“I’m excited,” Headdings said. “It’ll be a lot different than my first three years.”

For as long as he can remember, Engebretsen has leaned on a tried-and-true scheme known as the ball-screen continuity offense, whose primary objective appears to be grinding defenders into mulch. The ball goes to the wing, then a screen comes from the high post, then the ball is reversed, and they do it all over again on the other side of the floor.

“It’s easy to defend once or twice,” Engebretsen said. “But by the time you start reversing the ball a few times and you’re coming off those screens, it creates havoc for defenses.”

Because high school basketball here is played without a shot clock, Wasilla has had the luxury of taking as much time as it wants to find the right shot, the perfect shot. And last season, any number of players were capable of launching that perfect shot. The team’s top six scorers averaged from 8.2 to 10.8 points a game.

Headdings was one of them. He said he understood why the offense was so painstaking. Wasilla had a couple of seniors who did some of their best work from the high post, so the team would screen and pass, screen and pass, over and over, in relentless pursuit of defensive mismatches and oodles of short jumpers.

But Wasilla’s roster will look different next season. Rather than have two forwards stationed at the high post, Engebretsen wants all five of his players spread around the perimeter. The Rockets do this all the time, both to position themselves for 3-pointers and to keep the middle of the court open for dribble penetration.

Overhauling his offense was not an easy decision, Engebretsen said. After all, he had just won a state championship doing it the old way. He recalled consulting one of his assistant coaches.

“We were looking at our group and saying, ‘How can we win as many games as possible?’ ” Engebretsen said. “And you do that by tweaking your offense based on your personnel.”