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Prep Notebook Roberts earns trip to tourney By GREG STILES Heather Roberts waited 13 years for her team to reach the state girls basketball tournament. Her Ashland Grizzlies rewarded her patience Saturday night. "I've been waiting for this since my junior year in high school," Roberts says. "I've been waiting and waiting." Roberts' patience was tested in recent days and it looked like the wait might go on even longer before the Grizzlies did an abrupt about-face from a late-season slump to beat North Medford for the Southern Oregon Conference's automatic berth in the Class 4A tournament next week at the Chiles Center in Portland. Ashland has one senior, Denise Noyes, who generally comes off the bench, on the roster. The Grizzlies started three juniors and two sophomores most nights, yet they had one of the most experienced lineups in the SOC. Juniors Chelsea Morgan and Jenny Pippa are three-year starters, while sophomores Jackie Woods and Hanna Seltzer are two-year starters. Junior Kirsten McNaught is a third-year varsity player. "We have a lot of young kids and I don't think they handled our early success well," Roberts says. "I think our heads got a little big. "When we lost to North (50-38 on Feb. 5), they started to turn on each other. They got a little negative with each other and themselves. At Crater, things got even more negative (in a 61-51 loss Feb. 16)." That's when she talked to her former coach and mentor, Craig Ellingsen of Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis. "He's good at giving me a perspective on things," Roberts says. Ellingsen shared some advice from Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino: When a team faces adversity, a coach needs to be more positive than ever. After taking the day off last Wednesday, Roberts put a positive spin on Thursday's practice and installed a new game plan for North. "I told them to trust me. If they are positive, have fun and run the plan -- do those three things -- then we will win. "I hate to lose, but looking back, those losses were good for us. If we would've won at North the first time, we wouldn't have had anything to play for. And if not for Crater, we wouldn't have gotten rid of that negative stuff." Now, the pressure is off and the long-awaited adventure begins. Crescent Valley has had one of the most successful girls basketball teams in the state over a 20-year period. But Roberts came through during a down cycle and came up short in the playoffs to get to Portland. "Craig had stepped down and things went down a little," Roberts recalls. "Then he took back the program my junior year and three years later, they started winning Valley League titles." Roberts returned to the Crescent Valley program as the junior varsity coach and sat on the sidelines at the tournament program four years ago. But she says there wasn't that same feeling of ownership acquired the next season when she took control of the downtrodden Grizzlies. Ashland had one state playoff appearance to its credit, no playoff wins, a revolving door for coaches and a series of dismal records. With Roberts, there was an abrupt turnaround in attitude and commitment, resulting in success on the court. Ashland tied Eagle Point for fourth place, then beat the Eagles to gain the state playoffs in Roberts' first year. "What made the foundation for where we are now is the senior class my first year," Roberts says. The leader of the pack was Sarah Petersen, who nearly gave up basketball to play club volleyball. But Roberts' passion for the game stirred Petersen -- who went on to become the SOC's player of the year. Petersen's commitment rubbed off on nearly every girl in the program. "Sarah, Rachel Bullen, Mary Baird, Amanda Cue and Kim Knapp all made the commitment to basketball," Roberts says. "We were battling volleyball more than anything else. Basketball was something (athletes) had just done on the side. My players were not going to play volleyball during basketball season." Roberts isn't campaigning against volleyball; rather she prefers three-sport participation to specialization. "I told them, `If you're not tired after one of our workouts, I'm not working you hard enough and we'll go some more,"' Roberts says. "We lost some kids, but with Sarah not playing (winter-club) volleyball and Chelsea falling in line, the kids saw that (concentration on basketball) worked." Ashland defeated McMinnville for its landmark first playoff win in 1997. The Grizzlies were young that year with two freshmen -- Morgan and Pippa -- in the starting lineup. They got younger last season when another freshman -- Woods -- broke into the lineup. Ashland finished third in the SOC, but had a tough first-round playoff draw, at St. Mary's Academy in Portland and lost 74-60. Roberts took Morgan, Woods and Seltzer to the tournament last March, hoping it would serve as an inspirational springboard for this season. "After the first day, she gave us a piece of paper and had us write down how we felt (about the tournament)," Morgan says. "There were people playing and people watching. I thought the people playing were having so much more fun." Woods wanted to see first hand. "It looked like we can compete with some of those girls if play as a team," Woods says. "There were college coaches all over the place and everyone likes that kind of attention." Roberts read the journal entries to the rest of the team this season and showed film clips of the 1995 Crescent Valley-Oregon City final. There were six Division I players in that game: Tammy Arnold, Lindsey Yamasaki, Ashley Smith, Jess LeBlanc, Lauren Cooper and Hannah Long. "I thought we had a pretty good chance of getting to the tournament this year," Roberts says. "But getting in and being experienced in tournament play is a whole different matter. This is really a building process for next year as well. It took Crater a while. I think we'll be OK (next week), but I think next year is when we can do some damage." For eight of the nine Ashland players, that is good news. But by getting their foot in the door this year, the Grizzlies already are a step ahead of their coach, who waited so long. "I've played volleyball and basketball and so far, I haven't made it to a state tournament in either sport," Morgan says. "It was a big disappointment. Slowly, year by year, you see the opportunities going away. Finally, you take each opportunity like it's the last, because you never know what's going to happen next year." (Greg Stiles is a Mail Tribune sports writer. Call him at 776-4483.) Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.