A year ago Greater Oregon League Coach of the Year Brent Gyllenberg led his Baker team to the GOL boys basketball championship.

Gyllenberg is looking for the Bulldogs to be back in the mix again this season.

“We’ve got to replace three seniors and about 30 points a game,” the second-year Baker coach said. “But this group is really broad-based. They saw some games last year that were high intensity. Not many teams see that many in such a short time.”

The Bulldogs return seven players from last year’s varsity. All are seniors.

Returning for the Bulldogs are Wyatt Akers, Darian Villalobos, TJ Dunn, Grant Berry, Ryan Schwin, Jake Gentili and Brad Zemmer.

Senior Marcus Plumley joins that group after not playing last year.

Junior Drew Story, who saw some varsity action last year, and junior Cayn Osborn round out the roster.

Gyllenberg said the transition to winter sports for several of the players will take some time.

“Football players still are football players,” he said. “But most of those players are in better shape than the guys who didn’t work out in the off-season. The best conditioned guys are the soccer players.

“We’ll try to be a really good defensive team,” Gyllenberg said. “I think we’ll score the points we need to score if we play the right defense.

“We just have to play as a team more than last year.”

Baker opens its season Nov. 30 at Pendleton.