 | | Photo By Aileen McAteer | | Paul Carter, co-player of the year with Isaac McKinley, represented the Casco league with McKinley, at the 1A All Star series. They were coached by Country Christian coach Doug Nofziger. |
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By Aileen McAteer
Originally the Casco and Mountain West basketball leagues were scheduled to combine for the boys division 1A All Star Series on June 27 and 28, but when Country Christian coach Doug Nofziger arrived with his team of Paul Carter and Isaac McKinley, the Thursday prior to Friday's tip-off, Big Sky and Mountain Valley had three players total.
The three representatives from Casco, Michael Helmer from Willamette Valley Christian and McKinley and Carter rearranged their entire roster joining the Big Sky and Mountain Valley squads, taking two players from Valley 10.
"That gave us six kids the first day and seven kids the second," Nofziger said.
"Supposedly we had eight players but one of the people couldn't be there on Friday and another one hurt their ankle on Thursday. So we played Mountain West the very first game and they were loaded with players."
Nofziger's team led the entire game until the last four minutes and lost 56-50.
"They ran out of gas," he said.
On Saturday Casco and company faced Big Sky, winning 52-46. Each of the four teams picks an all star and McKinley was dubbed the MVP of the team.
"The group of players we had, they all played very good," he said.
"The two boys from Valley 10 did very well. The first day the scoring was even across the board. All six guys scored, with four in double digits and the other two would chip in with three or four points. The second game Isaac played very well, leading all the scorers. Defensively Isaac played great. The 1A player of the year, Danny Reiter (senior from Mohawk), he defended him. Reiter scored eight points but in the last minutes, he had a couple shots off Isaac, who was worn out."
The team held one practice on Thursday and tried to keep their strategy as simple as possible, he said.
"Friday morning we went over a few things and it was pretty simple, with no post players," he explained.
"We didn't want to get too intricate with it. We just wanted to get the ball down court before they set their defense up. We tried to keep the 'bigs' on other teams to get too many easy points on the inside. The first game we were able to do that and it was very enjoyable. James Ellis from Days Creek coached with me and it was the first time I did one of these things so I wasn't sure how it was going to go."
The team used two plays during the whole series, with Carter and McKinley both scoring in double figures.
McKinley, who will attend the University of Portland on an academic scholarship, will attempt to walk on to the Pilots basketball team. Carter will attend Chemeketa, a community college in Salem.
"Both Paul and Isaac have the opportunity to make the team," he said. "It just depends on the structure of the team and if they have a need for that position. "Isaac has been going to open gyms for the past three weeks and the coaches invited him to walk on this fall. He has the academic first and basketball would be a plus. Chemeketa is a very good basketball program so if Paul makes the team he will be with a very good coach."
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