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50 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, March 8, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 30, 2005 Reunion rekindles friendship, memories for former teammates Denson and Pool By DON HUNT Mail Tribune Amy Denson and Sarah Pool hadn’t seen one another in almost two years when they jumped in Denson’s car and drove around Tempe, Ariz., on Jan. 6. Then, it was off to dinner. Best friends and basketball teammates at Crater High, Denson and Pool needed several hours to talk about old times and catch up with current adventures. They had gone their separate ways — Denson to Pac-10 Conference power Arizona State, Pool to a rebuilding program at California. Basketball, the common thread that had linked them since the age of 13, and had earned them Division I college scholarships, would be played the following evening. Predictably, Denson’s Sun Devils defeated Pool’s Golden Bears, 66-57. Advertisement But on this weekend, the game almost took a back seat to the reunion. "It was so cool to see her," says Pool, a redshirt sophomore who starts at point guard for Cal. "We’d been best friends all those years and then kind of fell out of touch." Adds Denson, a true junior who starts at center for the Sun Devils: "I hadn’t seen Sarah since the Pac-10 tournament my freshman year (in March of 2003). We’re both so busy and she had that injury that kind of threw her for a loop." Denson was alluding to Pool’s back woes that required surgery in November of 2003 and caused her to miss all of last season. She had seen "tons of doctors," gone through physical therapy and taken three epidural shots to dull the pain that crippled her toward the end of her freshman year at Cal. "The pain was shooting down my legs and it got to the point where I could barely walk," says Pool, who was diagnosed with three bulging discs, two of which were torn. "I was in pain just sitting in class." Pool was operated on by Jeffrey Daal, the San Francisco 49ers team doctor who had performed the same surgery on former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana that allowed him to extend his NFL career. "Basically what they do is stick a catheter in the discs, heat them to 450 degrees and put them back where they belong," Pool says. "It sounds crazy, but it’s actually not nearly as invasive as most back surgeries." Nonetheless, Pool had to come home to Central Point and spend two months in bed while her back healed. "The first two weeks I was only allowed to get up for five minutes a day," Pool says. "Then it was 10 minutes after four weeks, and so on. "But I never doubted that I’d be back. It was just a long process." Indeed, thanks to a long rehabilitation process last summer and fall, the 5-foot-7 Pool has rebounded to the form that made her a first-team all-state selection at Crater when she averaged 22 points, 8.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game her senior year. The Golden Bears have struggled to get over the hump as a team — they stand 8-12 overall and 2-9 in the Pac-10 after Saturday’s loss to Washington — but Pool is playing at a high level. She’s averaging a modest 4.5 points per game but stands fourth in the Pac-10 in assists (4.2) and 10th in steals (1.5). Pool is also averaging more minutes per game (26.2 out of a possible 40) than all but two of her teammates. "I’m back to my old self — I’m feeling better than I have in a really long time," Pool says. "I feel so much more mobile than I used to." Denson, meanwhile, is Arizona’s State emotional leader. The 6-1 post brings in-your-face defense, tenacious rebounding and steady scoring to a team that stands 14-6 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-10. The Sun Devils have been ranked in the Top 25 for much of the season and own a victory over three-time defending national champion Connecticut. "She’s an intense young lady," ASU coach Charlie Turner Thorne says of Denson, who was the Oregon high school player of the year in 2002 while competing for Crater. "Sometimes I have to yell out at her, ‘Amy, take a breath! "She’ll look at me and scowl. Other times she’ll just smile. It’s so fun having someone that intense on your team. "Emotionally, Amy can put the other girls on her back." Because Turner Thorne has a deep bench and routinely puts 10 players into a game for extended stretches, Denson is averaging just 18.7 minutes. Like Pool, her scoring is moderate at 6.0 per game. But Denson contributes in nearly every meaningful statistical category, including rebounds (4.5 per game, which is second on the team), assists (2.3, tied for first) and steals (1.4, second). "I’m playing less now than I did two years ago as a freshman," says Denson, who is Crater’s all-time leading scorer with 1,326 points. "But our bench is so deep. Keeping people fresh means we’re always able to stay intense. I go in and play as hard as I possibly can for three or four minutes, and then someone takes my place. We’ve got a good rotation going." Although Denson plays mostly center and power forward for the Sun Devils, she’s been known to take the ball end line to end line after getting a rebound. "If she gets a steal or rebound and she’s out front, there isn’t going to be a pass," Turner Thorne says. "She can handle the ball like a guard." Although Denson is a furious force on the court, she can be a prankster off it. At a dinner and pumpkin carving party at Turner Thorne’s home last Halloween, the girls on the team concocted a contest that had three categories: scariest, funniest and most creative. Denson and teammate Betsy Boardman opted for the scariest division. When the candle was lit in their pumpkin, the letters "NIT" appeared. Arizona State has been to the NIT tournament each of the past two years and badly wants to trade that trip for the NCAA tourney this time around. "Everyone screamed," Turner Thorne says. "It was hilarious." A communications major, Denson plans to go overseas and keep playing basketball after she graduates from ASU in the spring of 2006. "I want to travel and take that extra step competition-wise," says Denson, adding that she’d play in the WNBA if drafted. After that, Denson wants to obtain a master’s degree and get into coaching. Somewhere along the line, she might even catch her breath. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s