Shadle Coach’s Bad Dream Becomes Mead’s Nightmare

Sunday morning, Linda Sheridan woke up from a nightmare in which her Shadle Park Highlanders had to play top-ranked, defending champion Prairie in the first round of the girls State AAA high school basketball tournament.

When Sheridan learned of the draw for the tournament that starts Wednesday morning in the Kingdome, she received some good news - the sixth-ranked Highlanders (22-4) face No. 5 Kent Meridian (21-3), not Prairie.

The bad news is that Jeanne Helfer’s third-ranked Mead Panthers (22-3) play Prairie’s Falcons (22-0) in the 10:30 a.m. game.

“I guess it was telepathy,” Sheridan said. “I was having Jeanne’s nightmare, rather than ours… . ours isn’t much better.”

The Sunday afternoon draw at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association office in Bellevue has created a little stir.

Greater Spokane League and Big Nine Conference members have assumed, since the Eastern AAA Regional Tournament was created eight years ago, that the two teams in the Eastern championship game would be treated as No. 1 seeds because two leagues combined their state tournament allocations. Among the guidelines for the blind drawing for firstround pairings is one that says a No. 1 seed cannot play another No. 1 in the first round.

Saturday, Kamiakin beat Mead 30-27 for the Lamb Weston regional title. Helfer, who attended the draw, was under the impression the game was meaningless except for pride.

“It’s not fair,” she said. “We were told in the regional we were a No. 1 seed, no matter what happened. “When I came over here, that was not the case.”

Not that it matters when the Panthers play Prairie. Helfer has adopted the philosophy you have to beat the best to be the best and the upper half of the bracket is loaded.

The girls’ tournament has 11 teams back from last year, including seven of the eight placers. Seven stateveteran clubs, four placers, are in the upper half of the bracket. The top six teams in the final power poll are in the same bracket, including secondranked Rogers of Puyallup (23-1), the only one of the eight teams that wasn’t in Seattle last year.

The tournament opens at 9 a.m. with Olympic (15-8) playing Sammamish (21-5). Both were at state last year with Olympic finishing seventh after eliminating Shadle Park in double overtime. Sammamish returns 10 players from last year.

The fourth game pits Rogers against a fourth-ranked Lake Washington team (23-2) that was sixth a year ago.

“The opportunity to be one of the top 16 gives you the opportunity to start over and be one of the top ones,” Sheridan said. “To tell the truth, when it gets down to tournament time, you’re not going to do too much different… . We’re just going to take our package and put it out on the floor and see what happens. Our league is so competitive, if you get out of it, when you take your stuff over there, you should be prepared.”

Helfer agreed.

“If you’re going to go to the top and be the best team in Washington, you have to beat them sometime,” she said. “Some people feel it’s better to play them early. We feel we’re a pretty good team but we have to come ready to play. I think everybody is counting us out… . I don’t think you’re going to convince my girls they don’t need to come over here.”

The boys tournament has a completely different look. Only six teams return, including three placers, although all of the final top 10 made it through qualifying tournaments.

On the other hand, top-ranked Evergreen of Vancouver (22-0) is making its second appearance and the first was in 1963, Lake Washington (20-6) hasn’t been to state since 1959, Sammamish (15-11) has been absent since 1979, Hudson’s Bay (18-8) of Vancouver last appeared in 1964, and Kentwood (18-7) has never been to state.

Defending champion Ferris, along with everyone else in the GSL, is on the sidelines, marking the fifth straight year the champion has failed to make a return trip.

Eastern regional champ Kamiakin (21-4) faces Bethel (12-13) at noon, the game after Richland (23-4), third at regional, meets Kentwood.

See State AAA pairings in Stat sheet, C4