park will need help from the less experienced varsity players.

“I think we have some good younger guys that are getting moved up and I think they’ll be able to handle all of that once they work more,” said Ola-Kazim.

Park went 20-9 overall last season and 13-5 in the Suburban East Conference, finishing second behind East Ridge. Park’s record would have been even better if Payne hadn’t sat out the first eight games of the season with an injury. With Payne in the lineup the Wolfpack went 15-6.

Park hosts Roseville (0-1) in its season opener Tuesday, Dec. 13, starting at 7 p.m. The Wolfpack follow that game with another home tilt against Hastings Thursday, Dec. 15.