Working hard

Whenever West Valley boys basketball coach Jamie Nilles orders an extra set of wind sprints, senior guard Danny McIntyre is ready to lead the way.
After a 23-4 junior season that saw the Eagles finish fourth at least year’s State 3A high school tournament, McIntyre saw first-hand why conditioning is crucial to success.
“When you play four games in four days like you do at state, you really understand what all that conditioning is all about,” McIntyre said. “By that fourth game you’re playing on heart because your body is exhausted.
“But the thing that impressed me the most was the top two teams at state last year (two-time champion O’Dea from Seattle and runner-up Mark Morris from Longview). For both of those teams, the five starters played every minute of every game – four days in a row. I asked myself if I could do that if I had to, and I don’t know that I could. So now, when the coach wants us to get in some extra running or extra conditioning, I’m ready to go. Now I know why they stress things like that.”
With five victories in their first six games, the Eagles have no need for an iron-man lineup and are frequently on the short list of state title contenders. That happens when you place at state and return virtually your entire lineup.
“I think some of us expected to come in and pick right up where we left off last year,” McIntyre said. “That hasn’t exactly happened. We’re not hitting on all cylinders yet. But we will. Last year it wasn’t until we got into the Greater Spokane League part of the schedule before we really got it together.
“We have to keep working hard.”
The Eagles completed their nonleague schedule Tuesday with a home game against Lakeside. West Valley opens the GSL season Tuesday at Mt. Spokane, a team the Eagles spanked, 71-33, in a nonleague game. Friday night the Eagles host North Central, the only team to have beaten them thus far this season, 63-58 at NC in the third game of the season.
Much attention has been placed on this season around the high school. And anticipation was high through the fall sports season – even as many basketball players played football.
“Some of us have been champing at the bit, waiting for this season to start,” McIntyre said. “We started getting ready for this season as soon as we got back from Tacoma.”
The hard work’s paid off.
Starting posts E.J. Richardson and Tyler Hobbs are markedly more athletic than they were a year ago. Both improved their lateral quickness and are even tougher inside defenders. Swingman Greg Bradley is perhaps the team’s most athletic player.
“Oh, man, is he ever,” McIntyre said. “Greg has a 36-inch vertical this season. People think of him as a baseball player, but he’s jumping right out of the gym.”
And McIntyre, who usually draws his opponent’s point guard as a defensive assignment, is even more tenacious at both ends of the floor.
“That’s my role: guard their point,” he said. “Beyond that, if I can knock down a shot or two or make a key pass here and there, I’m doing my job.”
It’s a job he’s been doing now for a decade.
“This group of seniors has been together since we were all in second grade,” McIntyre said. “We started out playing basketball together. Most of us drifted off to play other sports, too. But basketball has always been a special bond.
Not only did the seniors grow up together in the West Valley School District, many of them are second-generation Eagles. McIntyre’s father, Mark McIntyre, is a former Eagle. Casey Sherrill, McIntyre’s cousin, is the son of former all-league fullback/catcher Joe McIntyre. Hobbs is the son of West Valley grad Dan Love.
Danny McIntyre remembers sitting at center court, watching West Valley basketball teams and dreaming about one day being an Eagle.
“We used to sit right on the floor in the first row of bleachers,” he said. “I remember all those teams and all those players. We went to all of the summer camps and loved it when we got to work with the players.”
Those interactions make McIntyre sharply aware of his influence on future West Valley players.
“It does make me aware of how I conduct myself on the court,” he said. “You’re representing the school, so you have to play hard but still be aware of your sportsmanship. I learned how to conduct myself by watching the players who came before me, and I want to pass those lessons on to the next generation.”