Turning talent into experience
One school; two teams; same story.
Both Valley Christian basketball teams are young and each is learning how to compete in the always-tough Bi-County League. And each has had a key player go down with a recent injury.
For first-year boys coach Steve Allen, the player, junior guard Jamie Bennett, is due back in a couple of weeks. With a slight fracture, his ankle will be in a cast for the next two weeks.
“According to the doctors, if he was a little older, he could still play,” Allen said. “But since he’s so young and still has a growth spurt ahead of him, they don’t want to take any chances. Once he gets out of the cast they’ll take another look and we’ll go from there.”
Second-year girls coach Nate Riggan’s loss hits close to home. His daughter, Lexie, is out for the year after hyperextending an elbow in the team’s loss to visiting Odessa Saturday.
“It’s especially sad because it’s her senior season,” Riggan said. “But she’ll still be one of our captains and she’ll still be there for every practice and every game. She’s still an important part of the team.
“Lexie was having a good season. She was one of our two top scorers. We’re going to have to find a way to generate some more offense now.”
Allen’s boys squad has played with its competition. Aside from a confidence-derailing 78-27 loss at Northwest Christian in the Panthers’ first game without Bennett, Valley Christian (1-7 overall, 0-6 in league) has lost by 4 points to both Davenport and Liberty and by 9 at Lind-Ritzville after leading by a field goal going into the fourth quarter.
“We’ve been right there,” Allen said. “We’ve had some chance to win, but we turn the ball over and make mistakes down the stretch. We have to learn how to win those close games. We have the talent; we just don’t have a lot of experience.
“The other night, we had Jeff Pope, our most experienced player, on the floor with three guys who play mostly with our junior varsity. I think we have to be a little patient and we have to keep looking to build on the things we’re doing well. We’ll get there.”
Having Bennett sidelined hampers the offensive effort, but Allen sees it as a chance to challenge other players to step up and fill the team’s offensive need.
Junior Gavin Trom, who came off the Valley Christian bench a year ago, has boosted his offensive output. Bennett averaged 12.2 points per game before his injury. In the three games he’s been out of the lineup Trom has averaged 12.3.
Pope, a returning starter, averages a missed free throw under 10 points per game (79 points in eight games).
Meanwhile, the coach said, the basketball program has expanded.
“One of the things we’ve been able to do is to work with our eighth-grade team and with our young kids,” he said. “Rich White, the coach last year, just didn’t have the time to be able to do that with all his other duties.
“This year we’ve been able to bring them into the gym with us once a week or so and work with them. We have them running the same plays and doing the same drills that the varsity does. That will pay off down the line. We have a good crop of young kids and they all love to play basketball.”
Riggan isn’t quite so lucky with the girls program. The Panthers were unable to field a junior varsity team this season.
“I have some girls sitting on my varsity bench who would be much better off starting and playing every night on the junior varsity,” he said. “I’m as sorry as I can be about that, but I really don’t have a choice.”
With Lexie Riggan done for the year, part of the team’s leadership role falls to three juniors: Janelle Wagnild, Brittany Croft and Ashley Eggleston.
Sophomore Katie Worley, a 6-foot post, was a full-time starter a year ago and the team’s primary offensive force, averaging 14 points per game.
Riggan, a four-year starter at guard during his high school career – three seasons at Wenatchee High and his senior season as a starter for Darcy Weisner at Brewster – hadn’t planned on coaching when his daughter started at Valley Christian.
“We’re a basketball family,” he said. “I have three daughters and they all love basketball and we go to games and watch games together. We’ve always gone to NBC camps together during the summer.
“When the coach left I took a look at the situation and realized that I was already here just about every day and thought I might be able to help.”
Coaching, it seems, runs in the family.
Riggan played for his father, Jerry Riggan, his first two seasons at Wenatchee. The elder Riggan now coaches the Brewster girls program.
“I’m enjoying this,” Nate Riggan said. “I have my day job as a CPA and I still get to come into the gym and teach basketball.”