3/11/12 Letters to Sports

Thank you and congratulations ||

To the sports editor — I wish to express my appreciation to the Yakima Valley Sports Commission for once again putting on four terrific state basketball tournaments this past week.

Yakima and the Yakima Valley SunDome continue to be the best venue to hold these tournaments. The volunteers, floor personnel, local businesses, SunDome staff and the various team sponsors do an outstanding job.

The tournament experience for students, parents, fans and coaches is a positive one due to the countless hours you put into making the tournament run smoothly. To Mel Moore and all of his volunteers — Thank you!

I would also like to thank the East Valley community for their incredible support throughout the season and especially last week at the State Tournament. Your attendance helped make this a memorable week for the young people currently in our program. We appreciate your efforts.

Finally, thank you to our team for the exciting season. As a group of young people, you went about your business the right way. On and off the floor, in and out of the classroom, you have been successful. Your 3.8 team GPA & your second place finish at state show the type of people you have become. I am honored to have been your coach.

ROBI RAAB

East Valley High School girls basketball coach

The world was watching Pirates ||

To the sports editor — Though I would have liked to see the state championship capped off with a high-flying dunk (I’m looking at you, David Trimble) I cannot express how proud I am today to call myself a Davis Pirate. For all the guys on the team: Celebrate. With first-hand knowledge of what goes into Coach Juarez’s grueling practices I can say with confidence that you’ve earned it.

While you celebrate, realize that you won a championship not just for yourselves, or your coaches, or even the city of Yakima. On March 3 you won the championship for every person around the country who calls themselves a Davis Pirate. I am positive that, like myself, there were countless others around the country watching you play, yelling at their computer screens and getting more nervous with every passing minute. Whether you know it or not, thousands of us who did not have the privilege of watching you play in person are now scattered around the country doing the Davis Rumble and grinning from ear to ear.

To the 2012 Washington state champions, their coaches, families and fans: congratulations from all Davis Pirates, wherever we may be.

ANDREW CLAUSON

San Francisco

Whole Davis team deserves praise ||

To the sports editor — Thank you, Scott Spruill, sports writer for the Yakima Herald-Republic, for the outstanding coverage of the A.C. Davis High School 2011-12 basketball state Class 4A championship. In past basketball seasons, there have been comments that Davis basketball did not get equal press coverage compared to their cross-town rival.

Also, thank you to the 2011-12 A.C. Davis basketball team as a whole team. The whole team is the state Class 4A basketball champions. To the starting five players, thank you. A very special thank you to the seven remaining players who came to practice all season and may not have been played in the games as much as they would have liked. It took all of you young men to get to the playoffs and become the championship team that you are. No one can take that away from you. Thank you Davis basketball.

GILBERT B. CHANDLER

Yakima