Welcome change of seasons at jamborees
‘Tis the season.
The season of giving and receiving … basketballs.
This week saw the first practices of the winter sports season. Across the Valley young people are running wind sprints and the three-man weave, practicing the two-handed chest pass, the bounce pass and the behind-the-back pass. You won’t be able to pass a gymnasium for the next five months without hearing the squeak of sneaker on varnished floorboard – and the thump of leather ball.
This is the time of winter where expectations are as high each player’s hopes. It’s the time where the team is molded and formed, crafted by the firm hand of the coaching staff. Next week that staff will begin honing and tempering their work in the heat of game competition.
Next Saturday, after the first round of after-Thanksgiving Day leftovers have been digested and the first day of the after-Thanksgiving shopping rush has been conquered, the basketball season officially begins with the first taste of competition.
The All-Valley girls basketball jamboree tips-off at 1 p.m. at West Valley High. The All-Valley boys jamboree tips off at Central Valley at 2.
At West Valley, it will be the first time fans will be able to see Central Valley’s girls basketball team and new head coach, long-time assistant Judy Walters, or West Valley under the direction of new coach Jamie Pancho. At the Central Valley jamboree, it will be the debut of new, 23-year-old East Valley coach Steve Henderson.
Central Valley’s girls finished with a fourth-place trophy at last year’s State 4A tournament – knocking off district rival University in a loser-out game to reach the trophy round. Afterward, longtime coach Dale Poffenroth accepted the head job at Coeur d’Alene and the school elevated Walters, for 17 years his assistant and the former head coach at Kennewick’s Kamiakin High.
West Valley’s girls debut under Pancho, who spent the past seven seasons coaching Priest River to a 115-51 record and the past two coaching volleyball at Sandpoint to a pair of Idaho class 4A championships and a 71-1 record.
Henderson takes over the Knights, replacing Drew Vanderpool.