Two-sport standout

Dan Sanders was tipped off.

The senior football standout from Freeman High sat on the dais at the Davenport Hotel last month, one of 11 area football players nominated to receive the Ray Flaherty Award by the Inland Northwest Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

But as the master of ceremonies took out the trophy, Sanders spied the inscription.

“It had my name on it,” Sanders said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

It wasn’t so hard to believe. Sanders has been one of the Northeast A League’s top linemen the past two seasons and a first-team defender this season – starting both ways on two state playoff teams.

For his senior project, he helped lead the Scotties to an undefeated season until dropping a 29-7 decision to Royal in the state championship game – opening holes for All-State running back Kevin Hatch, who Wednesday was named the junior athlete of the year at the 27th annual Spokane Regional Sports Commission’s Sports Awards Luncheon.

And Sanders is doing it again. Going into Friday’s regular-season finale with visiting Newport – a team the Scotties beat 69-20 at Newport – Freeman was 17-2 and ranked No. 2 among Class 1A teams in the latest Associated Press poll.

“I think there was a definite carryover from football at the beginning of the basketball season,” Sanders said. “This is a small school, and there’s always excitement about the local teams, especially when we’re doing well. That carried over, too.”

Freeman’s only two losses this season, to Class 2A Lakeside and Pullman, came during that early stretch where key members of the basketball team – Sanders, Hatch, Andrew Wilkerson and Bryan Riggs – were still playing football.

“We got back from the state championship game, took a couple days off to kind of rest up, hit the gym for five days of practice and jumped right into playing games,” Sanders said. “That was actually pretty cool.

“But there’s a difference between being in football shape and being in basketball shape.

“In football, you train for short bursts of energy. In basketball you’re running hard up and down the court, and it requires a different kind of shape.”

As a 6-foot-3 post, Sanders isn’t the tallest player on the floor. But, he says, his football skills help even the size differential.

“Playing football makes me a lot more comfortable getting in there and playing a physical game,” he said. “I’m much more comfortable getting into traffic and banging around.

“Sometimes I’ll even commit a hard foul early just to let an opponent know that I’m there and I’m not afraid to bang around.”

The strength of this year’s basketball team, Sanders said, is its depth.

“This is by far the deepest team Freeman has had,” he said. “We have 10 players who can get out there and play at any time, in every game. We have 10 players who are all capable of scoring any night.

“We have Malcolm (Soelberg), who we usually like to see be our leading scorer, but really, anyone can step up and fill that role.”

Sanders is part of a senior class that has never failed to reach the State 1A tournament in Yakima’s SunDome – a string he has no intention of seeing snapped.

Last year’s Freeman team struggled to find its footing throughout the regular season, posting a record that hovered near .500 until the start of the playoffs. From there, the Scotties caught fire and climbed all the way to the state semifinals, where the team lost to eventual champion Brewster.

Knowing what his own team was able to do last year has Sanders on his toes going into his final postseason.

“You have to be wary of that,” he said. “I don’t see this team making that mistake and taking an opponent lightly.

“But there is pressure being a ranked team the way that we are. The expectations are pretty high: If you do anything other than reach the state championship game, you’re falling short.”

For Sanders, the future lies in football.

“I’m going to play football at Whitworth next year,” he announced. “I already have an academic scholarship lined up, and since my mother works at Whitworth, we get a break in tuition.

“I’m excited about playing there. It’s a great football program, and there are already a couple of my Freeman teammates playing there: Jon Dresback and Mike Parker.”