| Saturday, November 25, 2006 |
A year ago, Mark Stinson was hoping to find enough healthy varsity girls basketball players to field a team at the All-Valley Jamboree.
Six players watched from the sidelines in street clothes, and only two players with varsity experience were on the court.
When the four Valley high schools unveil their 2006-07 squads at East Valley High School at 3 p.m. today, the Titans will have only half that number not suited up.
"This year Angie is healthy," Stinson said. "That's an improvement."
If she remains healthy, by midseason she will be the all-time leading scorer in GSL history and is the first girls basketball player from the state to earn a college scholarship to play for legendary women's coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee.
A year ago Bjorklund was sidelined by a stress fracture and did not see action until Christmas. The Titans recovered from the early-season injuries to knock off eventual state champion Lewis and Clark, 45-29, to win the Class 4A Eastern Regional tournament and reach the semifinals at the state tourney for the second consecutive year, falling to Prairie, 59-56. The Titans knocked off Auburn-Riverside, 53-52, to earn a third-place trophy.
The GSL season starts Tuesday for U-Hi and Central Valley. U-Hi is home against North Central, and Shadle Park is at CV. East Valley is at North Central in its Friday GSL opener.
West Valley opens the season with a nonleague game at Moscow on Thursday. The Eagles open their Great Northern League season after Christmas vacation.
University TitansThe Titans graduated three starters from last year's team but are still a good bet to pick up right where they left off a year ago.
Senior Dara Zack, an all-GSL honorable mention pick a year ago, returns to play post. At 5-foot-9, Zack makes up for being undersized for her position by being relentlessly busy.
Two players hobbled by injuries a year ago – junior Riki Schiermeister and senior Leah Archibald – are 100 percent to start the season.
Archibald has had reconstructive surgery on each of her knees during her high school career.
"We're excited to have Leah healthy and out there," Stinson said. "She's worked so hard to get out there. We'd love to see her have a healthy, successful senior season."
Two freshmen will see varsity action, especially early in the season. Dakota Shiermeister, Riki's sister, and Zoe Scott will fill in while soccer players Kelsey Mitchell and Lauren Millard recover from lingering injuries from the fall season.
Bjorklund, who averaged 18.7 points per game a year ago, enters the season with 1,390 career points, 190 behind all-time GSL leader Heather Bowman from Lewis and Clark. Bjorklund needs 71 points to move into second-place all-time ahead of Central Valley's Emily Westerberg.
Central Valley BearsThe Lady Bears will have a different look this year.
A year ago the squad was dominated by five seniors, all four-year varsity performers led by first-team All-GSL performer Heidi Heintz and honorable mention All-GSL pick Salena Leavitt.
This year coach Judy Walters will turn to a solid junior class, led by returning starter Justine Bowman, who ran the point a year ago. Guard Mallory Flesher returns along with sophomore post Brittany Catron.
Sophomore Ashley Carpenter also saw some varsity action last year.
The Bears have talent and youthful depth.
East Valley KnightsThis year, every game counts for the Knights.
In a change from last year, the GSL Class 3A playoff standings will reflect the season record and not just head-to-head record to determine the league's two postseason berths.
"You're going to have to work hard every game," coach Freddie Rehkow said. "You can't just focus on the games with Mt. Spokane and North Central. Every win counts."
Rehkow's Knights will be similar to past editions: quick, intense and not especially tall.
"We're mostly 5-9ers," Rehkow said. "I have a couple girls who will go, maybe, 5-10. But that's about it."
Senior Eleaya Schuerch is a returning two-year starter and four-year varsity player, and seniors Ashley Grater and Kylee Williamson both started a year ago. Grater worked her way into the starting lineup by being a hard worker off the bench at the beginning of the season.
Schuerch averaged 9.3 points per game a year ago. Grater and Williamson averaged 6.6 and 6.5 points, respectively.
Senior Tiffany Bittner and junior Kathy Tate are both 5-10.
Rehkow will carry a dozen players on his varsity roster and plans to get everyone into every game. Four or five varsity players move up from last year's 19-1 junior varsity squad.
"If anything, we're going to be even more intense than we were last year," Rehkow said. "We've scrimmaged against each other a little bit. We'll have one big scrimmage before the jamboree. Whenever we've scrimmaged, the score is something like 14-11 – the scores are close."
West Valley EaglesThe biggest returner for the Eagles is coach Lorin Carlon, snapping a string of four different coaches in four years at WV.
Carlon commutes daily from his farm in Whitman County.
"My truck is going to turn over 500,000 miles soon," he said.
The Eagles' first season in the Great Northern League will be similar to those they spent in the GSL.
"We're going to be the smallest team in the league," Carlon said. "We can be pretty quick. We'll just have to see."
The Eagles graduated four players from last year's squad.
"Unfortunately, they were all our height," the coach said.
The tallest person on the court during a workout is assistant coach Renae Nilles, wife of head boys coach Jamie Nilles. As a high school athlete, Renae Duffie helped lead Foster High School in Tukwila, Wash., to an undefeated, 26-0 season in 1986. The state Class 1A champions are considered one of the best teams in the history of that classification – knocking off teams that finished first, third and fourth in that year's Class 3A tournament.
Nilles went on to play college basketball at Community Colleges of Spokane and Long Beach State.
"I think it helps to have a role model like Renae here," Carlon said. "The girls can relate to her, and I think they'll listen to her and learn from her."
Senior Krystal McCarthy is back for her fourth-season in the starting lineup. Junior Melissa Mauro, a high-flying outside hitter from volleyball, returns. Juniors Lacey Nordby, Jordyn Sodorff and Melissa Carey all come in after leading the Eagles into the state tournament in soccer.