Darrington backs its boys

Published 9:00 pm Monday, March 1, 2004

DARRINGTON — Ah, the smell of chili in crockpots, baked potatoes in foil and the sound of grown men and women slapping each other’s wrists hard in the parents’ fund-raiser game — it must be time to go to Spokane.

Once again, Darrington is sending a basketball team to Eastern Washington for the Class B state tournament, which starts Wednesday. For the seventh time in eight years, the boys are going, and in that one off year, 2000, the girls went.

The boys have made 23 appearances in the big dance since 1950, and last year, they won it all, finally matching the ‘55 and ‘57 team titles.

That kind of record caused the school district to plan a mid-winter break every year, because about a quarter of the town’s 1,300 people are gone anyway.

Preparations all came together Monday in a big community fund-raiser that is part of the Logger hoops tradition. Mothers and cheerleaders sold the chili, potatoes and baked goods and lined up donated items from about 30 businesses in Darrington, and even Arlington, for a silent auction.

On the court, parents split into two co-ed teams, and an hour later, alumni took on teachers. Admission was a donation, left up to the individual, but it soon became apparent that almost everything was up for sale.

"You can buy points," said Les Hagen, longtime assistant coach for the boys and, incidentally, pastor of the Assembly of God church in town.

He pointed at the scorer’s table, indicating the spot where team members could make their deposit.

"Just go down there and buy points."

Seated in the stands near Hagen, Randy Jones (Class of ‘78) smiled and nodded.

"Wait ‘til the game starts to wind down," Jones said. The score "will be over 100, and most of those points will be bought."

The idea was to raise money to defray travel and lodging expenses for the team, so money flowed freely. At center court, boys head coach Jeff Bryson folded fistfuls of green bills from a long line of contestants paying their way into a half-court shooting contest.

Val Smith, mother of the Loggers’ senior star, Evan Smith, worked the crowd selling yellow sheets of paper for $1 each. The paper was for making an airplane. Smith instructed people to write their names on their plane for the plane toss later. The mothers were going to scatter donated prizes on the gym floor. Each prize would be won by the person who threw the plane the closest.

"Randy Jones, where’s your paper airplane?" she asked.

People nearby fished in their pockets for dollar bills.

Budd Miller said he and his wife, Diane, started realizing how big basketball was after their three sons, Sam, Ben and Ned, started playing in the youth leagues in town and later went on to star for a string of state teams during the ’90s. Based on what he’s seen elsewhere, bigger schools often lack one key ingredient that can be easily seen in Darrington.

"Probably one of the biggest things is the family tradition," Budd Miller said. "In a bigger school, the players on that team may be different than their predecessors."

Miller said it hits home for him when he looks in the front row at home games, and preschoolers and kindergartners are leaning over the railing, making noise with their open palms on the bleachers’ wooden panels. Then, looking at the top row, he sees those kids’ grandparents in the same spots they’ve held down for years.

"That’s when I realize that basketball is a very, very big part of this town," Miller said.

Here, the point guard for the boys, Kris Reece, is the younger brother of last year’s point guard, Matt Reece, and both are the grandsons of Jim Reece, who played on the 1950 team. The point guard for the girls team, Amy Jones, is the daughter of Randy Jones, who played on the 1978 team that went to the state’s Class A tourney.

And just because there’s a strong family tradition doesn’t mean it always ends like a movie script, as Randy Jones pointed out.

"I thought we were pretty decent," Jones said of his 1978 team. "We won our first game over there. Then we ran into Colfax, the No. 1 ranked team. I saw them, and I said, ‘They don’t look that good.’ They beat us by 38, running away."

Years later, when Amy was a freshman, he said, the girls went to state and lost to Colfax. By 38 points.

Linda Friddle was one of the moms in the middle of everything Monday night, getting things ready and playing in the parents game to boot. She grew up in Darrington, played sports and was a cheerleader, but she said only now that her kids, Kegan and Kodie, are active at the high school has she come to fully appreciate what the town does for its kids this time of year.

"Growing up, maybe I wasn’t aware of what happened," Friddle said.

She started to get a bit worried that there was too much to organize. But she said other mothers told her not to sweat it — everything comes together each year. Still, she said she didn’t remember being so tired as a teenager.

"I don’t think the kids are aware of what goes on on their behalf," Friddle said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.