Saxons carry big weight as they head to state
The best thing about a championship trophy is that there’s only enough space on it to engrave the names of the winners.
No room for recriminations, grievances, excuses or mitigations.
Not that they don’t find an airing elsewhere. Anything loud enough is bound to find a platform.
The subject today is high school basketball. As you may be aware, the Ferris Saxons head to Tacoma and the State 4A tournament beginning Wednesday just four giant steps from completing a second straight unbeaten season – something that would be unprecedented in 85 years of boys basketball in this state.
Never been done. Central Valley’s girls did such a thing earlier this decade and it was remarkable, but let’s check back in 50 years to see if it holds up to history the same way.
You may also be aware that the general response to the Saxons’ current endeavor, at least beyond the borders of the Ferris campus, pretty much seems to start with disdain and then head south.
OK. That’s high school athletics. It’s a stretch to think the Saxons’ nine Greater Spokane League rivals are going to be dizzy with glee over Ferris’ good fortune. The other Spokane school with a very legitimate shot at the state title – Shadle Park – especially gets a pass this week.
It is also true that the best teams are almost always a lightning rod for controversy, envy and ill will. Just how it works, at any level of sports.
No one seems to grasp this better than the Saxons themselves.
“Whether they’re saying something bad or good, they’re still talking about us,” shrugged guard Erick Cheadle. “I guess that’s all right.”
Still, it’s hard to imagine that any significant athletic achievement in our city has been greeted with less broad-based enthusiasm than was Ferris’ 2007 title, and we’re guessing that a reprise in 2008 would be more of the same. This in spite of the fact that a run of 58-0, should the Saxons be able to pull it off, would stamp them as the best team in state history.
That’s a heavy enough burden to take back to state.
“But the fact is, most of the time it doesn’t come up,” insisted coach Don Van Lierop. “We get asked quite a bit about it, so when we get in our world here, it’s pretty much the last thing we want to talk about.”
Well, there may be some other things, too, but that’s what everyone else talks about.
If it wasn’t enough that the Saxons started with a gifted and dedicated group in its class of 2008, the arrival two years ago of 6-foot-8 transfer DeAngelo Casto pretty much crystallized the feelings of critics and curmudgeons. Casto was obviously a special enough talent to push Ferris into another echelon. When he bailed after the championship season to transfer to Franklin in Seattle, then changed his mind and was – through all the proper channels – made eligible to play for the Saxons again this year, it stirred up so much drama that afternoon soaps could hardly compete.
This, too, is natural. But given what the state of transfer and eligibility rules are – or aren’t – it’s also pretty silly. Is there one GSL school in the last 10 or 15 years which hasn’t had a player on its roster from another enrollment area, or who transferred from another district?
No. But none of them was DeAngelo Casto.
But this is just the tip of the resentment iceberg. To get a full appreciation for how deep it runs, consider that for the second year in a row, Van Lierop will not be the GSL’s coach of the year.
This seems, frankly, incomprehensible.
“I think the only one unappreciated is coach Van Lierop,” said guard Shawn Stockton. “The players get a lot of respect from other schools and coaches. For some reason, he doesn’t. Maybe some people don’t agree with him or don’t like his style, but I count him as one of my favorite coaches. He pushes you to where you have to be and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
There is, of course, a school of thought that the coach of the year is the guy who does the most with the least, and certainly the GSL’s coaches have voted that way on occasion. It’s also true they honored the coach of the regular season league or division champion six of the previous nine years. To not do so at least one of the last two years seems, well, small.
But then, it seemed just as small when the same thing happened to Dale Poffenroth with those two CV girls teams. Perhaps there’s something in the by-laws about it being a popularity deal.
Yes, it’s probably true that 90 percent of the time, the team with the best talent wins. The thing is, the Saxons haven’t lost.
They’re 54-0.
Maybe it’s time somebody says that’s damned good, and leave it at that.