State appearance has WV Eagles spirits soaring

Melissa Mauro couldn’t imagine a day like Tuesday when she first walked onto the West Valley High School campus as an incoming freshman four years ago.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, Mauro and her girls basketball teammates stepped onto a bus and headed off across the mountains to Tacoma, where the Eagles opened the State Class 2A tournament – their first state appearance in the sport in 11 seasons.

For the five seniors on this year’s girls squad, the trip to state represents a phoenix-like rise from the ashes. Lacey Nordby, Jordyn Sodorff, Missy Carey, Stephanie Hjortedal and Mauro remember the days when “annual win total” was a singular term.

“I never thought something like this would happen,” Mauro said. “It just wasn’t the kind of thing you dreamed about. You thought about it in track and maybe in volleyball. But definitely not in basketball.”

For the first time in school history, both West Valley basketball teams headed to the state tournament.

“There’s a lot of excitement about it. (Monday) my teachers asked every class how many kids were planning on going over for the state tournament and there was only about seven or eight kids that weren’t going,” Mauro said. “Between the teams and the band and the boosters that are going, the school will be pretty empty.”

The Eagles aren’t alone in sending both teams. Half of the 16 teams entered in each tournament have both boys and girls teams entered.

West Valley’s state girls tournament history is not long. The team qualified for its first state tournament in 1987 and returned a year later to earn its first state trophy for a seventh-place finish.

In 1997, coach Mark Kuipers, now an assistant coach at University, led the Eagles to the state championship. West Valley opened that tournament with back-to-back 14-point wins over Franklin Pierce (79-65) and Stanwood (53-39). In the semifinals the Eagles edged Meadowdale by seven points (49-42), then tamed Prosser by 17 (61-44) and went on to have their names and accomplishments entered into the Congressional Record.

From the highest of highs, however, the girls basketball program fell to the lowest of lows. One- and two-win seasons strung together, especially after the school joined the Greater Spokane League in 2002. Being the smallest Class 3A school in arguably the toughest Class 4A league in the state never is a remedy for a struggling program.

While the GSL would send seven teams into the state Class 4A championship game, winning five state titles since 2001, West Valley posted a string of one- and two-win seasons.

Not only were victories scarce in the GSL, the program went through four head coaches in four seasons.

Paul Voorhees, who won a State B title in 2001, came in from Tekoa-Oakesdale and left after a year. But during his stay, he also brought in Lorin Carlon as a volunteer assistant to help work with his post players. Voorhees left for greener pastures on the West Side of the state, but Carlon stayed on when Jamie Pancho took over the reins. And when Pancho bolted after a single season, Carlon picked up the head coach’s whistle to give the team some much-needed stability.

“My first year as coach we were 1-and-20,” Carlon said, chuckling at the thought. “In the Greater Spokane League you still got a chance to qualify for state, no matter what. I think they gave you that extra game just so they could rub it in a little.

“That first year we had some seniors who had really been through so much in their careers. But through it all, they kept coming in every day and working hard. They were committed to this program and I was determined to let them play. I could have gone with younger players, but I felt we owed them the chance to play.”

A change in the way the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association figures school changed West Valley’s classification to Class 2A and the school moved into the Great Northern League for the 2006-07 season.

In its first season playing schools its own size, West Valley came one game shy of playing for a state berth last year, finishing one game under .500 for the year. This year the team posted a 17-5 record, its first winning record since 1997, and finished second during the regular season. In the District 7 2A tournament, the Eagles knocked off Medical Lake to qualify for state and, when their fourth-quarter comeback fell short Saturday, earned the district’s No. 2 state berth.

“You know, I think we learned a lot going to state tournaments in other sports,” Mauro said. “Most of us on this team are either volleyball players or soccer players, so most of us went to state tournaments this fall.

“I think the winning attitudes we learned playing those other sports carried over and helped us this year.”

The Eagles collected a bunch of postseason honors to go with their state tournament berth. Mauro, who signed a national letter of intent to compete in track and field at the University of Montana in the fall, was named the GNL’s co-MVP and a first-team all-league player. Nordby, too, was a first-team selection. Freshman Shaniqua Nilles was a second-team pick.

“Lacey is the heart-and-soul of this team,” Carlon said. “She absolutely hates to lose. If you look at the picture they took after the state soccer tournament, you’ll see everyone with a big smile on their face. Everyone except Lacey. She’s crying her eyes out because she did not want her season to end with a loss.”

Most athletes dream of leaving a program in better shape than they found it.

“I am so proud of where this program is right now,” Mauro said. “I’m excited for where this team will go from here.”