Mitch Wetmore is no stranger to seeing an Auburn Riverside basketball team succeed.

Unfortunately for Wetmore, the Ravens’ senior point guard and co-captain, until this year it wasn’t the boys basketball squad.

Growing up, Wetmore watched as his older sister, Mercedes Wetmore – a former University of Washington player – helped drive the Auburn Riverside girls program to three state titles.

Naturally, Wetmore envisioned the same level of success when he began playing for the Ravens as a freshman.

It didn’t happen.

In his four years of varsity basketball, Wetmore has had four coaches, starting with Shawn Kilgallon and ending with current first-year Auburn Riverside boys coach Kevin Olsen.

In between there was Jason Brown, who lost his position after running afoul of Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules, and Earl Taylor, who filled in last year for Brown.

“You always want to be successful, and it was tough not accomplishing your goals,” Wetmore said. “But I feel like right now we have a chance to do something special.”

With the regular season behind them, the Ravens have already made their mark on the history of the program, snatching third-place in the South Puget Sound League 3A with a 9-5 league record, 12-8 overall. The team also swept the season series from crosstown rival Auburn for the first time.

“It felt so good because all you hear when it comes to Auburn is Auburn (High School). We’re always the little brothers,” said junior co-captain Quintin Bethea. “So to sweep them, that’s not been done, so it’s a big accomplishment.”

“It hasn’t been done in the 20 years this school has been around, so that’s real special,” Wetmore agreed. “We feel like this is a special team. But we definitely want to do more.”

The program also hosted its first West Central District III/Southwest District 4 game ever on Thursday. The results were unavailable at press time.

A win would also set history as the most wins in a season for an Auburn Riverside boys hoop team.

Wetmore said the team’s success is a result of a newfound team-first attitude, fostered by Olsen.

“We’re definitely where we expected to be,” Wetmore said. “We’re in good shape sitting at third. Peninsula and Mountainview are way solid, but we feel like we can compete with them when we’re playing our best.

“I feel like we gel really well together,” Wetmore said. “We’ve got good aspects of all of our games, and we believe in each other. And we know where we all are on the court at all times. That’s pretty much the difference.”

Wetmore and Bethea said the addition of Olsen at the helm of the Ravens this year was crucial.

“We’ve got a really good coach now,” Wetmore said. “Olsen has been really successful in the past. Getting him, we really knew everything was going to be leveled out, and he was going to lead us where we needed to go. We had confidence in that.”

“It’s been a great season, with having a brand new coach, everything went really, really well,” Bethea said. “Everybody adjusted well to the situation that occurred last year, and we came back stronger this year. We can make it further if we just work as a team and listen to coach.”

The transition, however, was not painless. Especially for Bethea.

“It was hard because Coach Brown and I had a bond,” Bethea said. “He coached me here and in AAU. We bonded and he was my teacher in eighth grade, so we had that bond when I came up here. So it was hard to stay goodbye to him. But everything has consequences. But we forgive him. No disrespect to either coach (Brown or Olsen), we love them both, but we were blessed with a great coach right now.”

Now, Bethea and Wetmore agree it’s time to put the past behind them and concentrate on the ultimate goal — getting to the state tourney.

“We just need to continue to play as a team, win these next two games in the West Central Districts, anything can happen there,” Wetmore said. “We just need to take it game by game and get to regionals.”

“We have to play as a team and come prepared,” Bethea added. “Listen to coach and play as a team.”