Border League Sends Ev, Wv Against Idaho Teams
Enough of life in the same old Frontier League. The West Valley and East Valley basketball teams are headed for the border.
The Border League, that is, an amalgam of four Washington high schools and five from Idaho.
The four-team Frontier League still exists as a means for regional tournament qualification.
But the entire Border schedule takes precedence when it comes to seeding those schools into the Washington state post-season.
“I like it a lot,” said East Valley boys coach Rich King. “I’d rather play five Idaho schools twice than three Frontier partners three times.”
He also likes the fact that all 16 Border games count toward district seeding for the four Washington schools.
“Even if you don’t do well against Frontier teams and do well against Idaho teams, you’re still in the thick of things,” he said.
King’s view isn’t necessarily a concensus. Other league coaches don’t embrace the new league so much as accept it. It is at present, they say, the best means to resolve a difficult scheduling situation.
“We’ll be doing it for a year or two,” said WV boys coach Joe Feist. “It’s a tough league, a competitive league.”
First Border League games will be played Dec. 9 instead of waiting until January as in past Frontier seasons.
Teams must get ready quickly and, as luck would have it, both Valley schools will field young teams.
Eagles replacing starting lineup
West Valley will be replacing five graduated starters with a roster that includes only one senior.
“It’s pretty wide open,” said Feist. “I anticipate using eight or nine players a night. We want to give kids an opportunity to show us they can play.”
Junior post Brad Groh and junior wing Eric Deno are the only players with much varsity experience.
A pair of sophomores, Kris Sly amd Tony Kopp, will be asked to run the team at point guard.
“They are very good, but will be under pressure,” said Feist, “because there are no seniors.”
The junior-dominated Eagle roster includes Sergio Allen, Chris Gregg, Ryan Browning, Andy Miller, Ryan Spivey, Kevin Lybarger and Chris Sorensen.
Sophomore John Focht and senior Eric Brosvik complete the lineup.
They give the team adequate size and athleticism, if little experience.
A Feist-coached team is well-prepared or else he wouldn’t have won nearly 80 percent of the time.
Last year’s Eagles finished out of first place for the first time in nearly a decade. They missed by a free throw, however, of qualifying for state in a league that produced two State AA semifinalists and the tournament runnerup.
Success this season, he said, won’t necessarily be measured in wins and losses, but improvement.
“We need to improve defensively. Young kids don’t understand how important it is,” said Feist. “We can shoot and jump well and are aggressive. I feel good about this team.”
New-look Knights also young
A youth movement at East Valley is evident. Three of the seven juniors on last year’s EV basketball team are all that remain.
“There’s not much differences between the first and second crew, which is not bad,” said King. “We have 10 kids of equal talent.”
Third-year point guard Mitch Johnson will be called upon to provide more offense. The other returnees are 6-foot-1 forward John Shogren and guard Garrett Smith.
“We’re not big again,” said King.
Among the newcomers are sophomore Andrew Burgess, who played a little at the end of last year, and post Blake Horgan.
Seniors Mike Sterling and James Martin, who played as a freshman before transferring to CV, are also new.
Up from junior varsity are juniors Adam Sitton, Steve Henderson, Dan Pooley, Jesse Quirk and Jeff Storey.
The Knights have departed from their uptempo game of past seasons.
“We’re going to play a control type of game this year,” said King. “We’ll break here and there but that’s not our focus. We’ll try to cut down on mistakes and pound the ball into the stronger kids.”
The players have high aspirations, he added, and will be competitive.
“Hopefully, things will go our way this year,” said King.
, DataTimes