While One Star Shines, Another Revives Past

Although he didn’t shoot all that well in Sprague-Harrington’s bruising, uptempo, foul-marred 64-51 win over Snohomish County Christian, Ryan Floyd drew big-time praise for his 25-point, 12-rebound Thursday night.

“I think Ryan Floyd’s a Division-I prospect, the things he can do,” Community Colleges of Spokane coach Sam Brasch said.

As much attention as Floyd commanded, an S-H Falcons assistant coach - Dennis Bly - saved some admiration for a quick SpragueHarrington junior.

The kid reminded him of someone who played here 30 years ago.

The Falcons’ Brett Bly is Dennis Bly’s son.

Brett’s dad captained the Harrington team that won this tournament in 1965.

“We’re kind of a mirror image of my junior year when we lost the (1964) championship to Cathlamet by two points,” Dennis Bly said, “because we came out of the district No. 3 and got into the state championship game.”

Sprague-Harrington is the No. 3 team out of district again, and again is hot at the right time.

Brett Bly has heard the stories.

“As far back as I can remember I’ve known about the State B Tournament,” he said. “I’ve met six of my dad’s friends who were on the team. They all have stories.

“We press a lot, like they did. We’re taller. The old tapes I’ve seen run at double-speed. It’s hard to tell much.”

The stories say more than the tapes.

“I started hearing basketball stories when my dad played town team when I was 3,” Brett Bly said.

Ever get tired of it?

“I never will,” he said. “He said it was the greatest thing he ever did in his life and I’m starting to believe him now.”

So do we get our $4 back?

The answer is no.

The question is, what happened to the quality of the B tournament program?

This year’s souvenir program is under fire.

Reproduction is poor. The Pateros Billygoats look like they posed for their picture at the bottom of the Columbia River. Records are incomplete. Scoring averages of players on a half-dozen teams are missing.

It was the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s decision to produce the program in Seattle this year, so blame the boss, WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese.

It was a logical idea in theory, tournament coordinator Clayton Dunn said. Consolidating production of state high school tournament programs - revenue as well as non-revenue sports under one agency - was a dollarstretching move.

The reality is that it took the B tourney program away from people who know the event.

Dave Cook, sports information director at Eastern Washington University, did it here last year.

“I don’t think you can find a mistake in last year’s program,” Dunn said.

Not so this time. More than 200 fans have complained, Dunn said, “and the complaints are justified, no question.”

Printing the programs in Seattle and shipping them here adds 6 hours to an already tight schedule, Dunn added.

“It really makes it difficult when we have to complete a program in such a limited time frame,” he said. “Six hours doesn’t sound like a lot but when there’s information you don’t have until 10 o’clock on Sunday, and we need the programs by Tuesday afternoon, 6 hours becomes critical.

“We need someone coordinating the program who really understands athletics. Dave Cook understands.

“God bless her but the young lady we worked with this year (who Dunn wouldn’t name) … it became obvious to me that we had a problem when she asked questions like ‘What’s a seed?”’

A seed in another context could be the start of an idea. The idea that comes to mind here is call Dave Cook at 359-6334 - sometime before next March.