Owyhee Avalanche Feature

Trojans earn first basketball trophy in 13 years
From the March 10, 2010 issue of The Owyhee Avalanche

Homedale High School capped off a year of boys’ basketball milestones with the biggest win of the season Saturday.
Having never beaten Fruitland in conference play before this season, the Trojans pulled off the magic again Saturday to win the consolation championship to close their first appearance in the 3A Real Dairy Shootout state championship.
It’s the first state tournament trophy a Homedale boys’ basketball team has brought home since a consolation championship in 1997.
“It’s nice to beat them,” fourth-year HHS coach Kenny Thomas said after a 49-40 victory over the Grizzlies, “but, you know, it would have felt the same no matter who we played.
“We’re super excited to bring home a trophy. It’s been a long time since Homedale has done that, especially in basketball.”
The Trojans finished the season at 15-11 by collecting two consecutive victories in the state tournament at Meridian High School. All three games were broadcast on radio station KIOV 1450-AM.
Homedale opened the tournament with a 62-51 loss to Priest River on Thursday night, but rallied Friday afternoon with its highest offensive output of the year in an 81-73 triumph over Filer.
Thomas believes that last weekend’s success is a good foundation for the future of the HHS program, both on the court and in the community.
“I think it’s tremendous,” he said of winning the trophy. “I think it helps the school atmosphere. I think it helps the community. All that.
“It’s huge for us. It just gives these kids confidence going into next year.”
Next year will feature several returning players who played key roles in this season’s success, and a few others who got crucial varsity experience late in the season.
Thomas says Homedale can use all the veteran leadership it can get considering that the 3A Snake River Valley conference won’t change much. In fact, it probably will get tougher when Parma and McCall-Donnelly trade spots.
“Everybody in our league is going to be good again next year, so we can’t say, ‘Well, we got (the consolation) in State so we’re going to come out here and we’re going kick everybody’s butt. That’s just not going to happen,” Thomas said.
“Payette’s got a lot of kids back. Weiser’s got a lot of kids back. Fruitland’s going to be Fruitland. So we’ve got to continue to work, and one thing we need to do is we got to get stronger. We’ve got to hit the weight room.”

-JPB