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Show Orcco-Geneva Times BY DICK HARMON On a quest. A mission to find out why Mountain View High School in Orem can win two national championships in one school year. It's a fete unequaled in the Rockies, perhaps the nation. na-tion. The school sits on the edge of a sand hill on Center Street, the first of the monster high schools built by the Alpine School District when the old Orem High, built to replace the now non-existent Lincoln Lin-coln High when that school became be-came obsolete. The students appear normal. They bleach their hair, wear an extra earring or two, some put on those baggy pants that look like they're about to go south like ducks before winter. Some drive beater cars; others get some nice wheels from mom and dad. Some barely make grades while others are Sterling Scholars. At first look, MVHS kids look as normal as pancakes with syrup in the morning. But there's magic about the school and it's athletics. They win. They dominate. They get students, stu-dents, parents and community members to games. They draw big, spirited, supportive crowds like you'd expect from a town in the late 50s and 60s when a high school was the center of the community com-munity and activities at school were the thing to do. The call goes out for cross country runners and three to four times more kids sign up than most any other school in the state. It's an event. The kids get serious, seri-ous, they push one another and they win. The call doesn't go out for basketball, basket-ball, kids flock to get in the program, pro-gram, much to the chagrin of competitors. com-petitors. And they win. Bill Delaney is the principal who just left Mountain View for a job in the district office. Caught shopping at one of the local warehouse ware-house hardware stores; he paused to reflect on this Bruin magic. Delaney starts slow, gathering his thoughts, and then he can't stop Hiit 8W SSI M and put the l ti I , . Make whatever you re I j celebrating even more special I with a DO Frozen Cake. 4 1 " Orew )wy 226-2352 !Zay23, 2001 National Champions Special Edition explaining all the pieces that have come together with the school. But he points out that it isn't unique at just Mountain View, it's a community thing with Orem High and now Timpanogos. "Orem is a place where families fami-lies and their kids have united in both academic and other pursuits like sports. Heck, last year we had all three Orem high schools make it into the late rounds of the state basketball tournament. That's community." But Delaney does credit MVHS athletic director Joel Gardner for being the foundation of all that's happened in sports, particularly with the success of what cross country and girls basketball coach Dave Houle has accomplished. "Joel's set the tone and made it happen. But the key has been participation. We've got everyone involved, then you can't help be winners when that happens, the by-product of participation is winning. win-ning. We never had hard feelings between the girls and boys programs pro-grams and sports. We never had competition or feelings between the minor and the major sports. We have an understanding that athletes are free to play what ever sport they want and aren't specialists spe-cialists in just one thing and that's helped." Delaney likes the picture painted by the school's cultural assembly conducted each year. There, kids with different background back-ground are encouraged to show their heritage. "You see a Hispanic His-panic girl taking a Hispanic boy by the hand and dragging him out on the stage, same with Polynesian kids. We get a taste for what life is like for each other. We try for a kind of Camelot." The search continues. I make a call to Maui where Scott Hansen, father of twin girls who played on MVHS's national championship cham-pionship basketball team, is vacationing va-cationing with his family in mid-May. mid-May. His son Travis also played basketball at the school before S 11 mm Pi W PPi w icing on any occasion! ft "mi m a Queeh anmriMMMfeMMft Mmfmn iw Tid attending UVSC and BYU. Hansen is asked about the magic of the basketball charm with Houle's dynasty, Utah's most dominating high school program. "There are four things that standout aWthat school. In all sports, they have great coaches who are very well prepared and relate to those kids in all facets of their lives. "First, with Houle, the key is having great athletes. When you to to war, it's the side with the great warriors who win the battle and ultimately the war and they have those kinds of kids. Second, is a great coaching staff who are incredibly smart, motivated, experienced ex-perienced and intelligent. Laura Romo is incredible as an assistant. assis-tant. She works hard and could be a Division I college caliber coach on the sideline. These guys spend a lot of time preparing for a game and they impart that to - :: f it a . 3 Left to right front row: Alex Anderson. 