Playing big

It’s ironic that the area around the West Valley High School gymnasium is under construction. The old entrance is boarded up while crews are hard at work building a new, improved facility, leaving the basketball court an island of calm in a sea of exposed girders and rivets.

In many ways, life is that way for E.J. Richardson.

The talented, 6-foot-6 senior post has found an oasis of tranquility in practice sessions with his teammates.

“That’s true for all of us,” Richardson said. “We support each other. We do a lot of stuff together – we’re always together. We’ve played so much together that we can all tell right away who’s in a bad mood.”

“They’re a band of brothers, all right,” coach Jamie Nille said.

For Richardson, the bond with his teammates is especially important.

“E.J. is a great kid – one of those kids who stays in school because of basketball,” the coach explained. “He started this year living with his father. Until recently he was living with his aunt.”

Spending his afternoons and evenings with his teammates has been his primary constant.

“You could say that,” Richardson said. “I know when I get into practice that I can forget about everything and just concentrate on playing basketball.”

Richardson came off the West Valley bench as a sophomore, adding depth to a tough low-post rotation.

“We learned a lot playing against guys like Jon Jeffries every day in practice,” Richardson said. “We had to play hard against them every day in practice. They taught us how to play smart basketball. They taught us how to be prepared and aware of what’s going on.”

“I think E.J. really came into his own against Cheney,” Nilles said. “He came off the bench and was a big reason we got past Cheney.”

Last year the team went all the way to the State 3A tournament, bringing home a fourth-place trophy with a 23-4 record.

Last year’s team raised its level of play after the regular season ended.

“I guess it started to come together when we got to the postseason and had the chance to play Hanford,” Richardson said. “We really wanted to get back to them because they’d stopped us from going to state the year before. That really got us pumped because as soon as we beat them we knew we were going to state.”

This year, the Eagles are 16-4 in the regular season and opened the playoffs Thursday at North Central. Two of West Valley’s losses during the regular season were to NC – by a total of eight points.

“The thing about our team is that we tend to compete at the level of our competition,” Richarson said. “We don’t play our best basketball unless we’re playing top competition. We have to get out of that cycle and play to our potential, no matter who the competition is. I guess you could say we underestimate some teams, and I think you could definitely say that we’ve learned our lesson on that this year.”

The team learned its lesson. During Wednesday’s practice, Nilles called his squad together and asked them a single question.

“What’s your record?” he asked.

In unison, a dozen voices answered “0 and 0,”

“That’s right,” the coach said. “You haven’t done anything yet. You made it through the first season, the regular season. Now it’s a whole new season, and after (Thursday) night, I want us to be 1-0.”

Richardson has drawn a good deal of attention from the coaches in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges as well as North Idaho College, and Nilles said a community or junior college would be a good fit for Richardson, who still is growing into his body.

He worked hard over the summer to make himself more versatile for the college game.

“I just figured that, if I wanted to go to college and play, I would have to be able to play somewhere besides the post,” he said. “So I worked on my skills, my dribbling and my outside shooting. I’ve got a lot more confidence in those skills this year.”

But college basketball may well be on hold for a while.

“Right now, I’m leaning toward joining the Air Force,” he said. “I’m not going to make any decision on it right now. I just want to play out my senior season and concentrate on the playoffs. “But I’m thinking seriously about enlisting once I graduate.”