Extra Helping Improves Menu At Aaa Tourney

The concrete bunker passed the test.

Most high school basketball fans wandering around the Kingdome last week seemed pleased to watch the boys and girls State AAA games under one roof.

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive director Mike Colbrese was all smiles during the first combined State AAA boys and girls tournaments.

“I don’t want to say everything (is perfect). Overall, the vast majority is positive,” he said last week. “This is the first time we’re here. We’ll get better.”

Most of the grumbling heard by Colbrese was second-hand.

Some boys teams missed the Seattle Coliseum, which is being remodeled, but few girls coaches even mentioned the dingy, old Seattle Center Arena.

A Kingdome scheduling conflict will return the Class AAA tournament to the old sites next year, but Colbrese is hopeful the tournament will return to the dome in 1997, and definitely by 1998.

“It works out so well administratively because our fans are in the same building,” Colbrese said. “We want to do it again.”

Colbrese also is examining tournament brackets so girls teams can play a game on the boys court before reaching the final.

The semifinal attendance was 8,879.

Best cheer

Mercer Island and Lake Washington cheering sections got into a fun exchange during Saturday’s third-place boys games involving each team’s senior star, 6-foot-1 Terik Brown of MI and 6-5 Donald Watts of LW, who is headed to the University of Washington.

Mercer Island started it with: “We’ve got Terik, yes we do, we’ve got Terik, how about you?”

LW countered with “We’ve got Donald, yes we do, we’ve got Donald how about you?”

MI: “Terik’s bet-ter, Terik’s better.”

LW: “Donald’s cu-ter, Donald’s cu-ter.”

MI: “Terik’s buf-fer.”

LW: “Donald’s tal-ler.”

MI: “Terik’s smart-er.”

LW: “Scholar-ship. Scholar-ship. Scholar-ship.”

That silenced Mercer Island, which won the game 56-46. Brown has recruiting visits lined up to Oregon and Portland.

Going nowhere

Six hours before Evergreen of Vancouver was to meet Sammamish in the boys AAA title game, the Plainsmen piled into an elevator at the Vance Hotel, where they were staying, to head for a shoot-around.

The elevator, with all but two players aboard, became stuck. By the time members of the Seattle Fire Department arrived, the players were stripped to their underwear in the steamy elevator.

B-igger

A historical first made the State B tournaments in Spokane bigger and better.

Attendance for the boys in the Coliseum was 42,187, up 660, while the girls went to 17,001, an increase of 598.

The totals went up despite the change from three sessions to two during the first two days, meaning there was one less chance to count spectators.

For the first time since the girls tournament began in 1978, there were 32 schools represented in Spokane.

Revenue was also up, the boys going from $114,035 to $132,513 and the girls from $43,742 to $54,199.

Tournament manager Clayton Dunn also thought it was time, since the tournaments will be combined in the new arena next year, everyone knew what a great job Andy Leitheiser, the city’s liaison with the B, and his crew have done.

Star qualities

Jennifer Stinson of Davenport, the state’s all-time leading scorer in basketball, was named Player of the Year by the News Tribune in Tacoma. She was also a finalist for the Seattle Times Player of the Year. The Tacoma paper also put Mead junior Stacy Clinesmith on its first team and Shadle senior Kelly Bartleson on the second team.

By the way, Shadle’s 5-9 Kristen Miller tied for second in rebounding at state with Foss’ 6-3 Tatum Brown. They averaged 11 boards per game, and each totalled 33.

Deadeye Don

During football season, North Central basketball coach Don VanLierop predicted, in writing, the order finish in the GSL boys race. He hit it right on the nose, even the way the tiebreakers turned out.