It has been a long, hard road for Foster's Bec
A: It sure is. Bec, a 6-foot-5 senior, is one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," but his troubles didn't end when he reached the United States.
A quick history lesson: Sudan is in eastern Africa and has been locked in a civil war since the 1980s.
Separated from their mother, Bec and his two brothers and sister were among the thousands of children who walked hundreds of miles to Ethiopia in the early 1990s. Then they were told to walk to a United Nations refugee camp in Kenya.
Bec said he was too young to remember everything about the trips but recalled, "A lot of people were dying because of starvation. People were eaten by wild animals, too."
In 2000, various nations began opening to these children and Bec and his brothers and sister came to the United States. Happy ending? Hardly.
Last June, Bec's sister, Roda, 16, was murdered and her 27-year-old ex-boyfriend was charged with the slaying. She had graduated from Foster at age 15 and was attending Western Washington University.
"It was very tough for us," Bec said last week before a Foster practice.
The funeral provided Bec and his brothers with their first reunion with his mother in eight years. It turns out she had escaped from Sudan, too, and had resettled in Australia. She attended Roda's funeral.
John, who has a 3.5 grade-point average, plans to attend college next year and is applying for a scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. On the court, he is averaging 10.8 points and 6 rebounds for Foster (2-13, 1-7).
"He has a warrior mentality," said Foster coach John Barbee, who doesn't cut John any slack and benched him for a game recently for violating a team rule. "He's also very, very smart. He understands hard work. He's persevered through so much."
Q: Last week, you wrote about the upset-for-the-ages victory of tiny Willapa Valley in winning the state basketball tournament in 1936, a year when there was only one tournament for all schools in the state. How big an upset was it when Skykomish won the Class B boys basketball title in 1954 by beating Bainbridge?
A: Nothing can match the Willapa Valley triumph for "greatest upset," but the Class B state championship won by the "Sky High Rockets" was a shocker for two reasons: 1) Bainbridge was top-ranked; 2) Even though Skykomish was a bigger school then than it is today, it still was tiny.
The win sounds even more stunning today than it was in 1954. That's because Skykomish, which is 16 miles west of Stevens Pass, is a tiny mountain town with only 30 kids in grades 9-12 and Bainbridge is a large 3A school with 1,518 students in grades 9-12.
In 1954, Skykomish had 51 students, according to team member Ron Beal, now a retired Seattle City Light lineman. Bainbridge had an enrollment of 266.
Four of the starters from Skykomish benefited from playing with each other since second grade.
"We had played together for so many years that we knew each other's moves," Beal said.
Beal recalls that his team, whose best player was all-tournament selection John Best, lost only three games all season and beat teams such as Oak Harbor, Stanwood and Lake Stevens, now all 4A schools.
The team was coached by Richard Usitalo and the other starters in addition to Beal and Best were Elmer Dahl, Harold Haga and Richard "Buster" Anderson.
Beal said the Rockets were loose for the title game in Tacoma because they figured they had nothing to lose.
"We were up goofing off most of the night because we didn't think we would win," he said.
Phyllis Freestad, Skykomish class of '59, recalled, "The thing I remember is that at halftime, Bainbridge announced they would have a victory dance and invited Skykomish to come."
When the game ended, it was Skykomish that was in the dancing mood after winning 49-43.
Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com