Yelm High School boys basketball traveled to Olympia High School for South Puget Sound League (SPSL) WIAA 4A league play on Monday, December 15, 2025, but fell 79-21. The Bears used aggressive play on both sides of the court and frustrated a young Yelm team. Olympia (4-1, 4-1 SPSL) heads to Arizona for non-league play and then to Saint Martin’s University on Monday, December 22, as it takes on Union during the winter break. Yelm (0-6, 0-5 SPSL) hopes to reset and make adjustments as it continues SPSL play. Yelm hosts Puyallup on Friday, December 19 at 7 p.m.
Olympia head coach John Kiley was proud of the intensity of play from his team. “We didn’t play to the level we wanted to last game against Bethel, so I felt that we moved the basketball offensively better and defensively we wanted to be a little bit tighter and not give as many gaps and we did that well,” Kiley stated. “I thought we did a nice job tonight of knowing our personnel. Defensively and offensively we shared the ball well. We have five really competitive non-league games coming and then we head to Emerald Ridge. There are a lot of strong teams that we have not tested in the SPSL, so we have a lot of work to do moving into the end of the season.”
Junior Brody Cronk led Olympia with 15 points with juniors Keegan Bell (14) and Brian Stevenson (13) contributing to a balanced attack for the Bears. Olympia brings a veteran roster to its season and hopes to return to the state tournament. Sophomore guard Henry Aranyos led Yelm with eight points for the Tornadoes.
Yelm’s first-year head coach, RJ Hominda, focused on some small improvements he noticed after the tough loss. “We had a few guys (Jimmy McGinnis, Kristian Perkins) come and play some new minutes for us and we saw growth there, which was great,” Hominda noted. “We are trying to build intensity in this program and a new foundation, which includes commitment during the entire year to work hard on and off the court. Urijah (Aalona Diaz) has done a great job leading the others and showing what it looks like to fight.”
