The envelopes,
please ...
 
The Dribblies: no other awards carry such prestige

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

This week’s Class 1A tournament gave us one highlight film after another, not to mention some great story lines. For that, we thank the participants and congratulate the winners of the prestigious Dribblies, which, of course, are prestigious only in the minds of truly demented ink-stained scribes, a few diehard basketball fans and, in this case, people who enjoy obscure film references.

The envelopes, please ...

HOOP DREAMS: To the SEATTLE ACADEMY boys, who were 10-10 going into postseason and had never beaten Emerald City rival Bellevue Christian — not just this year, but never in school history. But the Cardinals beat BC for the Emerald City title, ensuring they wouldn’t have to survive the buzzsaw that is the Tri-District tournament. Then, never having won a state-tournament game, they won Wednesday in overtime, lost an OT heartbreaker to third-ranked Port Townsend on Thursday, then edged No. 4 Chelan by one point on Friday to clinch a state trophy. Seventh place in the state ain't too shabby a finish. Hey, it's a big state.

SIXTH SENSE: To the CHELAN girls, who in their consolation victory over Cascade on Friday had to play six-on-five for about 45 seconds. A Kodiak player had checked in, but the girl she was replacing didn’t leave the court. During that period before the officials discovered it — during which every fan in the Chelan bleachers was screaming and holding up six fingers — Chelan forced a Cascade turnover, got an offensive rebound and a putback. The Goats’ five actually outscored the Kodiaks’ six, 2-0.

MY LEFT FOOT: To ASHLEE REDDOUT of Granger, whose left knee — OK, yeah, so it was her knee, not her foot — is. completely without an operational ACL. Gone. Kaput. Scheduled for surgery next Friday. So all she did on that knob of a knee was start every game, make nearly two-thirds of her shots over the week and make the all-tournament team.

STAND AND DELIVER: To extraordinarily swift Seattle Christian sophomore LEXI PETERSON, who was fouled at the buzzer of the Warriors’ semifinal against unbeaten Freeman a second after the Scotties had tied the game. That meant Peterson would be at the foul line with nobody around her, the loneliest person in a crowded SunDome, with all eyes on her. Make it, and you win. Miss, and you’re in OT. It’s the kind of moment that creates weak knees and air balls. Not for Lexi. Nothing but net.

BRAVEHEART: To Castle Rock senior MIKE MURRAY, for taking the gutsiest charge of this and many other state tournaments. On opening day, a Seattle Academy guard was steaming full-speed into the lane, with Murray in the way. When an offensive player is coming in that hard, it’s easy to flinch, turn, try to protect the, uh, you know, or even get out of the way, because you know this is really going to hurt. Not Murray. He took the charge and slammed to the floor so hard it rattled the dentures of people in the stands. Asked if he was sore after that, he answered, “Yeah ... I still am.” This was two days later.

DRUMLINE: To TYLER MILLS and the rest of the NACHES VALLEY drum corps fronting the Rangers’ pep band. Mills’ rocking drum solos led the way as the NV musicians kept spectators’ heads bobbing and feet tapping. Great sounds.

THE NATURAL: To Chelan junior JOE HARRIS, the dominant player in the boys tourney, albeit on a less-than-dominant team that lost the two games in which he fouled out. He not only led the tournament in scoring (31.3 ppg), he also shot a phenomenal 66.0 percent from the field, making 33 of his 50 shots; the only two players in the 16-team tournament field with higher percentages were reserves who attempted only five and four total shots.

CLASS: To all of the teams who participated in the Teaming Up program, visiting local elementary and middle schools to meet with students to talk about the importance of staying in school and participating in extracurricular activities. For the week, 23 high school teams visited local schools, and seven of the eight teams that made Saturday’s medal round took part. Kudos.

GET SHORTY: To King’s guard ALEX MAR, at 5-foot-7 one of the shortest players in the boys tourney. His frenetic, pinball darts across the lane made him a nightmare for slower defenders to deal with, and made the Knights very difficult to beat. Mar led the boys tournament in assists, and it wasn’t close; he had 21 assists coming into trophy day. Nobody else had more than 13.

LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: To JOHN GAGE and the VASHON boys, who were unstoppable en route to the boys title, and clearly had, to grab at another great film title, the right stuff. And, also, to the SEATTLE CHRISTIAN girls, who came in with the target of a No. 1 ranking — as had the Pirate boys — and lived up to it ... though they had a much more difficult time doing it, because of our final winner. See below.

MEET THE SPARTANS: To worthy tournament MVP JANAE KLARICH and the rest of the GRANGER girls, who were a largely sophomore-laden team a year ago when they took third and were primarily junior-led this year as they rolled into the championship game, before their well finally went dry and their shots simply stopped falling.

Well, the 1A basketball community had better get used to these Spartans. Most of this absolutely indomitable group of girls will be back next year, and if that isn’t scary for the rest of the teams who want a shot at that big trophy, it should be.