Doc Hardy’s house will be dark for tourney

For the first time in recent memory, John Hardy gym in the Endicott school will be without the sounds of squeaking sneakers and raucous rooters as county basketball teams start the final weeks of the winter campaign.

Athletic directors from the eight Southeast District schools voted last fall to take the district tournament out of Endicott and move the show, at least the last three days of the show, to Colfax.

“We’re sad about that, but we hope they’ll bring it back our way,” said Rick Winters, superintendent of the St. John/Endicott cooperative.

High school hoop squads from Whitman County have for years converged at Endicott to battle for the Whitman League championship. The traditional Whitman League configuration ended in 2008 when the state’s WIAA board created the 2B division. Tekoa/Oakesdale and Garfield/Palouse, often among the contenders at Endicott, were split off into the “big-B” ranks.

That marked a de facto end to the Whitman County Tournament after a run of 87 years.

“We like to host basketball tournaments at Endicott, and we think we’re pretty good at it,” said Winters.

Endicott, however, continued to host the February hoop show for SE 1B district playoffs. Last year’s tourney saw 1,335 tickets sold for the three-day event.

At the start of this sports year, enrollment counts moved the Vikings and Nighthawks back down to the 1B, but the former Whitman League became the SE 1B with Pomeroy and Touchet added to the lineup.

The Endicott tourney was a financial boon to the school and its clubs. Volunteers from the community served meals in the school cafeteria to feed hungry basketball boosters.

“We were all getting ready to bake up our pies, but nobody asked us to this year,” said Ann Lowe, president of the Endicott Community Club. “We’re sure missing it this year.”

Endicott’s cafeteria, just down the hall from Hardy gym, for years served as an informal social site for players, families and fans at the close of the winter’s hoop campaign.

The SE school directors thought Colfax would be a better site for this year’s state qualifier.

“Well, it wasn’t a unanimous choice, by any means,” said Pomeroy Principal Doug Lamunyan, official director of this year’s district tourney.

Lamunyan said the directors in voting to leave the Endicott venue pointed out St. John/Endicott once forced a venue shift from the Colfax Middle School gym to the high school gym.

“They were upset about playing a state qualifying game in a middle school gym, and Endicott’s a middle school gym,” said Lamunyan.

Winters, though, suspected other driving factors for the vote to remove the tourney from Endicott.

“Some of the folks, I think, maybe think there’s a sort of home court advantage for us by having the tournament at Endicott,” he said.

Winters coached St. John/Endicott boys last year when they ripped through the district tournament at Endicott on their way to second place in the state final at Yakima.

“Well, I think that was a little bit of it,” said Lamunyan. “But it definitely wasn’t the main driver.”

Bob Kirk of Pomeroy, district director, said some of the school ADs thought the bleachers along the Endicott baselines were too close to the playing floor. Kirk also noted St. John/Endicott’s prior objection to playing in a middle school gym.

The SE athletic directors voted to seek Colfax, Pullman High or Lewis Clark at Lewiston as possible sites for playoffs which will roost at Colfax next week. They were able to book Colfax because hoop action for Bulldog teams moved to the District 7 show at Mead and Mt. Spokane High schools.

Under the first SE district 1B format, higher seeded teams host the opening rounds with the final three rounds at Colfax. Girls and boys rounds will alternate Wednesday through Saturday this week.

First action at Colfax Tuesday will be four elimination matchups of teams that lost in the first two rounds. Final rounds will be next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 18-19.

Gate receipts will be collected by the host schools and divided up among the teams based on miles traveled and games played.