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Home > Archive > Mar 20, 2008

Practice, Experience, Determination Define PVMS Basketball
By Layne Roberts
Every once in a while, the sports world is graced with the seemingly impossible: perfection.
This past season, the National Football League witnessed what some considered the best football team, ever. That team, the New England Patriots, continued to win their way to an 18-0 record. And though they did not have the look of a perfect team down the stretch, they eventually reached to the Super Bowl.  On the world’s largest stage, and in the only game that meant anything, they collapsed and lost.
Before the Patriots were making what would have been a historic run, the Pine View Middle School freshman basketball team gathered some perfection of their own.
They won 20 games and never lost.
This story goes far beyond last season, though.
Two years ago, when the Pine View freshman players were in the seventh grade, two different border league teams were formed because of popular interest. Each team, consisting of 15 players, competed against other border league schools from Southern Utah, and some from Nevada.
Though both teams were considered successful, one of the teams, whose players comprised the majority of the Pine View freshman team, also went undefeated.
Undefeated in both years of border league play.
That was not a typo; that means there were three consecutive undefeated seasons at Pine View Middle School.
As amazing an athletic and team accomplishment as that is, the story goes beyond even that. How could three consecutive undefeated seasons be even more amazing?
How about every player playing in every game? Or the fact that every player played in every half of all but two games?
“We like to get up and down the court and score points, but we emphasize defense too. We also believe in getting every player in every game. There were actually only two games where each player did not play in each half of the game. That is a tribute to them (the players). They are all unselfish and helped each other out,” Pine View Middle Freshmen head coach Ron Denos said.
Defense was one aspect of the game the players knew they could never let up on.
“I think that is what we focus more on (in practice), then the offense will usually come after that,” Kyson Smith said.
“We run a lot harder, our coaches run us a lot. They work us really hard,” Jordan Farrer said.
Though they never lost, the team certainly did not always feel that way.
“We could be up by a couple of points, and we would feel like we were losing. Our coaches had high expectations for us,” Shay Forbes said.
Denos, who will coach in some capacity at Desert Hills High School in Bloomington Hills next year, will see some familiar faces, as five of the 15 freshmen players will be attending the new school as well. The other 10 will be going to Pine View High School.
The kids are not your everyday basketball players either.
“I think that they have been fortunate to have coaches that want them to be great young men. So they care about their grades. … They care about their school. The coaches make them accountable. If they miss a practice, they don’t want the moms or dads calling; they treat the kids like adults, and it has brought them together as a team,” Kimberly Farrer said.
The team recently replaced practice for quilting, as the players donated fabric and yarn and then worked on the quilts that were later donated to Humanitarian Aid.
Coach Denos and his assistant coach, Scott Henrie, have certainly made it their focus to help the players be better people first, and better basketball players second, and the point has stuck with his players too.
“Giving back to the community is very important, and we want our kids to understand that,” Denos said.
The team also knew they would have to give school their best effort as well.
“It has always been our position that education is first and sports second. They need to know how important school is,” Denos said.
Academics have always been stressed in the Pine View basketball program. Pine View High varsity coach Steve Melessa, who, like Denos, will be a coach for the Desert Hills Thunder next season, even held a two-hour study hall when the team was in northern Utah in the 4A State basketball tournament, according to Denos.
Melessa has held summer camps to which all Pine View basketball teams are invited, no matter the age group, which has further built team unity and cohesion.
“These kids have played together for three years, so they know each other very well. They have been even more determined now,” Farrer, whose husband has also coached some of the players, said of the team splitting into two different high schools.
 “It will push us more. It will make us work a lot harder because we don’t want to lose to each other,” Shay Forbes said.
The other players also shared the sentiment of being friends but not wanting to lose against each other.
“You want to beat the other person,” Justin Worhurst said, laughing with his teammates about their future games against each other.
Though the players have had plenty of success already, one could argue they could not be entering high school at a better time.
Desert Hills will be a brand new school next year, and as such will be looking for more basketball players for their varsity squad, not to mention the players are familiar with coach Melessa and the system he runs.
What impact the players will have on their respective high schools next year is yet to be seen, but they certainly will be worth keeping an eye on, especially in the coming years.

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