Jarod Opperman / The BulletinRidgeviewís George Mendazona, left, and Garrett Albrecht, look to lead their team to a league title this year.

Nathan Covill has yet to sit back and reflect on last season. Not in depth, anyway.

But man, the Ridgeview boys basketball coach says, “last year was pretty impressive.”

Impressive for the Ravens, who in their third year — and first season in the Class 5A Intermountain Conference — finished third in the league, one game out of second place and two out of first, and ended the regular season ranked No. 5 in 5A. Sure, a season-ending loss at Parkrose in the play-in round is still a bit sour. Still, Covill says, “When you look at it, it was pretty amazing.”

Not just for Ridgeview — but for the IMC as a whole.

This was a conference that has been ruled by Mountain View over the past 11 years. Including last season, the Cougars have claimed seven outright league titles and two co-championships. They have made nine trips to the state tournament and brought a trophy home five times. Yet first place and fourth place in the IMC last season were separated by just three games. Three teams — No. 1 Mountain View, No. 2 Summit, No. 5 Ridgeview — finished in the top five of the 5A rankings, and Bend High was 12th. Of the five highest-scoring teams in the classification, four were IMC members — all averaging more than 63 points per game. The strength of schedule for four IMC teams ranked in the top 10 of 5A, according to oregonprepsports.net, and the fifth league member played the 12th-strongest schedule.

Safe to say, last season was one of the more competitive IMC campaigns in recent memory. And there is little indication that much will change in the season ahead.

“The IMC being so competitive last year,” Summit coach Jon Frazier says before busting up in laughter, “it was like every game was quite an experience. Those kids played in a ton of big games with a lot of pressure. Hopefully they should be better for it this year.”

Before league play began last season, Bend High coach Scott Baker believed the IMC was poised to be the best league, top to bottom, in 5A. He was not wrong, and he surely is not backing away from that same outlook this year.

“Our conference is tough,” Baker says. “I expect us to be in a very competitive conference again. There’s no easy game on the schedule.”

“Night in and night out, I think the IMC is going to change,” adds Redmond High coach Jon Corbett. “I don’t really see anybody really stretching out. I think if one team could stretch itself away from the pack, it’s probably Summit, and you can see what they’ve done this fall. Holy smokes.”

What Summit did was win the 5A football state championship with a team that featured several Storm basketball players, such as guards Jason Garcia and Sean Kent and forward Nick Mason. After advancing to the program’s second-ever state basketball tournament last season with a roster loaded with sophomores and juniors, Summit is a squad with a target on its back in the IMC title chase.

But do not discount the likes of Ridgeview, which returns IMC player of the year and first-team all-state guard George Mendazona as well as all-IMC post player Garrett Albrecht; or Bend, which welcomes back starter Elliot Willy and reserves Kelly Gieber, Mario Mora and Boston Busik; or Redmond, which returns leading scorers Brandon Benson and Cody Moss from last season’s team. And, of course, there is Mountain View: the perennial IMC favorite and frequently a contender for the 5A state championship.

Davis Holly, a second-team all-league guard last season, and Jordan Vance, an all-IMC honorable mention wing, lead a group of five varsity-seasoned players for the Cougars that includes West Albany transfer Noah Cheney. Mountain View is under a new coach following the departure of longtime head man Craig Reid. But that new coach, Brian Broaddus, has a pretty good feel for what he’s getting into in Central Oregon.

Broaddus was the head coach last season at Pendleton, which faced and lost to Mountain View in the 5A state quarterfinals last March. He also kept close tabs on IMC results throughout the season and says he is well aware of the competitiveness of the conference.

“I tell them that the ball’s kind of in their court,” Broaddus says, referring to the Cougars. “It’s like a cruise: I’m the captain on the cruise ship, and I can navigate them around the rocks and I know the stops to make and this and that, but it’s ultimately up to them — how much they put into it, how much they want to do. Especially the seniors, it’s their last hurrah and their last chance to leave their legacy or identity. I’m sure they don’t want to be the Mountain View team that’s third or fourth in league. I mean, Mountain View’s been league champs for nine of the last 11 years. There’s kind of a tradition. I hope these kids know they’re going to have to earn it. It’s not just going to be handed to them, because everybody’s getting stronger.”

That type of depth can be draining, prompting Redmond’s Corbett, for example, to plan to pare down practice times once league play begins in January to keep his players fresh.

“It does keep them on their toes, because every game’s important,” Bend’s Baker says of the rigorous IMC. “These kids are resilient. These young men get out there and compete, and they enjoy that part of sports and athletics. I don’t think it drains you at all. I just think it prepares them for the everyday grind, sometimes, of life. You’ve got to do some things when you’re not feeling up to it, and you’ve got to find ways to be successful.”

Last season, Summit’s Frazier recalls, every conference clash was “high pressure, high stress.” He adds, however, that he hopes this is a sustainable theme and not just a one-year fling. It seems Frazier’s wish could become reality. And the consensus among IMC coaches is that it will.

As Broaddus says: “It’s a war every night.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, glucas@bendbulletin.com.