LaConner's Luke Keel drives the lane against Colfax's Erik Wick in the first half Wednesday at the SunDome. LaConner beat Colfax 53-49 in the first round.   BRIAN FITZGERALD/ Yakima Herald-Republic

LaConner team overcomes tragedy, hardship
and heartache to earn first Class 1A state win

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

As Luke Keel stood at the foul line for the free throw that would all but clinch the first Class 1A state tournament victory in his school’s history, the LaConner senior was totally in the moment.

Thinking only about what needed to be done in the present: Sink this. Win this game.

He wasn’t thinking a bit about the past.

He wasn’t thinking about the fibula and tibia in his right leg, how shattered and out of place they had been as he lay on a baseball diamond only seven months ago.

He wasn’t thinking how teammate Josh Oosterhof almost bled to death just before the end of the Braves’ 2003-2004 season.

Or how teammate David Stephens spent the LaConner’s 2002 state-tournament visit in a Portland hospital — part of the 70 days he was hospitalized that year for anorexia — while his dad stayed at his side and made cell-phone calls to the SunDome for game updates that were invariably bad news.

Or how teammate Dane Hulbert, another senior, broke his neck during a football game in his junior year.

Keel wasn’t thinking about the players who weren’t there on Wednesday. Like John Dan, a senior standout on last year’s season, killed in an auto accident on an icy road on Dec. 30, 2004. Like Carl Buher, who might have been a promising sophomore on this year’s team, stricken 18 months ago with a severe case of bacterial meningitis that resulted in the amputation of both feet.

Nor was he thinking about the big guys who moved away, the 6-foot-6 center who started this year at Meadowdale or the 6-3 forward now starting for Ferndale, leaving LaConner with a lineup tailor-made for a 6-feet-and-under tournament.

“These guys,” said John Stephens, David’s dad, “have had to face a lot more difficult issues, and grow up a lot more, than most kids their age. Considering what they’ve had to overcome, it’s amazing that they’re where they are.”

Where the Braves were as Stephens spoke was in the first round of the 1A state tournament, owners of a lofty 19-3 record and a camaraderie most teams would envy.

“They are unbelievable,” said Susan Novak, whose husband, Scott, coaches the Braves. “They’re just a team-oriented group that’s all about one-game-at-a-time and having fun. That’s them. They are just magic.

“They’ve got angel wings.”

Angel wings. Maybe that’s what it takes to get a team here after all its players have gone through.

How, after all, was one to expect that Luke Keel would be playing Wednesday when, after he collided with teammate Jake Roth during that American Legion game last summer, his right leg was so shattered that the bones were completely jutting out of place.

“We were trying to hold the leg completely still,” recalled Harold Oosterhof (Josh’s dad), who coaches that baseball team with John Stephens. “But every time it moved even a little bit, you could feel the bones grind.”

If that doesn’t make you wince, Josh’s injury should. While roughhousing on the family’s farm between games of the district basketball tournament, the younger Oosterhof slipped and fell, cutting through six tendons of his right hand and both of the major arteries. He almost bled to death before the family could get him to the hospital, where surgery was required.

But the Braves made the most of it. Having to do everything left-handed for four months made Josh much more versatile with his left hand. Keel’s injury — his fibula has includes a steel rod several inches in length — made everybody else better.

“In a way, it (Keel’s injury) helped our team out,” said Stephens, who now carries a regulation 170 pounds on his 6-foot, up from his gaunt 135 pounds during his sophomore bout with anorexia. “It put the ball in other people’s hands. His sophomore year, he was pretty much the only ballhandler.”

On Wednesday, Keel was the savior of the day. After the Braves blew a nine-point lead with 3:46 remaining and then barely survived into overtime, Keel scored the driving layup that tied the game at 49-49 with 37 seconds remaining, then slapped a steal and made the go-ahead layup at 0:27. And was fouled.

And there he was, at the foul line, with the Braves’ first-ever 1A state victory — after 13 state trophies in the Class B ranks — directly in his sights.

“Never say never with these guys,” Scott Novak said. “He’s Mister Clutch. That’s nothing new. He’s been doing that for us for a long time.”

And Keel did it again. He hit nothing but net for a three-point lead. Another Keel free throw 16 seconds later gave the Braves their final winning margin at 53-49.

“Two years ago,” Scott Novak said, looking back at all that the Braves have faced both on and off the court, “I would have told people that we would have been contending for the state title this year.

“But we’ve had some kids step up. The kids, after what they went through last year — that was a tough season — they kept it together.”

Must be those angel wings.