Knight Light Still Burns At Newport: It's Commitment

Richard Belcher saw the light as he was about to leave for home late one school night last winter.

It was 11 p.m., about two hours after his Newport High School basketball team had beaten Bothell by 22 points.

``I noticed the light on in the gym,'' the Knights' head coach said. ``I went in to lock up, and here's Mark Pope in his uniform shooting free throws all by himself.''

Everyone else had gone home long ago, but an angry Pope stayed to shoot and shoot and shoot, wearing a jersey still soaked with sweat and cold as his stare.

He had played a furious game: 15 points, eight blocked shots and almost 20 rebounds. Hours later, the fury still burned.

The source of the anger? He felt he should have shot better than 3 for 5 from the free-throw line.

``I didn't shoot free throws well until the end of the season, and it always bothered me,'' Pope said. ``You can think it's all right to miss free throws late in the game against Bothell when you're up by 20, but you don't want that to happen in an important game.

``I was so frustrated. . . . You know how you feel bad about not performing well, and you want to fix it now?''

So Pope began making repairs, and he kept at it until Belcher had had enough.

``I finally told him he had to go home,'' Belcher said.

The two left that night. But the Knight light remained.

It was the light of day that the Newport basketball team saw as it finished last season with a 20-5 record, achieving its first winning season since 1972, its first KingCo Conference title and first state-tournament berth since 1967.

The firelight was ignited by Belcher four years ago when he took over a team that went 19-1 the previous season.

The answer to the Knights' darkness has been a relentless, united sense of commitment.

Belcher arrived in Bellevue in July that summer and had a summer-camp program at Newport going in August.

``When I first came here, I wanted to watch the kids play (that summer), but there was no place to watch them,'' Belcher said.

Four years later, Belcher's Knights have completed a 19-4, four-week camp.

It ended Friday with a demonstration of commitment by players that is becoming commonplace.

The final two days of camp - Wednesday and Friday - were set aside for a 12-event Mr. Basketball competition, with the events split over the two days.

Pope, a 6-foot-9 senior-to-be, and Mark Odsather, a 6-5 senior, returned from elite basketball camps Thursday - Pope from an invitation-only national camp in Princeton, N.Y., and Odsather from a regional camp in Southern California. Belcher told them they could take Friday off. But both had arrived by 7 a.m. Friday. Both did all 12 events that day - including the mile-run finale in 80-plus-degree heat.

Pope won, breaking five records and running a 5-minute, 13-second mile. Odsather finished third.

The commitment is becoming as routine as free throw after free throw for Pope, Odsather and fellow starters Aaron Gilligan, Kevin Beazley and Brandon Perschon. And it's not by accident.

``I constantly remind the kids of the commitment they make,'' Belcher said, using the opening days of camp as an example.

Those three days in June were the only days the team had to prepare before its first tournament, in Yakima. It went 5-0 and won the tournament.

Belcher turned down an offer to coach an Eastside traveling team this month because it would mean coaching the KingCo competition.

``I just can't justify in my mind preparing (Redmond center) Jeff Potter to beat me three months from now.''

Instead, expect to see the light on late in Belcher's office for the next three months.