On Feb. 1, 2023, Whatcom Community College men’s basketball won their first conference game in 637 days, defeating Shoreline Community College 98-90.
Former WCC coach Jerome Jenkins left weeks before the start of the season, and after not winning a single game against a conference opponent in 2021–22, the Orcas managed to claim one victory under first-year, interim head coach Alex Sommerfield.
Sommerfield, 25, was then officially announced as the WCC men’s basketball head coach about a week after their final game of the 2022-23 season. Coming from five years of collegiate playing experience from 2017–22 at Green River Community College, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Lewis-Clark State College, he didn’t think he’d become a head coach so quickly — if ever.
“I figured I could be an assistant coach just because I’m laid back, I’m not super ‘rah rah’ or whatever,” Sommerfield said. “You talk to any coach I’ve ever had, any teacher, they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s quiet.’ … But I know my stuff, I love basketball.”
Sommerfield was originally hired as an assistant under Jenkins in early August 2022, just a couple of months after leaving Lewis-Clark State.
“A week later, [Jenkins] calls me at like 8 or 9 in the morning. He’s like ‘I’m going to change your life.’ And I was like ‘What is going on?’ He said he took a different job [at Fresno State]. I was the only one on staff — there wasn’t another assistant,” Sommerfield said.
Rob Pedicone, WCC’s athletics director, said he wasn’t prepared for the vacancy. He opened the head coaching position up for internal and external applicants, and Sommerfield figured if he was already going to be on the staff, he might as well apply for the job.
Sommerfield and Pedicone’s relationship went back to Green River College where Pedicone was assistant athletic director and Sommerfield was a player. After evaluating applicants and contacting references, Pedicone decided to promote Sommerfield to the role of interim head coach.
“His references were over the moon about him. And also, with my previous experience with [Sommerfield], he was essentially a 4.0 student when he was at Green River — he was our men’s Player of the Year, all-academic and so he represented great character as a player and I had trust that he could emulate that as a coach,” Pedicone said.
Much like the offseason, the season didn’t go as planned. WCC finished with a record of 5-22. Being only 24 years old at the time, having never met the roster and being a first-time coach, there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the team.
“It was mostly just finding my voice, like, when do you love on them and love on them hard?” Sommerfield said. “It’s just finding the right times and when to say the right things. Not really like poking buttons, but what’s going to make this guy work harder? What’s going to resonate with this guy? What’s going to make it click with this guy that this is how we want to do things?”
Unlike his first offseason, however, this offseason allowed Sommerfield the opportunity to recruit his own players. His goal is to turn WCC into a destination for local players.
Of the 20 players on the roster, 15 are from Washington and just one player (Anders Wiener) is returning for the 2022–23 season. He missed out on several players from Whatcom County, but Sommerfield hopes that will begin to change as he sets the new foundation for WCC basketball.
Former Whatcom County prep players Luke Wells (Ferndale), Kyle Heaton (Squalicum) and Ashton Engelhart (Squalicum) will be on the team this upcoming season.
“He has a vision and also has the ability to build a culture that’s centered around academic achievement, community engagement, and also just representing our values as a department, as a school: integrity, respect, transparency and also just hard-working,” Pedicone said. “You can already tell that he is creating a foundation for a really healthy culture that’s going to support our student-athletes, but also have them be engaged with our local community and our campus community as well.”
