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Hoop'happy? NO reservations about it
Squaxin
Tribe's
big bash
is popular
as always
By STEVE PATCH
Mark Snyder's kids out at the
rez are partly to blame, of course.
Among other things, after all,
they insist on calling him "Youth
Director."
Alas, that they succeeded in
making him look the part this past
week - did so despite increasingly
pubescent distractions - seems only
to have encouraged him to think
he wasn't crazy after all for taking
on the challenge in the first place.
You know: of bringing togeth-
er more than two dozen teams of
teens and younger for three succes-
sive dawn-to-midnight days of concen-
trated togetherness known otherwise
as the Squaxin Island Holiday
Youth Basketball Tournament.
"Yeah, and this is our 13th year
of doing it," said Snyder, who's
been director of the thing since
its inception and the tribe's "Mis-
ter Recreation" going on 16 years
now.
OH, SURE, there have been
moments of clarity along the way,
assured the director. Like the time
a couple years ago when no fewer
than 36 teams were entered in the
three-day affair. That's fully eight
more than last week's count.
"I'll never do that again!" Snyder
pretended to bluster. He laughed.
"Plus it was a three-game guaran-
'You know, the
hormones are
flowin', and the
boys are seein'
girls from this rez
and the girls are
seein' boys from
that rez...'
tee. Now, you tell me: How stupid
was that?"
He loosed another chortle. "I'm
tellin' ya!" he said. "I wasn't right
for about a week after that."
AND SO IT was that the vet-
eran director was openly tickled
by how well things came off this
time around, even with the still-
impressive guest list and the mar-
athon schedule that saw action in
the Squaxins' huge cedar gym run
each day from literally 9 in the
morning to 11:30 at night.
"It was great," said Snyder,
i whose own kids did "the beat
that we've done in quite a while,"
with' a second-place finish in the
tourney's 16-and-under coed divi-
sion, a second in the 8-and-under
fray, thirds in both the 15-and-un-
der boys' and 10-and-under girls'
brackets and a fourth in the 13-
and-under girls' division.
"And, you know, what's really
cool about it is that there's, like,
cousins that these kids don't get to
see, you know, cuz they live a ways
away.
"And then also, you know, the
hormones are flowin', and the boys
are seein' girls from this rez and
the girls are seein' boys from that
rez, so it's a good lil' social atmo-
sphere."
AND NO TROUBLE?
"Ohh! No," said Snyder. "We
don't have any incidents like that.
I mean, the kids are all well be-
haved. The Nespelem team espe-
cially is just nuthin' but a class
act."
That the visitors were so ex-
emplary in that regard is particu-
larly amazing when you consider
the disadvantage in which they'd
tbund themselves, inadvertently.
"Their coach misread my flyer,"
said Snyder. "He thought it was
12-and-under girls. So he brought
11- and 12-year-olds and put 'em
in the 13-and-under bracket."
Nespelem's little overachiev-
ers wound up taking second place.
"That guy is an amazing coach,"
said Snyder. "He has l l- and ]2-
(Please turn to page 27.)
SIDELINE DISTRACTIONS NOTWITHSTANDING, the focus is
on hardcourt fun last week as the Squaxin Island Tribe hosts
its yearly hoop tournament. That's the hosts' Alex Rivera more
or less submitting to teammate Victoria Sanchez' hairkeeping
ministrations during a brief benchriding stint in their second-
round game Thursday morning, and peeking out beneath the
Gatorade is teammate Tasheena Sanchez. Inset from the top, the
visiting Skokomish girls' Kayla Edwards grabs for a loose one
between teammate (and sister) Margrite Smith (left) and the
hosts' Alyssa Cervantes; a successful put-hack shot brightens
Page 26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, January 4, 2007
the face of visiting hoopster Donovan Ward of LaPush; a
under game gets swallowed up by the hosts' vast wooden
LaPush guard Gary Jackson slips inside teammate Ward for
bucket between games; our well groomed friend Alex muscld
away a rebound as the Skoks' Kara Nichols (left) and an unide I
tiffed pickup player known only as Sarah look on behind her, an
boys' teammate Ray Pruneda offers a wordless assessment oJ
behalf of fellow player Harry Allen. The bright-eyed young lad.'
charming the concession-stand workers, near? Why, tourne:
director Mark Snyder's 6-year-old daughter, Laura, of course.
