Townsend Big Reason Freeman Tops League

Youth has been served and served well for Freeman High School’s boys basketball team.

Two of its three scoring leaders - point guard Tanner Townsend and post player Jeff Hyndman - are juniors. Indeed, there are only four seniors on the entire varsity.

Yet the Scotties have carried on where last year’s state qualifying team left off, and then some.

After two early season losses to the two top-rated B schools in Washington, Freeman this year reeled off 20 successive wins.

“Doug Goldsmith (a 1970 Freeman graduate) was telling me he couldn’t remember a time any team from Freeman had this many wins in a row,” said Scotties coach Mike Thacker. “It’s a first as far as he knows.”

The streak was as much a surprise to Thacker as Townsend’s effort has been to both coach and player.

But it shouldn’t really have been that unexpected. Townsend is a cousin of John Focht, the West Valley post player who helped the Border League Eagles duplicate Freeman’s Northeast A League championship.

“We spent a lot of time together playing basketball. All kinds of sports, really,” said Townsend. “Sports has just been in our family and is something we’ve been around a lot.”

Following a slow start this year, Townsend became Freeman’s regular season scoring leader with a 14.9 average. Included have been five games of 20 points or more.

“I really didn’t expect this,” said Townsend, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound athlete. “I’ve never been a huge scorer.”

Townsend was good enough to play a back-up varsity role his sophomore year and travel with the Scotties to the State A Tournament in Tacoma. It was, he said, a “rush” to experience the spectacle, even if he played a total of maybe 3 minutes.

Thacker figured Townsend would start at a guard this year. He earned his spot at the point with a strong summer effort.

“The young kids, Jeff and Tanner, came leaps and bounds,” Thacker said.

But he didn’t really anticipate Freeman would have the kind of season it has enjoyed. The Scotties were unbeaten in league and against 2A Great Northern League schools. Twice they handily beat GNL champion Chewelah.

They did it with an aggressive pressing defense uncharacteristic for a Thacker-coached team. Townsend orchestrated the smooth transition to a patterned offense.

“He probably throws a one-handed pass as well as any I’ve seen,” said Thacker. “He throws a quick ball so if you want it you better have your hands up. And he’s such a competitior. Sometimes I have to pull the reins in a bit.”

Townsend admitted that he loves to compete and hates most of all to lose. It wasn’t easy sitting on the bench last year, he said, and credits his scoring surge with becoming comfortable again as a starter.

Hyndman was right behind Townsend in regular-season scoring with a 14.8 average. Senior Bill DePell is scoring at a 13.8 clip. Six players scored in double figures at least once during the season.

“We have guys who can run and get up the floor,” said Townsend. “I think we are willing to sacrifice our bodies for the team.”

The Scotties, said Thacker, were a team that went into every game saying there was no way they were going to lose.

“It’s an attitude you have to have,” he said.