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Show Wendover 'Slums' to Region 1 1 Tournament Title IV O J ; r ! H I - " f V ( if I 1 t I ! : ; - I ' I - '. I Ballet on the court: Park City and So. Summit scramble. It was a scene from one of those B movies: the basketball basket-ball coach at Whitman High inherits a team of unruly, loudmouth punks who have played so much playground ball that they are essentially uncoachable. They hog the ball as they get it, tossing up outrageous shots that go in. The coach is called names, the players cuss the officials and there are a lot of fouls committed. The B movie plot would have the new coach (maybe a sexpot female like Cathy Lee Crosby in the film "Coach") take the players, show them the meaning of the word respect and bring them to the state championships. It happened here last week, almost. Wendover High School, the Fort Zinderneuf of high basketball, with its chuck-'em-up offense, came to the transferred Region 11 tournament tour-nament in Park City and won the thing. Play was moved from South Summit because the gym there caught fire and was heavily damaged the day before , the opener. The only thing is, the team has never met Cathy Lee Crosby and it pays little or no attention to the coach it has. In the first game against North Summit, Park City coach Bruce Reid said Wendover hit a new low for sportsmanship. "It was the most pathetic exhibition I have ever seen," Reid said. It featured the no pass offense of Wendover and its playground discipline against the tenacious, not-a-lot-of-talent North Summit wears-you-down attack. It was also a sideshow. As one Wendover player disputed an official's call, he bounced the ball off the ref s head. Another player fouled out, took his jersey off and threw it. Another player referred to the Wendover coach as a portion of anatomy associated associat-ed with use while sitting oh a commode. That was apparently loud enough to be taken in by the crowd. That player started the following game against South Summit. "I was embarrassed for the school, the coach, the State of Utah," Reid said of the Wendover performance in the North Summit game, which North Summit blew after tying, 68-60. "They were taking unbelievable unbe-lievable shots, unfortunately, unfortunate-ly, they made them," Reid said of Wendover. The renegade team of the tournament next took on South Summit . in a more tame affair and dumped them, the team Reid thought would win. Wendover eventually advanced ad-vanced to the final game against powerful Dugway ' and showed a semblance of teamwork in a 56-52 win. That put them in the state 1A playoffs which started at BYU March 16. Dugway, South Summit, North Summit and North Rich joined Wendover and Dugway promptly lost to Parowan to start the action, 63-53. Park City is not in the playoffs this season, as the Miners had two bad games and were eliminated by South and North Summit 83-47 and 71-47. Reid said a combination of factors, topped by the loss of height, led to the Miners' 3-16 season. He said, however, that the players he had never gave up. "I walked off the court proud of them. They gave me all they had." Reid said he was told by several other school coaches and administrators that based bas-ed on the size of the team and the loss of starters, Park City played hard and showed well. Reid said he is pulling for South Summit to win the state championship. To do that, the Wildcats will have to win their opener against Piute and take three more games. With Dugway, a pre-tour-nament favorite that had been ranked number one all season, out, South Summit's chances improved. Reid doubts that Wendover Wendo-ver can "win four games without an emotional breakdown" break-down" because the team is undisciplined. As for who will win it, Reid says "it's up, in the air. That's because there is so much balance this season." |