Camas senior level guard Keirra Thompson is thought for her flashy passes and no-look assists as one of many state’s elite level guards.
Ask her about John Griffin, the crew’s late assistant coach who died in August at age 64, and she or he’ll dish up how his influence and affect on her and her teammates was second to none.
“He was great to our program,” Thompson stated Friday after the crew’s 63-49 loss to top-ranked and unbeaten Davis of Yakima. “He was the one who taught us our defense. We pride ourselves on our defense and it all started with him. He taught us a lot.”
This season, Thompson determined to alter her signature No. 35 uniform quantity for No. 5 to honor Griffin. The 2 share an Aug. 5 birthday.
“It was a no-brainer,” Thompson stated.
Griffin died Aug. 31 after battling prostate most cancers. He spent greater than 35 years in schooling as a instructor, coach and directors at Clark County faculties. In 1995, he led Mountain View ladies basketball to a state runner-up end.
Extra not too long ago, he served as an assistant coach at Camas beneath head coach Scott Thompson at Camas. Griffin was on the bench for the crew’s ultimate recreation final March when the Papermakers defeated Gonzaga Prep on the Tacoma Dome for this system’s first state title.
A banner of Griffin additionally hangs alongside all varsity ladies basketball participant banners inside Camas’ gymnasium.
Senior Sophie Buzzard, who had a team-best 19 factors Friday within the crew’s first lack of the season, praised Griffin’s spirit and power.
“He always brought positive things to this team,” she stated, “and taught us what we know ever since we were freshmen and it just carries on through the program.”
Enjoyable at Moda Middle
Attending to play basketball on an NBA flooring is a chance of a lifetime.
So Heritage boys basketball coach Ashton Clark need to ensure his gamers made probably the most it when the Timberwolves performed Fort Vancouver on Saturday on the Moda Middle in Portland.
And Clark didn’t go on the prospect both, becoming a member of his gamers in pre-game warmups in making an attempt to knock down an NBA 3-pointer.
“It’s amazing,” Clark stated. “I feel like everybody is a kid again, coaches included.”
It additionally introduced a matchup of two former gamers now teaching at their alma mater — Clark at Heritage and James Jones at Fort.
“James Jones is a friend of mine,” Clark stated. “I grew up playing against him and at Fort as well. We got together last summer, and he’s like ‘We got to play each other, man.’ And then it was ‘let’s do at the Moda Center.’ ”
The Heritage-Fort recreation was one in every of 5 highschool video games Saturday on the Moda Middle as a part of the Courtroom of Goals occasion hosted by Pure Focus Sports activities.
After Fort closed inside 39-35 early within the fourth quarter, The Timberwolves went on 15-3 run to tug away for a 65-51 win.
The win improved Heritage to 4-6 on the season. Seniors Tyrell Money and Jose Zacarias led the Timberwolves with 18 and 17 factors respectively.
Zacarias has been on the Heritage varsity squad since his freshman season, Clark’s first as Heritage’s head coach. The Timberwolves have 9 seniors on the roster.
“This is Year Four for us as a staff,” Clark stated. “Having that group (of seniors) begin with us and seeing them during is nice. It takes some time to construct a program. So it’s actually cool to have that giant group of seniors. It’s been some time since we’ve had this many seniors.
Winners at Hammerhead
5 native wrestlers got here residence with titles on the Hammerhead Match in Bremerton.
And there was one runner-up end of be aware.
Noah Koyama of Union, the defending 4A state champion at 138 kilos, misplaced within the championship match at 150 kilos at Hammerhead.
After scoring two wins by technical fall and two by fall, Koyama misplaced to Colby Ducatt of Bonney Lake 7-1 within the title match.
Ducatt positioned third at 150 kilos within the 3A state match final spring. Bonney Lake moved as much as the 4A classification this yr.
Nolen Nelson of Citadel Rock received the 157-pound division. Simon Jarrell of Camas was the runner-up at 175 kilos, and Kacen Hamilton of Citadel Rock was the runner-up at 126 kilos.
Within the ladies match, Prairie senior Religion Tarrant continued her undefeated profession with three wins by pin to win the 235-pound division. Tarrant spent 1 minute, 19 seconds whole on the mat in her three matches.
Janessa O’Connell of Union beat Kaylee Lehman of W.F. West to win the 135-pound title. Portia Erickson of Union pinned Gabrielle Berger of Granger to win at 120 kilos.
Different winners included Leah Wallway (105) and Kamiah Gaerlan (115) of Kelso.
