State Column

This ran in Wednesday's Sports section, but I felt like posting it here, too:

For each of the last four years I’ve been privileged to be a part of the media corps covering the state B (or, now, 2B) basketball tournament. 

Each year there’s a few moments, on and off the court, that define the competition, atmosphere and intrigue of the four-day, 16-team tournament. 

It’s the Northwest Christian (Colbert) student section chanting “DY-NA-STY! DY-NA-STY!” after taking a 1-point lead over Toutle Lake and sealing their third straight championship. 

It’s parents in dark blue state tournament sweatshirts with their kids’ names printed on the back, screaming at referees and cheering on their children. 

It’s two undefeated teams meeting in the semifinals, and neither bringing home the gold ball. 

It’s parents chipping in to rent a Hummer stretch limo for a group of high school girls, when it’s not even prom.

It’s the coach of that team sweating out a promise he’d made to get a basketball tattoo on Saturday if his team was in the finals. 

It’s Northwest Christian (Lacey)’s Airick Owens banking in a 40-foot runner at the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 24. 

It’s Elena Belcher shooting 3-of-4 from behind the arc in the first quarter and, for a moment, putting her older sister’s tournament record (8 in a game) in jeopardy.

It’s a middle school girl with orange and black face paint streaked from the tears streaming down her cheeks, waiting for her older sister after the championship game; it’s the older sister picking the girl up and carrying her into a crowd of fans. 

It’s three local teams among the four semifinalists; it’s the first-, second- and third-place teams from District IV taking home sixth-, second- and third-place trophies, respectively.

It’s Tom Kelly walking away from a loss, thanking his assistant coaches and gushing that he can’t wait to work on the next season. 

It’s Blake Anthony taking jogging onto the Spokane Arena court in a pair of beat up Air Jordan XIIs (one of the finest basketball shoes ever made). 

It’s Courtney May shooting 10-for-19, scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to push her team to the finals, despite playing point guard, rolling an ankle and being listed at (a generous) 5-5. 

It’s also Hannah Pomeroy’s second round line: 1-for-3, 2 points, one game-winning jumper. 

It’s an unheralded squad from Mossyrock remembering, “Wait, we’re the defending state champs!” before jumping out to a 22-9 first quarter lead in the third-place game. More importantly, it’s taking that lead against a rival that won the last meeting by 20 and ran the table at the district tournament.  

It’s a crowd of about 100, from a town six hours away, waiting outside the players’ exit. ... to congratulate the losing team.