Long Trip Back To Shadle Senior Overcomes Obstacles To Compete With His Friends

Oliver Cook missed one opportunity. He’s determined not to let another slip away.

The Shadle Park senior dreamed of a trip to the State AAA basketball tournament with his longtime Highlanders basketball teammates, but a bump in the road of life cost him that experience.

Abruptly, his family moved to the West Side just before the school year began.

It’s a confusing story that Cook hopes will be less painful with a strong showing at the Eastern AAA regional track meet this weekend at Central Valley.

Cook, born in the Tonga Islands southwest of Hawaii, grew up in Spokane with many of the players who made up Shadle Park’s state-qualifying basketball team.

But while the Highlanders were building their state tournament team, on which Cook was expected to play a key role, Cook was attending Sedro-Woolley.

No one was more surprised than Cook.

The family, which included his mother, stepfather and sister, had returned to the Tonga Islands last summer so his mother could see her father, who is about 90. When they landed in Seattle on the return trip, it was announced they would stay.

Cook wanted to return to Shadle Park and his parents relented. But he said his transfer was discouraged by a Sedro-Woolley staffer, who threatened Cook and Shadle Park with a lawsuit.

Cook returned to Sedro-Woolley where he averaged about 11 points a game for a .500 basketball team.

“It got me real mad at my parents for doing this to me, taking me away from the team I love playing basketball with,” Cook said. “When I was over there it just wasn’t that fun. I had been dreaming about going to state with these guys ever since my freshman year.”

Meanwhile, the Highlanders made state.

“It kind of sucks I missed basketball, my main sport,” said Cook, who will play at Skagit Valley next fall.

Shadle basketball coach Darcy Weisner said, “Now it’s a lot easier to talk about. It was a real … (tough experience). We missed him. In big games to have one more athletic kid … would have helped us. Beyond that, people just like Oliver.”

Cook visited the Highlanders in the Kingdome but the emotional pain was overwhelming. Yet, when he said he wanted to graduate with his friends, the staffer who blocked his transfer before basketball wished him well.

So he left his family behind and returned to Spokane. He’s trying to make up for lost time. He has the best javelin throw this side of the mountains and is No. 2 in the long jump.

“I want to go to state, do well at regional,” he said. “I want (my family) to be (in Tacoma) when I finally get a medal.”

Coincidentally, the Shadle Park javelin coach is Weisner.

“He’s done so many things for me since I was a freshman, through basketball and in the classroom,” Cook said. “I’d just like to pay him back with a state championship. It’s the least I can do.”

Weisner has noticed the determination.

“No question,” he said. “Part of the trauma was he missed out on a basketball experience that got to the state tournament level. He was part of that group from their elementary years. He got robbed of that. He came back and wants to be a contributor, leave his mark with a good class of kids. He wants to go out with part of the athletic reputation these kids have left here.”

Cook made his intentions known at the District 8 meet last week. On Friday he went 44 feet, inch in the triple jump, a personal record by about a foot. The next day he PR’d in the javelin by 3 feet with a toss of 196-1.

“He’s probably one of the best male track athletes, if not the best, since I’ve been there,” said Ivan Corley, who has been at Shadle seven years, the last five as the head track coach. “Oliver is one of the most competitive kids I’ve been around. He thrives on the big meets. He thrives on the challenge of competition. That’s why he’s done well.”

Cook said, “The reason I had a good meet is I like to compete and compete hard.” he said.

Last year he popped a good javelin throw at regional but didn’t make finals at state.

“I think his junior year, like other kids, he wanted to go over there and do well. I think that was the biggest thing, he put so much pressure on himself,” Corley said. “He tried to muscle the javelin. With the implements (shot put, discus and javelin), you have to become part of the implement and they have to become part of you. He fought it last year. Now he feels more comfortable… . This year, he just gets better with each throw, which tells me he is relaxing and letting things happen.”

Which, considering what he has been through, is a big accomplishment in itself.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo