3/16/2025

The Winter Championships are in the books and Eli Sports had more new faces this year helping out than ever before. Some of them took time to write out a moment or more about their experience at the Hardwood Classic regardless of where they were covering. This show’s why this event is so ingrained in our high school sports experience. There will will always be discussion on how too put this event on along with the seeding process, whether or not the trophy games should be for 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th and 5th and 6th to re-seeding the tournament round-by-round and numerous other issues.

Those discussions make this event imperfect by nature. And those imperfections are exactly what makes this the perfect high school tournament. If seeds 1-6 finished like that in each tournament we might as well just play a video game or worse yet the tournament will be a video of the seeding committee coming together for a final seeding and then we just award trophies without playing any games.

All the imperfections are essential in keeping this tournament the highlight of the high school sports season. I’m sorry to all the other sports and tournaments but the Hardwood Classic is by far the most popular and the one that draws by far the most interest from hardcore to the casualist of fans. Our live device views on ESN for the Hardwood Classic dwarf all others and yes that includes football. It’s not even close. The format, the 4 straight days the number of schools involved and both girls and boys make this coming together the biggest high school event of the year.

Below some of our crew members from each location took time to write about something that stood out to them or took an overall view of the experience. Also a special thanks to our Tournament Managers in Spokane, Jamie Council and in Yakima, Matt King. And special thanks to the 100 or so adults to high school kids that helped get all the broadcasts on the stream.

Great help from Nick Voll and the Vancouver video/production class and Tait Meyer with the Richland crew both of them in Tacoma. Special shout out to student broadcaster Ryland Hubbard from the Bomber Network and just 1 year removed and now attending the Murrow school of broadcasting at WSU Max Schuester.

In Yakima, Jeff Weeks and Craig Lacy with their Big Horn Network kids handling the camera’s, replays and production. And our partnership with Jarod Breashears and SWX in Spokane. Also thanks to the WIAA’s Mick Hoffman, Andy Barnes and Sean Bessette for their diligent work along with the whole WIAA crew that helps put on this massive event.

Below are the ESN crew member who took time to write a piece on their experience.

Jason Cole ESN Yakima

A simple statement, but one that holds images of glory and accomplishment that all small school student-athletes in the state of Washington dream of hearing and feeling.  I am a former Adna Pirate who played in the 1990 State “B” Tournament in the Spokane Coliseum.  I can attest that it was one of my life changing experiences and led me to a long career of coaching multiple sports, including basketball.  For over twenty years, I patrolled the sidelines of the gridiron, the court, and the track.

However, something else kept scratching at the back of my mind.  The voices of past broadcasters who painted the picture of what we were all experiencing.  Those voices continued to almost “call” me to the microphone.  Bob Dow, Paul Beattie, Ryan Trotter, Matthew King……I believed I could be one of them.  After much begging and convincing, 104.3 KMNT gave me my shot.  I spent six seasons as a color commentator for football and called five state championships with their crew.

Adam Race, ESN Spokane

After finishing a game early, I was able to watch the end of a boys 2B quarterfinal matchup between Northwest Christian and Freeman. The student and parent sections on both sides were huge and raucous, with people packed up to the second deck in the Spokane Arena. It was a two-point ballgame and Freeman was forced to foul NWC to send them to the line with just 20 seconds left. Going to the line to shoot two crucial free throws was NWC star Avi West. West was having a great game and led all scorers with 18 points. The Freeman section got loud, the pressure mounted, and West missed both free throws, keeping it a two-point lead. Freeman was able to go down and get a putback at the buzzer to tie the game, and went on to win convincingly in overtime, 54-46. In the last minute of overtime with Freeman comfortably ahead, I saw West covering his face with his jersey, crying on the court. As Freeman hit a couple of free throws to ice the game, West continued this outpouring of emotion and was comforted by multiple Freeman players with time still on the clock. Avi West was the star of the game for NWC, but two missed free throws had ultimately led to Freeman coming back and winning. West should absolutely not blame himself for the loss, but I cannot imagine the pressure put on a high school junior in that situation, with almost 1,000 people in the stands. What stood out to me was every Freeman coach and player making a point to console Avi, and it really struck me as what high school sports are about. Growth through winning and through losing, and incredible feats from incredibly brave student athletes.

