Bonners Ferry Wealth Of Talent Spans All Classes

Playoffs notebook

The Bonners Ferry High School girls basketball team’s future already has shined in the opening rounds of the State A-2 Tournament. With two tournament wins - Friday against Sugar-Salem and Thursday against Kuna, it’s one win away from a state title.

First-year coach Jim Nash inherited a veteran team from Dan Meeker, a team dead set on winning a state title this year.

Meeker resigned after coaching his daughter, Kelly, for four years so he could devote full attention to his job as school principal.

So Nash has an opportunity often not afforded to new coaches - a chance to see what the view is from the top of the mountain.

Realizing his future goes beyond this season - four starters will graduate - Nash brought five freshmen to state. In fact, 10 of the 15 Badgers are underclassmen.

How’s the future look? Let’s put it this way: Two of the freshmen, Sara Walter and Denelle Ripatti, could have started for several Panhandle teams this year.

All five freshmen received more than token playing time in the Badgers’ 49-22 win over Kuna on Thursday.

At one point early in the fourth quarter, Nash had three freshmen, one sophomore and one junior on the floor followed by a group of four freshmen and one sophomore.

Walter and Ripatti sparkled. On consecutive possessions, Walter drove the length of the floor, dribbling behind her back near midcourt, for a layup and followed with a steal and another breakaway layup.

Senior three-year starter Jana Nearing smiled while talking about the rookies.

“They’re going to be great,” she said.

Ripatti has played up on varsity most of the season. Nash moved Walter up at the midway mark.

“We’ve tried to ease them in slowly; you don’t want to put too much pressure on them,” Nash said. “Denelle Ripatti has stepped up and played some excellent ball. I thought I’d killed her down at Post Falls (during the district tournament) against Moscow. We’d just got the momentum and she had a turnover. I thought I’d lost her, she put her head down. But she came back out and played (Thursday).” Nash appreciated his seniors willingness to sit on the bench the final quarter and let the youth play.

Can they win away from home?

Lake City coaches and players took offense to a story in a newspaper here Wednesday.

The story, in the Boise-based Idaho Statesman, implied coach Dave Fealko’s Coeur d’Alene teams benefitted greatly from having won three of its four State A-1 titles at home.

The 1983-84, ‘91-92 and ‘93-94 state tournaments won by the Vikings were played in Viking Gym. The ‘90-91 CdA team captured the title when the tournament was played in Pocatello.

Seven of LC’s players, including three starters, played on Fealko’s 25-0 CdA team last year. They’re not only driven to “repeat” so to speak, but they want to go down in history as winning LC’s first state championship.

So the coaches and players needed no extra incentive. But the story provided bonus motivational fodder, to be sure.

Any rebuttal? They’ll let their play at state speak for them.

There’s no arguing that Fealko’s teams “rode the euphoria”, as the story stated, of playing on their home court in three tournaments.

It makes sense, too, that the Idaho High School Activities Association now plans to go to great pains to hold state tournaments at college sites or neutral high school gyms.

Neutral site or not, there’s no way to avoid the inherent problem: Some teams will always have an advantage wherever the tournaments are held.

An example is this year’s A-1 tournament. Three teams (Nampa, Centennial and Borah) had less than a 25-mile drive for their games. Nampa, nine miles away, is next door, and Centennial, 18 miles away in Meridian, is the next closest neighbor.

So if Centennial advanced to the state title game, you’d better believe there’d be a partisan crowd.