Medical Lake boy's basketball receives surprise visit from 'Down Under'

One team's loss will be another's gain, particularly for the memories of the Medical Lake Cardinal boy's basketball team.

When a Greater Spokane League team had to suddenly cancel a game featuring the touring Tenison Woods Titans from South Australia last Saturday, Cardinals' head coach Noel Hachtel got wind of it.

It was accidental by nature, Hachtel said, "It was a great accident; the experience our boys are having, especially our seniors," he said. Not only did Medical Lake win the game 62-52 but they collected memories that will last a long time.

Setting up the game on very short notice was more than simply turning on the lights in the gym.

"They came to play the bigger school - the GSL - the night we played them they were supposed to play another school and they cancelled," Hachtel said.

"Because of Medical Lake's location, they called and asked if we could fit them in," Hachtel said. "We contacted WIAA to get a 21st game and we put them on the schedule."

In addition to hosting 32 minutes of basketball, Cardinal team parents put on a postgame "diversity dinner," Hachtel said. "The good thing about it, they've (Tenison Woods) been eating cheeseburgers and fast food so it's the first time they had a home-cooked meal in the states."

Rohan Stevenson is the head coach at Tenison Woods, a private Catholic School in the far southern part of Australia. Pronounced Roan (the h being silent), Stevenson said the school encompasses grades K–12 and enrolls 1,700.

They are located about five hours west of Melbourne and the same distance east of Adelaide, in the city of Mount Gambier with population of about 25,000. The whole region has about 150,000 people.

"We're right in the middle of nowhere you could say," Stevenson said.

The school has a solid basketball history and the city has a professional basketball team, the Mount Gambier Pioneers, many-time national champions in Australia.

Stevenson holds down a coaching-only position at Tenison Woods with his players starting young.

"I have a 6-7 boys and girls team, an 8-9 and a U10 and under, he said. "If you're good enough you're old enough as far as I'm concerned."

The final group is open varsity for boys and girls. "If they're good enough, we try to get them a college scholarship," Stevenson said. If not they can try out for the Pioneers. There, an elite player will make between $1,000 and $2,000 a week Stevenson said.

Stevenson was familiar with two notable Aussie recruits that have played at Eastern Washington University, Venky Jois and Felix Von Hofe. The Titans met Von Hofe's former school, Wesley College, in the Australian national finals two months ago, Stevenson said.

Tenison's tour, 23 days long, began with a five game swing through the Northwest where many of his players experienced snow for the first time. Facing Antarctica it gets cold in Mount Gambier but never snows, Stevenson said.

After Medical Lake, they bused to Seattle to catch some of the sights, including the Space Needle and a hockey game. They conclude the basketball part of the U.S. tour with tournaments in Sacramento and San Francisco.

"We end it in Hawaii, on a beach." It's a little bit like home Stevenson said of Hawaii where his kids can get out of the cold and acclimatize.

Not only did the Titans experience different weather and basketball styles in the states, they also got to know how different the atmosphere is in gyms in the states.

It began in Ephrata. "We rolled into a pretty interesting, I wouldn't say hostile environment; we're not used to the bands and the cheerleaders," Stevenson said. "That's taken a little getting used to." Coincidently, Ephrata beat the Tenison varsity boys 69-38 in what Stevenson termed, "Our worst performance so far."

Another game was against North Central in Spokane, ending in a 67-64 loss on Nov. 30. "That place was packed," Stevenson said. That was followed by an 88-60 win at Colton before meeting Medical Lake.

"It's been a very eye-opening experience for me as a coach, but also the athletes," Stevenson said.

For Medical Lake, this last minute change of plans will likely build bridges for the future for many involved. "They made friends, you could seem them exchanging phone numbers," Hachtel said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].