Granger basketball players Emily Carpenter, left, Janae Klarich and Halee Hull fill their plates at Sunday's spaghetti dinner.   SARA GETTYS/Yakima Herald-Republic

As the last of Sunday afternoon's rays poured into the Granger High School commons, Brad Carpenter surveyed the basketball players making history at his alma mater. Among them, his daughter Emily and nephew Chase.

"There's a lot of connections. A lot of us grew up here and stayed here and raised our families here," said Carpenter, a ranch owner who played ball for Granger in 1982. "This year, we've been enjoying being able to look back and see how all the people affiliated with Granger growing up have developed into a cohesive group."

Wednesday, the Spartans, both the boys and girls teams, will tip off during the opening day of the Class 1A state basketball tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome. This will be the third consecutive year both Granger teams make appearances at the state tournament, and the first both are district champs.

Despite the teams' accomplishments, no red, black and white banners hang in the modest downtown of Granger, population 3,000.

And there haven't been any pep rallies at the high school.

But spend a few hours here and you'll find a pride in the players that spans Granger's considerable ethnic, economic and generational diversity.

"Good players come from good families," says Andy Affholter, who has coached the girls on his team since middle school. "And we have a lot of good families taking care of our kids."

Last Sunday, dozens of players and their families gathered at the high school commons for a last-minute spaghetti dinner to celebrate the teams' success.

"We try to come and support, even if it means taking the day off work," says Armando Cortez, a farm worker whose son, Julio, plays on the team. "We can be rich or poor, but on the basketball floor our kids are all the same."

With a little irony, Cortez nods to Carpenter at the far end of the commons and adds that he works at his family's ranch.

Those relationships are not uncommon, says the boys coach, Miguel Bazaldua.

"We've got three kids whose parents own farms, three whose parents are agricultural workers, a minister's kid, the teacher's kid," he says, running down the list.

And there are the family ties: three sets of siblings and several sets of cousins play. Many of them learned the rules of the game from their parents -- who played ball together for Granger in the 1980s.

"The people who were in the stands watching Brad and I play are the same ones in the stands watching out kids play," said Neil Hull, a 1985 Granger graduate whose daughter, Halee, plays on the team.

Bazaldua, who grew up on a Granger ranch as a farm worker, coached basketball in Mabton, Sunnyside and Wapato before returning home.

"Now I'm back where I started," he said. "We're considered one of the lowest-income cities. But the morale at the school is very high. We passed the levy.

"That says something -- it has to do with how people feel about the town."

Even the younger generations feel it.

Eighth-grader Reis Klarich -- whose sister, Janae, plays point guard -- is the ball boy for the high school boys team.

"I like coming to the games," the younger Klarich says. "My parents go to all them. The gym is so packed it gets sold out. A lot of my friends come and usually sit in a group in the corner."

In other school districts, girls games don't typically draw as many fans as boys games. That's been changing in Granger. It's understood among fans that you have to arrive early to score a seat.

"They used to come and watch the boys. Now they come earlier and watch us both," says Emily Carpenter. "Since we made it championship game last year, people come and watch."

Katrina Reddout, whose daughter Ashlee and son Andrew play, shook her head when she remembered some of the fans at Saturday's district championship game against Zillah. One elementary school student had a made a shirt with a photo of herself with Ashlee Reddout -- and convinced her parents to drive her to Finley, Wash., for the game.

"They're role models for the younger students," says Reddout, who coached the girls in a youth league throughout elementary school.

On Tuesday evening, Reddout was returning home from Yakima, where she had picked up 175 Spartan shirts she had printed for fans to wear Wednesday.

"To have both kids on successful teams, it gives me goosebumps," she said. "I don't know what to say. This is priceless."