Guard Patrick Voeut, here driving the lane in a semifinal victory over Fife last season, is one of three returning starters for reinging Class 2A champion Squalicum.   SARA GETTYS/ Yakima Herald-Republic file

Greyhounds will open season Saturday against Squalicum

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Near perfection turned Squalicum into a near pariah.

After routing its four Class 2A state-tournament opponents by an average of nearly 22 points, capping a season in which the junior-laden Storm's only loss in 27 games came against California national powerhouse Mater Dei, Squalicum became the team nobody wanted to play.

Well, almost nobody. More on that in a moment.

While trying to put together the kind of daunting summer and nonleague fall schedules that would hone his team for another championship season, Squalicum coach Dave Dickson had trouble trying to line up games against some of the state's traditional powers.

So, too, did the guys who were determined to pit Dickson's team against one of those big-name draws in this weekend's the SunDome Basketball Hall of Fame Tip Off Classic.

One powerhouse team after another backed away from the idea, including at least one prominent Seattle program that had what Classic director Mike Anderson called "a handshake agreement" to face the Storm.

"Nobody wanted anything to do with them, that's for sure," Anderson said. "Anybody who thinks they're going to be good is thinking, 'Why do we want to start our season 0-1 and have our (egos, let's say) handed to us by a team that's the defending champion who's bringing back almost their entire team?'"

One team, though, didn't back away from the opportunity.

It was a team that expects to be good and has a state-tournament resume far longer than that of Squalicum. It's a program that returns key members of a team that barely missed a state tourney berth a year ago, while bringing up some talented members of a JV team that went 15-4 last year (after being undefeated in C-team play two years ago) and won its last 12 games last spring.

The folks at Grandview took the call with the offer to play Squalicum, stroked their collective chins and pretty much said: What time's the tipoff?

"I checked with Roy (Garcia, the Greyhounds' second-year coach) to make sure it was good with him, and he was up for it," recalled Grandview athletic director Scott Parrish, who coached the Greyhounds to the 2002 Class 2A title, the third of their three state championships. "We thought it would be a good challenge for our kids early in the year. It should be fun."

A bit of fun is just what Garcia was having when he was asked last week about his willingness to open the season against the reigning 2A champs.

"What season opener? You mean the shellacking they're going to give us? I don't know what I was thinking," Garcia said, not sounding remotely serious.

When Parrish wanted to know if he'd be interested in a game with Squalicum, Garcia said, "Yeah, we'd be interested. It'll give us as a program a sense of where we need to go. Obviously, we know what we need to work on, but it'll give us as coaches a detailed overview -- and what better way of doing that than against the defending state champs?"

Squalicum had only one senior on its tournament roster last March, and it was a big one -- 6-foot-7 center Kyle Hooper. But Hooper was only the team's fifth-leading scorer, and four juniors scored in double figures. One of them, though, was 2A state player of the year Keith Stackhouse, who will miss this season after injuries to both shoulders, one of which has already been operated on with a second surgery still to come.

"I'm so sorry for him," Dickson said. "He's a great kid and that's very unfortunate for him."

On the other hand, Squalicum has a pair of sensational guards in slashing Patrick Voeut and sharpshooter Derek Dickerson, a 6-foot-5 go-to guy in Michael Greene, plus five other players at 6-foot-3 or taller.

Grandview, meanwhile, has a 6-4 guy (Derek Newhouse) who is more of a finesse guy than a rebound banger, a 6-2 guy (Christian Shrank) who will battle on the boards, and a bunch of sub-6-footers -- like 5-7 cousins Adrian Vela and Tony Vela -- who will play with end-to-end intensity. Garcia believes Tony Vela could turn out to be as much of a big-time playmaker as his older brother James, which is high praise indeed.

And Dickson knows the Greyhounds will come to play.

"I think our league, the Northwest Conference, is very strong," Dickson said. "Well, if there's a 2A conference that matches us in strength, I think it's the CWAC.

"With Ephrata winning (the state tournament) the year before and having that special player (6-foot-8 Washington State University recruit Patrick Simon) back, and Toppenish had that nice run in the tournament last year ... we respect that league and know that from top to bottom it's very competitive. They really get after it, and it'll be fun to come over and play a team like that."

Especially since he knows the Greyhounds won't shy away from the opportunity.