It’s not often that a three-year starter and reigning conference MVP enters the season as the odd man in, but that was the case for Bellevue point guard Aaron Bright.

That’s because Bright, who will play at Stanford next season, was the only starter returning to a program that had seen the same nucleus of players lead the team to a 45-10 record in the past two seasons. When Alex Schrempf, Colton Christian, Matt Olson, Alex Locke, Hardy Mowe, Derrick Fields, Peter Nguyen and Cam Warren graduated last spring, they left the Wolverines with just one starter returning – and only one player on the entire roster who had averaged more than two points per game.

Aaron Bright.

So for Bright, the reigning KingCo 3A/2A Player of the Year, entering this season was almost like joining a whole new team, because the new Wolverines, like Nate Sikma, Ian Gordon and Will Locke, have all played together for the past few years in junior varsity.

“They’ve played together for so long, they’re all used to each other,” Bright said. “It’s like I’m the new guy.”

But Bellevue hasn’t missed a beat. The Wolverines are 11-0, first place in KingCo and the No. 1 team in Class 3A. Despite losing players like Schrempf, who scored 15.3 points per game and walked on at UCLA, and Christian, a 6-foot-7 forward who will play at Tulane, Bellevue has hit its stride early.

“The guys that moved up to varsity this year had a lot of success at the JV level last year,” said Bellevue coach Chris O’Connor. “Probably in a lot of other programs they would have played varsity but because we were so deep they had to play JV.”

Teammates say Bright’s leadership is the big reason.

“Aaron’s been great,” said junior captain Nate Sikma, son of former Seattle Supersonic Jack Sikma. “He’s been a great leader and he gets everybody involved. He’s the perfect point guard for us.”

“He’s done a good job of getting all of his teammates the ball, making sure everyone’s moving the ball,” O’Connor said. “He’s gained a lot of trust in his teammates. He’s done a real good job of melding everyone together.”

Bright’s averaging 20.4 points and 4.1 assists per game. And the new kids? They aren’t doing so bad either.

Sikma is averaging 13.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Bellevue’s getting big points of of Will Locke – who had a season-high 17 against Juanita in December – and 7.1 points per game from Gordon. Junior John Ahrens already has 27 steals.

“It definitely helps that we’ve played together,” Gordon said. “It wouldn’t be a great situation if we didn’t already have that chemistry.”

Sitting for a few years behind some of Bellevue’s recent players didn’t hurt either.

“Those guys like Alex Schrempf and Colton, they brought it every day,” Sikma said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

The Wolverines faced off with Mount Si Friday night; results of that game were not available as of Reporter deadline. Bellevue will play Class 3A No. 2 Enumclaw (9-0) on Monday night in the 7:30 p.m. game of the King Holiday Hoopfest at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

For Bright and the Wolverines, it’s just another test on a hopeful road back to the Class 3A state tournament, where Bellevue finished third last season following a heartbreaking overtime loss to Columbia River in the semifinals.

“We have a chance to be even better this year if we keep improving,” Bright said. “I think we’ll be in the state semi game if that happens, and I don’t want to experience a loss there again. I want to win it all.”