Mountlake Terrace junior Kaiya Beavins has seen her share of girls’ basketball coaches at the school, all of whom were ineffectual in turning around a weak program. But for the 2019-2020 season, Beavins senses something different with the newest Hawks coach.

“I’m very excited for this year,” Beavins said. “This is going to be very different than the past few years.”

Beavins, her Terrace teammates and first-year head coach Nick Sherrill hope to put behind them the dismal Hawks’ seasons of the recent past and begin a successful 2019-2020 campaign — starting Tuesday, Dec. 3, when the team hosts the Ingraham Rams; tipoff is slated for 7:15 p.m.

Now entering her third season on the Hawks’ varsity team, Beavins is on her fourth head coach at the school; but she sees big contrasts between Sherrill and her previous three coaches.

“We definitely have a lot more potential this year because (Coach Sherrill) takes it way more seriously than our past coaches,” Beavins said. “He’s very fast paced; and since we have a fast team that definitely works well with us.”

“We just have never found a click in the coaching style compared to what the type of players we have,” Beavins continued. “So he just really fits our group of girls.”

Sherrill, a former assistant coach at Edmonds-Woodway High School, is bringing a new swiftness and ferocity to Terrace practices not seen in recent years.

“He’s very intense,” Beavins shared. “We definitely are not used to the running that we’re doing in practice. Everything’s a competition, but to me that’s the only way we’re going to get better. He’s definitely really intense, but that’s good.”

Beavins believes speed is one of the strengths of the Hawks’ roster this year, so Sherrill’s fast-paced style of both team practices and game play is a perfect match and a potential recipe for some Terrace wins this season.

“We need to beat teams (with) speed because we have speed this year,” Beavins said.

Another advantage of having Sherrill leading the Hawks’ program this year is that — despite being new to Mountlake Terrace  — he already knows many of the players due to his past involvement with youth basketball programs in the area.

“He’s coached all of the freshmen before (there are five on the Terrace varsity roster this year),” Beavins said. “He’s also coached me before. He knows us as individuals and what we can do and our strengths. That definitely really helps in making our team the best we can be. He knows more than just some random coach that we would pick up on.”

The Hawks are 13-86 over the past five years, a stretch that saw the team be led by five different coaches. 

“Our program has not been good, everyone knows that,” Beavins said. “Our girls’ program has struggled.”

Beavins, Sherrill and Hawks’ fans hope that will change this season.

Mountlake Terrace Hawks 2019-2020 Girls Basketball

Coach: Nick Sherrill (first year)

2018-2019 record: 4-16 overall

2019-2020 first game: versus Ingraham; Tuesday, Dec. 3; 7:15 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School

Key players: Kierra Scott, senior guard; Kiaya Beavin, junior guard; Berit Simonsen, junior post; Lindsey Ho, sophomore guard

2019-2020 full schedule: click www.wescoathletics.com/index.php?pid=0.3.40.12.320 

— By Doug Petrowski