Hoop'happy? NO reservations about it
Squaxin
Tribe's
big bash
is popular
as always
By STEVE PATCH
Mark Snyder's kids out at the
rez are partly to blame, of course.
Among other things, after all,
they insist on calling him "Youth
Director."
Alas, that they succeeded in
making him look the part this past
week - did so despite increasingly
pubescent distractions - seems only
to have encouraged him to think
he wasn't crazy after all for taking
on the challenge in the first place.
You know: of bringing togeth-
er more than two dozen teams of
teens and younger for three succes-
sive dawn-to-midnight days of concen-
trated togetherness known otherwise
as the Squaxin Island Holiday
Youth Basketball Tournament.
"Yeah, and this is our 13th year
of doing it," said Snyder, who's
been director of the thing since
its inception and the tribe's "Mis-
ter Recreation" going on 16 years
now.
OH, SURE, there have been
moments of clarity along the way,
assured the director. Like the time
a couple years ago when no fewer
than 36 teams were entered in the
three-day affair. That's fully eight
more than last week's count.
"I'll never do that again!" Snyder
pretended to bluster. He laughed.
"Plus it was a three-game guaran-
'You know, the
hormones are
flowin', and the
boys are seein'
girls from this rez
and the girls are
seein' boys from
that rez...'
tee. Now, you tell me: How stupid
was that?"
He loosed another chortle. "I'm
tellin' ya!" he said. "I wasn't right
for about a week after that."
AND SO IT was that the vet-
eran director was openly tickled
by how well things came off this
time around, even with the still-
impressive guest list and the mar-
athon schedule that saw action in
the Squaxins' huge cedar gym run
each day from literally 9 in the
morning to 11:30 at night.
"It was great," said Snyder,
i whose own kids did "the beat
that we've done in quite a while,"
with' a second-place finish in the
tourney's 16-and-under coed divi-
sion, a second in the 8-and-under
fray, thirds in both the 15-and-un-
der boys' and 10-and-under girls'
brackets and a fourth in the 13-
and-under girls' division.
"And, you know, what's really
cool about it is that there's, like,
cousins that these kids don't get to
see, you know, cuz they live a ways
away.
"And then also, you know, the
hormones are flowin', and the boys
are seein' girls from this rez and
the girls are seein' boys from that
rez, so it's a good lil' social atmo-
sphere."
AND NO TROUBLE?
"Ohh! No," said Snyder. "We
don't have any incidents like that.
I mean, the kids are all well be-
haved. The Nespelem team espe-
cially is just nuthin' but a class
act."
That the visitors were so ex-
emplary in that regard is particu-
larly amazing when you consider
the disadvantage in which they'd
tbund themselves, inadvertently.
"Their coach misread my flyer,"
said Snyder. "He thought it was
12-and-under girls. So he brought
11- and 12-year-olds and put 'em
in the 13-and-under bracket."
Nespelem's little overachiev-
ers wound up taking second place.
"That guy is an amazing coach,"
said Snyder. "He has l l- and ]2-
(Please turn to page 27.)
SIDELINE DISTRACTIONS NOTWITHSTANDING, the focus is
on hardcourt fun last week as the Squaxin Island Tribe hosts
its yearly hoop tournament. That's the hosts' Alex Rivera more
or less submitting to teammate Victoria Sanchez' hairkeeping
ministrations during a brief benchriding stint in their second-
round game Thursday morning, and peeking out beneath the
Gatorade is teammate Tasheena Sanchez. Inset from the top, the
visiting Skokomish girls' Kayla Edwards grabs for a loose one
between teammate (and sister) Margrite Smith (left) and the
hosts' Alyssa Cervantes; a successful put-hack shot brightens
Page 26 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, January 4, 2007
the face of visiting hoopster Donovan Ward of LaPush; a
under game gets swallowed up by the hosts' vast wooden
LaPush guard Gary Jackson slips inside teammate Ward for
bucket between games; our well groomed friend Alex muscld
away a rebound as the Skoks' Kara Nichols (left) and an unide I
tiffed pickup player known only as Sarah look on behind her, an
boys' teammate Ray Pruneda offers a wordless assessment oJ
behalf of fellow player Harry Allen. The bright-eyed young lad.'
charming the concession-stand workers, near? Why, tourne:
director Mark Snyder's 6-year-old daughter, Laura, of course.