MOSES LAKE — It’s a new era in the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

The top-end talent from last season — Cesar Sandoval, Nick Navarro and Gavin Long — has graduated. What’s left is a seven-team league rife with parity, with a young Moses Lake team right in the middle.

Ryan Karstetter and Jordan Evers return as the only seniors on the roster in addition to junior Zach Phillips who saw big minutes at the varsity level a season ago.

“Really that’s kind of the older group and then we have those four guys that we moved up — the junior Jordan Rios and then our three freshman last year Vance Alvarado, Evan McLean and Cory Kunjara,” head coach John Hohman said. “We have those guys and then Michael Byers is up on the varsity now — the tall, lanky kid — and then Gio Walker. He’s back with us this year, which is kind of nice.”

With so many new varsity players this season, vocal leadership is paramount. Phillips has slid into that role with Karstetter and Evers going beyond their temperament to join him.

“Those guys (Phillips, Karstetter, Evers) are our captains this year so primarily leadership,” Hohman said. “We talked about how they need to lead and Zach has kind of stepped forward and taken more of the vocal part of that leadership, but the other two they’re naturally quiet and they’ve kind of stepped out of their comfort zone and really they’ve done a nice job leading vocally as well where they’re more example guys.”

Around the league, Wenatchee returns shifty guard Troy Esquivel, West Valley brings back Justin VanDeBrake and Sunnyside has the dynamic back-court duo of Trey Sanchez and Art Palacios.

As far as non-league, Moses Lake plays the Mid-Columbia Conference trio of Kennewick, Walla Walla and Chiawana; west side teams Meadowdale and Lake Stevens in Wenatchee; and a trip to Arizona for the Desert Edge Holiday Tournament.

“We play some west side teams, which is nice and we’re excited to be a part of that and then we’ve got the Arizona trip, which we’re super excited about,” Hohman said.

For the Chiefs to compete this season underclassmen will have to contribute. Kunjara, Byers, McLean and Alvarado are all sophomores to go with first-year varsity juniors Rios and Walker.

“Some of these younger guys are going to have to step forward and take advantage of this opportunity,” Hohman said. “All I know is that these guys have been in the gym at 6:20 in the morning shooting — played in the fall league up in Spokane and competed against the GSL (Greater Spokane League). So they do love the game, which is nice.”

Despite the roster upheaval, the groundwork for success was laid with the last year’s seniors as well as the previous group of upperclassmen that reached the state tournament in 2015 and the regional round in 2014.

“Isaiah (Thomas) did a nice job helping and two years before when Jordan Chavez was here he really took Isaiah under his wing when he was a senior and Isaiah was a sophomore and really explained why we do these things and really coached him, which is nice. Because as a coach you can say so many things and you think that they’re getting across and you think you’re clear as can be, but when a kid says it for some reason that translation comes across a whole lot better.”

“Isaiah knew that and how valuable that was and Isaiah did that and same as Ricardo (Gonzalez) and same as Cesar. Those guys were constantly helping that younger group and Ridge (Montgomery) the same way and so that was nice and I think that’s something that we’ve built into the program, is those guys have kind of taken that as part of their legacy, is that they’ve got to leave and share their knowledge with the guys that are coming forward.”