HILLSBORO, Ore. — When Brett Henry’s phone rang on Christmas morning, the Evergreen boys basketball coach figured the news on the other end wasn’t good.
In a season full of cancellations due to COVID and more recently, weather, coaches have been conditioned for last-minute changes.
This call was no different.
Evergreen was scheduled to play a tournament in Canby, Ore., where Henry attended high school, but Canby coach Craig Evans informed Henry that his Canby team had been given the opportunity to play in the prestigious Les Schwab Invitational starting on Dec. 26 in Hillsboro, as a result of two out-of-state teams dropping out, and another two, Grant and West Linn, dealing with COVID situations.
“(I was) thinking, that’s not good, because we’re going to lose games because of it,” Henry said. “But, I gave him my blessing. I said, ‘you can’t turn that down. Go for it.’ ”
Then, Henry asked a follow-up question: “Do you know how many teams they need?”
Canby put in a word to the LSI that Evergreen was interested in playing.
Henry texted a tournament organizer and by 2:30 p.m. on Christmas day, the Plainsmen were officially invited to the tournament. The team learned of the change shortly thereafter, less than 24 hours before they were scheduled to play Lake Oswego in the opening round.
“They were really pumped up, they were excited,” Henry said of his players.
Evergreen was glad to be playing rather than losing several games from its schedule. The downside, however, was not having any game preparation or practice time. Those factors certainly didn’t help the Plainsmen on Sunday against Lake Oswego in a 78-37 win for the Lakers.
“No game preparation, we didn’t practice Christmas day. We just kind of had to roll with it,” Henry said.
Yet the team also embraced the challenge of the LSI. Evergreen played Canby down to the wire on Tuesday, ultimately falling 65-61. The Plainsmen returned Wednesday morning to face Sherwood, but suffered a cold shooting day and lost 68-60.
“There’s no hiding at the LSI,” Henry said. “If you have issues, someone is going to expose it. So that’s the goal of being here, aside from winning, is figuring out what is it going to take for us to be able to compete in February? We think this will prep us for January, but what do we need to fix by the time playoffs roll around?”
In the midst of looking for answers to those questions, Evergreen has also been trying to integrate a couple new players into the fold who are playing a lot of minutes already.
Sophomore Arthur Ban jumped up from JV and made his varsity debut with Evergreen Dec. 20 against Milwaukie.
So too did senior Juelz Mendoza, a transfer from Ridgefield who had to go through an appeals process with the WIAA before gaining eligibility to play.
The two, along with senior DJ Edmonsen, all reached double figures in scoring to lead the Plainsmen against Sherwood.
“(Juelz) played the whole game tonight, he’s our best player,” Henry said.
“(Arthur) was swinging up to start the season, really hadn’t even played and then we put him in against Milwaukie and he was really good. We kind of looked at each other and said, ‘look, we need him.’ And he’s playing big minutes.”
Evergreen will play Gresham at 9 a.m. Thursday to close out the Les Schwab Invitational. Then, barring any other unforeseen changes, the Plainsmen will begin Greater St. Helens League play on Jan. 4.
“There’s been more last-minute changes this year than my entire first four years combined,” Henry said. “It’s not even close, with the exception of the COVID season last year. We keep referring to that as the COVID season, but I think we’re still in the COVID season. We just have to adjust.”
SHERWOOD (Ore.) 68, EVERGREEN 60
EVERGREEN — Juelz Mendoza 14, DJ Edmonsen 12, Carmelo Stewart 4, Caedmon Crader 0, Joey Pham 2, Landon Rayner 0, Robert Lawrence 6, Adrian Williams 4, Delo Doutrive 0, Charles Dayton 2, Davonni Wright 0, Arthur Ban 16. Totals 23 (1) 13-19 60.
SHERWOOD — Caden Jenkins 7, Matthew Verkamp 16, Owen Caudle 17, Baydon Kullowatz 12, Bryson Goff 14, Kaeden Glass 0, Gavin Maynard 0, Kaden Morris 2. Totals 25 (5) 13-15 68.
Evergreen 14 10 13 23—60
Sherwood 16 18 18 16—68
