Basketball banquet held last Sunday

This past Sunday, the Wahkiakum High School basketball coaches held their annual banquet to honor the various team players and to say goodbye to the senior players who were just outstanding this year.

Coach Bill Olsen and Assistant Coach Todd Souvenir agreed that these young men were just the easiest group of players to coach and were proud of each of them.

Emotions ran high as Todd’s son, Shane, was one of those seniors who would be leaving the high school basketball courts behind, and who grabbed the highest honors, the most trophies and awards, and who was truly a talented young man, so as his Dad and coach, it was a bittersweet, emotionally charged night.

Along with his parents, this Grandma was pretty proud of Austin Good, who took home the Best Defensive Player trophy and had a couple other trophies and awards, one of which was for academic excellence, which we really admire, as it's not always easy to do a great job in school and the sport in which they are participating.

Other seniors receiving multiple recognition on Sunday were Travis Wegdahl, Seth Doumit and Zac Calvert. It seems this group of kids has really been able to buckle up and work hard in both basketball and their scholastics and their coaches were just as proud of them as their parents and grandparents.

Bill Olsen was also quite emotional during the send off to the seniors, as after losing two family members this past season and seeing his team players wear the shirts made in their honor, well, it was definitely a teary-eyed group that sat and listened and waited for the words caught in Bill's throat to come out. Bill wanted to thank everyone who helped sponsor the team in some way, from stat takers, to folks who bring refreshments, to Cody Olsen for helping out and to those washing uniforms, in Tide, Bill said, were all appreciated, as without the help of the community, they could not do all the things they do.

Needless to say, if you'd like to help in some way next year, contact Bill or Todd. For now, we say "good-bye" to this terrific batch of WA-KI-HI Seniors and we look forward to the next group of boys who will surely rise to the challenge, and with hard work and dedication, become another great Mule basketball team!