The last time you watched the Cottonwood boys basketball team was on TV, when they reached the 4A state championship game. 

Although the Colts fell to Layton Christian 58-53 and lost several players to graduation including 4A first-team selection Chris Cox, Cottonwood is bringing plenty of pieces back, said coach Marc Miller. 

“This year’s team will feature a good mix of talent from three different levels,” Miller said. “We have three seniors, three juniors and three sophomores that will see varsity time. We return three starters in John Rosevear, Luke Park and Bo Smith.” 

In Rosevear, the Colts have a proven senior who was Cottonwood’s second-leading scorer. He averaged 16 points and four rebounds per game as a junior and played in all 27 for the Colts, who featured him in several games last season. 

Alongside Rosevear is Park, who will run the offense for the Colts. Over 27 games, the senior guard averaged nine points, seven assists and three rebounds. 

Smith is the player that some hope will take the place of Cox, who is currently playing at UC-San Diego of the Big West Conference. 

Though it will likely be impossible to replicate the talents Cox had as a three-level player, Smith is a talented three-sport senior at 6-feet-3-inches who showed glimpses last season and was pivotal in the Colts’ state semifinal win over Snow Canyon, posting a stat line of six points, four rebounds and three steals. 

With a season that opens on Nov. 20 at home against Lone Peak and hits the road for a game at Richfield two days later, life will come at Cottonwood fast. 

After that, the Colts will take a holiday break for Thanksgiving and then play five games in seven days starting on Dec. 3. That will take them right up to tipoff of their Region 10 campaign that begins on Dec. 10. 

“We also return two players in Luka Cecez and Tengis Bayasgalan who played significant minutes last year in our playoff run,” said Miller, who guided the Colts to a 21-6 record and a Region 10 championship last year at 12-0. 

Never scoring more than six points in any one game, Cecez is a big body at 6-feet-6-inches who registered two blocks in that state semifinal victory over Snow Canyon, while Bayasgalan at 5-feet-10-inches is capable of scoring buckets—the six points he poured in during an early-round state playoff game is proof. 

In addition to those five guys, Cottonwood is expected to get contributions from juniors Tommy Yates and Hamilton Leece. Along with sophomore Malei Atem, the Colts have enough firepower to make things very interesting not only in Region 10 play but Class 4A. 

Yates and Atem played significant minutes on Cottonwood’s JV team and played in spots on the Colts’ varsity, while Leece is a newcomer to the program. 

“We are a well-balanced team and the boys enjoy playing with each other which is important,” said Miller, who has a 72-50 record in five years at the school. “We are looking forward to the season and working towards hopefully another deep run in the state tournament.”