It Isn’t Easy, But Riverside Rises Rams Play For League Lead After Rough Going Early

Only a saint could have blocked out the audible grumblings after the Newport girls beat Riverside 33-30 on Dec. 12.

Riverside coach Chris Wren heard the moaning and griping from the Rams faithful. After all, the armchair quarterbacks weren’t exactly whispering their concerns.

That night’s major theme: The young Rams were in over their heads and in danger of experiencing damaged psyches.

Newport held Riverside to one point in the first half. Although the Rams rallied in the second half, their record stood at 1-3 with their first foray into the Frontier League just three weeks away.

Understand this: Riverside was coming off a successful season that included a share of the Northeast A title and a berth at the State A Tournament. Alana Carlander, the school’s alltime girls scoring leader, had graduated but nine players were back from the 1994-95 roster.

As for losing to Newport - Newport!? - the Grizzlies were considered an NEA middle-of-the-pack team. Conventional wisdom said the Rams were clearly in trouble against big, bad AA teams.

Conventional wisdom, in this case, wasn’t too wise. Newport turned out to be solid, the lone team to beat second-ranked Colfax this year. The other teams to beat Riverside during its slow start were Connell (13-1 and ranked fifth among the A’s) and defending Idaho State A-1 champion Lake City.

On Dec. 19, against Lakeland of Idaho, Riverside began winning. Now the Rams (8-3), who haven’t lost in five weeks, travel to ninthranked Cheney on Friday with the Frontier League lead at stake.

“You’re not going to get me to admit it’s been easy,” Wren said. “We’re 3-0, (in the league) but we’ve won three games by nine points.”

Still, two of the wins were over preseason favorites East Valley and West Valley. The victory over WV occurred without leading scorer Bernice Stime, who attended her brother’s wedding.

“They did really well,” said Stime, a sophomore averaging a shade better than 10 points per game. “More people have been playing better and stepping it up.”

Unlike the Carlander-led Rams of old, this collection has no go-to player. Yet any of seven or eight players could cash in for double figures.

Junior Nicki Snyder, Stime’s replacement in the WV game, has averaged 10.3 points during league games. Sophomores Abbey Wood and Keshia Shorts are always around 7-8 ppg. Jill Thompson, one of three seniors on the roster, draws most starting assignments.

“From one game to the next I don’t know who (the leader) will be,” Wren said. “But that’s made us maybe a little more difficult to defend.”

Senior Lynn Whittekiend, the second or third player off the bench, had the opportunity for extra court minutes when her father landed a job at Selkirk. Whittekiend vetoed the transfer to the Class B school.

“It’s kind of a team thing,” said Whittekiend, one of the team’s top outside shooters. “I get less playing time, but I can help out this team.”

Whittekiend said the prospect of playing defending league champion Cheney has the Rams excited, yet cautious. In a non-league game last year, Cheney beat Riverside by jumping to a 15-0 lead.

“I don’t know if you want to say we’re scared … but last year they just whomped on us,” Whittekiend said.

“It was 15-0 off the bat, before we could blink,” Wren said. “Until somebody can beat them, they’re the queens of the mountain.”

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