A pleasant surprise
While West Valley boys basketball coach Jamie Nilles said he didn’t dream at the beginning of the season of another state appearance, senior Casey Sherrill, had an inkling.
“I figured we’d go to state this year,” said Sherrill, the lone experienced returnee from last year’s West Valley’s 3A state placers. “Everyone thought we’d be small and not ready. But I felt in the summertime that the team was good.”
He turned out to be right. The Eagles are making their sixth state trip since Nilles has been coach after compiling a 19-3 record to win the Great Northern League and district championships.
They are among four GNL teams who begin play in Tacoma on Wednesday. The Eagles face Mount Baker, whose coach, Rob Gray, assisted at WV a decade ago.
“They have a real good team that’s senior heavy,” said Nilles. “They have a 6-foot-7 wing, a strong post and a point guard who can shoot. Our goal is to win game one and go from there.”
The Eagles feature a multi-faceted attack that includes three double figures scorers – Sherrill, Bryan Peterson and Jordan Lupfer-Graham – and a scrappy attack that differs from last year’s team.
“Last year we had posts Tyler Hobbs and E.J. Richardson, threw the ball into them and they’d hopefully pull us through,” said Sherrill.
“This year we don’t have one main guy we have to get it to. All of us can score, we’re quick and play really good defense as a team.”
The rest of the lineup is primarily made up of juniors including Peterson, who leads the team in scoring.
Such ascendance, even if he was a scoring leader on freshman and junior varsity teams surprises him. Playing more like a post, the 6-2 junior is averaging 16 points per game.
“I didn’t expect to be the leading scorer,” he said. “I thought Casey would because he was varsity and used to the competition. When I got into games when we were ahead by a lot last year it was really fast-paced and hard to get used to.”
He, like his coaches, didn’t know what to expect after moving from the Greater Spokane League to the Great Northern. But, he added, a summer of basketball helped the game slow down for him.
“I didn’t expect to do this well, but our coaches really know how to win,” he said.
Success has certainly been the case at WV, where Nilles has compiled a 171-53 record in nine years.
“At the start of the year I wouldn’t even have dreamed of getting here and here we are,” said Nilles. “We had a nice regular season and are playing some of our best basketball in the playoffs.”
Everything worked to WV’s advantage, he said, from playing in a new league with the young team, to having the district championship at Eastern Washington University, where the team has done well, to facing Clarkston, a team they matched up with well, and earning the top seed.
By contrast, Clarkston must play unbeaten and top-ranked Mark Morris.
Regardless of what happens this week, Nilles has been pleased with the season. He chalks part of that up to West Valley’s tradition of success.
“Sometimes kids don’t know teams are supposed to be better than them,” he said. “This is one of my most satisfying years.”
Sherrill has lofty plans.
“This week is going to be extremely challenging and fun at the same time,” said Sherrill of his latest state trip to Tacoma. “I’m hoping to make it into the championship. That’s our goal, I know, as a team.”