Double Vision Arena Puts New Face On State B Girls Join Boys Under One Roof For Double Dose Of Tourney Fever

‘Here’s a halftime score from the girls tournament: Yokum Bay 27, Limberville 20.”

With those words Ed Sharman, John Miller or one of their ilk would tantalize us in years past about the goings-on at Spokane Falls Community College.

Veteran State B fans could formulate an interior monologue from the public address announcers’ snippets of information.

Hmmm … Yokum Bay must be breaking the Limberville press… . Of the 27 points, I wonder how many Mandy Slempster has scored… . Coach Loquacious may have to ask his guards to put up a few 3-pointers in the second half… . Why did they stop selling those yummy Frosty Malts?

All right, that final question dealt with the boys tournament, but you get the point. Sure, the people sitting at the (former) Coliseum were there to watch the boys, but a B fan is a B fan. What the Limberville girls do, by cracky, counts.

Well, the late-February/early March days of wondering what’s happening at the Falls have gone the way of pet Sea Monkeys.

Unless you’ve spent a couple of years grooming the Iditarod course, you probably know about the spacious new Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena and the razing of the old Coliseum (emphasis on old).

For the first time since 1958 the boys B Tournament is out of the Coliseum. That’s a good thing, considering the current state of the Coliseum.

The boys won’t move alone to their new haunts. In keeping with the trend at the Class A and AA tournaments, the girls will play at the same site as the boys.

Bye-bye, Falls. Hello, lilac seats.

Now if the Skrapleville boys are taking it on the chin, there may be something interesting to watch besides the diverse crowd.

In the old days the girls wouldn’t make it to the Big Building until the championship game. The adjustment - or lack thereof - to the wide-open Coliseum backdrop often made for inferior shooting percentages. The girls won’t have that excuse this year.

There will be no second-class status at all this year, outside of the few hundred extra seats being allocated to the east (boys) court. Once Friday’s semifinals arrive, in fact, each girls and boys game will be accorded center stage.

“Friday’s always our biggest night,” said tournament director Clayton Dunn. “If you put together the Coliseum and Falls numbers, they couldn’t all get in. However, with the first girls (semifinal) at 5 and the last guys at 9:30, we’re guessing that a lot of people who were there at 5 won’t be there at 9.”

Dunn estimates tourney capacity at 10,000. Most in attendance (if they so desire) will be able to follow both tournaments. As in tourneys past, each team will have assigned seating sections that will be cleared out every two games.

Also, there will be no delay if, for example, Game Two of the girls tournament is ready to go and Game One for the boys is dragging.

The Greater Spokane League worked out some of the expected bugs by conducting a pair of quadrupleheaders in the Arena. For the first four-way, a net divided the courts. For the second, a less distracting divider screen was used. The same screen will be in place for the B’s.

“If you’re sitting in the upper deck you’ll see right over (the screen),” said Arena general manager Kevin Twohig. “(The two courts) didn’t seem to bother the (GSL) teams significantly. The officials’ whistles are on different frequencies, just like the state volleyball tournament.”

Because the GSL “didn’t ask for it,” Twohig said, just one public address system was in place for the quad-headers. Both courts at the State B will have a P.A. system.

Unlike the A and AA tournaments in the Tacoma Dome, which feature courts laid out in a capital ‘T’ shape, the Arena courts run the same way, like a giant capital ‘I.’

So, until a few B tourneys are played in this manner, the question will remain whether having the boys and girls together is such a hot idea. Or whether the Arena is an improvement on the Coliseum and SFCC.

Make no mistake, few at the Falls lament the demise of their involvement with the state event. The college already sets aside a week’s worth of precious court time for the District 7-B Tournament.

“We’ll be able to do a better job of our job, which is taking care of our own students,” said SFCC instructor and softball coach Jerry Skaife.

Skaife said the district tourney is far more likely to attract potential students to the west Spokane college than the state tourney.

SFCC took over running the tournament in 1981, after it was held one year at St. Martin’s College in Olympia. Whitworth College hosted the tourney in ‘78 and ‘79.

“My opinion is that we took on (state) to try to help out, to keep two B tournaments in Spokane,” Skaife said. “It wasn’t really something we wanted to have.”

Ah, but there are those who want the Falls even if the Falls doesn’t want to be wanted. A top spokesman for this group is St. George’s coach Ross Thomas.

