‘Like having a coach on the floor’

It’s not about points.

It’s not about stats at all.

For Landon Page, it’s all about being a West Valley basketball player.

“I remember being in the seventh and eighth grade at St. John Vianney and coming to watch West Valley home games,” the senior point guard said. “My friends and I would sit at midcourt, across from the coaches so we could watch everything that happened. I remember wanting so much to be a part of that. Those were great teams, and I want to carry on that legacy. For them and for the kids who are sitting at midcourt watching us play.”

Page’s contribution to this year’s squad are many and varied – on a 19-3 team a game away from earning a berth in the State 3A boys basketball tournament going into Friday’s game against Hanford in Richland.

A senior off the bench, Page brings an element of control and intelligence to the Eagles – a style of play West Valley coach Jamie Nilles likens to having “a coach on the floor.”

“I’m 5-foot-10 and I can’t jump,” Page laughs. “I have to find other ways to contribute.”

Nilles, for one, is very appreciative.

“Landon takes a lot of pride in making a contribution to the program, whether that means he’s playing a lot of minutes or a few minutes,” Nilles said. “But that’s just a part of his contribution. With Landon, it’s leadership by example. It’s about being at practice early, it’s about going to class and being one of the best students in the school, and it’s about being a leader for the younger guys.

“He’s very knowledgeable about the game. He’s like having a coach on the floor.”

That’s a role Page takes to heart.

“I take that very seriously,” Page said. “I feel like I need to understand what it is the coaches want us to do during the game, because there are a lot of times in the game when it gets so loud that we can’t always hear the coaches.”

Page has been a spark plug off the bench, relieving junior starter Arton Toussaint as a change-of-pace to Toussaint’s high-speed game.

When senior Rashad Toussaint was out for disciplinary reasons during the season, Page was one of several players to step up to fill the void.

“We had to step up with Rashad out,” Page said. “He brought a big boost of energy off the bench. We didn’t play as well without him, but we all had to step up together as a team.

“It was tough for his younger brother, Arton, too. He had to go home every night and face his brother, and he went into kind of a funk there for a while, and we tried to support him, too.

“The thing is, we all just got that much closer. Then we got Rashad back, and now we’re closer than ever.”

That, Page said, is Eagle basketball in a nutshell.

“The thing about West Valley is our chemistry,” he said. “People like to come watch us because we make passes, we make hustle plays. We all play that much better as a team than we do as individuals. If one player extends to make a play, someone else is there to back him up. We just work hard, and when our chemistry is there, we can be unstoppable.”

It’s about doing the little things to help each other out.

“That’s one of our big things,” Nilles said. “It’s tough to have one or two guys bring it every night, so there are going to be times when we need someone to come off the bench and play well for us and contribute. Landon was doing that a lot for us at the beginning of the season and he’s back doing that for us again late in the season.”

Now, in the playoffs, it’s a heady time at West Valley.

The Eagles beat Ellensburg Monday on their home court – a victory that set the campus abuzz and brought the team to the brink of a state tournament berth – something that eluded last year’s squad despite being ranked.

“Last year was tough,” Page said. “I wasn’t playing a lot. We had a group of sophomores who were playing really well and we had two seniors leading us. But I don’t think we had the chemistry that this year’s team has. Last year, when we went down to Hanford, we weren’t ready for it and we choked.”

The Eagles are ready for that next step, Page said.

“Every game you play, you just know that your opponent is just going to get better and better,” he said. “You just have to bring it every single day. But at the same time, we know that if we play well, if we play our game, we can beat ‘em. We’re just working really hard to stay pumped so we can come out and win.

“A big part of it is our fans. All day long in school the teachers, the students are constantly coming up to us and telling us how well we played and how much they like watching us play. That keeps us pumped up. In practice, we’re always helping to pump each other up and encourage each other during drills.

“We want to show them that we’re going to come out and play hard and go for it. Win, lose or draw, we’re going to leave everything we have out there on the court.”