Bears to try for third undefeated season
When you head out to chase down ghosts, it’s good to have good road map.
Tonight Central Valley begins its final push towardan undefeated state championship.
Since the 1974-75 season, the first time the WIAA crowned a girls basketball state champion, just eight teams have managed to go through an entire season, and a state tournament, without losing a single game.
Two of those teams have been from Central Valley, in the 1992-93 season and again in 2001-02. Both teams went 29-0 under coach Dale Poffenroth. The second undefeated team entered the season as the defending state champions and a year after going undefeated the Bears lost in the state championship game.
There may be a CV fan or two who may not know that fact, but it’s something they come to know soon enough.
That the Bears have won two of their three state girls basketball championships without a blemish is a remarkable feat. The fact that three of those undefeated state title teams (Lewis and Clark, 2007-08) have come from the Greater Spokane League tells you something about just how difficult it is to get through a league season without a loss.
The 2015-16 Central Valley squad enters tonight’s playoff game with a 22-0 record. They enter the Class 4A playoffs as the top-ranked team in the most recent Seattle Times rankings, ahead of undefeated Moses Lake.
What makes this team special is something coach Freddie Rehkow has repeated over and over to anyone who cares to ask. This team never looks ahead, never looks past the next team up on its schedule. You can look in the eyes of each player and see them locked on tonight’s game. And nothing more.
Joining the ranks of the undefeated isn’t something this group thinks about, but you can’t be a Bear and not have those teams in the back of your mind.
The first undefeated CV state championship team has already been added to the school’s Wall of Fame – a regular reminder of what it accomplished.
They weren’t the first undefeated state championship team. Bellevue did it in 1974-75, and three more schools did it before CV in ’92-93.
What makes that team special is the fact that four players from that squad went on to play college women’s basketball.
Point guard Laura Fralich, now an area doctor, was the GSL Most Valuable Player, started her collegiate career at Saint Mary’s College, but after a year she grew disappointed in the program and returned home to play at Community Colleges of Spokane. Despite a torn ACL in her right knee, she completed her career at NAIA The Masters College in Santa Clarita, California.
Jacque Clark, an All-GSL first team pick, went on to play at Arizona. Alicia Lyon played at Washington State and Suzie Boots played at Stanford.
The 2001-02 is fresher in the minds of fans and alumni. That team was led by 6-foot-1 forward Emily Westerberg, widely considered to be the finest player in the school’s history, boy or girl. She went on to play at Arizona State, where she became the first Sun Devil to win All-Pac-10 honors three times. She was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, but opted not to play professionally to pursue a career in elementary education.
Also on that team was Caitlin Courchaine, who initially did not want to pursue a college basketball career. But after a year at Washington State, the urge to return to the game she loves was too strong to ignore and she joined the team at North Idaho College and helped the Cardinals to a league title and a runner-up finish at the regional tournament. A year later she was off to complete her career at Carroll College in Helena.
But this year’s Bears don’t need this much of a reminder about the history of CV state championships.
A good number of these past champions have dropped by say hello and to check out the youngsters with so much talent and so much promise.
And better than that, the Bears have their own personal touchstone with these past greats.
Assistant coach Judy Walters has been there through it all. The titles, the near misses.
And Walters is a fine storyteller.