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By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

What a wild and rewarding year it was for area sports in 2017

Crunch Time

 

Last updated 12/28/2017 at 7:24pm



What an interesting year we are about to complete in West Plains sports. OK, and the country, too.

It was a time of both upheaval with the departure of two of the area’s biggest coaching names, Eastern Washington University’s Beau Baldwin in football and Jim Hayford in men’s basketball.

It was a year of notable accomplishments in Medical Lake where basketball excelled and cross country continued the dominance it has experienced since the arrival of head coach Gene Blankenship in 2010.

For years, ever since Eastern won the 2010 Football Championship Subdivision national title in Frisco, Texas, in dramatic fashion of course 20-19 over Delaware, Baldwin emerged on the radar of bigger schools.

Most were reclamation projects and having followed Paul Wulff to the Eastern job, Baldwin saw how the “Ghost of Football Future,” can present itself. Wulff, despite earning a nice salary to go to Pullman, continues to rebuild his career at Sacramento State.

Being one who has threatened to get adept at Twitter, and who generally only visits Facebook to see the latest exploits of the grandkids, I was probably the last one in this past Jan. 16 — the Martin Luther King holiday — who knew why they were being summoned to the Red Reese Room.

Baldwin had been swept by new Cal Bears head coach Justin Wilcox as his offensive coordinator, but met the media in an emotional press conference announcing his move south.

And just a week later, loyal foot soldier Aaron Best, an Eagle at heart for two decades from his days as a player, was elevated to head coach. Best ascended to the position and finished with a 7-4 record. While stunning in many circles not making the playoffs, Best did earn a rare win in Missoula over the Grizzlies.

Then a little over two months later, the Reese Room was full of cameras again on March 30 to announce Hayford’s sudden departure to Seattle University and the promotion of another loyal assistant, Shantay Legans to EWU basketball head coaching job.

Meanwhile, over in Medical Lake, basketball with both the boys and girls, were seeing some magic take place.

Both programs qualified for state, the girls after a perfect 12-0 run through the Northeast A League schedule and its first regular season title in decades. ML head coach Kyle Lundberg earned the NEA’s Coach-of-the-Year award for those accomplishments, leading his team to a 20-3 record following a heartbreaking loss, 47-45 to LaSalle High School at state in a first-round regional game in state play.

The best part of what happened then was what it bodes for the future as the majority of this Cardinal team were freshman.

The Cardinal boys, who were now under the guidance of new head coach, Noel Hachtel, finished 16-9 in his rookie season, falling to Hoquiam. 90-75, also in a first-round regional game in state play.

A soggy spring and smoky summer gave way all too quickly to fall and the often-boastful Blankenship was more measured in his predictions for cross Cardinal cross country.

He let preseason polls speak this time and that No. 1 ranking in September held until the end of the day Nov. 4 when the Medical Lake boys won their third 1A state title in five years at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. And when the Cardinals were not the champs the previous two seasons, heck, runner-up is not bad either.

Besides getting to build on the dynasty, Blankenship made his team a deal. Win the crown and they could clip away at Blankenship’s long grey locks of hair.

“The last two years all they had to do was make it to the finals, and place,” Blankenship said. “This time it was either you win or you’re not touching my hair.”

“We ran the best race of the year, without a doubt,” Blankenship said, watching his guys earn a total dominating victory, 78-130, over league rival Riverside.

As 2018 races into view, who knows what lies ahead? More of the winning, less of the drama and those sudden news conferences will suit me just fine.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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