Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Vikings girls
Fourth-year Garfield/Palouse coach Garrett Parrish directs his team in a timeout against Lakeside Dec. 1.
A new interest has been drawn into the Garfield/Palouse High School gym this winter as the girls basketball team is off to a 5-1 start.
Long an opener for the more successful boys teams in recent years, the Vikings have turned notice in 2017, beating Oakesdale (6-1) Dec. 8 for a definitive win of the new Southeast 1B season.
The good start is a reward of a kind for Gar/Pal leaders Payson Griner and Katie Arrasmith, two seniors who have started for four years, pushing through a 2-18 season their freshman year, 9-11 their sophomore and 6-11 last year, a season which began with cancelled non-league games due to injuries and lack of players, and ended with the Viking girls’ first district playoff berth in five years.
“(Arrasmith and Griner) carry the load for us,” said fourth-year Garfield/Palouse coach Garrett Parrish. “The biggest difference this year is the other girls can now step up and help them out.”
The others – after the 2016 departure of Keely Burns, a Gar/Pal star who started at point guard as an eighth-grader – are junior Jaedan Askins at point, a second-year starter and Emmy Gregg, a senior third-year starter at guard.
“She’s kind of the glue person on defense,” Parrish said.
Paige Collier, a freshman guard, completes the starting lineup. Collier was the team’s sixth player last year as an eighth-grader.
Kenzie Pederson, in eighth-grade for 2017-18, now leads off the bench, often in relief for Griner and Arrasmith.
“She can play any position,” said Parrish.
Managing his youngest players’ time on the floor is one thing Parrish does, as the WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) limits eighth-graders to 80 quarters per season (junior varsity or varsity).
Last weekend, after a win over St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse and a loss to Colton, the team returned to practice with Askins’ finger still wrapped after cutting it in shop class. It likely will remain that way for the Vikings’ games at the Colton tournament, which began at 3 p.m. Wednesday against Wahkiakum. School got out at noon that day for Christmas break. The winner advances to play either Colton or Entiat on Thursday.
Is this kind of start to the season a surprise to Coach Parrish?
“It is and it isn’t,” he said. “Winning the Oakesdale game, that was a big one for us.”
Parrish teaches P.E. and health at Gar/Pal High, from which he graduated in 2005.
Burns transferred to Clarkston High School after her freshman year at Gar/Pal. She is the granddaughter of former Garfield/Palouse boys coach Tim Coles.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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