Cashmere coach Miles Caples counsels his team during a quarterfinal game against Medical Lake at last year's Class 2A tournament.   GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic file

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Cashmere center Joe Boyle missed the Bulldogs' final regular-season game after twisting his knee and ankle. Not in basketball. In badminton.

How does one get hurt playing badminton?

"That's what we've been asking him," junior guard Matt Caples chuckled when asked that question early in the CWAC district tournament. "We've been making fun of him for the last week and a half." Added Bulldogs coach Miles Caples, who led Cashmere to the 1995 championship, "He's been getting lots of flak from everybody on that one."

Riverside point guard Danielle Schneider, a four-year varsity starter, was the team's floor leader in leading the Rams to an early 8-0 record. Then she tore her ACL, and the Rams promptly lost their next two games.

Riverside has regrouped, with Jamie Hinkley and Tamara Davis sharing the ballhandling duties, and Schneider has a new role -- bench leader. She still comes to every practice and suits up for every game, even though she can't play. "She's got great character, and the girls love her," says coach Dave Wood. "It's great to have her in the mix."

Darcelle Esmeralda, Steilacoom's dynamic point guard, is the Nisqually League MVP, shoots about 40 percent from 3-point territory and has the quickness to get by people. "If she was 5-7 or 5-8, she's easily be Division I," says coach David Pickard. Esmeralda is 5-2.

The fact that the Lynden Christian boys have lost star guard Greg Burgers to a knee injury won't necessarily make the Lyncs vulnerable. They've played five games this year with either Burgers or 6-8 center Kyle Coston out for one injury or another, and they've won four of them.

Forks boys coach Scott Justus likes Grandview's chances: "I saw them early, when (Chris) Mejia was out, and I thought they were really good even then."

On the girls side, Ridgefield coach Chad Dolven likes East Valley: "Personally, I'm from the east side, and living there and going home and sleeping in your own bed, I find that to be a big advantage. That's now what's going to win them games, don't get me wrong. But it's almost like a home game for them -- then you put a good team like they've got on top of that and you're ready to go."

Hoquiam's Jack Quigg is the son of John Quigg, the state's all-classification player of the year in 1969, when Hoquiam lost 39-37 to Ingraham for the Class 3A championship at the UW's Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Pullman's boys needed a buzzer-beater to punch their state-tourney tickets. The Greyhounds got in when Kyle Hinrichs hit a 16-footer with a second left to beat Chewelah in the district winner-in, loser-out game.

Britney Paul of Riverside is an all-leaguer this year, despite an underwhelming 6.5 scoring average. That number, though is deceiving; she sat out a lot of time in several lopsided non-league games. In league play, she averages nearly double-digits.

You want balance? Steilacoom's boys have had nine different leading scorers this season, and no Sentinel averages in double figures. ... If you're playing Mount Baker, don't put Levi Garrett on the line -- or even give him any open looks. At one stretch this season he hit 20 straight free throws, and he's the school's single-season school record holder for 3-pointers (he's closing in on 60).

Kaity Gale of Chimacum may not be the most heavily recruited girl in the tourney, but she may be the most valuable. After she rolled her ankle while grabbing a game-saving rebound in the final seconds of a win over Orting, her team promptly lost four straight games with her out of the lineup.

Don't expect Courtney Van Brocklin to play like the 14-year-old freshman she is. The Mount Baker guard is a stellar athlete who has played on a national-tourney-placing AAU team.