Dave Trimmer

The Ferris girls, who lost 16 straight regular-season games to Mead, celebrate their win over the Panthers. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Joe Feist stands tall when it comes to coaching in the Frontier League. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Defending state champions go down. The Rogers High School boys basketball team reacts to beating Ferris, the defending state champs in a District 8 tournament losers-out game. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

With Stacy Clinesmith leading the way, the Mead girls charged to a 19-1 record and a first-round bye. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

GSL boys Mead's Terry Donovan stole the ball and took it three-quarters length of the court for a lay-up with four seconds left as the league-champion Panthers held off Shadle Park 51-49 to end the Greater Spokane League boys basketball season at the Coliseum Thursday night. After a Mead miss and the game tied at 49, the Highlanders (5-11, 7-13) tried to stall out the last 1:41 for a final shot before Donovan's steal. The Panthers (13-3, 15-5) never led until Donovan's layup.

Mead's Stacy Clinesmith, who finished with 20 points, races Shadle Park's Shawna Rainer to the hoop. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

University High School gymnastics coach Stacy Heaton, also a college student and the mother of two, has plenty of support. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

LC's Mike Homer scores over Mead's Damian Long en route to 21 points as Tigers swept league champs. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Last year the Rogers Pirates needed an extra game to sneak into the District 8 boys basketball tournament as one of the Greater Spokane League's top six teams. Tonight, as the Pirates close out the regular season, they can eliminate all doubt with a win when North Central visits Rogers. A win would give the Pirates (6-9, 7-9) a two-game edge for sixth place with one game remaining for the other teams in the chase.

For a half, it appeared the Ferris Saxons were waiting around to see who they would play in the first round of the District 8 playoff in 10 days. In the second half, they looked like a team ready for those Greater Spokane League girls basketball playoffs to start. Friday night at the Coliseum, Ferris outscored Lewis and Clark 61-48 thanks to a 35-15 margin in the second half.

Mead's Class of '95 completed its steady climb up the ladder and on Friday night stood at the top, cutting down the nets at the Coliseum as Greater Spokane League boys basketball champions. "It's nice to accomplish it; it's a testament to the kids," Mead coach Jim Preston said after the Panthers clinched the title with a 56-50 win over University. "A lot of them came in when the program was struggling. I knew they would be in the hunt, but the way this league is..."

When the new arena opens in Spokane next fall, the Greater Spokane League will open with a basketball double-doubleheader. That's not to be confused with the current quadrupleheaders. The league season is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Dec. 12, with both courts down in the arena. A boys game and girls game, involving four different schools, will be followed by two more games involving boys and girls

GSL GIRLS This time Ferris didn't take any chances when Central Valley got close. The Saxons, who needed three overtimes to edge the Bears by three in their first meeting, pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 61-50 victory in a Greater Spokane League girls basketball game at the Coliseum Tuesday night. Central Valley, trailing by five entering the fourth quarter, made it a two-point game before the Saxons regained control.

Mead's Jeff Pilkington (34) gets between Rogers' Richie Fischer (20) and Ryan Metcalf. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Steven Ware handled the pressure like a seasoned veteran. Singled out as the featured bull rider in Friday's opening performance of the Boot Corral Wrangler ProRodeo Classic, the 20-year-old Vancouver, Wash., native stood alone in the darkened Coliseum arena. A bull was turned out of the chutes and a spotlight came on as announcer Jerry Todd reminded the sold-out crowd of 5,084 that bull riding is America's most dangerous sport. Then a spotlight hit Ware.

With all the variables that go into calf roping, it's a wonder how any cowboy gets the job done. Lee Graves, a 23-year-old roper from Williams Lake, British Columbia, took it one step further. He rode a borrowed horse to turn in a 9.4-second run Saturday night before a boisterous, turn-away crowd of 5,201 at the Coliseum. The time was the second-fastest in the three-year history of the Boot Corral Wrangler ProRodeo Classic. Today's 2:30 performance will be the last rodeo in the Coliseum, with the new arena scheduled to open next fall.

Steven Ware handled the pressure like a seasoned veteran. Singled out as the featured bull rider in Friday's opening performance of the Boot Corral Wrangler ProRodeo Classic, the 20-year-old Vancouver, Wash., native stood alone in the darkened Coliseum arena.

In the second-highest scoring Greater Spokane League boys basketball game this season that didn't involve an overtime, defense made the difference. Gonzaga Prep shut out leagueleading Mead for the final 3:19, and scored the last 12 points for a 72-67 victory Thursday night to end the eighth-ranked Panthers' five-game winning streak.

Wade Leslie takes a break from his horse shoeing job to look back on his perfect ride. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Winners of junior awards, from left: Wendy Peters, representing St. George's basketball, female team of year; Jennifer Stinson, Davenport, female athlete of year; Matt Sachse, Ferris, male athlete of year; Skiy DeTray, representing Mead cross country, male team of year: Wayne Gilman, Ferris, coach of year. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

GSL boys basketball The by-product in a season of struggles for the University boys basketball team may be a one-two punch that could allow the Titans to extend their season into the District 8 playoffs. Senior Eric Stark came off the bench for 13 first-half points and sophomore Erik Carlson, who replaced Stark in the starting lineup, scored 12 of his careerhigh 16 in the third quarter as the Titans tightened the Greater Spokane League standings with a 69-44 thumping of Rogers at the Coliseum Tuesday night.

GSL BOYS Terry Irwin didn't seem to care that the shot could have - probably should have - dropped or that his Central Valley Bears can't seem to get the hang of this overtime thing. "I don't care who won the game, we competed our butts off," the still-wired coach gushed after his team dropped a 66-64 double overtime decision at Mead. "That's what basketball is all about. It's a true classic case of it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game." A cliche, true, but it wasn't the same story he was telling Tuesday when the Bears lost a triple overtime game to Lewis and Clark, which at the time was already their third OT game of the season.

GSL GIRLS Much has changed in the month since Mead went to Central Valley and had to rally to squeak out a win. Friday night at Mead, the second-ranked Panthers destroyed the Bears 63-41, running their Greater Spokane League winning streak to 27 games. "We're pretty excited - we played our best game of the year," Mead coach Jeanne Helfer said. "They were more aggressive last time, but they're a different team without Lisa."

Shadle Park's Kelly Bartelson, left, drabbles past Ferris guard Emily Brown. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review,