This year has certainly been unusual for high school athletes in more ways than one. It wasn’t that long ago — five months — that area basketball squads finished their short spring season. Now, another one is starting, as teams began practice Nov. 15.
For some of the best Class 1A Big Sky League girls basketball teams, such as the South Wasco County Redsides, their season concluded exactly five months ago in the unofficial state playoffs (non-sanctioned by the OSAA) June 24 in Baker City. The Redsides, guided by fourth-year Coach Carly Johnson, took fourth place in the state tournament with an 8-4 record, marking their best season in 20 years.
“It seems like basketball season just ended and now we’re right back at it,” said Johnson. “I’ve been blessed to have some really talented athletes and so I have high expectations. We’re going to work really hard, and we’ll have a very competitive team, so I’m excited about that. It’s our goal to get to state, but you can’t always count on that, because you still have to put in all the hard work and do what we can to prepare ourselves for that.”
South Wasco
The Redsides reached the state playoffs for a fifth straight year in June and they’re focusing on extending the streak to six and achieve their goal of qualifying for the 1A state tournament quarterfinals March 3-5 in Baker City. South Wasco has a good chance of doing that, too, especially with a strong squad returning, led by the Redsides’ only senior, Holly Miles, and juniors Kylie Iverson and Sadie McCoy. The trio were starters on the team that enjoyed a very successful spring season.
South Wasco opens the season with a nonleague contest on the road Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. versus the Wallowa High Cougars. The Redsides play their first home game Dec. 10 versus the Dayville/Monument High Tigers at South Wasco County High School in Maupin.
“We’ll have a couple of really tough games right at the start of the season, so that’s going to provide us with a good test to see where we’re at and I’m looking forward to that,” said Johnson. “I expect that Dufur, Echo and Ione will be pretty tough teams and Trout Lake will be pretty good again too because they have a lot of talent. I’m looking forward to playing the teams from Washington and seeing how things are going to be with them added to our league.”
Other area teams that are also considered as top Big Sky League title contenders include the Dufur High Rangers and the Trout Lake High Mustangs. Trout Lake, the Klickitat/Glenwood High Vandals, Bickleton High Pirates and Lyle/Wishram High Cougars are Washington teams that are competing for the first time in Oregon’s Class 1A level.
Dufur
The Rangers, guided by third-year Coach Nathan Morris, have the most experienced squad of all 12 Big Sky teams with 10 seniors. The group includes Grace Blenden, Abby Beal, Emily Crawford, Jadyn Fargher, Alicia Anderson, Hannah Kortge, Piper Neal, Ashley Bailey, Brooke Beachamp and Grace Beal. Dufur had a successful spring season with a 6-4 record.
“Having 10 seniors is a unique position to be in and so I’m pretty excited about our potential,” said Morris. “Some of the seniors were a big part of our success the last few years and they played on our 2020 district championship team. Sophomore post Hayley Peterson will also play a major role for us along with the seniors. We have a lot of experience, and we’ll have good post play and good depth, so those are pretty good things to have on the basketball court.”
Dufur opens the season with a nonleague game at 4:30 p.m. Dec 1 at Class 2A Culver High. The Rangers play their first home game at 3 p.m. Dec. 4 versus the Powder Valley High Badgers at Dufur High School.
Of note, Dufur plays The Dalles High Riverhawks, a Class 5A squad, Dec. 8 at 7:15 p.m. at The Dalles High School. That game will represent a homecoming for Morris, who was the Riverhawks’ boys basketball coach from 2015-2019.
“The goal is to reach the state playoffs, which is something that we haven’t done since 2015,” said Morris. “Our goal is to get to Baker, but there’s a lot of other steps that we’ll have to take before that can happen. We’re going to work with the girls and try to have them not thinking in terms of starters and non-starters. We might have a couple of different starting units because we’ll have eight or nine girls that will be getting lots of playing time. We’re just grateful to have the opportunity to play again and we’re thankful for that, especially after having one season canceled by COVID.”
Trout Lake
Trout Lake had an excellent spring season with a 9-0 overall record and a 6-0 Big Sky mark. The Mustangs lost three seniors from the spring team, including Peyton Allaway, arguably the best player in the Big Sky a year ago and daughter of then Coach Steve Allaway. He stepped down at the end of last season after 10 years as head coach.
Coach Dennis Anderson is in his first year leading the Mustang program, assisted by Doug Dearden. The coaching transition should be smooth for players as Anderson has coached many of them at the middle school level.
Trout Lake plays its season opener Dec. 6 at home at 5 p.m. versus the Condon High Blue Devils.
Klickitat/Glenwood
Klickitat/Glenwood, guided by fifth-year Coach Adam McFall, begins the season Dec. 17 with a 6 p.m. road game against the Horizon Christian High Hawks in Hood River. The Vandals didn’t play in the spring and so the last time they played basketball was almost two years ago, in February 2020. McFall guided both the boys and girls teams at Klickitat/Glenwood during the 2019-2020 season, but he’ll coach only the girls team this year.
“I had a lot of really good help when I coached both teams,” said McFall. “It’s been a long time since these girls have played basketball and you can see the rust in their game a little bit. We have 10 players and I’m expecting that two of our top players this year will be juniors Alise Gimlin and Allison McFall (Adam’s daughter) and sophomore Joslyn Arnold.”
Sherman County
The Sherman County High Huskies will be hoping to have an improved squad after struggling in the spring while posting a record of 0-7. Sherman will have leadership from seniors Allie Marker and Cali Johnson, along with an experienced squad that has three juniors and three sophomores.
Sherman is hosting the four-team Sherman County Invitational Tournament Dec. 3-4 at Sherman High in Moro.
Horizon Christian
The Horizon Christian High Hawks, guided by Coach Joe Petshow, will also be seeking to improve following a spring season that concluded with a 1-6 record. This will be the first full season of girls basketball for the Hawks since 2018 because of low turnout for the program. The Hawks have a young team with five freshmen and one senior - guard Augustina Decker.
“We have three juniors, two (Elle Rinella and Gabby Mooney) who played with us in the spring along with Gus,” Petshow said. “The third (Briseyda Perez) also has high school basketball experience.”
Horizon opens its season with a 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1 nonleague game on the road versus the Central Christian High Tigers in Redmond.
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