Hoopfest Nets Reunion Of Ex-Prep Stars Three Former University Teammates Returning To Take Their Shots
Reunion is a common theme at Hoopfest.
So it is with Bill Ames, who’ll return Saturday to celebrate his 28th birthday with a couple of former University High School teammates - guard Troy Schmedding and 6-foot-3 John Bigovich.
Their goal is pretty universal, too - play well enough in this weekend’s sixth annual Hoopfest to get into Sunday’s round.
“We just want to win enough to stay off the golf course,” Ames said from his home in the Seattle suburb of Redmond.
Ames, who’ll come in at 250 pounds, only 5 over his playing weight as a University of Washington football tight end, makes his living in pharmaceutical sales. He and his wife Kara have a 2-year-old daughter, Ashley.
Schmedding was a year behind Ames at University, Bigovich a year ahead. Both also live and work in the Seattle area.
“We’ve been playing over here, ratballing around,” said Ames, who had a trainingcamp stint with the NFL Indianapolis Colts in ‘88 before being released.
His lineup for the annual 3-on-3 tournament was all set until the fourth player, 6-8 Nick Klungel, begged off.
“Having played Hoopfest once before I know you need a fourth player,” said Ames, who’s trying to convince an old friend and another ex-tight end, Doug Wellsandt, to jump in.
“Doug said he’d never play in it again,” Ames said. “I guess he had a bad experience three years ago. Officials have made it better. That’s why we’re playing in the open division - you get an official and an extra T-shirt.”
Should Wellsandt decide to play, Ames’ team - Three Men And A Dentist (maybe that should be Three Men And A No-Show) - could make waves in the Action Sportswear open division.
Ames was a standout high school basketball player. The knee he had reconstructed in his Husky football days is strong.
“I feel fine and Troy is playing really well right now,” Ames said. “I haven’t seen John play in a while but he could always jump. If we find a fourth to come in for me we’ll at least be competitive.”
Ames, who lettered three seasons at Washington, from 1986 through ‘88, said he at first thought the S-R’s attempts to reach him had to do with UW coach Jim Lambright’s decision to pump more purple into the Husky color scheme.
The Huskies will wear white shoes next fall. They’re also changing the look of the headgear, from gold to purple, with a block W on both sides, trimmed in white.
“I talked to Lambo this week,” Ames said. “It’s amazing how much crap he takes for things like that. I think they look OK. The W looks nice.
“I like the purple helmets a lot better than the pants the Cougars wore in their (Alamo) bowl game. I don’t know what people thought of those.”
Washington State wore pants with a crimson and gray swirl in their Alamo appearance last December.
Color schemes aside, Ames said he and Wellsandt’s friendship goes back to AAU basketball in eighth grade.
“By the time we got to college he went one way and I went the other,” Ames said, “which was fortunate for me because if Doug had gone to Washington I probably never would have played.”
Ritzville’s Wellsandt played at WSU and later in the NFL with the New York Jets.
Ames says he stays involved in football as a volunteer coach at the new high school in Redmond, Eastlake. He’s not sure where that might lead.
“To coach full-time I’d have to start over,” he said. “If you have something going financially you’d have to love coaching to get into it. I’m not sure I love it that much.”
New champ in offing
There’s room at the top new champion is assured in the Action Sportswear men’s open division.
It looks as if NBC Thunder, last year’s 6-foot-and-over winner, will be a no-show - or, if it does play, it will be with a different lineup than last year.
Last year, former Pepperdine star Shann Ferch teamed with 6-11 Dave Wilson to win it with captain Ken Sugarman and Mark Crowell.
Sugarman, Ferch, Sheldon McLain and Steve Ball were registered this year as NBC Thunder.
Ferch is in Edmonton, three months away from finishing an internship on his way to a doctorate in psychology. He will be unable to play, Ferch confirmed this week.
Wilson, is also unavailable due to a commitment at a Northwest Basketball Camp.
That leaves the 6-8 Ball, who finished up at Western Baptist in Salem, Ore., as a spectator.
Ball’s brother, Phil, a Gonzaga University player, is another who won’t play in the tournament, for a different reason.
Hoopfest is an NCAA sanctioned event. GU assistant athletic director Mike Roth said the NCAA allows Division I players to participate with one team in only one sanctioned event per summer.
“If one of our players takes part in Hoopfest he can’t play in the Mead Summer League,” Roth said.
Coaches prefer to place players in a summer league as opposed to a one-weekend event.
The ruling will also keep GU’s Keith Kincaid out of Hoopfest, Roth said. Kincaid was to play with former Eastern Washington standout Kemo Patrick.
Roth said he talked to an NCAA spokesman.
“It’s anybody’s guess” what the NCAA would do to a player who did Hoopfest and a summer league, Roth said, but a D-I studentathlete could face an NCAA-imposed suspension for violating the rule.
“Typically for minor offenses the penalty might be a one-game suspension for the player,” Roth said.
Tips from a winner
Ferris High School’s Wayne Gilman, one of Washington state’s respected coaches, was asked how he’d direct a 3-on-3 team.
Gilman was interviewed by freelance writer Chris Gatewood, who sent a copy of the interview to the newspaper after an agreement to have it published by a magazine fell through.
“I think rebounding might be the most important thing,” Gilman advised. “It’s hard in a 3-on-3 game to find a guy to block out, so you can get murdered on the offensive boards. In 3-on-3 you don’t have to send a guard to defend against the long pass. In a half-court game all three players can crash the boards.”
Gilman favors a pass-and-screen patient approach.
“There’s no shot clock so you can just work the ball until you find the open man,” he said. “I don’t believe you can win Hoopfest by shooting from the outside. If you have a guard who can drive and kick it out to the big people you have an excellent chance of winning.”
A team short on talent can compensate with tough man-to-man defense.
“Maybe try a little double-teaming,” Gilman said. “Sometimes the team that works harder wins at Hoopfest.”
, DataTimes