Sure, Thomas says, bringing the tourneys together will be advantageous for schools (such as St. George’s) that are capable of qualifying both teams to state.

Yet Thomas sounds downright nostalgic about the Great Falls O’ Fire.

“We loved the Falls,” Thomas said. “It was big enough to seem big-time, but intimate enough that you could be rocked by the crowd.

“I liked having the whole gym CONSUMED.”

Even as a spectator, Thomas doesn’t like the notion of attending two games at once.

“Every game is unique, and every game has its own drama,” Thomas said. “I don’t want to watch a comedy and tragedy at the same time.”

Another successful B girls coach, however, sees an ulterior motive behind Thomas’ protests. This coach, from the Whitman County, points out that St. George’s and other Panorama League teams - plus teams from the Bi-County - have long made SFCC their second home.

“I never understood why West Side teams stood for the Bi-County and Panorama playing so many (district) games there and having state there,” said coach Lorin Carlon of St. John-Endicott.

“A few years ago,” Skaife said, “a Liberty team, counting all games, played five or six more games in our gym than our (college) team.”

The players generally favor the move away from the Falls, if for no other reason than being part of the first group in the Arena.

“I don’t think it really matters where we play,” said SJE junior Tricia Lamb, “but I guess it’ll be new and exciting.”

SJE already has experience playing in the Arena, having placed at last autumn’s State B volleyball tournament. Lamb’s teammate, Andee Schmick, said the new venue will offer one distinct advantage.

“At the Falls, during crunch time, you couldn’t hear a thing,” Schmick said of the packed gym. “You’d have to rely on hand signals from the coach. So (the elimination of) that might be a plus.”

Not so fast about the noise, Andee. Heed the warnings of a wise sage from your county, Colfax boys coach Bob Bafus.

For years Bafus took his state-bound teams to the cramped gym at the University of Puget Sound. When the Class A Tournament switched to the Tacoma Dome, Bafus said, something was definitely lost.

“My feeling was what was lost was the closeness of the ‘sweatbox,’ so to speak,” Bafus said. “The noise (at UPS) was great and you were all together. In the Tacoma Dome you’re kind of aloof from the fans and what’s going on with the kids.”

Bafus cautions B fans not to expect a smooth-as-silk transition from the old ways. He said some fans will find the added girls games a distraction.

Maybe so, said Lakeside girls coach Lisa Shultz, but it’s worth the bother if more people are exposed to girls basketball.

“We liked the Tacoma Dome because we could support the rest of the Northeast A teams in the same facility,” Shultz said. “Last year we had (boys) fans from Chewelah and Medical Lake supporting us.”

Supporters and nay-sayers alike agree on one thing: There will be plenty of bugs to work out.

Change has never come easy in any venture, but, ready or not, the change has arrived.

“And I sense a level of excitement I haven’t seen for a while,” Dunn said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Boys B lineup Today’s openers. All games at Spokane Arena. 9 a.m.: Clallam Bay (21-4) vs. Toutle Lake (23-1) 10:30 a.m.: Waitsburg (16-8) vs. Kittitas (16-6) Noon: Orcas Island (16-8) vs. St. George’s (24-2) 1:30 p.m.: N. Beach (22-4) vs. Summit (17-7) 5 p.m.: Morton (15-9) vs. Northwest Christian (17-10) 6:30 p.m.: Tacoma Baptist (20-6) vs. GarfieldPalouse (20-5) 8 p.m.: Almira/Coulee-Hartline (20-4) vs. La Conner (17-8) 9:30 p.m. - Mabton (17-7) vs. Pateros (25-1)

Girls B lineup Today’s openers. All games at Spokane Arena. 9 a.m.: Morton (18-7) vs. Wilbur-Creston (22-2) 10:30 a.m.: Summit (19-4) vs. Sunnyside Christian (21-2) Noon: Pomeroy (19-5) vs. Clallam Bay (19-4) 1:30 p.m.: Mt. Vernon Christian (20-7) vs. Wishkah Valley (24-1) 5 p.m.: Kittitas (19-5) vs. St.John-Endicott (24-0) 6:30 p.m.: Darrington (17-6) vs. Reardan (17-7) 8 p.m.: St. George’s (20-7) vs. King’s West (18-6) 9:30 p.m.: Rainier (19-5) vs. Waterville (22-1)