YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

James Vela is keeping his cool. Stats don’t mean squat, he figures, as long as you win and his Grandview team is doing exactly that.

The CWAC South’s MVP has been battling foul trouble and some frosty shooting in the Class 2A state tournament, but the Greyhounds are nonetheless rolling into Friday’s semifinals.

Entering the tournament with a team-high scoring average of 13.5, the senior guard tallied 10 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s overtime win over Lakeside and followed up Thursday with six points on 1-for-7 shooting in a 61-48 quarterfinal win over Cashmere.

“It’s been a little rough, but I don’t worry about it because we’re getting it done. We’re winning,” Vela said. “Our starters and the guys we bring off the bench, any of them can have a big game and lead us. That’s the best thing about our team.”
Vela drew raves for his leadership Wednesday after he fouled out.

“James kept everybody pumped up during timeouts and heading into the overtime,” said coach Scott Parrish. “He didn’t get mad and just sit on the bench. He’s a leader even when he’s not in the game.”

Parrish said Wednesday it was the first time this season that Vela had fouled out. Even so, Vela wasn’t that upset.

“I was a little frustrated with the calls, but I’m not complaining,” he said. “I’ve been more aggressive here than normal, so that’s probably got something to do with it.”

Vela is leading Grandview in rebounds (11) and assists (6) in two state games.

THE T-SHIRTS RESPOND: The East Valley boys basketball team spent much of the season reading on the message boards of a prep sports Web site reading about how they were garbage. The team was garbage, this player was garbage, that player was garbage, yadda yadda.

So assistant coach Ron Livingston had T-shirts made up to commemorate their having earned a trip to the state tournament while the CWAC South school from which some of the “garbage” diatribes came did not.

“A funny thing happened on the way to the tournament,” the T-shirts say on the front. On the back is a artful rendition of a “Terrace Heights Garbage Comp.” truck emblazoned with RED DEVILS in big letters.

“We sort of adopted the garbage truck as our mascot,” said Livingston, who noted that message-board critics also took issue with the Devils’ reliance on six primary players. “Hey, we can’t have the philosophy that there’s only six cylinders — it also takes two good bumpers and four good wheels to get that garbage truck rolling.”