Last week, the Camas High School (CHS) boys basketball team beat Battle Ground to become the League Champions. Now, they look forward to the state tournament where they hope to compete and win a championship.

“There are a lot of good teams in the playoffs this year but I think our team has a good chance. We can’t overlook any games. We need to go into every game and execute with almost no errors if we want to win. It’s gonna be hard but I think our team has a chance at winning it all,” senior Matthew Chilian said. 

After winning their league, the Papermakers were set up nicely for the playoffs, needing only to win one game to be locked in for the state tournament. This game was played last Saturday, where the Papermakers beat Bellarmine Prep by a score of 75 to 57, which advanced the Papermakers to the state tournament. While the state tournament is in sight for the Papermakers, they must first play two more games for seeding before the state tournament can begin. 

While the Papermakers have been successful this year, the season did not start out that way. 

“In the beginning of the season we determined that if we wanted to be a successful team we needed to be able to run successful triggers to our offense, take charges on defense, and rebound the ball. In the beginning of the season we started with a few losses because we were unable to execute those areas, but as the season has gone on we have been able to improve on those key areas and it has shown with our team winning 12 out of our last 13 games,” Chilian said. 

The Papermakers’ success on the court has not only been influenced by the great ability of their players on the court, but also the connection the team has off of the court. 

“Our team is a very tight knit community of players and that is mostly thanks to the coaches. Coach Josephson with the help of the team parents helped contribute to this by setting up a bunch of team bonding events with everything from a trip to the Oregon coast to start the season to tournaments in Seattle where we all stay together in a hotel, but also things such as team dinners before practice. These opportunities allow us to grow our chemistry. I believe chemistry is one of our strengths and I think it is shown on the court through our stats, Chilian said. 

“We have one of the best passers to ever be seen at Camas High School in Theo, and this is because he can anticipate other teammates movements because through playing with us he knows where we are going to be, plus he just has great IQ and athletic passing ability,” Chilian said.

Now, as the Papermakers look to return to the Tacoma Dome to compete for the state championship, they bring a team of well rounded players who are willing to fight for each other. They have also been impacted greatly by the amount of support that they have received from the Camas Community. “Our community is a very supportive community giving us all the encouragement we need to succeed on the court,” Chilian said.