NOTEBOOK: Duo faces twilight of Hoopfest careers

Longtime friends and educators Clay Henry and Jeff Miller took to the streets Saturday morning for the 18th time at Hoopfest.

They haven’t missed a Hoopfest yet. But their days of playing together are numbered.

Their bodies are telling them so. Aches and pains have caught up with them.

“We kind of kid that we’ve been together longer than our marriages,” Clay quipped. “Our target is 20 years. That will be the cutoff time.”

Miller has been principal at East Valley High School the last 18 years and Henry just finished his 22nd year at Sprague-Harrington, where he’s been the athletic director the last three years. He will move to Goldendale later this summer after he was hired as principal at the town’s high school after interviewing Thursday.

“Hoopfest is something I brag about to everybody, wherever I go,” said Henry, who returned last Sunday from a 10-day vacation to the East Coast.

Henry and Miller led Chapter 18 – the name of their team and the 18th chapter of their Hoopfest story – to a 21-14 opening-round win over Johnny Suntans.

In that opener, Henry was reminded again why he doesn’t play much anymore and why he had to quit as a college basketball referee. He was in a head-on car accident on Highway 2 west of Reardan in January 2006, and he officiated just three more West Coast Conference games thereafter.

Henry said the highlight of his five-year officiating career was being on the three-man crew that called the St. Joseph-Gonzaga game at the McCarthy Athletic Center two seasons ago. He jokingly said he learned some of his moves and grabbing tactics from watching former Zags J.T. Batista, Adam Morrison and Dan Dickau.

“There’s a little Batista and Morrison there with a little Dickau thrown in,” Henry said. “I’ve never seen a shot I didn’t like.”

Williams, Herbert win

Elvie Williams had the showman part down – all he needed to come up with was an impressive dunk.

As it turned out, he had that part down too.

The former Community Colleges of Spokane basketball and track standout won the men’s slam dunk competition on his third attempt – a one-handed slam that sent the stands, including Williams’ personal cheering section, into an uproar on Nike Center Court in Riverfront Park.

Second place went to Bonners Ferry native Steve Merrill, who won the crowd over initially when he powered in a two-handed reverse dunk in the second round of the contest.

“I liked that,” said Williams. “That other guy (Merrill) was a good competitor – he’s the truth. I had to earn that one.”

Former Lake City High star Lindsay Herbert, who went on to play at the University of Utah, won the women’s contest with a two-handed slam.

When asked what she was thinking before she stepped out onto the court, Herbert replied, “I hope it goes in.

“I’m old,” the 27-year-old added. “I’ll be sore tomorrow.”

Herbert is playing in the women’s elite division on team Tomato Street with former Gonzaga ballers Rae Jewell and Ashley Anderson and Stacey Clinesmith, a Mead graduate and WNBA veteran.

Herbert and Clinesmith were a part of last year’s women’s elite championship team – Team Idaho – while Jewell and Clinesmith won the title together in 2005.

Herbert was also an elite champion in 2003 and 2004 with the Phillies.

Roy makes appearance

The most exciting part of defending men’s elite champion Team Fresno’s first game wasn’t the two-point shot that led them to a 20-19 victory, it was the brief appearance made by Brandon Roy.

The former Washington standout and 2006 NBA Rookie of the Year was present for part of the defending champs’ game before being introduced at Nike Center Court.

“I hope everyone has a great weekend down here at Hoopfest,” Roy announced, waving to the crowded stands of excited spectators.

After Roy made his appearance, team Rukus came within a point of winning before Team Fresno’s Tony Amundsen nailed a 2-pointer for the victory.

“We play to win,” Amundsen said. “We’ve been in that situation before, and it’s good we pulled it out – it’s important to win early so you don’t have to fight your way back through the bracket.”

University of Idaho football coach Rob Akey also showed up at Center Court in time to check out the men’s slam dunk competition.

Internet connection

Striking up a friendship on the Internet draws much attention and criticism these days for obvious reasons.

It didn’t stop Nick Fromm of Coeur d’Alene and Justin Gumprecht of Sayreville, N.J., from connecting through a Playstation 2 game a year ago.

“We talked about getting together since we started playing (games on the Internet),” Gumprecht said.

They met face to face Thursday when Gumprecht took Fromm, a senior to be at Lake City High, up on an invitation to play together at Hoopfest. They exchanged e-mails and pictures through Myspace.com to try to alleviate concerns from their parents and prove everything was on the up and up.

“We all made sure things were legit,” said Fromm, LC’s standout 6-foot-5 post.

Gumprecht, a 5-11 guard, will be a senior at a high school in Homedale, N.J., this fall.

Fromm came up with a clever name to describe his team: Jerzy Spudz. The team had a difficult opener, falling 20-17 in overtime to Red Wolves, a team made up of players from Cedar Crest High near Seattle.

Gumprecht will stay with Fromm through Wednesday.

Sights and sounds

Former Gonzaga player Richard Fox couldn’t be missed on the men’s elite courts – even if he wasn’t playing.

The 7-footer was serving as a court monitor. Three monitors were used in many of the elite games.

Fox was enjoying the experience despite a couple of comments from the crowd and the occasional whining from players.

“Hey, I’m not getting paid. I make mistakes,” Fox shot back to a griping onlooker.

After his playing days were over at Gonzaga, Fox spent two years playing professionally in Spain before a fourth knee injury and subsequent surgery halted things last August.

He returned to Gonzaga last fall to begin work on a master’s in business. He also did color commentary on radio broadcasts with KREM 2 sports anchor Tom Hudson this year. He said it’s in the works for him to work with Hudson again next year.

“I’d love to make a career out of (broadcasting),” Fox, 25, said.

Fox said he got a start refereeing games at GU’s summer camps.

“Put in there I was the highest rated official at the camps,” Fox said, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Fox would like to play at Hoopfest someday, perhaps as soon as next summer.

“My goal is to get in good with all the officials this year so I can get all the calls next year,” Fox said.

Westerberg returns

Former Central Valley standout Emily Westerberg, who just completed a splendid career at Arizona State University, played in her first games since her final collegiate game.

Westerberg was in the family division, playing on a co-ed team with her fiancé, Grayling Love, a former ASU football player and Desiree (Johnson) Barclift, the older sister of Westerberg’s best friend, Aubree Johnson.

GASHNEM – the team name that includes references to Love, Westerberg, her sister and friend Nick Salzwedel, the fourth member of the team – had a rough start in an 11-7 loss to Team Cow, which featured a pair of sizeable posts (6-7 and 6-5).

“They were enormous,” Westerberg said. “They just clogged things up in the paint. And it was really physical.”

Westerberg and Johnson combined to score 14 in a loser-out win three hours after the opener.

It was Westerberg’s first Hoopfest since she was a ninth-grader.

She and Love will marry Saturday. Westerberg wants to continue playing in the family division for years to come.