Sideline Smitty: This is it, folks, the big adios

This is it, folks. The grand farewell, the final chapter, the big adios. Sideline Smitty is headed to the sideline.

After 32 years at The Times and nearly eight years of writing this column, I'm voluntarily taking a buyout offer as this newspaper reduces staff. High-school sports will be around next week, but I won't.

Over the years, I've covered hundreds of games, sweated out deadlines in bad working conditions and met a lot of good people plus an occasional snake. I've seen some gifted athletes and a lot more kids who were proud just to put on their school's uniform and try their hardest.

As I exit, I believe more than ever that high-school sports are good for kids and good for schools. Yes, there are problems with interscholastic sports but there are problems with any human endeavor.

As a sports writer, I have found prep sports to be fresher, more fun, often more interesting, and, in their own way, more important, than college or professional sports.

I remember what Washington State basketball coach Dick Bennett once said: "High-school coaches are most important because they can do the most good."

I can still go to high-school games as a fan, but it won't be the same. Sitting next to the scoring table, I took delight in giving these instructions to basketball refs I knew: "No overtime tonight — I've got a tight deadline."

If an asteroid hit me tomorrow, a lot of the things I would miss would be ancillary activities that lend color to the event. I'd miss the Ferris High School sack dance, the Garfield band playing "I'm So Proud [I go to Garfield High]" and the Mount Rainier band playing "You Give Love a Bad Name." I'd miss bigheaded mascots, especially the Lincoln Abe. I'd miss the arrival of the Mercer Island boys basketball team in maroon blazers, a decades-old tradition.

I'd miss the symphony of colors at the state cross-country meet and the symmetry of 24 mats in the Tacoma Dome for the state wresting championships.

I'd miss opening kickoffs with both rooting sections on their feet screaming, last-second field goals and the cozy warmth of swimming pool spectator areas in winter. I'd miss the glorious sounds of baseball on the first warm day of spring and the exchanges in the 400-meter relay. I'd miss the state-tournament announcer saying, "My name is Paul Highsmith and let's play ball, gentlemen."

Now, though, I look forward to Friday-night freedom. If I don't want to go to a game, I can take my wife, Julie, to a movie or the symphony or stay home and watch reruns of "The Simpsons."

In my new life, I might be capable of driving past a high school I haven't visited and not stop. I've been on more than 300 high-school campuses in the state and got a $156 speeding ticket on my way to see if a bronze statue of a bronco at Ritzville High School was as good as advertised. (Verdict: Nice statue but not worth the speeding ticket.)

There hasn't been a news shortage in my career. I've been through the Bellevue football bus wreck of 2008, the stunning decision to disqualify the Archbishop Murphy football team in 2007 because a dying coach overlooked a lapsed physical, the Chief Sealth girls basketball recruiting scandal of 2006 and the 1988 state track meet where the lights went out and a Garfield relay was nonetheless penalized for running out of its lane.

I was there in 1981 when a referee counted the final shot good and Shadle Park beat Mercer Island for the big-school title on the most disputed basketball title in state history. (By the way, the shot was late.)

The confusion immediately after that game is one of many indelible images in my mind. I remember future Detroit Piston Rodney Stuckey of Kentwood sticking a 30-foot jumper in front of me on press row to send a 2004 4A state-tournament quarterfinal game against Mount Tahoma into overtime. I remember the graceful stride of sprinter Donna Dennis of Clover Park in the early 1980s and quarterback Isaiah Stanback of Garfield eluding the entire Redmond football team in 2001.

I remember Jamal Crawford of Rainier Beach dribbling through a Tumwater player's legs in 1998 and 5-foot-8 Nate Robinson dunking for Beach in 2002 after appearing to start his leap near the foul line.

Notable games? I was there when Bellevue ended the 151-game winning streak of De LaSalle of California at Qwest Field in 2004. A few weeks ago I watched Lynden trail Prosser 21-6 with less than two minutes left, then rally to win the 2A title in overtime, 35-34.

I remember when Peninsula beat Pullman by the same score, 35-34, in 1978 with Paul Skansi returning a kickoff 89 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. It was the second Kingbowl, the full day of championship games in the Kingdome that is now the two-day Gridiron Classic at the Tacoma Dome. I had been so excited before the first Kingbowl I had trouble sleeping.

