Sports in brief: Humphrey new WV head coach

Boys basketball: Jay Humphrey is back in the head coaching saddle again.

Humphrey, who coached basketball regional qualifiers at North Central and University, replaces Jamie Nilles as coach at West Valley.

“I’m really excited, nervous, happy – all sorts of emotions,” Humphrey said. “West Valley is such a great opportunity and it’s where I want to be.”

It has been 11 years since last he was a head coach, resigning at U-Hi following the 1999 season after spending six years there. The 1997 Titans qualified for regionals.

Prior to that, he had coached five years at NC and had two district qualifiers. The Indians were part of a three-way Greater Spokane League championship tie and qualified for the regional in 1992.

“Things led me in a different direction,” said Humphrey, who subsequently assisted at CC Spokane, Shadle Park, where his son Zack played, and last year at WV.

“My daughter Jenna has another year at Shadle so the timing is not perfect, but I think she’s happy when I’m not in the stands anyway,” Humphrey said.

He will continue to teach at U-Hi for now.

“I have all the respect for Jamie and what he’s done,” Humphrey said. “We are great friends and have talked basketball a lot for the past decade or so. There will be tweaks here or there, but a lot of the stuff he ran, I’ve run before.”

Humphrey said he never stopped wanting to be a head coach.

“In a weird way, it will be good to be miserable again,” he said. “I think most coaches understand that.”

Mike Vlahovich

WAC follows WCC to Vegas

Basketball: The Western Athletic Conference is moving its season-ending women’s and men’s basketball tournaments to Las Vegas. The tournaments will be held at the Orleans Arena in 2011 and 2012. The West Coast Conference held their tournaments there last season.

Associated Press

DuRocher heads to Central

College football: Former Washington quarterback Johnny DuRocher, whose career was derailed by a benign brain tumor, is trying for a comeback at Division II Central Washington.

CWU athletics spokesman Jonathan Gordon confirmed Wednesday that DuRocher has applied to enroll at the school.

DuRocher started his college career at Oregon, but redshirted and transferred to Washington. He played in two games for the Huskies in 2006, and suffered a concussion in one game. A CAT scan following the concussion revealed a non-cancerous brain tumor, which DuRocher had surgery to remove. His playing career was considered over, but last spring doctors cleared him to play again.

CWU reached the Division II playoffs for the second consecutive year last season.

Associated Press