Westwood’s Zach Carlson, center, finds a seam in the defense of Gwinn’s Caleb Anderson, left, and Mastin Love of a game played at the Modeltowners’ gym on Jan. 8, 2020. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Editor’s note: With the start-and-stop of winter sports seasons this year, The Mining Journal is publishing high school basketball team previews from Marquette and Alger counties over a number of days. This story was written early this month.

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ISHPEMING — Westwood alumnus Luke Gray gets to do something many athletes hope to do eventually a– leading their alma mater’s basketball team.

In a recent interview, Gray said he was looking forward to taking over the Patriots and he feels he’s in a great place.

“I wanted to take the job because I’ve been able to coach and stay in the community and work with these kids over the last few years,” he said. “And realized that this is a special group and a special community that I just wanted to be able to coach in this community and try to take this program to a higher level.”

Some first-year coaches might be flustered with all the delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Gray said it’s been easier for him to handle.

“It hasn’t been hard because the kids have been resilient,” he said. “The energy they bring every day and the positive attitude that they bring every day has really helped me stay on track and stay motivated through this whole COVID process.”

That energetic and deep group will be led by four experienced players and Gray thinks they all bring something useful to the roster.

“I’ll just say the four guys we bring back from last year’s varsity team, they’re all gonna be important to what we do this year,” he said. “They’re all great leaders and they lead in their own ways and that would be Zach Carlson, Zach Beckman, Marcus Boase and Aydin Arseneau. And you take those four guys and we’re able to incorporate them with a great JV group from last year and I think together, they’re going to work very well together and be good for us.”

Westwood opened up its season with a double-overtime win over Negaunee and Gray said that his team had been looking forward to the game for quite a while.

“It’s been a big buildup to this moment and to be able to have our first game against the team down the road, that’s really going to help us I think, set the tone for our season and also just lay out the expectations of what we’re looking to get to this year,” he said.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.