Double Fun, Double Duty For Students
Ferris is getting a double dose of fun with its girls and boys teams in the State 4A basketball tournaments, but the double duty is cutting into the good times.
“The games are tough, but we’re so happy to be here,” senior cheerleader Brenda Klein said. “It would be more fun if we we had the whole day to shop.”
The schedule-maker has been anything but kind to Ferris. The boys played at noon Wednesday and the girls at 8 p.m.
Then it got worse. The boys played at 10:30 Thursday morning and the girls, once their 9:30 p.m. game started, didn’t get going until 10:15, finishing at 11:45. Obviously, the boys team couldn’t stick around for the girls game, but the girls didn’t get up for the 9 a.m. boys game on Friday. The cheerleaders and band did, however.
“We didn’t go to bed until 4 (a.m.),” Klein said. “We were staying up laughing, playing practical jokes.”
Ferris musicians are used to trips to state, but not the double duty. “It’s a lot harder on the lips, play for two games three or four days in a row,” senior trumpet player Chris Noland said. Senior piccolo player Emily Howard said, “It feels like the same thing (over and over) sometimes. It’s not fun waiting.”
Of course, with four days out of school, everyone is spending their spare time studying.
“We don’t have any time to study and the teachers gave us so much homework,” senior cheerleader Kim Weiber said.
Klein added, “It’s the state basketball tournament, no homework allowed.”
That’s Noland’s philosophy. “This is all for fun,” he said. “I didn’t even bother bringing it with me.”
Howard would like to study, she has a big test coming up, but the schedule is hurting.
“If I have time, I study when we get back to the hotel,” she said. “But the only time we were at the hotel yesterday was 30 minutes (before lights out).”
Not much time to study, but plenty of time for a good time.
Different stripes
In recent years, it has become harder for the GSL teams to get out of the regional with Big Nine teams. Ferris is the only GSL boys team to place over here since Central Valley in 1993.
It may be that the type of regular season the Big Nine teams go through prepares them for the playoffs in a way that GSL teams sometimes have to adjust to in postseason play.
“They (Big Nine teams) are a little more used to some (types of) officiating, or lack of officiating,” said Don Van Lierop, second-year coach at Eisenhower and a long-time Ferris assistant. “And with that sometimes comes a lot more physical play.”
Big Nine teams also travel to places where they get referees from three different associations as well as hostile crowds.
“It’s just accepted (the Big Nine) is very, very physical,” Van Lierop said. “That sets you up for the playoffs, when the games are more physical. Officials don’t want to dictate the outcome.”
Easterly breeze
Ferris sophomore Lisa Clifton did an outstanding job singing the national anthem before Friday’s morning games… . Wenatchee’s opening round win in the boys tournament was its first at state since 1955… . Davis’ last trip to state was in 1982, when current co-coach Shag Williams was the Pirates’ best player. … Richland’s girls are getting a trophy for the first time since 1983… . The Spokane officials at the 4A tournament are Randy Allen for the girls and Bob LaShaw and Ed Fiskland for the boys… . The University boys basketball team and Ferris cheerleaders earned academic titles.
30-second clock
The South Kitsap girls entered the tournament with three losses by a total of three points. Then the Wolves were bounced in two games, the last a nine-point loss to Central Valley. Didn’t their football season end a lot like that? … Melanie Brennan of the Seattle Times reported there are 23 girls in Washington who have already accepted Division I scholarships. Only two are GSL players at a time when six former GSL players are in the NCAA women’s tournament.
Boys bounces
Two of Garfield’s five losses were in a California tournament, to famed Crenshaw of Los Angeles and St. Anthony’s of New Jersey. … The Gig Harbor boys are at state for the seventh consecutive year, but first at the large-school level. … Andrew Twiss, a 6-5 forward who starts and averages 15 points for Prairie, led Lakeside of Plummer, to the Idaho state championship last year. He was a freshman at a private school in Vancouver, then went to Hudson’s Bay in Vancouver as a sophomore before the family moved to Idaho for a year.
, DataTimes