By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Chelan’s girls are all wearing forearm bands, each with a little heart and the name Tricia — for Tricia Haerling, an eighth-grader in the middle-school basketball program and daughter of former Goats coach Mike Haerling.

Tricia was killed in a horrific car crash several weeks ago that also resulted in the death of Mike’s father. The memorial service was held last Sunday, a date delayed so that Mike and his wife Jean, both of whom were injured in the accident, could attend. Mike, who is well-known throughout state basketball circles, was at the 2A tournament Thursday and Friday — most of the time surrounded by people who were glad to see him up and around.

Hayley Zevenbergen and Brooke Simons of King's are outstanding basketball players, but they’re even better at soccer, which they’ll play in college, Zevenbergen at Yale and Simons at Arizona State. Last Friday they beat Mount Baker in the district championship game, then got up the next morning to play in — and win — the state premier championship.

In his four decades on the coaching scene, Connell boys coach Jerry Groenig has been on so many benches that, on the Connell team questionnaire requested by tournament officials — on the spot for “previous experience,” he wrote “Space too small.” When tournament media coordinator Bob Romero asked him about that at the SunDome, Groenig cracked, “What did you want me to put, ‘Everyplace but Adna?’ ”

It’s no surprise that Chewelah sophomore guard Nikki Nelson turns the ball over about as regularly as solar eclipses — three times in 72 tournament minutes as her team’s primary ballhandler, while scoring 37 points. This girl can flat-out handle the rock. Before she had even reached her teen years, she was doing ballhandling exhibitions during halftime of Gonzaga games.

Biggest overachiever in the girls’ tournament? Try Mele Rich of Steilacoom, who — at all of 5-foot-5 — ranks among the tournament leaders in rebounding (12.3 per game), steals (3.3) and even blocked shots (0.7).