Coming up Sports The Entiat boys basketball team is one of the best 1B squads in the state. We’ll chat with two of their key players. Friday Sports Editor Doug Flanagan (509) 661-5202 [email protected] Section B Thursday, January 29, 2015 NWAC basketball Knights can’t hold lead, fall in OT Reserve leads WVC women to victory ◆ BY DOUG FLANAGAN World sports editor WENATCHEE — At this point in the season, it’s pretty easy to identify the Wenatchee Valley College men’s basketball team’s weakness. Not much advance statistical analysis is required. In the vast majority of their games, the Knights have had leads, most of them by double digits. And in most of those contests, they’ve given up those advantages, and have went on to either lose WVC the game or scramble WEDNESDAY at the end to pull out a victory. That scenario occurred once again Wednesday at Smith Gymnasium in the team’s 81-79 overtime defeat to Big Bend, the Knights’ third consecutive loss after beginning Northwest Athletic Conference East Region play with three straight victories. The Knights have clearly identiﬁed this as a PHOTO GALLERY at problem. wenatcheeworld.com So why are they still struggling to ﬁnd a solution? “If we knew, this wouldn’t be happening,” guard Dylan Boyd said after the game. “We just have to keep working to ﬁx the problem.” WVC coach Coby Weidenbach echoed those exact thoughts, adding that his team has a tendency to change its style of play later in games, and not for the better. “We’ve tried different things — different defenses, different lineups — and it continues to happen,” Weidenbach said. “Our theme in practice last week was ‘We, not me.’ But we’ve got guys who think they can do it on their own. (In the second half of Wednesday’s game), they saw (Vikings Mogga Lado and Donavin Wright) get to the rim over and over, and (our players) think they can do that, too. But that’s not us. We have to share the ball and execute our offense.” To be clear, the Knights still have “We’re still in the mix. ... We just have to keep our heads up and keep getting better every day, and hopefully we’ll do some good things.” Above: Wenatchee Valley College’s Easton Driessen tries to get in the middle of a play to force a turnover between Big Bend Community College’s Donavin Wright, left, and Wyatt Johnson during Wednesday’s game in Wenatchee. Left: WVC didn’t have an answer for Big Bend’s Mogga Lado, who got to the hoop several times, here against Bryan Michaels. DYLAN BOYD Wenatchee Valley College guard the potential to be a playoff team. This might be the best WVC team in several years. The only good thing about repeatedly losing double-digit leads is that the team had double-digit leads in the ﬁrst place. The Knights are focusing on the positives while trying to correct their ﬂaws as the ﬁrst half of region play concludes. Weidenbach says he believes a 9-5 record can get the team into the NWAC Tournament. If the Knights beat Yakima Valley on Saturday, they’ll need to go 5-2 in the second half of East play to attain that mark. “We’re still in the mix,” Boyd said. “I still think we can ﬁnish strong. We just have to keep our heads up and keep Please see KNIGHTS, Page B2 World photos/Don Seabrook Ridge to River put on shelf for a year BY STEVE MAHER AdventureWenatchee.com World photo/Don Seabrook Wenatchee’s Chris Jones skates down the ice during a December game against Wichita. Wild kick off last Alaskan series BY MATTHEW OCKINGA World sports writer A loss is a loss, right? Well, going strictly by deﬁnition, that’s true. But there are some defeats so bitter, so perturbing, that they stick in the memory like a small string of celery in the far back molars, making it difficult to remove and impossible to forget. But every year in every sport, a team must Wild at Kenai River Today, 8 p.m. Radio: KPQ Please see WILD, Page B2 WENATCHEE — During its heyday, the Ridge to River Relay’s crème de la crème was its paddling leg — with canoeists and kayakers churning away down the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers to the ﬁnish line in Riverfront Park. Now, in an ironic twist, the sport of paddling’s rapid growth in the community means the expected rebirth of Ridge to River will need to be put off for a year, organizers and supporters say. Wenatchee Row and Paddle Club, which has been spearheading efforts to restart the race, is working on a strategic plan to redevelop and expand its facility along the Columbia at the foot of Ninth Street, and doesn’t have the resources to pull off Ridge to River this year, said executive director Skip Johnson. The club operates two boat houses and a dock at the site now and is at full capacity. The expansion project calls for expansion of the boat house nearest Walla Walla Street into a learning center with additional storage for boat, a new dock for rowing programs and improvements to the boathouse nearest the river. An early estimate pegged the cost at $1 million. The club announced late last year that Ridge for Ridge would return on April 4 after a six-year hiatus. But “We don’t have the staff or available manpower to do both at the same time. The ‘Paddler Campus’ has been the club’s key project for at least two years now.” SKIP JOHNSON Executive director, Wenatchee Row and Paddle Club Johnson informed Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce officials last week that the race would not be held this year. The strategic plan for the paddling and rowing facility needs to be submitted to the Chelan County PUD, which oversees the Columbia River shoreline where the club complex is slated to be developed, by March 1. “We don’t have the staff or available manpower to do both at the same time,” Johnson said. “The ‘Paddler Campus’ has been the club’s key project for at least two years now. Things are setting up to make that happen.” Johnson said the goal is to get the club’s strategic plan included in the PUD’s new comprehensive plan and then to seek funding from the PUD and others to help pay for the complex. The club also needs to make presentations to the Wenatchee City Council and the Wenatchee Parks Board over the next month to get their support. He said the decision to put Ridge to River on the shelf for a year is a bittersweet one. He said he had received positive comments from people interested in seeing the race come back. After a run of 29 years, Ridge to River was last held in 2009. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the event attracted close to 2,000 athletes annually. But that number dropped to just over 300 a year in its ﬁnal two years. Johnson said the plan now is to hold Ridge to River on April 2, 2016. A race organizing committee had settled on a race course that would have included a downhill ski leg at Mission Ridge, a bike ride from Pybus Public Market to Alcoa and back, two running legs from Pybus to Lincoln Rock State Park, and then the ﬁnal leg — a canoe paddle on the Columbia — from Lincoln Rock State Park to Pybus. “We thought it would be a safe and very doable course,” Johnson said. THE BOTTOM LINE Click pick Today in sport Quotable It’s your World MARYLAND AT OHIO STATE (4 P.M., ESPN) On Jan. 29, 1981, the American League approves the sale of 80 percent of the Seattle Mariners to George Argyros. Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, after Tiger Woods got a tooth knocked out at one of his girlfriend’s World Cup ski races: “Maybe Lindsey Vonn is a trained assassin, too.” Do you have a good local sports photo that you want to share with the community? Email it to [email protected] or post it on the World sports department’s Facebook page. “Dez Wells can score, pass and rebound for a very underrated Maryland squad. Traveling to Value City Arena in Columbus will be a big test for the Terrapins, as Ohio State has just one home loss this season.” — David Heiling ONLINE wenatcheeworld.com/news/sports TWITTER twitter.com/wenworldsports FACEBOOK facebook.com/wenatcheeworldsports