Getting His Points Across With Hutchens At The Controls, Bulldogs Target Unfinished Business

Jay Webber searched for words to describe Will Hutchens when Tim Coles interrupted to add his scouting report.

Hutchens? asked Coles, the Garfield-Palouse coach. Guy can’t shoot. Bad attitude. No help out there at all.

Coles and Webber enjoyed a hearty laugh, but Webber may have the last laugh.

As coach of Hutchens and the other Dayton Bulldogs, Webber enters this week’s State B Tournament with a live wire.

Dayton (24-1) returns its entire starting lineup from last year’s fifth-place state team.

The Bulldogs’ lone loss, to Reardan, came when several of the players were busy winning the B-11 football title in the Kingdome.

One notable exception was Hutchens, who, at 6-foot3 and 195 pounds, would have made quite a target for quarterback Matt Talbott.

But Hutchens’ game isn’t played on grass. He tried football in junior high, yet his focus has seldom strayed from becoming the best possible basketball player.

State B workers and reporters had no doubt as to the identity of last tournament’s best player. Hutchens, then a junior, was the only unanimous choice for first-team all-tournament.

And this was a player whose team had no hope for anything better than fifth place after an opening-day loss to Liberty.

“He does so many things that make us better,” Webber said. “I’m glad he’s on our team and not somebody else’s.”

Hutchens led tournament scorers with 94 points. His 36 rebounds trailed only Darrington’s Gerald Sherrill and Liberty’s Jeff Mix.

In typical self-effacing style, Hutchens said, “There were times I had mental lapses, especially on the third and fourth days.”

Uh, Will, those were wins.

“We can’t complain too much for placing fifth,” Hutchens agreed. “Our town was really excited. I thought we could have done better, but it didn’t work out.”

Hutchens is a rarity among Class B big men, in that he can lead a fastbreak or run the floor like a guard.

The Bulldogs senior said his father taught him to keep up his head and watch the court when dribbling.

Bob Hutchens played college ball at Yakima Valley Community College.

Proud dad’s other son, Clay, is a 5-11 sophomore guard with many of Will’s mannerisms and traits. The difference between brothers is obvious, Will said.

“He’s tougher than I am, I think,” Will Hutchens said. “He had to be because he didn’t grow until late.”

Will has started all four years for Webber. The coach, a former state-champion player at Coulee-Hartline, is uncertain if Hutchens can play Division I basketball.

“But he’s really committed to it,” Webber said. “He did everything during the fall to get there.”

Yet sometimes, as Hutchens watched the Bulldogs roll to another football win, he felt a minor urge to kick himself for being on the sidelines.

“This year I just felt like it was too late to start,” Hutchens said.

Dayton defeated Toutle Lake for the football title. The prospect of a rematch in basketball has crossed the players’ minds, Hutchens said.

But Dayton knows from its District 9 championship game with Gar-Pal - a four-point win - that there’s no looking ahead. Hutchens had, for him, an average game with 16 points. But he created points for his teammates.

“That’ll be the worst game you’ll see him play in the next four,” Webber said. “I guarantee you that.”

Once the season ends, Hutchens will seriously weigh his college options. For a career, he’d like to follow his wheat-farming father into the agricultural field.

The following fields overflowed: SECTION = 1995 STATE B BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT