A Grip on Sports: When it comes to season-ending joy or misery, few sporting events can top what happens in a high school state championship

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s coin flip time in high school basketball. On one side is a celebration. Hugs. Cutting down the net. Hoisting the trophy. On the other is dejection – or worse. Tears. A trudge back to the locker room. More tears. The last day of the season is the best life lesson in months of them.

•••••••

• Not everything after high school is peaches, cream and a golden-gilded bowl. For everyone. Ups and downs happen so often it’s easy to feel nauseated often. Which is why prep sports are so important, the perfect complement to all the lessons learned in the halls and classrooms.

The happenings in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane today boils all the lessons into a not-so-neat two-hour package. All the hard work, sacrifice and time spent since elementary school comes down to one game. Win and cry tears of joy. Lose and the other type leak out.

For many of the local boys and girls teams, there is more to than just a title. There are expectations. History. City pride. Way too much, maybe, to put on the shoulders of 15-to-18-year-old athletes. But it sits there nonetheless.

After years of watching teams win or lose on the final Saturday of Washington’s basketball season, I have come to believe there is one emotion that always seemed to accompany both teams: relief.

Oh, sure, regret follows the runner-up back to the bus much of the time. Sometimes resignation too, especially when the champion was just too good to overcome. Even that latter group, though, felt the burden of expectations lift. It was a relief to know the goal had been met, the trophy, whichever one it is, earned.

There is a window, sometimes a short one, to take a deep breath, reflect on what’s happened and exhale. Pause and recuperate. A day or so.

Then, for many, it’s either back to the gym to begin laying the groundwork for the next season or time to head outside with their friends. After all, spring sports have begun. And another season, with new lessons, goals and sacrifices, beckons.

• Not sure what emotions were running through the Washington State men’s locker room Friday night. You know, after the Cougars’ season ended with a 74-68 loss to Portland in the West Coast Conference tournament.

No one in the Orleans Arena clubhouse was satisfied with the 12-20 season, from head coach David Riley to the last man on his bench. The offense wasn’t good enough, the defense wasn’t good enough, the results were not good enough.

“It was a disappointing season – not gonna hide from that,” Riley told the S-R’s Greg Woods. “We’ve got a lot of work to do as a program to get back on track, and we will. We absolutely will, but there’s a lot of love in that locker room. Those guys are great young men and I’m very proud of them for who they are, and we’re all gonna grow from this.”

In this day and age of college hoops, however, the question has to be asked, even in the hours following the final game. How many of the players in that room will return, either because they want to leave or the staff making room for others?

We will find out over the next few months. And then again in the fall, when games start up once more.

•••

WSU: The men’s season is over, yes, and Greg has this story, which we linked above. … The women? They continue to fight their way through the WCC bracket. The Cougars faced Pacific on Friday, built a big lead and held on for an 82-75 win. This time of year, that is enough. Greg also has that story. … While the basketball teams were competing in Las Vegas, the athletic department was posting a financial win in Spokane. The school’s Regents approved a $20 million transfer to the department over the next year to cover a projected budget deficit. Lucille Stutesman has the story. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his weekly mailbag in the S-R. … There are some huge issues right now in Corvallis. In the Oregon State athletic department. With an NIL fundraising fiasco. John Canzano sums it all up and lets us know litigation is in the future. … Oregon State will have a couple injured guards back when the Beavers begin WCC tournament play. … Washington is headed to Oregon tonight. … How can one assess Utah’s first year under Alex Jensen? … Does Colorado have a shot against No. 2 Arizona? … USC host UCLA in their Big Ten rematch today. The Trojans are dealing with a six-game losing streak, the Bruins are coming off their best win of the season. … Arizona State is playing its best basketball. It will need it against No. 6 Iowa State. … Arizona has a long history of players stepping up in conference tournaments. … Could the Big 12 tournament move out of Kansas City? … Red-hot Boise State finishes Mountain West play at red-hot Colorado State in a game with tournament seeding ramifications. … San Diego State’s regular season is done and it ended on a Senior Night win over UNLV. … If host Utah State defeats New Mexico tonight, then the Aggies are the outright champions. If the Lobos win? There is a three-way tie at the top with SDSU included. … The Washington women played well but second-ranked UCLA was just too much in the Big Ten tournament. … Oregon also lost, falling to Michigan. … A major donor stepped up and gave the Oregon State program funding for a million-dollar endowment. … Colorado topped Baylor in the Big 12 tournament. Now the Buffs play West Virginia, which eliminated Arizona State yesterday. … There may be more changes in the Arizona coaching staff.

