These Tigers have bite.
A gifted senior class has helped turn the Granite Falls boys basketball team into a force. The 10-1 Tigers (4-1 Cascade Conference) have already won as many times as they did last season. Three seasons ago, when the current seniors were freshmen, Granite Falls was 1-17.
Two outstanding seniors have piled up huge numbers for the squad. Guard Josh Knudson averages 20.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists, and post Sean Counley contributes 17.9 points and 12.7 rebounds per game. They rank as the Nos. 2 and 3 scorers in the conference and are among the most productive duos in the area.
But don’t be fooled by gaudy individual stats. Granite Falls’ resurgence has been a group effort.
“It’s all about the team,” 11-year Granite Falls coach Keith Johnson said. “We’re running offense so (Knudson and Counley are) getting good shots. Those guys get to score, but everybody gets to contribute.”
The boys basketball team isn’t the only Granite Falls squad making noise. The girls hoops team is 8-1 (3-0 in conference) and has won six straight – not bad considering it was 14-28 over the past two seasons.
Then there’s the wrestling team, which ended a long drought last week. The Tigers’ 42-38 victory over Lakewood on Jan. 9 was its first dual-meet win in at least five seasons, Granite Falls wrestling coach Tony Helgeson said. Granite Falls scored 12 points on forfeits, but any victory is a big deal for the Tigers, who in past seasons often forfeited six bouts per meet because of low turnout.
“We never even came close to beating anybody,” said Helgeson, a first-year head coach who was an assistant the previous four seasons.
After finishing last season with six wrestlers, the team has 25 this winter and hopes to keep growing. The planned inception of a youth freestyle club should help.
“We’re just starting,” Helgeson said. “Three, four years down the road we’ll be quite good. Right now we’re taking our licks.”
A different approach
Last season Cascade boys basketball coach Kevin Rohrich guided a highly experienced group that went all the way to the Class 4A state tournament. This winter the rebuilding Bruins (3-9), who returned just one significant varsity contributor, are going back to the basics. “I’ve had to be more patient and understand that we’ve got to go back to the very beginning and really start to build a foundation,” Rohrich said. “You can’t skip things. You can’t assume they know certain things.”
Victories haven’t come nearly as often for Cascade, but Rohrich said it’s rewarding to see players improve every week: “It’s always a lot of fun to see kids get better. Ultimately, that’s the goal.”
Master of her domain
Terri McMahan, the Edmonds School District athletic director, was recognized Jan. 9 as a Certified Master Athletic Administrator by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. McMahan “demonstrated exemplary knowledge, contributions, and on-going professional development in the field of interscholastic administration,” according to a press release.
“Terri is one of a very elite group of interscholastic athletic administrators nationwide to attain this level of professionalism,” the release said.
Could be worse
Wind, snow and ice has seriously disrupted prep sports schedules this winter. After wading through another batch of postponements last week, McMahan sized up the chaos. “This is the most significant (weather-related) issue we’ve had” in the winter, said McMahan, in her 10th year as the Edmonds district athletic director. “It’s been a real unique season.”
But McMahan has seen worse. She was the AD in Ferndale in December 1990, when poor weather forced students to miss five straight days of school.
Mike Cane, Herald Writer
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