Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.
Adam Candee covers high school sports for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
An opponent falling behind the Centennial girls basketball team by 50 points this season qualifies as the norm. That opponent quitting the game and walking out of the gym midway through the fourth quarter qualifies as something quite a bit different.
That is what happened Friday night, when Cheyenne, feeling that the Bulldogs were running up the score, abandoned the game with Centennial leading, 77-21, at the 4:49 mark of the final period.
"It was like, they called a timeout and all of a sudden, they were walking out of the gym," Centennial coach Karen Weitz said.
Weitz denied the accusation of Cheyenne coach Marcus Conard that Centennial attempted to embarrass the Desert Shields. The Bulldogs' coach explained that her team had only nine players for the game, meaning that a starter would always be in the game, and that she called for a more relaxed zone defense in the second half.
"They said we were running up the score, which wasn't true," Weitz said.
In its last three games, Centennial averaged a 36-point margin of victory, so it appears that the score against Cheyenne did not represent anything unusual. Cheyenne administrators are displeased with Conard's decision to remove his team from the game, and said the matter is being handled internally.
"Our concern administratively is sending the wrong message to students (with) that kind of behavior," Cheyenne athletic administrator Tammy Malich said.
Swartz is not a Las Vegas native or transplant, but those in the Valley familiar with the recent football recruiting scene will understand the connection. Swartz spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Oregon State (also now known as Las Vegas Great Northwest University) under Dennis Erickson.
The funnel that brought players from Las Vegas to Oregon has added a tentacle that slides down into Arizona.
After helping to bring a handful of players from the Valley to Corvallis, Ore., Swartz came to Flagstaff, Ariz., and convinced Souers to take another look at a market that produced few prospects for the head coach in past years. In fact, not a single player from Las Vegas has played football at NAU during Souers' tenure.
"When I first got to Flagstaff (in 1998), it wasn't really fruitful," Souers said.
The tree is producing these days. Souers received three great Las Vegas surprises with Foothill LB Niko Saipale, Centennial RB/DB Devin Patterson and Desert Pines WR Kawon Walker. Swartz's encouragement paid off for the I-AA Lumberjacks.
"It became a low-risk venture that really came back well for us," Souers said. "And I promise, we'll be back."
So, too, will Oregon State, which grabbed another three local players this year with Desert Pines DT Curtis Coker, Palo Verde DB Gerard Lawson and Foothill DE Jeff Vanorsow.
"I believe this about Las Vegas: it's growing so fast," Erickson said. "There are high schools going up all the time. There are more players developing there than probably anyplace in the country. It's not a very heavily recruited place."
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