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Plan B: Getting Started at Seton Catholic

By Paul Valencia, Columbian High School Sports Reporter
Published: January 20, 2010, 12:00am
3 Photos
Steven Lane/The Columbian
Players like D.K. Lee (24) are trying to build traditions at Seton Catholic High School.
Steven Lane/The Columbian Players like D.K. Lee (24) are trying to build traditions at Seton Catholic High School. Photo Gallery

Students relish chance to play for Seton Catholic in school’s first year

The Seton Catholic boys basketball team practices a little more than two miles away from the school’s tiny campus, on a court that is smaller than regulation.

The Cougars play their home games … well, they don’t have any real home games. Home is wherever they can find a gym.

Last week, they played a “home” game against King’s Way Christian at King’s Way Christian. Seton players proudly wore their home white uniforms. Unfortunately, so did the Knights.

That’s just part of the experience of playing Class 2B sports for a first-year school with no athletic complex on campus.

Plans are in place for a gym on a spacious campus, but that is years away from fruition. For now, Seton Catholic athletes in basketball and volleyball make do with what they have. And they are proud to be the first of their kind.

“It takes more of a commitment,” sophomore basketball player Conor McDaid-O’Neill said.

Seton Catholic does not have a girls basketball team. Instead, three basketball players play on the King’s Way team.

“When I heard basketball, I came running,” Edrienne Chan said. “I didn’t hesitate.”

Cheyenne Cunning said she wasn’t going to play basketball at first but decided to help out her Seton teammates who would be traveling to King’s Way for practice every day. She said the Knights, who are rivals of Seton in volleyball, have been very welcoming.

“King’s Way is a nice community,” Cunning said.

Still, the Cougars playing for the Knights are excited about wearing Seton colors — Navy Blue and Vegas Gold — one day.

“We should have our own team next year,” Chan said.

Dick Scobba, Seton’s athletic director, said that is the plan. Or, rather, that is one of many, many plans. Creating an athletic department for a new school with 39 students has its challenges. And its victories.

The volleyball team had 11 players this fall and came close to making it to state. This spring, a boys soccer team will play as an independent in the Class 1A Trico League. There is interest in 8-man football, as well. Scobba said he hopes to field a team in that sport by the fall of 2011 — for the first senior class of Seton Catholic.

Scobba, a longtime teacher, coach, and administrator with Evergreen Public Schools, said some of the best advice he ever received was to never just say no.

“Always honor somebody by saying, ‘Let’s check it out.’”

So if an athlete asks Scobba about the possibility of adding a sport, he will keep an open mind.

“I heard from one of the kids earlier, ‘If we don’t establish it, someone else is going to establish it,’ ” Scobba said.

He also has a school to emulate. King’s Way is in its fourth year of varsity boys basketball. This is the third season for girls basketball. The school also fields teams in football and volleyball, and has track and field, girls tennis, and boys golf programs. This spring, a boys soccer team will compete in the Trico League, as well.

Just like at Seton, King’s Way has an experienced athletic director. Butch Blue spent 35 years as a coach, teacher and then administrator at Battle Ground High School before taking over at King’s Way three years ago.

“It’s a different deal when you get to build and not just maintain,” Blue said. “That is a really special part of (the job), getting to build something, create something.”

Last spring, Blue was instrumental in creating the Columbia Valley League, Class B programs located in Southwest Washington. This school year, there are seven schools in the league: Seton Catholic, King’s Way, Washington School for the Deaf, and Three Rivers Christian are 1B programs. Columbia Adventist Academy, Vancouver Christian, and Morton are 2B programs.

Scobba said Morton will not be in the league next year, and Columbia Adventist will be a 1B school.

Just having a league helps in scheduling, Blue said. It all came about because of communication.

Scobba said being an athletic director is not “rocket science,” but a good one must know how to communicate.

Through talks with Blue, for example, Seton has been able to join forces with King’s Way in girls basketball. Or a Seton boys basketball home game could be scheduled at King’s Way.

Scobba also is appreciative of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, home of the boys basketball practices.

For the Cougars, it’s more than just the act of practicing and the playing of the games. As a first-year school, the students have a say in the traditions that will be built at Seton.

The first large “SC” letters for letterman’s jackets were too big and printed in the wrong color, so Scobba had to send return that batch.

“Pretty soon, you’re going to see Seton Catholic jackets,” he said. “This is the stuff that hits you every day. It’s all brand new. The kids get to pick this. They get to choose what their jacket looks like.”

The athletic director is enjoying the process, too.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Scobba said.

The boys basketball players like seeing their names in the paper. The Columbian will publish all local varsity competition when the games are reported, regardless of classification.

Word is spreading, either through the paper or at churches, that there is a new team in town.

Freshman Evan Simms said he knows there are people who follow Seton’s progress through the boxscores.

“There are some people at our games we don’t even know,” added McDail-O’Neill.

“My dad put something in the bulletin of our church,” sophomore Keith Kuzis said. “We have parishioners coming to some of our games.”

So far, athletes and fans are all showing up at all the correct places. Don’t laugh. That is a big deal.

“It’s pretty close to miraculous that everyone’s been where they’re supposed to be, on time, with the right uniform,” boys basketball coach Jon Schroeder said. “Parents have been spectacular in every facet you can think of. You would think, at times, half the group would show up where it said on the schedule a month ago versus what it’s been changed to today.”

That’s one giant victory right there. There have not been a lot of wins on the court, though.

Schroeder said he compares this season to opening a business.

“The first year or two is not the easiest,” he said. “Keep doing it. Sooner or later, it becomes something special.”

Seton Catholic athletes in all sports understand. They do not have their own facilities. This year’s freshmen might not ever get their own place to play.

But they are the pioneers, leading the way for future Cougars.

“It’s growing,” Scobba said. “Don’t blink. We’re going to grow faster.”

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Columbian High School Sports Reporter