Arena Courts Gsl Basketball Fans, Participants Generally Agree: It’s Twice As Nice

It’s T-minus 25:22 to the tipoff of Spokane’s first basketball octupleheader and the sky is falling at the Arena.

A wingnut and two washers, anyway - raining down from somewhere up in the catwalks to somewhere down by the westernmost free-throw line.

“Call for an investigation,” says Shadle Park coach Darcy Weisner, palming the debris onto the scorer’s table. “Your tax dollars at work.”

Hey, pretty funny.

Until the same combination dribbles to next-to-westernmost foul line moments later.

“Do we get hard hats?” a player wonders.

OK, so we’ve established at each new event the Arena stages that a few nuts and bolts need to be tightened - and that’s going to be especially true when you lay two basketball courts end to end and hoist an oversized volleyball net between them to separate the action.

A f’rinstance: Even if games are tipped off in tandem, they aren’t going to end at the same time - high school players being high school players and referees being, well, they’ve always been friendly to me. So the coach who calls timeout when the dance team on the other court is into its halftime gyrations to the P.A.-amplified throat-clearings of Hammer, had better have Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence in his ballbag.

Also, do they sell whistles set to different octaves?

But Tuesday’s grand experiment of the Greater Spokane League - four boys games, four girls games, one building - definitely deserves an encore. Which is good, since the GSL has already booked the joint again Jan. 23 and the State B has bought into the format for the first week of March.

“I thought it was a nice situation,” said Mead boys coach Jim Preston, who thought it despite losing a close one. “I wish more people were at the games. It’s a great atmosphere.

“I was watching the teams warm up at halftime of the first game and it looked like Hoopfest with all the baskets up.”

And cheek to cheek - with only that see-through scrim between them.

“That’s going to be tough,” Lewis and Clark’s Glenn Williams said, eyeing the divider. “My guys are going to be playing defense and looking back at the girls.”

But for at least a few of the 2,968 who paid their way in, that was the point.

Kathy and Orville McGinnis - Shadle parents from the 1970s and just fans now - chose their spot in Row L of Section 116 carefully. Kathy took seat 11 on the east side of the curtain, Orville seat 12 on the west.

“We came to see if it could be done - if you could actually watch two games,” said Orville. “It doesn’t seem to be a problem, though it would be better if they could work out the announcing so you’d know who made a basket - but I’m not sure how.”

Anything else?

“You do a lot of this,” noted Kathy, swiveling her neck as if in training to watch a Wimbledon final.

Distractions are part of the deal at a four-ring circus, but it’s worth getting used to.

“I loved it - it reminded me a lot of the state tournament,” said Mead’s Allison Beatty, who partook of the two-court experience at the Kingdome last winter. “It’s bright and kind of loud - and our team seems to play better in the bright lights.”

For Shadle’s Ben Pate, just walking into the building was a thrill.

“It felt like that scene in ‘Hoosiers,’ when the small-town kids got to state,” he said.

As for the duelling whistles …

“There was a whistle I thought was Chuck’s and Chuck thought was mine,” said veteran ref Bob Nelson, who worked the boys opener with Chuck Filippini. “We’re looking at each other and all of a sudden the players were at the other end.”

But, hey, players have been doubling up on courts forever - on YMCA Saturdays, at camps, even at school with the JVs practicing at the other end of the court.

And whatever the format, at least the GSL still has a presence downtown.

In an act of gross generosity, the high schools’ flat rental rate hasn’t changed from the Coliseum days, though the extra management and security that must be retained pushes the nightly tab close to $5,000, according to the GSL’s Dan Ryan.

“Basketball attendance hasn’t been as good as we’d have liked the last four or five years,” said Ryan, “but if some of these games are put into the high school gyms you’ll have turnaway crowds and unhappy fans - and you don’t want that either.

“Having games at a central site is a good thing, and the city’s been good to us.”

The GSL’s being good back. At $4 for an adult ticket, the octupleheader is the Arena deal of the century - providing you didn’t have to miss overtime in a concession line.

“This place is great, but I liked the old Coliseum, too,” said Weisner, who won two State B titles with Brewster there. “It smelled like basketball.”

At eight games a sitting, the new joint will pick up the scent.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review