Best basketball game? I remember when Foss beat Garfield in two overtimes, 85-82, in the first round of the 4A state tournament in 2001. Brandon Roy and Will Conroy were on the floor for Garfield and Marc Axton, who later starred at Eastern Washington, scored 41 points for the winners from Tacoma.

Unforgettable teams? Jackson baseball '06 had future major-leaguer Travis Snider and the Timberwolves wound up ranked No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America. Mercer Island boys basketball in 1985, with Quin Snyder and Brian Schwabe, was special, as was Ferris in 2007, a group that won two straight state titles and finished with a 58-game winning streak.

I was there when Joyce Walker of Garfield set the state girls 4A tournament scoring record of 40 points in 1980 and I was in the Tacoma Dome last season when Kristi Kingma of Jackson broke it by scoring 43 in a loss.

Among my favorite female athletes were Cathrine Kraayeveld (Lake Washington '00), a three-sport star now in the WNBA, future NCAA hurdles champion Ginnie Powell (Rainier Beach '02), who also knew what to do on a basketball court, and future Olympian Kelly Blair of Prosser, who was good at absolutely everything.

I've seen two headline-making Tony Wrotens — father and son — as high-school athletes.

One of the most exciting boys was Isaiah Thomas of Curtis, now a Washington Husky. I saw him score a state-tournament record 51 points in a loss to Franklin in 2006.

I was around when Spokane produced three remarkable athletes: NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton (Gonzaga '80), Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien (Shadle Park '81) and Baseball Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (North Central '78).

Chris Chandler (Everett '83) lettered in five sports in high school and later quarterbacked Atlanta in the Super Bowl. Doug Christie (Rainier Beach '88) led his team to the state basketball title and high jumped 7 feet.

There are some athletes I can't get out of my mind, such as Cleveland runner Sam Lumsey, who was homeless and once lived under a bridge. He was disqualified at the 2000 state cross-country meet for wearing a one-piece running suit without shorts.

Lumsey, however, got to keep his medal. Nike gave him a special exemption into the Washington-Oregon all-star meet.

I remember Rick Noji, who as a 5-foot-8 junior from Franklin in 1984 walked into the Metro League track championships at Husky Stadium with a Slurpee in one hand and a Ding Dong in the other and jumped 7-4 ½.

"I always liked junk food," he later explained.

Plenty has changed since I joined The Times in 1976. Girl wrestlers went from unheard of to a novelty, to having their own state tournament.

It used to be a big deal for any high-school game to be on local television. This fall, Skyline and Bothell played the KingCo 4A title game on national cable TV.

Something called the Internet developed and has taken over recruiting news.

When I started, select teams hadn't come on the scene, there was no spring football and I don't remember summer camps for teams.

Over the years, I've met a lot of memorable coaches. When I started, most of them were teachers. Now it seems that about half have jobs outside of education.

When I went back to covering preps after five years as the Seahawks beat reporter, a high-school coach, Frank Ahern, gave me some of the best advice of my life: "Bloom where you are planted."

As a retired sports writer, little things will continue to bug me: boiled hot dogs, games without rosters for fans, announcers who don't give players' numbers as well as their names, team photos without coaches.

So will big things: illegal high-school recruiting, the over-emphasis on specialization, delusional parents, many of them suffering from "achievement by proxy syndrome."

I'd like to see the WIAA hire an investigator, and he or she could start by cruising gyms in the fall to find illegal basketball practices.

No farewell column is complete without saying thanks to some folks, including readers who submitted questions. Assistant sports editor Don Shelton suggested and encouraged the column, my sons Stuart and Elliott had positive athletic experiences at Lake Washington High School and shared their insights, and prep historians Don Davison, David Maley and Ron Siegel were always helpful.

Today's column completes a journey. I'm not sure what I'll do next but I've taken on a new responsibility. I live in Kirkland and I am now officially in charge of keeping the storm sewer near my house clear of debris. The city even has given me a special plastic bag to use.

Oops, I see some clouds coming. I gotta go.

Have any last words for Sideline Smitty? Email sports@seattletimes.com and we'll forward them to him.