Be still my beating heart
Like Red Foxx on the old Sanford and Son television sitcom, I'm not sure my heart can take much more of the Greater Spokane League drama.
First on Tuesday it was the Shadle Park-Gonzaga Prep basketball game that most in attendance agreed was one of the best high school games in recent memory. Then Wednesday out at Central Valley for the Battle of the Bone it was as thrilling a match as I can recall - rare in that it not only brought in a standing room only audience because of the rivalry, but because it was also for a piece of the league championship for both teams. Noisy as well as dramatic, my ears are still recovering. Thursday's match at U-Hi against East Valley was another dandy, if not as ear-spliting. Decided by one match, it could have swung either way. The Knights made sure there would be no unbeaten team.
Nothing much separated the four teams whose fates were decided by the matchups and coin flips. U-Hi and Mead will tie for the league title at 9-1, U-Hi's sixth overall and third in the past five years. For the Panthers, it is their 11th, but first since 1994 (it's coach Phil McLean's fourth, the other three at Gonzaga Prep before he moved to Mead).
East Valley and Central Valley tied for third with 8-2 marks, a year after they tied for the title. The Titans beat Mead and CV, the latter in a tiebreaker, before losing to EV. Mead beat EV and CV. The Bears beat the Knights, the Knights beat the Titans.
As young as most of these teams are, the best is yet to come. But I'm venturing a guess that this is uncommon youth and they're going to do well in post-season.
At that, the best dual meet team in the area might not even be from the GSL, but from the Great Northern League in Deer Park. The Stags won the league title in a dandy with Riverside, 28-22, that was decided when Cody Miller moved up a weight and nipped Jake DesRoches 4-3 at 160 pounds in a match between defending state champions.
Wrestlers tend to transcend classification it seems. Last week Class B Reardan beat 4A Rogers and 3A Hanford in a pair of duals. District competition looms, post-season beginning next week.