Alumni-varsity basketball duel inaugurates Woodside High gym Alumni-varsity basketball duel inaugurates Woodside High gym (November 17, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

A clean well-lighted place for basketball opened its doors to the public for the first time last Friday evening at Woodside High School.

Alumni players from the past 10 years came to take on the 2004-05 varsity team to celebrate the November 12 grand opening of the school's new gym. The alumni -- coached by Woodside resident and former NBA player Rich Kelley -- won 74 to 67. Mr. Kelley graduated from Woodside High in 1971.

The score may have reflected an alumni team that was taller, heavier and more experienced, though not as organized or quick as their young opponents. The program listed 11 of the 12 alumni players as stand-out athletes when playing for Woodside. At least five had college playing experience, a school official said.

Though his players were new to each other, Mr. Kelley cited a unifying factor of having played under Woodside varsity Coach Darrell Barbour. Their play "is more spirited than polished (but) they know how to stay out of each other's way," Mr. Kelley said.

The varsity team fielded one player 6 feet 4 inches or taller while the alumni had six, including one at 6 foot 9 inches and another at 6 feet 7 inches. And the varsity had lost a couple of good players to football, said Mr. Kelley.

Despite these handicaps, the scores were never far apart. "They're a good shooting team," Mr. Kelley said of the varsity. "They should be pretty competitive this year."
Points of view

"It's a great event," said San Francisco resident Tyler Garratt, a 1994 graduate of Woodside who said he now plays golf professionally.

How good is Woodside? "They're real good, very quick and athletic," Mr. Garratt said, adding that he had learned a few tricks during four years of college play.

Alex Haga graduated in 2002 and is now at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, where he said he plays varsity baseball. "I'm way out of shape, but I'm having a great time," he said. "Playing in a new gym, you can't really complain."

"They've got a good team, fast," Mr. Haga said of Woodside. "We've got a lot of size, but they have a lot of good shooters."

But it was not a night in which a good time was had by all.

"They're good. Even though they're old, they're good," said 6-foot-5-inch Woodside junior J. R. Valdez of Redwood City. "We were doing well until we started blaming each other. We lost our composure."

Asked if the team lacked a certain maturity, J.R. noted that they've been playing together long enough. "We should have maturity by now," he said. "We knew they were going to give us a challenge. We should have pulled it out to win this."

"I played terrible," said 6-foot-3-inch senior Justonn Smith, who lives in Woodside and said he shot just 2 for 20 from the floor. "I didn't give it to my team," Justonn said. "I let them down. We should have won by 15."

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