Denver Brings Young Heat Kiddie Corps In Tough Against College-Bound 18-Year-Olds

The Denver Heat is facing a chilling experience. Every team the 18U basketball team plays in the next few days is going to have a huge edge in experience, size and numbers.

“They’re scared to death, to tell you the truth, but they’ll play hard,” Heat coach Kent Paul said.

The Heat has entries in both divisions of the AAU National Girls 18U and 16U Basketball Championships that start today at gyms from Cheney to Coeur d’Alene.

But it is the 18U team facing the impossible dream.

Players on the 114 teams are generally referred to by the year they just finished and many of the 18U seniors have signed to play basketball at Division I colleges. The juniors are just as accomplished, having played up because of birthdays or talent.

Not Denver. The Heat has a couple freshmen, sophomores and juniors on its roster - and two eighth graders.

The tallest stands 6 feet.

And of the 10 who planned to attend, four are injured and stayed home.

“The main reason we’re here is not to win, it’s to campaign in front of college coaches,” Paul said. “We have some very good girls.”

The Heat club had 22 girls playing 16U this season and split them into two teams, one qualifying for the 18s.

“AAU in Colorado is not real big; it’s just getting started,” Paul said.

The lights went out

About 1,200 girls marched into the Lilac Bowl at Riverfront Park for Opening ceremonies. However, by the time Stacy Clinesmith of Mead and Alli Neiman of Sandpoint brought in the Olympic-style torches, their lights had gone out. The fuel had all burned off.

Other than that, registration day for the 114 teams went relatively smoothly, including the opening, which featured women’s basketball star Andrea Lloyd as the speaker.

The torch procession was a nice touch, even if the light was out of highlight. The two Spokane Stars 18U veterans were accompanied by grade school players Katie Jo Murray and Katie Nauert.

There were a couple glitches. University High School didn’t get opened early enough for the 8 a.m. practices and some advance paperwork for registration sent to tournament headquarters at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park was misplaced.

Late Friday night. tournament director Ron Adams and assistant Dave Edwards were scrambling to find a shot clock for the Lake City gym. Idaho girls do not play with a shot clock and most schools in the area have theirs permanently stationed.

“This is the first time since I’ve been doing this, (registration) has been this well organized,” Ray Ingram, the coach at North Carolina-Asheville said.

Games begin this morning at 8:30 at nine sites and continue every 2 hours with the last games scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

There are three days of pool play with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the double-elimination tournament. The 18s have 10 pools and the 16s have 16.

The only thing left is for the games to be played.

Adams: Support your local Stars

“The fans need to come and support the games,” Adams said. “We can get a tournament back. This is a smaller town, but it’s a basketball town. They’ll come back with this tournament or (another age group) if the fans support the games.”

He has high hopes for all the Stars teams, two in each tournament.

“Whenever the Spokane Stars play I would expect a full house,” Adams said. “They’re our area superstars, they’ve been playing here for years and this may be the last time to see them.”

Tickets can still be purchased at game sites. It is $25 for an alltournament pass for adults, $15 for seniors and kids. One-day tickets are $6 and $4.

The championship games are next Saturday at Eastern Washington University.

Speaking of problems

The Georgia Trojans are a perennial power and they planned to arrive in Spokane on Wednesday, giving the team a couple of days to adjust.

First, their plane out of Georgia was pulled off the runway twice for mechanical problems. They were to leave at 7:05 p.m. but got off the ground at 11:30.

Then they missed their connecting flight and spent the night in Salt Lake City.

When they got to Spokane, their rental vans were gone. The company was nice enough to give them cars, but they had to return them later to pick up vans brought in from Seattle.

Fast breaks

Greg Cory, an assistant coach at Ferris for two years and long involved with the Spokane Stars before getting married in Indiana last December, is coaching the Spokane Stars 18U No. 1 team.

“Indiana is a neat place,” said Cory, who now works for Sentry Insurance. “The weather is the pits, but the people are incredibly friendly.”

During rollcall at the coaches meeting, when the Viking Stars of Moses Lake were called, it became Moose Lake. … Players, who have a lot of time to kill, especially if they have an 8:30 game, morning or night, can get into most theatres in Spokane for $3 if they show their player pass. … Word is, the Iowa Lady Gators, who play the 18U Spokane Stars No. 1 team, have a player-coach.

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