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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wherever Wilson Sits, He’s At Home

Chuck Stewart Correspondent

If this is the first week of March, it must be State B Tournament time.

If the State B is here, Larry Wilson must be in the house.

Yep. There he is, ensconced in his favorite seat on the end of the back row in Section 103 in the Arena.

“He’s been coming to Spokane for the State B for I don’t know how long,” said Ralph Hilt, a tournament official.

“Since 1967,” said Wilson, who made the drive from his home in Clallam Bay in the north Puget Sound area for a 32nd straight year.

He came over the first year “just to watch,” said Wilson.

“And got hooked,” said Hilt.

Many years, Wilson’s had a hometown favorite to cheer on. Clallam Bay boys teams have been to state 11 times, the girls 10. This year, he’s just a fan of small-school basketball.

“It’s the best tournament in the state,” said Wilson, a retired logger, who runs a resort and has winters free to watch the B’s. “I wouldn’t miss this.”

Hilt said when the Arena opened for the first day of the tournament Wednesday, “he was one of the first ones through the door.”

Unless a Clallam Bay girls team is here, Wilson generally can be found watching the boys. Last year, the school had both, and he went back and forth between the courts.

“This is much better” than the old arrangement, when the girls played at Spokane Falls Community College and the boys in the Coliseum, he said.

He’s acquired lots of memories. Now he has something tangible to help him remember his excursions.

A friend, once a member of a Clallam Bay girls team that came to state and now a Spokane resident, acquired a set of seats from the old Coliseum and gave them to Wilson.

“I’m going to put them on my deck,” he said. “Give them a coat of paint and bolt them down.”

Do you suppose they include one he once sat in?

“I don’t think she was that lucky,” he said with a smile.

Flying by the …

… seat of their pants.

That would be Wilbur-Creston.

OK, so the Wildcats aren’t really flying, but they have climbed into the semifinals adorned in distinctive boxer shorts that have at least taken on a lucky distinction.

Visible beneath the white uniform shorts worn by the Wildcats is the word “state” in block letters sewn on the back of the under apparel.

“The girls like to have something they can save for a souvenir,” said Barb Tower, the woman credited with emblazoning the blue-and-white men’s underpants.

“We did the same thing four years ago when my daughter (Ronee Deahl) was a freshman,” said Tower. “Some of the girls ‘hinted’ they really liked the boxer shorts, so we thought we do it again; this time do something wild. The others weren’t wild at all.”

It’s the hair

Ritzville’s girls don’t just put on a game face, they put on their game hair, too.

All the players and managers have their hair braided in similar fashion.

“They did it to look like a team,” said Connie Sackmann, whose daughter, Amber, is a freshman guard. “The girls do each other’s.”

The tradition started at the Bi-County League tournament a year ago and was resurrected for the tournaments this year.

“Tournament braids,” said Dennis Sackmann.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Broncos haven’t lost since.

Doubling their pleasure

Four schools qualified both boys and girls teams. Two of them had siblings playing for both.

A real strain?

Not at all, said Rob Blume of Spokane, whose daughter Abbey and son Zach play for St. George’s.

“It’s great,” he said. “It has been all year. We can go to an event and have both our kids participating. It’s a delight.”

Blume’s seatmates were the DePontys, whose daughter Katie and son Tom also play for the Dragons.

Darrington has a double-team in Kara and Justin Buell.

Watching the refs

Not everyone in the Arena is fixed on the players. Eight men are focused on the referees. They’re evaluating the officials for the WIAA.

Watching on the boys side are Tom Jackson, Nick Scarpelli and Darel Adams of Spokane and Bob Graham of Northport. On the girls side are Gary Broadbent, Tracy Walters and Ben Fawcett of Spokane and Steve Russell of South Bend.

, DataTimes