LaCenter girls keep
ill coach close

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

For the LaCenter Wildcats, love and coaching was a long-distance affair at this week’s Class 1A state tournament.

With head coach Katie Stevens undergoing treatment for cancer, it was decided she shouldn’t risk the possible of catching somebody else’s cold or flu in a crowded SunDome. So she stayed at the school, teaching her history classes, and assistant coaches Steve Prewitt and Heather Grotte took over the team for their tourney run.

But coach Stevens was not forgotten. After sophomore guard Marissa Moore was injured in the first quarter of the Wildcats’ game and was relegated to the bench, she used her cell phone to call Stevens and give her some telephonic play-by-play. That became the Wildcats’ routine for three days, with the telephone usually in the hands of Moore or Grotte, or whichever player just needed to hear the coach’s voice.

When the Wildcats won a 47-45 loser-out thriller on Thursday to stay alive, the phone happened to be in the hands of sophomore Hannah Hendrickson, who got so excited in the celebration that she hung up.

“So all the coach heard was a bunch of screaming and a hang-up,” said team manager Maria Acevedo.
Suffice it to say, the good news was relayed moments earlier.

THE KID CAN PLAY: Chelan junior is Joe Harris is a coach’s son, one of those kids who grew up in a gymnasium surrounded by older kids who lived for basketball. And if you never made it to the SunDome for any the Goats’ three-day run at the Class 1A tournament, trust us: This kid was absolutely worth every penny of the price of admission.

A 6-foot-6 guard-forward, through the first two days Harris was not only leading the tournament in scoring (35.0 ppg), he was also leading it in shooting percentage in both overall field goals (an other-worldly 74.2) and 3-pointers (64.3), two categories generally reserved for guys who are taking only a few shots. He’s also among the leaders in blocks, steals and assists.

In Friday’s 60-59 consolation-round loss to Seattle Academy, he actually lowered his averages with 24 points of 10-for-19 shooting before fouling out with the Goats still ahead. But he also gave the tournament one of its signature moments when he launched a 42-footer an instant before the halftime buzzer, one of those no-hope prayers that never find the mark.

His found nothing but net.

HEART OF GOLD, CHEST OF COLD: Brewster’s Wade Gebbers had such a bad chest cold during Friday’s 59-48 victory over Lake Roosevelt that his breathing was coming out in heaving gasps by the fourth quarter.

“It was so bad,” says his father and coach, Cass Gebbers, “he was saying, ‘I gotta come out, I can’t breath, I just can’t breath.’ I told him, ‘You only got a minute and a half left, you’re just going to have to suck it up.’ And he did. He’s got a heart of gold.”

He also had 25 points, five assists and four steals. Imagine what he could do if he were healthy.

CALLING IT QUITS: Winlock coach Gary Viggers will lead his team against Naches Valley today, with the winner getting the fifth-place trophy and the loser finishing eighth. Either way, Viggers is finished as the Cardinals’ boys coach.

“I started coaching in 1965, and that’s long enough,” says Viggers, who will turn 64 in May. His son, Gary Jr., is Winlock’s athletic director and also the head women’s coach at Centralia Communia College.

SHORT JUMPERS: At 6-foot-10, Port Townsend coach John Stroeder looks like a player, and he sure was. After playing at the University of Montana, the Bremerton native was selected in the NBA draft and had a short pro career, playing 46 games with three teams (41 of them with the Milwaukee Bucks) over the 1987-88 and ’88-89 seasons. He also played with the CBA’s Albany Patroons. ... Weirdest turnaround of tourney so far: In Thursday’s consolation game between Onalaska and defending champion Lynden Christian, the Lyncs were clearly still in a daze after being upset by Granger the night before and started out trailing 8-0. Then they scored 35 of the next 36 points.