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33 °F 5 Day Forecast Thursday, December 18, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 15, 2003 Southern Oregon sophomore forward Shea Washington spent just one season at Montana State. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Home is where his heart is Oregon native and Montana State transfer Shea Washington has been a boon to Southern Oregon University By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune ASHLAND — He missed it all. Now he’s back, and he doesn’t plan on leaving again anytime soon. That’s a lovely sentiment as far as the Southern Oregon University men’s basketball team is concerned, because he is Shea Washington, a sophomore forward who transferred from Montana State after one year. He is 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds. Advertisement He is part of the Raiders’ six pack of players from the Eugene area. He is averaging a team-high 18.0 points, shooting a sizzling 60.5 percent from the field and gobbling 7.7 rebounds per game. He is darn good, and SOU’s eighth-year head coach knows it. "He’s a player," Brian McDermott says. "There’s no doubt about it." What brought Washington to the Raiders was a little discomfort with the Bozeman-based Bobcats and a whole lot of longing for his home state. "I like Oregon," says Washington, who was a first-team all-state performer as a senior at Springfield’s Thurston High in 2002. "Last year, there was no trees, it wasn’t green, it didn’t rain. Who would have ever thought I would miss the rain? But I missed the smell of the rain and stuff like that. Oregon just feels right to me." Same goes for Ashland and SOU. "I don’t plan on leaving," Washington says. "There is no reason for me to leave. "I love coach Mac. I believe coach Mac is the perfect combination of hot and cold. He knows when to let things go; he knows when to get fired up. To me, that’s really important. It’s really important to me to feel comfortable with my head coach." Washington, whose twin sister, Jenna, is a sophomore forward at Portland State, says he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Montana State head coach Mick Durham. That was hard for him to take after his coach at Thurston, Doug Piquette, was "pretty much like my father," Washington says. Despite the difficulties, Washington still produced a promising freshman season for the NCAA Division I-A Bobcats of the Big Sky Conference. He averaged 7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds and paced the team in blocks with 15 total and steals at 1.2 per game. He started five games and posted MSU’s only two double-doubles. Durham was shocked when Washington opted to leave Bozeman for the NAIA Raiders. "It’s mind-boggling to me when a player would leave a Division I program to play NAIA; I’m just puzzled by this decision," Durham said in an Associated Press story last May. "But his best friend is playing point guard (at SOU), and he was homesick. He wanted to be closer to home." That friend is Jay Mayernik, a 6-6, 215-pound freshman who played at Thurston with Washington. Sophomore guard Steve Farley is a third former Colt now with the Raiders. Junior guard Ruben Pachito (North Eugene High), sophomore guard Peter Nelson (Willamette) and sophomore guard Josh Harbert (Marist) complete SOU’s Eugene-area six pack. It was, indeed, Mayernik’s commitment to become a Raider that influenced Washington’s arrival in Ashland. "I didn’t want to go back to Montana State, and I knew Jay was coming here," Washington says. "I sent an e-mail to coach Mac, just asking, ‘Well, if somebody wants to come there, do you get in touch with me or do I get in touch with you after I send this little questionnaire in?’ And he didn’t know who it was, really. I got an e-mail back from him a few days later saying that he realized who it was and he’d be more than happy to have me come here and play here. "So that was it. I didn’t really wanna play games. I didn’t wanna go through the recruiting process again. I didn’t wanna deal with all the phone calls and be high strung. So I just made the one decision — I’m coming here." Washington has sparkled for SOU so far, even with the young Raiders struggling to find their identity. SOU is 4-7 heading into Saturday night’s game at Linfield. The Cascade Collegiate Conference season begins next week, when the Raiders host Concordia on Wednesday and Western Baptist on Thursday at McNeal Pavilion. Washington is one of three sophomores in the starting lineup, along with a freshman and a junior. Forward Jared Abell and guard Nelson are the other sophomores, Mayernik is the freshman and wing Jin Voeks is the junior. The versatile Mayernik — second in scoring at 14.5 points per game and the top rebounder at 7.9 per outing — is playing a unique role. "Jay is probably our best post-up player and is listed at 6-6, but he’s playing the point for us now," McDermott says. "He handles the pressure, but then we dive him down inside. ... We’ve gotta be one of the few places in the country where our center is also our point guard." The idiosyncrasies don’t end there. Abell, a 6-7, 215-pounder from Prineville’s Crook County High, is "probably our best shooter," McDermott says, even though he lines up as the team’s power forward. Abell has hit for 13.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, firing at a .541 clip from the field. Washington, the Raiders’ best defender, according to McDermott, plays primarily small forward but does everything from posting up offensively to marking guards defensively, where he averages a team-high 1.8 blocks. Voeks, 6-3, 205 and from Gresham’s Barlow High, is "a very good perimeter defender and brings an element of toughness," McDermott says. Nelson, 6-0 and 180, has been shifting between point and shooting guard. He is the fourth and final SOU player scoring in double figures, chiming in at 10.6 points per game. "He can definitely score," McDermott says. "We just wanna get him settled in and more confident." Off the bench, Farley paces the Raiders in assists and 6-7, 215-pound sophomore center Nick Borrevik from Reedsport provides another proficient post presence. Sophomore guard Ryan Gabel and junior forwards Brad Coen and Travis Elam are also in the mix. With no seniors and just four juniors on SOU’s 14-man roster, McDermott expects growing pains. He also feels the team is much improved from the outfit that went 8-22 overall and 4-14 in the Cascade last winter. "We score inside more than we ever have before," says McDermott, who employs a motion offense and man-to-man defense. "On the negative side, we’ve given the ball up at a very high rate. "We’re still searching a little bit for our identity. ... We’re aware we’ve got some talent. We’re also aware we’re a little young and that it takes something special for a young team to be successful right away." Washington — who McDermott wants taking 16 shots per game up from his current rate of 12 — thinks the Raiders should be able to find that special something. "I feel if we can handle ourselves and we do the things that need to be done like hard work at changing the tempo in practice and changing the way we prepare for games, we should definitely make an impact in the conference," Washington says. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times