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| Elite 11: No Satisfaction for Issy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Alexa Smith
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Issaquah did everything last season but cheat and gain possession of the State 3A championship. As we resume our Elite Eleven rankings for teams, we find Issaquah has a good shot at rectifying the siutation. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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SEATTLE, Wash. - Good thing the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) is not running any national governments. They'd likely depose a president, not replace him or her, and have the vice-president run the country without title or power.
And so Issaquah, which finished second in the state tournament and twice came so close to knocking off Sealth that it clearly was the best legal 3A team in the state, gets no satisfaction. "We've moved on," Issy coach Kathy Gibson says. "We're trying to get back to the tournament and win it." Yeah, but much, much easier said than done. Sealth didn't get to keep the titles, but it got to keep the memories and, even bigger, maintained the ability to win the State 3A title this year, even with players who weren't - and, presumably, are not - supposed to even be there. Not only that, but because of realignment, the likely best team in 3A was a former very good 4A team, Auburn Riverside. Plus, there's Seattle Prep, a young team that placed last year and not only will be more experienced, it will be more talented with freshman phenom Yasmine Fuller. Poor Issaquah? Well, yes and no. Yes, from the standpoint of the Eagles being so good and, along with River Ridge from 2005, being the most directly impacted school by the Sealth debacle, yet receiving no credit or relief. But, no, from the standpoint of whether their time came and went forever.
Issaquah will be significantly toughened up at the T-Mobile Invitational at Bank of America Arena, Dec. 27-28, where the four-team field also includes some of the best high-school talent in the country. Maya Moore, the No. 1 player in the HoopGurlz National Hot 100, leads Collins Hill from Suwanee, Ga.; Khadijah Rushdan, No. 10 in the Hot 10, paces St. Elizabeth from Wilmington, Del., and Kentucky signee Amber Smith leads perennially powerful Winter Haven, Fla. Chief Sealth also will get some national seasoning at the Nike Tournament of Champions, the most prestigious high-school girl's basketball tournament in the country, where it opens in Chandler, Ariz., against iconic San Jose, Calif., powerhouse Archbishop Mitty and guard Danielle Robinson, No. 21 in the HoopGurlz Hot 100. Not to be left out, Auburn Riverside is playing the same time in the Nike Northwest Invitational, hosted in Beaverton, Ore., by powerhouse Southridge, where the main attractions are Sacramento High School and Vicki Baugh, No. 5 prospect in the country by HoopGurlz, and Tacoma's Lincoln High, led by Alex Montgomery, a HoopGurlz preseason All-American. It all will make for a dogfight of a state 3A tournament in March. We expect four of the state's top seven teams, without regard to classification, to be 3A teams. And that, of course, includes Issaquah, title or no title. The HoopGurlz.com Elite Eleven high-school girls basketball team rankings are featured on KING-TV's Sports Blitz and The Seattle Times.
Tigers Roar |
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