2nd row: Nicole Hill, Brittany Anderson, Emily Hayes, Erikka Robinson, Abbey Geddicks, Jen McClellan. Back Row: Nikki Nelson, Amber Chynoweth, Chelsea Chynoweth., Kelsi Jones, Julia Ricks. Suzanne Sabey not present. QMS Precision Drill Tern Continued from front page title. "We were really proud of her for that," said Woodhouse. The highlight of the competition competi-tion for the Orem troupe, according accord-ing to Woodhouse, was the team's performance of their lyrical dance, where they displayed "the most team unity all year." "That's why the dar.ce was so effective," Woodhouse reflected. "It was flawless and intense one of those magical moments." The team's lyrical dance was done to the music "Total Eclipse of the Heart", choreographed by Jessica Holker, a Class of 2000 graduate of OHS. "The girls just love that dance!" Woodhouse declared. de-clared. "It comes through." The girls had the opportunity to perform the lyrical dance and the officers' number in a special showcase that night. "After that, we crashed," the team director said. But opportunities opportu-nities for shopping, the beach, and Disneyland revived the group somewhat. Discipline, practice, and striving striv-ing for perfection brought the drill team the success they have enjoyed. en-joyed. Woodhouse said her philosophy phi-losophy is that "you perform the way you practice." the players in how opponents operate op-erate from everything from inbounds passes to defensive and offensive sets. Their players aren't easily confused by what others throw at them because they've been taught what to expect ex-pect and can adjust mentally and physically. Third, they are well-prepared well-prepared with very intense practices prac-tices and the players become confident con-fident because of what they know and can do on the court. Fourth, MVHS plays a Division I-type defense. de-fense. They are capable of swarming swarm-ing around opponents, using athleticism, speed and intelligence intelli-gence to rattle teams. You see this when they play AAU teams across the country, like at Chicago when a very talented team gets defended de-fended and ends up getting only five or six shots in a quarter. It frustrates opponents." So, the 2000-2001 season winds down this month, another year of "I want to see it a routine perfect in practice 20 times before it is performed," Woodhouse said. "If you demand perfection of yourself in practice, it pays off when you get on the floor." Members of the drill team abide by a constitution and code of conduct. They sign a contract, and they don't miss practices, their advisor said. They sacrifice social functions and family trips to be able to perform with the group. Team members are chosen in the spring. During the summer, the girls practice from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. every day for seven weeks. During the school year, they practice prac-tice every other day from 6 to 8:45 a.m., plus Saturdays. Woodhouse said guest choreographers were brought in to work with the team, and the dancers received special training in ballet and jazz technique. tech-nique. "And a lot of the girls dance much more than that," Woodhouse declared. "Membership "Member-ship on the team requires a big dance background. A person can't walk in off the street and do what these girls do it's too high of a technical level." During try-outs, the advisors look for the following character Page 2 r o championships, titles, trophies and these incredible national honors hon-ors as the No. 1 girl's basketball and cross country teams. The school has success tattooed on it as soon as you drive past State Street and see the towering white brick cut against the sky in the West with the lake as a scenic backdrop. It's more than the bricks, more than the techniques, ploys and x's and o's. It's a magic, a spirit and it's become the mortar mor-tar that holds this school together. In a quest, just ask those who know and they throw you a brush and canvas and in no time you see the picture perfectly clear. Dick Harmon, executive sports editor of The Daily Herald, is a Provo High graduate who married mar-ried an Orem grad and has three children who have graduated from either Mountain View or Timpanogos. 3 , istics in a dancer: 1. Dance technique; tech-nique; 2. Training; 3. Background; Back-ground; 4. Assertiveness; and 5. Versatility the ability to interpret inter-pret different styles. This is Woodhouse's third and final year coaching the team. A former Brigham Young University Univer-sity Cougarette, she was taking a dance class from Travis Pullins, the Orem High drill team advisor who preceded her. Pullins told her he was moving and asked if she would be interested in taking the job. Woodhouse said she was finished fin-ished with college and working at Novell, and looked into the opportunity. oppor-tunity. She joined forces with assistants as-sistants Ericksen and Bott, both former officers with the Orem High drill team, and the rest is history. The two assistants will succeed Woodhouse in the director's role. Woodhouse said the Orem High girls were "thrilled" with the airport reception they received re-ceived when they returned with the championship. The school's band and principal were there, along with other supporters, lots of blue and gold balloons, and big signs. "They gave us a good homecoming," home-coming," she said. "It was a really re-ally great experience. The girls certainly work hard." J V i v X4 m m 1 |