Local player goes from the Dawg Pack to the paint

Anyone who has been to a Huskies’ basketball game in recent weeks has heard the chant. It usually begins in the final minutes of a blowout victory, when UW coach Lorenzo Romar is taking his stars out of the game to avoid injury. After giving ovations to guys like Quincy Pondexter, Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton, the student section turns its attention toward the 6-foot-9 sophomore at the end of the bench.

“Bren-dan Share-err” clap-clap-clapclapclap … “Bren-dan Share-err” clap-clap-clapclapclap …

And in each of the Huskies’ past four home games, Romar has given into their pleas by putting Sherrer onto the floor for mop-up duty. He even got his first collegiate basket with a 10-foot jumper from the baseline on Tuesday night, sending the student section into a state of near hysteria.

“That was incredible,” said Sherrer, whose shot made the SportsCenter highlights because it came against a foul-plagued Seattle University team that had just four players on the floor at the time. “The fans, they’re awesome. It’s great having that kind of support.”

Not long ago, he was right there with him.

Now playing basketball for a Pac-10 school, Sherrer is a testament to what’s possible with hard work and a little luck. After averaging just six points and six rebounds as a senior at Archbishop Murphy two years ago, the Monroe native kept working at his game and eventually earned a spot as a UW walk-on.

Sherrer saw an ad in the student newspaper in October and decided to give it a shot. An unassuming post player at Archbishop Murphy, Sherrer had quietly been working on his game while playing pickup basketball at UW, and he wanted to see how he might stack up.

How he stood up was Sherrer’s biggest advantage. The only other student at the tryout taller than 6-foot-4 was a 6-6 stringbean, and the Huskies were looking for a big man to help out in practice after 6-10 recruit Charles Garcia failed to qualify academically. Sherrer showed some ability in assorted drills and was asked back for a second day of scrimmaging. The coaches liked his size and strength and invited Sherrer to work out with the Huskies for a two-week tryout. His ability to pick up the system and learn quickly led Sherrer to be officially added as this year’s only walk-on.

“It all happened so fast,” he said. “I was right in there taking the team picture. It really happened fast.”

Unan, who played with Sherrer at Archbishop Murphy, never would have thought it possible.

“I didn’t think he was going to make it,” Unan said. “I mean, it’s D-I, it’s Pac-10 basketball, the tip-top in terms of talent.”

Sherrer might be the least likely Pac-10 player in the entire conference. He played only one year of varsity basketball, and was, in the words of former Archbishop Murphy coach Jerry Zander, “very raw with his skills, and we knew he had a huge upside that probably would not be met while he was in high school.”

Sherrer grew up playing baseball, spent his summers working in the family business on fishing boats in Alaska, and — despite always being one of the tallest kids in his class — never considered playing basketball until his mother urged him to do it as a freshman at Archbishop Murphy.

Sherrer, a Monroe native, got cut from the freshman team. After a growth spurt heading into his sophomore year, he was added to the soph “C” team and then made junior varsity as a junior.

Then came his senior year, when Sherrer finally made varsity and was one of the bigger players in the conference. But he still only averaged about six points and six rebounds per game, Zander said.

His natural size and the strength he gained working on fishing boats helped Sherrer become a force by the end of his senior year.

“Going into the district tournament, a huge reason we ended up finishing third and making it to the state tournament was because Brendan was playing his best basketball,” Zander said in an e-mail to The Herald.

Because of his size, Sherrer had offers to play basketball at the junior-college level and made an unofficial visit to the University of Portland as a possible walk-on. But Sherrer decided to give up on basketball and attend UW, where he spent a good part of his freshman year playing intramurals and pickup basketball and sitting in the student section knowns as The Dawg Pack at Husky games.

While attending UW games, he would pay particular attention to the footwork of post players like Jon Brockman and Matthew Bryan-Amaning. He worked on his game while playing on nights and weekends. Through it all, his skills continued to develop.

“He’s improved tremendously,” said Unan, his friend and former high school teammate. “You don’t expect anyone to keep getting better like that, but he’s gotten better and better and better every week.

“He’s improved so much that you can’t keep up with him. It’s kind of frustrating for someone who’s played basketball his whole life to see him improve that much in such a short time.”

Now Sherrer is living the dream of millions of college basketball fans — from the Dawg Pack to Spokane’s Kennel Club to the Cameron Crazies in Durham, N.C.

Sherrer said he never even imagined this scenario while attending UW games.

“Maybe I thought it would be cool to be out there,” he said. “But to actually be out there? It’s a totally different experience than I ever would’ve imagined.”

And now Sherrer is living the dreams of many. He just doesn’t have much time for his old buddy, especially on UW game days.