With four seniors who provided the bulk of production and played the bulk of the minutes for the Hazen boys basketball team now gone, you should expect to see a different team this season.

One thing you shouldn’t expect to see: A sudden drop in production.

“There’s an expectation amongst all our guys that we’re looking to stay at that level we were at last year,” said first-year coach Ryan Thompson. “We’ve got a good group of kids; it’s just a matter of us starting to pick up everything that we’re putting in.”

The Highlanders lost three starters from last year’s Seamount champion and state-tournament team in R.J. Magar, De Corrius Sampson and Brandt Graybeal, but they bring plenty back. Senior point guard Frankie Johnson has been starting for the team for the past two seasons. He averaged six points and 3.9 assists per game last season and is averaging 10.8 points and four assists this season.

Dawit Kasa, a 6-foot-5 senior, was second on the team with 12 points and 5.8 points per game last year. He’s leading this year’s team with 15.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.

Other important returners are Cody Moorhead, Sam Pawliuk and Cesar Sahagun. An important newcomer is senior Alex Olson, who’s currently second on the team in scoring, at 14.4 points per game. Zac Kolterman is averaging 6.2 points and 9.6 rebounds for the team this year.

With a new coach and several new roles for players, it might take some time for the Highlanders to figure everything out, but Thompson is confident in the team’s ceiling.

“With the new system we’re not going to be great right away,” he said. “We’ve got a very high potential to be very good at the end of the season.”

Hazen’s record so far is 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Seamount.