This Is Not Your Mother’s Hoops Game

Before the start of the basketball game, the team captains met at mid-court.

There were three girls from Wilbur-Creston High School. Two from Sprague-Harrington High.

All offered sweet, genuine smiles as they shook hands and prepared to listen to the referees. There was no intimidating posturing. No ridiculous glaring.

The yellow-walled gym in Reardan (the newer of the school’s two gyms) was mostly full for the Bi-County League Tournament game Saturday. And the horns-and-drums pep bands managed to fill in all the empty spaces with high-energy sound.

The aroma of hamburgers, the sight of solemn parents and the sound of the timekeeper’s buzzer rounded out the scene.

Three Wilbur-Creston girls with fine voices, including a basketball player and a cheerleader, sang the national anthem.

Then, shortly before 6 p.m., the game started.

The sweet smiles were history. Grimacing, wincing competitive intensity took over.

If it has been a few decades since you last saw a girls’ high school basketball game, you might not recognize the fast-paced modern version.

Wilbur-Creston, in white-and-blue uniforms, shot out to a 15-0 lead before red-and-white-clad Sprague-Harrington’s first basket. And it was 25-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Up in the stands, some of the Wilbur-Creston parents were verbally mapping out the road to the state championship.

A pair of teenage boys who apparently didn’t go to either school sat on the Wilbur-Creston side and critiqued the play. They were impressed with some of what they saw. “That chick was outrunning her and SHE was dribbling,” one boy said of a Sprague-Harrington girl’s fast-break layup.

They didn’t have a program, so they didn’t know her name.

The Sprague-Harrington Falcons included Jenny, Stacey, Missy, Miranda, Mandi, Tracey, Angelique, Sammi, Kristy, Carly, Amber and Charly.

The Wilbur-Creston Wildcats were Sarah, Chantel, Janelle, Lindsey, Ronee, Jennifer, Alyssa, Lisa, another Lindsey, Catherine, Nicole and Mindy.

One little boy in the stands looked pretty bored as Wilbur-Creston moved toward victory. But then someone he seemed to recognize came off the bench and went into the game. The little kid stood up and yelled. “C’mon, Sissy!” Nobody had ever told that boy that his role model couldn’t be a chick.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that looks at gatherings in the Inland Northwest.