Patience Pays Off Commitment, Team Unity, Dedicated Coaching Have Brought Titans To Post-Season Play This Season

Thu., Nov. 2, 2000

By Mike Vlahovich mikev@spokesman.com (509) 927-2180

A blend of experience and youth has taken University High’s football team to the brink of unprecedented success.

What made the accomplishment even sweeter for U-Hi is that the Titans’ 6-1 record came at the expense of rival Central Valley, a team U-Hi last defeated in 1993.

“There was a feeling in the air that night,” said Titans coach Mike Ganey of the 28-14 win at CV last Friday. “It felt good. It felt real good.”

University is assured a post-season playoff berth and can share the Greater Spokane League championship with a victory over Mt. Spokane at Joe Albi Stadium tonight.

If the Titans and Mead both win, U-Hi will also become the No. 1 playoff seed for the first time in school history.

No matter the outcome of tonight’s season finale, it has been nine seasons since U-Hi has gone this far.

And if there was no other lesson learned than this, it is that patience is a virtue.

University was 11-33-1 in Ganey’s first five seasons as coach, the highlights being 1993’s 6-0 upset of CV and a 4-4 record in 1995.

But he stuck with it and the school’s administration stuck by him. The last three seasons, Titan teams have gone 16-9 and made two playoff appearances.

The turnaround began in 1997 under the leadership of Ryan Metcalf and Chris Short, said Ganey.

“They bought into our philosophy and believed in what we were going to do,” he said. “Everything grew after that.”

Commitment that begins in June each year, daily lunches and film sessions during the season, community outreach volunteering with such programs as Big Brothers and Sisters, Valley Hospital and Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, helped create team unity.

Results on the field became a visible by-product. So far this season U-Hi has compiled its best record since 1991 and has a chance to duplicate its best record ever.

Nine veterans joined by seven newcomers provided the Titans with a stifling defense, overseen by Ryan Ellersick and Scott Florin, and a solid offense that included big-play performer Don Turner and solid quarterbacking by Chris Gross.

Central Valley was the only team to score more than a touchdown in a game against the Titans, who start seven junior defenders, including two-year starters Florin and Turner.

“We felt the juniors had the raw talent to play defensively,” said Ganey. “It was just a matter of gaining experience.”

Senior team captains led the offense with Bruce Hart powering behind fullback Cam Lovinger, twoway linemen Chris Paxton, John Cox and tight end Rocky Visintainer.

“It all started with those guys,” said Ganey, of U-Hi’s season to remember.

Which was the product of a season they refused to forget. After starting last year 5-0, the Titans dropped a one-point thriller to Shadle Park, which started a downhill spiral of losses to the Bears and Wildcats.

“We left everything on the field with Shadle and were not able to recover. I take full responsibility for that,” said Ganey. “I think it made us mature as a team and to reflect on how necessary it is to improve each day and not dwell on the past.”

Which has made for a present of pure joy.

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