Rich Olson, ESN Tacoma

The most impressive thing I saw was Coach Akil White’s halftime adjustments for the Davis Pirates in their 4A girls semifinal matchup against Glacier Peak. A tight six-point lead at halftime exploded into nearly a 40-point advantage, fueled by a dominant 43-11 second-half performance. The Pirates’ speed and athleticism made it seem like they had extra players on the court. Cheyenne Hull, Deets Parrish, and Isa Garcia were relentless on both ends, applying nonstop pressure and dictating the game’s tempo.

Sandy Ringer, ESN Yakima

There’s nothing quite like the agony and ecstasy of high-school state basketball tournaments. There were plenty of both. A day after the high of delivering the buzzer-beating three-pointer that give the King’s girls an upset over top-seeded Lynden Christian in the semifinals, Kaleo Anderson stood with tear-stained cheeks as Kiana Skogstad celebrated Bellevue Christian’s long-awaited title.

But I think my favorite moment was watching the pure joy on Jalen Davis’ face after his sizzling start sparked the Bremerton boys to their first championship since 1974. He scored the Knights’ first 13 points and had 27 of his 34 by halftime on an assortment of shots. Afterward, he shared a special moment with his father/coach, Jeremiah Davis, then wrapped both arms around the massive trophy and only let go when it was his turn to cut a piece of the net.

Bremerton ended Prosser’s Cinderella run that included a massive upset of No. 1 Lynden followed by a much-satisfying win over rival Selah.

Roy Baker, ESN Spokane

It is great to see amazing teams and players going head to head.  We saw it in the Girls 2B, Boys 1B and Boys 2B Championships for sure.  All were so close and could have gone either way…. Those were awesome to watch!  NWC’s Kaitlyn Waters going toe to toe with Adna’s Karsyn Freeman was an exciting battle to watch.

NWC’s Avi West bouncing an inbound pass off a defender and scoring was a great play.  Reardan’s Tenice Water’s behind the back no look pass to a teammate was awesome.

But for me, some of the defining moments of the tournament where when you heard and saw players get injured and have to step off the playing surface.  These injuries definitely impacted the Girls outcomes in both 2B and 1B runs for the gold ball.  #1 Rainier lost a key player in Brooklynn Swenson and were eliminated in the round of 12.  #3 Brewster lost 3 point sharp shooter Kara Schertenlieb in the opening minutes of their first game and it impacted their offensive firepower.  In the 1B side we saw coach and father Keith Finkbeiner carry the soul of the #2 Waterville-Mansfield team off the floor in his arms as Holly Finkbeiner suffered an ankle injury in their second game that ended up impacting their outcome….  Now it was awesome to see Hyleah Aparicio step up for Brewster, but she didn’t have the scoring ability of Kara.  And we saw Delaney Nelson step up for Waterville-Mansfield and step in for the leader but again, this wasn’t her typical role and it impacted their play.  But in the B; that is the impact one player has; a loss of one player can completely alter the outcome of a game, tournament and season….  We saw that….

The other thing we saw was an amazing defensive battle in the lowest scoring affair of any of the 2B games…. If you told someone that you held the Napavine Tiger girls to just 36 points; only 14 for Hayden Kaut; and that the games leading scorer was Brewster’s Pepper Boesel; you would think Napavine would have lost.  But you would be wrong…. Brewster’s Morgan McGuire did a great job on Kaut and the Napavine offense.  Morgan is an amazing defender; something that there isn’t really a stat for and gets lost in the game.  There are so many games that are decided by a great defensive player limiting the main firepower of the opponent, but you don’t hear about it because there isn’t a way to quantify it…. Napavine disrupted Brewster as well; shots didn’t fall and with Schertenlieb out, Brewster only scored 30.  Another defining game.

Loved all the bands.  I especially loved the googly eyes on the Brewster Band bassoon and the fact they played for other communities that didn’t have a band there!

It was another great B and an amazing experience!  So many other stories….  But those are the ones that stick out for me….

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