No feeling like being a champion 

There is no specific word, or combination of same, that do it justice.

That adequately describe the feeling of being a state champion, that is.

Never mind that the most eloquent of high school students seem routinely at a loss when asked to explain the experience, because so many previously unfelt emotions rush to the fore and the recipient is entirely and delightfully unprepared.

Besides, a well-chosen word isn't needed in such an instance, because a smile is worth a thousand of them.

Even three years later, though visions remain vivid, Tana Stickney and Jessica Huntington become initially silent when asked what being a member of East Valley's 2003 Class 2A state championship team was like.

"Um, gosh," said Huntington, a senior on this season's team which reached the tournament semifinals before losing to Lynden Christian on Friday night. "It's so hard to explain."

Because it feels so good, obviously. And because so few prep athletes ever know it.

Stickney and Huntington were freshmen then, during the second week of March, 2003, and though neither was a star nor even a starter, each retains rich recollection of that team and that season.

"I guess the one thing that still stays with us," Stickney said after Thursday night's semifinal win over Woodland, "is coach (Jack) Cleveland always told us to play like champions and find a way to win.

"We keep that with us. Coach Raab tells us the same thing."

Said Huntington, "I just remember how much heart that team had, and how hard everybody worked. There was just so much determination, that whenever we'd get knocked down we'd always get back up."

And that quality was called on more than once during that tournament.

There was the opening-day game against Lakeside, for example, in which East Valley overcame a 17-point first-half deficit and 20 missed free throws to win 59-47 in overtime.

There was the semifinal game against top-ranked Blaine, in which East Valley erased a five-point deficit in the final two minutes for a 50-43 victory -- also in overtime.

As one might expect, both Stickney and Huntington learned much from Cleveland before his untimely death the following June. They also absorbed qualities from various teammates.

"I really admired Angie Ibach," Huntington said of the current Yakima Valley Community College standout. "She was such a smart player and I learned a lot from her. I've watched her play at YVCC, and she still plays the same way."

Said Stickney, "LaDonna Downs (who later played at YVCC and Dickinson State University in North Dakota) worked so hard and improved so much that I really looked up to her. And also there was my sister, Amanda (then a senior) who always worked hard and did her best no matter what. She really set a good example for me."

As did Cleveland, who had coached the Red Devils to a state championship the previous year, too.

"We've told the kids all year, if it was easy, anybody could do it," he said after EV had beaten Pullman 44-31 for the 2003 crown. "Personally, it took me 33 years to win a state title. And now I've got two of 'em."

Stickney and Huntington would have liked two, too. Yet even if East Valley had won this season's crown, it's unlikely that either player would have offered a detailed description of what being a state champion feels like.

Jake Locker, the football standout who led Ferndale past Prosser in the Class 3A title game last December, pondered the question for a few seconds and then smiled.

"All I know is," he said, "that I'll never have this feeling again. Ever."

Told of Locker's response, Huntington smiled as if someone had just answered a long-sought question.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "That's probably the best way to put it."