Prospect Spotlight: Sol Byles (2022 Newberg)

Jed Tai January 7, 2022 @ 05:08 PM

The win/loss record has been a little rough in the pre-league season for Newberg, but one player has provided consistency night in and night out - [player_tooltip player_id="1346573" first="Sol" last="Byles"]. The all-around 6-foot-2, 170-pound senior has consistently delivered offensively for the Tigers and has tried to keep the spirits up. The hopes are they are toughened up for Pacific Conference play and Byles is also hopeful that college coaches will be paying attention. Going into his senior season, Byles - who played mainly on the wing last year - knew that a lot of his game would need to transition to best help out the team. To that end, he spent a lot of time in the summer months with good friends and former Tigers Jack Chlumak and Kaden Ogles to help him get ready. "They both play or played at the next level so they worked me a lot," Byles said. "It was high level preparation so it really got me going. I worked on my ball-handling a lot knowing that I would go into more of a point guard position this year. Last year we had Corban Muthiah running the point most of the game, every game, but now that he’s gone I knew I had to step up with a leadership role and adapt into that point guard position." The team’s leading scorer so far this season at 15.7 ppg - scoring double figures in every game he's played - Byles has been the key guy creating shots both for himself and for others. "I feel like I have a good mid-range jumper although I might rely on that too much sometimes," Byles said. "I’ve got a quick first step and I can get to the hoop, but I feel my game is pretty all-around and solid." Blessed with a body that’s close to being college ready, Byles is hopeful that coaches are getting a chance to see him perform. He wants to play at the next level and is looking for hear from anybody at any level. He currently maintains a 3.65 GPA. "I’m kind of late to recruiting as I haven’t been focused on it that much, but I’m really open to any opportunity that is available to me," Byles said. "I’m just going with the flow. I just want to find something and love it." Newberg enters Pacific Conference play a bit banged up but it’s a new start for the Tigers. Byles offered this quote about the year at the season’s start. "A lot of us have been together since middle school, elementary school, so it’s running it back since that time," Byles said. "I think we are better than people think we can be. We don’t have a lot of height but I feel we make up for that with some of the athletes that we have."