Agents Have Open Division Covered Insurance Guys Defend Title After Acquiring Policy Holder

They’re no longer the midwestern surprise.

Team State Farm finally has a reputation to match its success.

As defending champion of the Action Sportswear 6-foot-and-over open division, the team is a monument to company solidarity - three State Farm agents and a policy holder.

There is one new wrinkle. When open division teams start banging today on seven courts on Spokane Falls Boulevard between Post and Howard, State Farm will be without its big man, 6-7 Brian Kasbar.

Kasbar set this week aside for vacation.

Back trying to repeat are 6-foot guard Aaron Smith, an ex-quarterback at Chadron (Neb.) State, and 6-5 Jon Bergmeier, a hoop star at Kearney (Neb.) State. Smith is from Ogalalla, Neb., Bergmeier from Omaha.

Kasbar’s replacement is Mike Werner. State Farm’s fourth is 6-6 Dave Christy, who played baseball at Washington State.

As for basketball, Christy said, “I never actually played anywhere.”

This man has a real feel for his basketball self-worth.

“I’m our worst player,” he said. “I really don’t know how we do it. We aren’t the most imposing team, but we’ve shot unbelievably well. Chemistry and shooting are keys for us.

“I’ve known these guys through conventions and whatnot. Everybody else golfs. We play basketball.”

Christy said a quick start carried the team all the way a year ago.

“Our first game we played (Jason) Hull’s team (Hull is back with perennial open division threat Send It In). We beat them something like 20-4. They were in shock. That set the tone for the whole thing.”

After winning Hoopfest, State Farm went on to Portland.

“Hoopfest gave us an automatic entry to any Hoop It Up we wanted to play in, plus airline tickets,” Christy said. “We picked Portland. The Nebraska guys like coming out here. There’s not too much going on in Nebraska.”

Christy describes himself as “good enough to be on the team, but not good enough to play too much.”

As a pitcher he was, well, good enough to be on the team, but not good enough to play too much. (“A guy named Olerud kept me on the bench,” he says).

“I have a (WSU) coat and a picture of me on the team,” he added. “I pitched when they knew we had a win. I was strictly mop-up. Just say I was used sparingly. That’ll get me off the hook with anybody who might remember that far back.”

Christy said he left WSU after the ‘87 season for Division III Dennison (Ohio), near Columbus. The job keeps him in the area (he’s an ‘84 Lewis and Clark High graduate).

Now that everybody knows your name, is there a repeat brewing?

“We’ve got nowhere to go but down,” Christy said, “but don’t say that. I guess we could stay even. That’d be good enough.”

A Cruise, he’s not

Steve Ranniger was a record-setting running back out of University High School (1985), and good enough to play Pac-10 basketball at Oregon.

At 6-3 and 195 pounds, he set Greater Spokane League records for touchdowns (38) and rushing yards (2,901), then scored more than 17 points per game for a 22-3 basketball team that made it to the state AAA semifinals his senior year.

Few were as versatile.

A decade later Ranniger knows how the body changes when age and responsibility connect and sport takes a back seat to business.

Now 29, Ranniger sells for a company that markets exercise equipment like treadmills and exercise bikes. “I spend more time selling them than using them,” he said. “I’m in the worst shape of my life.”

There’s a certain degree of sandbagging here, for Ranniger comes in with 6-10 Greg Senior, a teammate at Oregon, and Dave Blair. They’re good enough to win on size and talent alone - and also honest enough to name themselves Outa Shape.

“Mentally, we’re back,” Ranniger prompted. “Physically, it’s really Mission Impossible and I can only wish I looked like Tom Cruise.

“We’re big and physical. And slow.”

Stern test but a good grade

Greg Stern is one of the fortunate few who aimed high and finally settled for the best he could do.

Three months ago, he moved to Bellevue to take a job with a placement company. He’s back on a team known as Dewood Dunkers with a shooter out of Carroll College named Bill Pilgrim and a teammate from Community Colleges of Spokane, Steve Kroiss.

There was a time when Stern probably worked too hard.

“I always thought I could play Division I, so I walked on at Washington State (out of Lewis and Clark High, 1989),” he said. “Eventually, I broke down with physical exhaustion and left school.”

Stern worked out, grew and played for coach Sam Brasch at CCS.

“We had a great year,” Stern said. “I still thought I had Division I ability. I took another year off, lifting and playing. I worked the Stockton camp every summer. I worked as hard as I possibly could.

“I was a gym rat. Still am.”

Stern abandoned the D-I dream and finished up at NAIA Division II Whitworth, a decision he says he doesn’t regret.

“We got off to a slow start, but I think we helped get something going there,” said Stern, a senior in 1995.

He’d like to take something home this year “besides pride.

“I’ve played every Hoopfest but one, and I think size alone doesn’t get it done for you,” he said. “You need a shooter, a banger and a creator. If you’re not diversified, you get a lot of standing around, throwing up bricks.”

It beats the alternatives

He’s ancient by the standards he keeps.

Willie Brown is 45, and if an older player has ever competed in one of the six previous Hoopfest open divisions, the event’s executive director doesn’t know about him.

Brown’s team - Seattle Legends - includes 6-8 forward Greg Trapp, a double-digit scorer a decade ago in his senior year at Oregon, guard Jerome Johnson and rebounder Rance Glasper.

Although this is Brown’s first Hoopfest, he’s no stranger to street ball.

“Three years ago, we won the Hoop It Up over here (in Seattle) and went on to play in California,” he said. “We’ve got the guys I played with three years ago. We’re coming over to win it.”

Aren’t you just a little old for this level?

“I might be in as good a condition as anybody on this team,” Brown said. “I play on a pro-am team over here, the Seattle Stars. I’ve been lucky. This is my natural weight. I’ve been 192 pounds for 30 years.”

Brown’s dream was to make it with the Sonics in the late 1970s. He never got that far, but he says he hung out for a while with some who did - Vinnie Johnson and James Bailey - and “I still play with (ex-Sonic) Fred Brown now and again.”

At an age when most have dropped down, dropped out or dropped over, Brown says he belongs in tough open company. “I know the game and it keeps me young,” he said.

The key to carrying your game into middle age?

Watch the weight and learn the short-cuts, he said.

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do,” he added. “I’m still a pretty good shooter. I can pass and penetrate, for my age, and I hate jogging.”

, DataTimes