Winter sports are near and you have questions. So does Eric Rueb — and here are five of them.

For me, the timing of the winter high school sports season couldn’t be worse.

We just started Monday with practices and I’m sure this winter is going to be as memorable as any, but I’m not there yet. Maybe it’s my impending workload — selecting the fall All-States, getting end-of-year stories done — or getting ready for Christmas, but you’d have a better chance of getting me to give you a detailed breakdown of the 2024 football season than trying to figure out who’s going to be good on the hardwood or hockey rinks.

That’ll change soon. Winter’s annual two-week pause resets everything, and once January hits, my brain switches to a high gear — or at least as high as it can go.

Authenticity is key in everything I write. While I may tend to be hyperbolic, I don’t write words I don’t believe in. I’d love to whet everyone’s appetite with a “10 Teams That Will Dominate This Winter” but I couldn’t do it with a straight face. I want to use my passion to educate readers about winter sports, but right now, my head isn’t there. How’s that for authentic?

It’ll be there soon. I’m going over last winter’s All-State teams, checking the standings and playoff results and, much like the generator in my garage, make sure it’s working and ready for what’s to come.

There are plenty of questions about which teams will be good and what you can expect from athletes in each sport. Next week, we’ll start our long winter sports preview process that will fill you in on all of that. It should provide the knowledge you’ll need to follow along and get ready for an exciting sports season.

When 2024 hits, I’ll be able to tell you so much more about Rhode Island’s winter sports teams than I can right now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t give you some thoughts today.

Here are the five questions that stand out, along with my hot — and not-so-hot — takes on the answers.

Will Hendricken continue to dominate in hoops and hockey?

Yes, but it’s not for the reasons you might believe.

With the prep schools robbing Rhode Island of hoops and hockey talent, there is as much parity as the state has had in some time.

Hendricken basketball isn’t the team of all-stars that detractors would have you believe it is. Last year’s team was led by two All-Staters and seniors who filled roles. Jamal Gomes will have his hands full with an inexperienced roster this season, but he’ll find a way because he’s the state’s best coach and that’s what he does.

The same could be said about Mike Soscia in hockey. Soscia’s found a way to take a team that will struggle in December and turn them into clutch players when the games matter most — ask Pilgrim, which had its chances to beat the Hawks in the semis last year.

Hendricken is undoubtedly the favorite in both sports, but the gap between the Hawks and the rest of the state isn’t as wide as the Chicken Littles in the Rhode Island landscape would have you believe.

Is there a track athlete capable of filling the void left by Sophia Gorriaran?

It’s a lot to ask one athlete to step into the shoes of Gorriaran, the Moses Brown star who was one of the best runners in the country and put on show after show at championship meets.

But Lisa Raye isn’t your typical athlete.

Raye, a sophomore at West Warwick, is well on her way to being one of those special athletes the state will never forget. She won two golds (55 and 300 meters) and a silver (55 hurdles) in her state meet debut, then got better in the spring season.

Best of all, Raye does it with the same type of class and grace Gorriaran brought to the track. Her smile lights up a room and she’d rather talk about others than talk about herself, letting her accomplishments speak for her. And her efforts on the track certainly say a lot.

Can we start over with the girls basketball divisions?

I’m not a math guy, but the formula used to set up divisions for RIIL girls hoops is broken. Everyone who sat in the room and agreed that the results were the best the state could do shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions about girls basketball again.

Where do we start? How about Woonsocket, which lost every game by comical scores last year and got to the point where other teams in Division II were bringing junior varsity teams and still winning big. Leaving the Villa Novans in D-II is borderline criminal and the team should be in D-IV until it shows otherwise.

Congrats to Central Falls and Lincoln School, both of whom moved to D-III instead of staying in D-IV. Both have stars that need to be challenged at a higher level and both will get it this winter, so it’s good that both programs recognized it.

The same cannot be said for the teams that didn’t move up. After last season, West Warwick, which won the Division II title, and Moses Brown, which went undefeated before losing in the final, have nothing to prove in D-II and should have moved up to D-I, letting small schools Scituate and Westerly move down to Division II.

The same could be said for Pilgrim, which won the D-III title last winter. Both Pilgrim and Toll Gate are far too large to be competing with the likes of small schools that make up D-III. It would have been easy to move both programs up, then drop Woonsocket to D-IV and move Mount Pleasant down to D-III.

Finally, there’s zero lack of competitive balance in Division I with Bay View, Barrington and Ponaganset in the same five-team subdivision. Seeding will play a big role in this wild statement I’m about to unleash, but those teams will find their way to final fours this winter. Swapping one with St. Raphael in I-B seems easy to do, even if the formula says that doesn’t add up.

There’s no way Sandy Gorham gets Barrington swim to win again, right?

The last time I talked with Gorham, he was telling me about his history of using trick plays in Super Bowls and, sure enough, he busted one out in Barrington’s 28-21 win over Cumberland.

When it comes to the pool, I don’t trust his word nearly as much. For the last five years or so, Gorham’s been unsure about whether or not his girls could continue their incredible state title streak, which is now at nine. He didn’t know if his boys had enough to beat Hendricken last winter. Wrong again.

This year seems like the year Barrington leaves Brown without a title. It’s not hard to see who both the boys and girls lost to graduation. It’s not hard to see what other teams bring back.

Gorham has been preaching an underdog mentality and, this season, the Eagles actually may be one.

I still won’t believe it until I actually see it.

What is Ponaganset wrestling doing right that other schools aren’t?

Just like they do with private schools and recruiting, underperforming programs throughout the state have pointed to the Chieftains' ability to use pathway programs as the reason for the program’s dominance.

This loser mentality is not new in Rhode Island, where everyone wants success overnight and refuses to point the finger at one’s own shortcomings for a lack of success.

Ponaganset’s dynasty wasn’t built overnight. The Chieftains started by building a foundation within the community under former coach Mike Joyce. That created excitement, led by good coaches who cared about what they were doing and put in extraordinary time and effort for continued success.

Because of this, student-athletes and families from underperforming districts — both classroom and on the mat — look at Ponaganset as a way to better their future.

What’s going on at Ponaganset can happen at any school in any sport in the state. It takes time. It takes effort. And when you think you’ve done enough, you have to do more.

The Chieftains provided a blueprint to becoming a state powerhouse. Now it’s up to others to use it.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Five big questions at the start of the RIIL winter sports season