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Road to State Tournament Starts Here

Holiday tournament experiences help with team bonding

By Paul Valencia, Columbian High School Sports Reporter
Published: December 30, 2009, 12:00am
3 Photos
Steven Lane/The Columbian
Skyview's Macy Mukensnabl shoots over Franklin High School defenders at the Nike Interstate Shootout on Saturday in Lake Oswego, Ore.
Steven Lane/The Columbian Skyview's Macy Mukensnabl shoots over Franklin High School defenders at the Nike Interstate Shootout on Saturday in Lake Oswego, Ore. Photo Gallery

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — Members of the Skyview girls basketball program are trying to get used to some things they are not accustomed to in December, all in an effort to get more acquainted with March basketball.

A little travel. A hotel stay. Four games in five days. Quality competition.

OK, so in this case, it was very little travel. Lake Oswego is not exactly worthy of updating any passports.

But the Storm hope the experiences they have this week at the Nike Interstate Shootout will help them go a long way in Washington’s high school playoffs at the end of the season.

The Shootout, now in its 19th year, has grown into a 32-team, two-bracket tournament. The Storm, not shy to a challenge, are in the Swoosh bracket, for the elite teams.

Skyview lost Saturday’s opener to Franklin of Portland by 20 points, then fell to South Medford by five points on Monday. Skyview did bounc back to beat Lake Oswego on Tuesday, and is scheduled to finish the tournament today.

The win-loss record might be suffering, but the players know why they are in this field.

“It’s different competition here. It’s more aggressive competition,” senior Macy Mukensnabl said. “We can come out and lose, but as long as we’re playing hard, we’ll improve.”

“We want to win, but if we lose, we understand we’re here for the competition and to get better,” added sophomore Brooke Bowen.

Prairie’s program is the undisputed leader in girls basketball in Southwest Washington. The Falcons travel out of state every season, in search of competition. The Falcons have not lost to a Clark County opponent since January of 2000.

This week, Prairie is playing in the Diamond State Classic in Delaware.

“This is a real mental thing for us,” Prairie coach Al Aldridge said, noting the competition and the three-hour time difference.

“These teams that we’re playing here are better than any of the teams in our state at the 3A level,” he said.

Prairie plays today at 9:30 a.m. in Delaware — that’s 6:30 a.m. here.

“The kids have to learn to play through this stuff,” Aldridge said. “They’re mentally fatigued, physically fatigued, and they have to figure out how to bring it every day.”

The annual plane trips also are a reward, he said, for the hard work the players put into the program. The Falcons took advantage of a day off Monday and went to New York City. Today, after their game, they plan to visit Philadelphia.

Skyview, the past few years, has clearly been the second best team in the region. And now the Storm are trying to take the Skyview brand on the road, too.

“It’s the competition,” Skyview coach Steve Hook said. “You’re going to play somebody good four days in a row.”

This is the first time Skyview has played in a tournament that guarantees four games in Hook’s seven seasons as the head coach. He expects more in the future.

“We’re going to start going places,” he said.

Right now, the place to be for the Storm is Lake Oswego High School, roughly 25 miles south of Skyview.

It’s not far, but the team did check into a hotel for Monday and Tuesday nights, paying for the hotel stays with fundraising, such as a golf tournament and other events.

“It’s a good time for them to bond, to get to know each other,” Hook said of his players. “Plus, if we make it to the state tournament, it’s exactly what we’re going to have: staying in a hotel and playing the next day.”

The team-is-a-family concept is important to the Storm. Mukensnabl said it took a while to find the right chemistry last year, and then the players “kind of lost it over the summer.” She said they are using this week to “try to get it back.”

“The better you know your teammates on and off the court, the more comfortable you are playing with them,” sophomore Maddie Van Liew said.

A pizza dinner was on the schedule Monday night, but other than that, there were no specific plans.

“We’ll find something to do,” Mukensnabl said, adding that they will all be talking, but it won’t be all about basketball.

Of course, basketball will turn into the main focus for this team soon enough. The results of the Nike Interstate Shootout will have no impact on Skyview’s ability to get to the state tournament. But the experience just might.

“In league, we’re used to seeing everyone’s plays,” Van Liew said. “Here, we have to adapt as we go. We have to figure everyone out.”

Just like a team would have to do in a state tournament.

The elite programs, the ones such as Prairie who expect to make state every year, find four-game tournaments just about every season.

For Skyview, this is a first.

And the Storm would love to one day join in that “elite” company.

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Columbian High School Sports Reporter