After a year without playing indoors, at least officially, Sweet Home volleyball and basketball players got a chance to knock the rust off last weekend in Idaho.
And boy, did they deliver.
A group of seven boys arrived in Wilder, Idaho, on Friday, continuing on after learning that the tournament had been canceled, said Ray Towry, who coached them and organized the trip. They ended up playing five games, though, and came away with five wins.
Meanwhile, a team of local volleyball players coached by Mary Hutchins also made the trip to Eagle, a suburb of Boise, where they swept every game they played in an 18-under club tournament – the first they’d played as a team indoors in a year, Hutchins said.
“It was totally an adventure,” she said. “The girls just basically had tons of fun.”
The trip was hastily organized, she said, after the tournament director contacted her early last week and said he had an opening.
“He knew that Oregon did not have a ton of playing opportunities right now,” Hutchins said. “It was late notice, but we gathered enough girls to form a team. We went over there and played and we had a great time.”
Since Sweet Home had not played in Idaho, they were seeded low in the tournament, which meant they played the top two seeds, she said.
After sweeping the field – not losing a game, the hosts were “very complimentary” and “curious” about Sweet Home’s experience, she said.
“They were very surprised. They asked us a lot of questions about what the restrictions have been and whether we had been allowed to play.
“One of the refs told the girls, ‘Wow, you guys are hungry.'”
The tournament was the first time in a year that they had played a club game and since November 2019 since the Huskies last played a high school game.
Volleyball practice is scheduled to start Feb. 22, with a six-week season beginning a week later. But Hutchins said she still doesn’t know what to expect, as high schools still haven’t gotten specific guidance from the OSAA Executive Committee, which is scheduled to meet Wednesday, Feb. 17.
“We’re going to start practicing, but we need to actually play people,” she said.
“Rusty” Boys Win In Basketball
Towry said the tournament organizer, Nick Larsen of Oregon Amateur Basketball, “bent over backwards” to get games for the teams that showed up in Idaho.
They played three on Friday and two on Saturday, including two face-offs with Salem Academy, whose last appearance on the basketball court was in the 2020 3A state championships.
Sweet Home opened against 5A Division Putnam, which fielded a “young group of kids” who were “really quick and they could shoot,” Towry said. “We were really rusty but we beat them.” The score was 49-41.
In their second game, against East Linn Christian Academy, Sweet Home continued to shake off rust, he said, and trailed the Eagles at one point, but ended up with a 44-40 win.
Their third game Friday was against Salem Academy, which “was definitely bigger than us.” Towry said. It was tight all the way, he added.
Sweet Home won 46-42 after Cole Baxter got a put-back into the basket with less than a minute to play, then got fouled as the Huskies clamped down on defense.
Baxter hit the front end of a one-and-one, then Hunter Coulter, the only defender on that end of the court for Sweet Home, somehow came down with the rebound and scored at the buzzer for a 59-58 victory.
On Saturday, the Huskies rolled over Baker City 71-41.
“It looked like we could beat anybody in that game,” Towry said, noting that players were battling cramps and fatigue. “They were not in basketball shape.”
Baker City, though, had no answer for Coulter in the middle and although Sweet Home mostly played zone defense to conserve energy, the Huskies occasionally locked down with some “hard-core man to man,” Towry said.
Offensively, “when they tried to collapse, we just ran on them and Owen (Towry) and Aiden (Tyler) hit easy layups.”
Against Salem Academy again on Saturday, it came down to the end after Sweet Home led by 10 with 2:55 to go.
“They slapped a press on us and got turnovers, but we won,” Ray Towry said. The final score was 46-42.
“The boys really gutted it out. Salem Academy was definitely bigger than us. We just played great defense in a zone – all day long.”