Another Day, Another Long Trip for Shasta

Redding Shasta High has to hope tonight’s state Division II boys’ basketball championship game is as big a deal as just getting to the Pond was.

By the time the Wolves (22-7) play defending champion Compton Dominguez (28-5) at 8 p.m., they will have crisscrossed the state in search of victories, logging thousands of miles in the process.

“We’re used to going to other schools and playing,” Coach Chuck Crawford said. “It’s probably to our advantage taking so many trips because when the playoffs come around it gives the kids a psychological edge.”

Long trips are common for most teams in the sparsely populated CIF Northern Section, which has 72 schools in the northeastern quarter of the state.

“It’s not uncommon for our teams to travel 200 or 300 miles for a game,” said section Commissioner Darold Adamson, who lives in Chico.

But even at that, the Wolves’ sojourns just to get to their first appearance in a state basketball final have been unusual. The section moved Shasta into a league for schools with larger enrollments this season and the Wolves played only five home games. Their shortest trip was 90 minutes (one way) to play Chico.

When the playoffs rolled around the Wolves drove in vans five hours to Merced for their first-round state game, then two days later went to San Francisco--about four hours away in each direction--for a second-round game.

By Shasta standards, the 2 1/2-hour trip to Sacramento to play the Northern California final against Vacaville at the Arco Arena last Saturday was a piece of cake. They spent more time on the road than they did playing the game. The Wolves hit their first seven shots and returned home that night with a 57-44 victory.

“I can’t even tell you the number of miles we have traveled this year,” Crawford said. “I know that when I returned that van to the school after the trip to Merced it had 1,200 miles on it.”

Center Chris Wardall, a 6-9 senior who is considering attending the Air Force Academy, has been traveling like this for four years.

“Mostly, we think about the game,” he said. “Most of these guys have traveled around a little bit, so I don’t think it has affected us much.”

The trip to the Pond is their longest yet, and true to fashion, it wasn’t an easy road. The Wolves headed down Interstate 5 early Thursday. The plan called for the team to get to Sacramento shortly after noon, catch a 1:35 p.m. flight to Ontario Airport, then rent vans to drive to Anaheim.

And what would a game day be without hitting the pavement? This morning Shasta will drive to Westwood for a tour of the Federation Building, where they’ll be guests of FBI Special Agent Mark Voges, a 1980 Shasta graduate.

On Saturday the Wolves plan to do Disneyland during the day, drive back to Ontario for an 8:40 evening return flight to Sacramento and then the long drive home. Crawford estimates they’ll pull into Redding about 1:30 Sunday morning.

People in Redding, Wardall said, have been turning out to welcome the team back to school after each trip, so he expects a crowd to meet the team, win or lose against heavily favored Dominguez.

“People come up to us and say, ‘Good job,’ ” he said. “People have been stopping us on the streets. We are kind of idolized.”