Too many adults still need to grow up

Adults. As we get older, knowledge and experience gained are supposed to help us teach our children well.

But as the acerbic Dorothy Parker once said about a colleague: “They say wisdom comes with age. In your case, age came alone.”

Sometime, I’ve concluded, we adults – and I admit to my regretful moments – have become as much a hindrance as help in our guidance.

Last week during the district girls basketball playoffs at University I was waiting to have a word with a Shadle Park player. She had helped the Highlanders beat Mead for their highest district finish in a while and a date for the first round of the regional playoffs (although, as it turned out, that wasn’t such an advantage).

At the time, however, it was a time for euphoria and a reason to celebrate.

While I stood there, an adult came up to me and said, with emphasis, that there were a lot of good players sitting on the bench who should have been playing. Put that in the newspaper.

There was no joy in the moment, no well wishes for a team that had topped the Panthers for the third time this year. And it was not an isolated incident. Things like that have been happening all year.

It was a lament of Don Anderson when he was still coaching football at Gonzaga Prep more than a decade ago when he noted that kids no longer loved being on the football team simply to be a part. They either had to play or wouldn’t turn out.

Because of bad counsel, the old adage: “There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’ ” has given way to: “Everything’s about me.”

What, as adults, do we teach our children when we lead by that kind of example? That wisdom does not necessarily come with age. I’ve often said in my years of dealing with youths that they are far smarter and more aware than we give them credit for.

Unfortunately, as we get older, it seems, adulthood gets in the way.

District 3A basketball

The regular season ended Tuesday with a pair of Mt. Spokane basketball victories and the postseason begins tonight for both Wildcats teams and one each from North Central and East Valley.

Games for the District 8 3A championship are at Rogers. All teams have already qualified for regionals, but the games do carry weight.

Winners earn byes into the tourneys, losers travel against the Columbia Basin No. 3 finishers in Tuesday loser-out games.

The district boys title game is a rematch of Tuesday’s 35-32 Mt. Spokane (11-9) win over NC (8-12). Both were regional participants last year, and NC finished third in state.

The girls game pits the Wildcats (6-14) against EV (7-13), a returning state qualifier. The two teams split during the regular season.

West Valley-Yakima and Eastmont boys are in the regional after finishing 1-2 in the CBL. The other two entrants were decided Wednesday night. Hanford, West Valley, Kamiakin and Kennewick are the CBL girls regional qualifiers.

Small-school regionals

Northeast A League schools won five of eight games against Caribou Trail counterparts as regional basketball got under way. The tournament moves to West Valley on Friday and Saturday night where four teams in both boys and girls qualify for state.

The Freeman girls and boys won easily and play teams from Lake Roosevelt at 3:30 and 5 p.m. Defending state girls champ Colfax faces Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) at 6:30 and Lakeside’s boys play Chelan at 8.

“State 2B girls berths are at stake at Mt. Spokane and Mead on Friday night. Lind-Ritzville boys play Wellpinit at 4:15 p.m. and Springdale girls play Liberty at 6 p.m. at Mt. Spokane. Reardan’s boys play Walla Walla Valley Academy at 3:30 p.m., and the Northwest Christian girls play Pomeroy at 6 p.m. at Mead.

Northwest Christian and St. George’s boys play for the title at Mt. Spokane at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Lind-Ritzville, which upset NWC in the semis, and St. George’s girls follow for the title at 7.