The ‘B’ Revisited

I saw a few people from this neck of the woods in Spokane at the ‘B’ tournament. I know we all would have liked to have seen our teams there but that is why it is important to appreciate each and every trip to the tournament.

There are a few things I would like to say about this year’s edition.

It was highly entertaining with some young blood to be reckoned with in the next year or two. I think we are in for another great tournament next March from some teams vying to come back to Spokane. More on that later.

I wanted to bring up a few things that were interesting in my eyes and I’m sure not everyone has my perspective.

On Saturday, I noticed the Northwest Christian (NWC) pep band had a violin player.

I think that is the first time I’ve ever seen a violin player in a pep band. And yes it was a violin not a fiddle.

I also chuckled to myself when the band played the 1960’s favorite ‘Tequila’!

I had a nice visit with Kirk Danekas on Thursday. For anyone who didn’t get a chance to see his interview on KHQ, I think you can find it on Facebook.

Kirk announced his final State B tournament last week. Forty years behind the mike and my favorite call he ever made was when Granger played in the 1990’s.

They had two brothers named Hocking and when one of them made an assist to his brother Kirk announced, “Hocking to Hocking!”

You probably had to have been there.

Kirk is the third “Ritzville” guy to retire from announcing the State B joining John Miller and Ritzville alum Ray Bernard. Dave Kommes is keeping the Ritzville tradition going as he announced the final championship game Saturday night between Morton-White Pass and Liberty.

WIAA Executive Board member and LRS Athletic Director and football coach Greg Whitmore was busy handing out trophies and getting his picture taken.

For those of you that didn’t get a chance to see Greg wearing a tie, slacks and navy blue blazer I say too bad. Greg cleans up pretty good! He was definitely busy all day Saturday.

I visited with a lot of great people like I do every year. I had a nice visit with Jim Stinson.

He shared a story about his high school basketball coach. He told me that last year he went to his 50 year class reunion in Illinois, but before he did he drove 250 miles to see his coach.

He told me that his coach was a father figure to him and without him he’s not sure how his life might have turned out. Like a lot of us we are fortunate to have had a great coach in our lives. After our visit I called my coach up just to say hi and how are you doing!

The LRS girls’ basketball team repeated as academic state champions this year, which is important because having a good education will last longer than one’s ability to play the game!

This year’s four state champions all had one thing in common they finished the season and tournament undefeated. I’m not sure if that has ever happened before in the revamped format.

Like I do each year I wait to look at my tournament program when I get home. At that time I page through the boys’ and girls’ girls teams rosters and see who is returning next year.

In the 1B girls’ it looks like Colton will return enough firepower to compete for another state championship. But the Republic girls will have a lot of great young talent and they will be fun to watch.

They just might be a formidable opponent for the Wildcats.

In the boys’ 1B most of the teams will be losing a lot of talent so it is hard to predict if any of those teams that traveled to Spokane will be back at the arena.

The Okanogan girls have some stars and an outstanding coach in Bryan Boesel who has seen his share of championships with Brewster and Okanogan at the 1A level. They should repeat next year.

Napavine will also bring back their entire team next winter and Toutle Lake will also be loaded so it could be an interesting 2B girls’ bracket in 2016.

On the boys’ side of the 2B bracket I’m looking at NWC and Brewster as possible finalists. They have size and guards that can hit the three ball. They played the third – fifth game on Saturday after losing in the semifinals.

Brewster got hot and took out the Crusaders fairly easily. Who knows what might have been had the Bears been able to shoot that well the night before against Liberty.

But that’s why you play the game to see how it all plays out.

I made my way to Spokane once again, which now makes 55 years in a row attending the ‘B’ tournament. It was another great time watching basketball and visiting.

I’m starting to get good at it!