Royal High School has new boys basketball coach

ROYAL CITY — Royal High School boys basketball has a new skipper. Ray Valle took the helm of the Knights program April 19. Valle was born and raised in Royal City and is a 2006 graduate of RHS.

Although he is not employed as an educator — he manages the family transportation business hauling produce throughout central Washington — Valle is a very familiar face on the high school sports scene.

“I volunteered on our football coaching staff upon graduating college in 2011,” Valle said. “ In 2012 I was hired as a Royal basketball assistant and have been coaching basketball here the last five years.”

Valle takes over for the program that saw the team go 5-9 in the 1A SCAC East Conference and 9-11 overall. The Knights got off to a slow start, dropping five of six games, but ended the season on a hot streak.

“While we were short of districts, we did finish the season winning seven of our last eight games,” Valle said. “It’s a new season — we’re 0-0 along with everyone else, and aim to improve every single day.”

Some of the biggest challenges Valle faces to right the Knights ship this season are the overall mindset of the team and the loss of upper class leadership. But he’s confident the program will be able to clear the hurdles set before it.

“We graduated two seniors who we will miss greatly, but four of our five starters will be returning among many role players who made impacts off the bench. With the attitude and effort I’ve already seen in our summer practices, I believe together, we can overcome any challenges we’ll face throughout the year.”

Creating a wider spread between points scored and points given up is another big obstacle the Knights must overcome if they expect to improve on the teams’ seventh place finish. Royal averaged 59 points per game, but also gave up 59 per contest.

That said, it doesn’t appear as though points scored and surrender during the 2016 campaign are a main focus for Valle.

“I’m not as concerned with last season as I am with getting the team ready for this upcoming season,” he said. “The players know stats aren’t particularly important to me as much as effort is.”

Wahluke (12-2,17-5) and Warden (11-3,18-9) look to be stiffest competition for the Knights, but that’s not necessarily the way Valle sees it.

“This might seem like seem cliché, but I think we are our stiffest competition. And I don’t say that because I don’t think the league will be tough this year, it will be very tough,” Valle said. “However, we struggle out of the gate most years, getting things going. The players having to switch gears so quickly can be tough and I’ll make it a point to overcome that and have the fellas ready to go by game one.”

Valle gets an opportunity to tune the team up and get the Knights headed in the right direction in the coming weeks.

“We’ll be attending summer camps — have a few weeks of practice — 25 kids have already turned out and they’ve shown great amount of effort and energy. We’ll also be playing summer ball — about 20 games all-total,” Valle said. “We have a great group of kids who are selfless and who genuinely want to be better.”