Columbia Basin continues forward in sporting world

MOSES LAKE — It started as an alternative for youth, but over the years Columbia Basin Secondary School has become more than that to many in the area.

For students attending CBSS, it has offered itself as a home, a school they can take pride in.

It is a school they have played hard for and now as the future unfolds, more chances to do battle wearing the colors of CBSS grow to fruition.

As the 2009-2010 academic and athletic calendar year continues to unfold, CBSS enters winter play with more than one game in town. With the ever-present boys’ basketball team tipping off many fans of The Phoenix will now be able to take in a girls game to boot.

Yes, girls basketball is now part of the CBSS athletic menu.

“It is just one more step forward and I’m very excited for the girls,” Lanny Ledeboer, teacher and volleyball coach for 11 years until his recent retirement from the sport, said. ”I think they are excited to get started, There is a growing enthusiasm toward athletics at the school in general.”

CBSS opened its newest campus in 2003 on Patton Blvd. and became a “school of choice” rather than an alternative school for middle and high school aged students, according to athletic director Loren Sandhop.

The students, living in the Moses Lake School District, make up a student body with a capacity of 250 kids for grades 6-12.

Still when it came to sports, the school slowly built its way up from the days of coed golf and track when they were members of the Washington Alternative Learning Association (WALA).

Then in recent years the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) began bringing CBSS sports into the fold and the growth spurt began.

First volleyball commenced play this recently completed fall season and now with girls basketball being offered it just means more kids can get involved in the athletic world.

“The program is going great and making great strides,” Columbia Basin Secondary School principal James Yonko said. “It has a lot to do with the people who were here before me. Patty Jo Austin was the former principal back in the 1990s who made the big push for the program to expand and to grow. It made the district look at how important the program was.”

Ledeboer, still the track coach for the school, seconded Yonko’s notice of the efforts of others that have put the school amongst other WIAA Class 1B Central Washington League members.

“I’d like to give credit to James Shank (boys’ basketball coach) for really putting our sports program into overdrive,” Ledeboer said. “For an athlete to have an opportunity to get involved in athletics there isn’t anything better.”

Also the coaches are able to enjoy the experience by getting involved.

“It’s like coaching any other kind of  kids,” Ledeboer said.  “You have your ups and down and your victories. We get the same thrill out of coaching as other coaches do.”

Now as coaches begin to teach the respective sports and the intensity grows in each athletic endeavor the rewards may promise greater returns in the future.

The boys basketball team, competing now for a couple of seasons, made it to the state “play in” game at districts last year and were narrowly denied a place in the 1B finals bracket.

So expectations will grow in time for sports such as track and golf that have been offered for both boys and girls and in time with the newer sports.

Making Sandhop’s job grow as well.

“The most difficult thing about having teams at CBSS is the location,” Sandhop, who is also Moses Lake High School’s Athletic Director, said. “I’m at MLHS because that’s where the majority of our kids, coaches, teams and events are.  It basically would be impossible for me to track eligibility, attendance, set-up events, supervise coaches, etc in another location.  As a consequence,  Assistant Principal Mike Nordsten handles those duties for me. I help them by attending meetings, help them understand the WIAA rules, setting-up transportation, etc.”

Still in the end, all the efforts of administrators, coaches, and the players will reap the benefits of their true sought for end game.

“I really do enjoy working here,” Yonko, who is in his first year as principal, said. “It’s a great staff and a great group of students. It’s a great atmosphere where we watch out for each other. It’s a big family.”