Greatest Spokane League

There has to be a way to capture the essence of Lexie and Lacie Hull.

When former Central Valley stars Lexie and Lacie Hull won the NCAA women’s basketball championship with Stanford last spring it brought back a great memory for Angie Bjorklund.

Year after year, Gonzaga Prep girls basketball coach Mike Arte would travel to the State 4A basketball tournament and ask a simple question.

As thoroughly as the Greater Spokane League has dominated large-school girls basketball in the state of Washington, no one has done what Lewis and Clark High did in the early part of this century.

The 1985 Bears placed third in the formative years of the Greater Spokane League and won 17 more trophies and six championships in 19 appearances after that, both state-best marks in the state's largest classification. Fourteen of the CV 18 trophies are top four and the Bears have a record 56 wins under the bright lights at State.

Flanigan to Clinesmith, with a year in between, has to be one of the more remarkable runs in Spokane sports history. Seven-straight trips to state. A 23-5 record under the brightest lights. Three championships and trophies for second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes. A 101-17 record in the Greater Spokane League with six titles. A 174-27 record overall.

Their names may be forgotten, or their accomplishments taken for granted, but Greater Spokane League girls basketball owes much of its current success to those who were there in the beginning.