• In football news, Wilner passes along Brandon Huffman’s weekly recruiting summary in the Mercury News. … With Oregon State not on the schedule in 2027, Oregon found another nonconference game. … Deion Sanders has a lot on his plate at Colorado these days. … A new USC assistant is bringing energy to practice.

Gonzaga: Around the WCC, USF won to move on the women’s tournament. … The Seattle U. men also won.

EWU and Idaho: The Big Sky Conference released its postseason basketball awards Friday. Dan Thompson has the coverage. The Eagles snapped up a big men’s award, with guard Isaiah Moses a unanimous first-team selection and the Newcomer of the Year. The Vandal men also gathered a couple individual awards with Jackson Rasmussen named Freshman of the Year, and Isaiah Brickner, a senior, named Top Reserve. Idaho women’s coach Arthur Moreira was coach of the year while Washington State transfer Kyra Gardner earned the newcomer award. Debora dos Santos also was named the conference’s Top Reserve. Gardner and Idaho guard Hope Hassmann were on the conference’s first team, joined by former Ferris High star Kacey Spink. Idaho’s dos Santos, Eastern Washington’s Ella Gallatin and Kourtney Grossman all were on the second team. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, we have basketball all-conference news concerning the Montana men and Montana State women, and from the Weber State men. … A Northern Arizona women’s player used to watch the Big Sky tourney in person growing up in Boise. … Not everyone transfers. … In football news, Montana State announced its spring schedule.  

Whitworth: The Pirate men saw their season end in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament’s first round. They fell in Houston to Trinity (Texas) 71-63. Ethan Myers has this coverage of the loss.

Preps: It only seems Gonzaga Prep’s boys play for the State 4A title every year. Mainly because that’s been the case the last two seasons. In 2025, they won. In 2026? They have a shot, mainly because they got their shots to fall in the second half of a 52-37 semifinal win over Emerald Ridge in the Tacoma Dome. The Bullpups will face Richland in a rematch of the recent District 6 championship, won by the Bombers in Richland. Dave Nichols is in Tacoma and has this story. … He also has this coverage of Mt. Spokane’s 73-58 win over Bellevue, allowing the Wildcat boys a chance at the fourth-place 3A trophy this morning. They face Edmonds-Woodway, who defeated them in last year’s semifinals. … In Yakima, the top-seeded (and undefeated, again) Lynden girls knocked off Clarkston 50-30 and will take a 74-game winning streak into today’s 2A title game. Dave has this roundup of all the Yakima action. … Over at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the Colfax boys, carrying possibly the heaviest burden of any school in the country, earned a shot at the 2B title with a semifinal win over Okanogan. They will meet ninth-seed Adna (a 63-53 winner over Reardan late Friday) in today’s title game. Dan Thompson has the semifinal story. … Dan also has the coverage of the girls 2B semifinals, with Reardan earning a title shot against Cle Elum, the last team to top the Screaming Eagles. … Dan has a roundup of the 1B girls and boys as well. … Back to Colfax, when the town heard the news of boys coach Reece Jenkin’s cancer diagnosis (Jenkin died last week), the people rallied. In lots of different ways. Garrett Cabeza shares the story of one couple who, a year after being the recipient of a Colfax fundraiser to help with their medical bills, decided to put together a fundraiser of their own.  

Mariners: You want a bold prediction about the M’s season? Well, we can pass one along. … Gabe Speier has persevered. And now he’s pitching for the U.S. in the WBC. … By the way, the Americans pounded out a win over Brazil on Friday. … What do the M’s want to see from their newest starting pitching prospect, Kade Anderson? Just what they saw Friday.  

Seahawks: Geno Smith is going to be cut loose by the Raiders. No, just no. There is no way he can return to Seattle, is there? No. … Maxx Crosby is headed to Baltimore. For two first-round picks.

Kraken: Seattle made just one trade before yesterday’s NHL deadline. Was it enough? … The Kraken extended their captain’s contract.

•••       

• I spent a little time yesterday keeping tabs on the White House’s conference on college athletics. Funny thing, though. There were no athletes in the building. And they are the ones who probably control the extent of what can be done. Any changes made by fiat will end up being litigated. And any changes in the law might be as well. … By the way, do not forget to set your clocks ahead when you go to bed tonight. I do not want you missing out on this column tomorrow morning because you overslept. Until later …