Class 3A state tournament: Renton on brink of perfection

Romeo Wheeler saw enough to make a bold prediction.

Wheeler, out with a shoulder injury from football as a ninth-grader, remembers watching his Renton High School classmates four years ago playing together on the freshman boys basketball team.

Wheeler quickly stamped them with the label of future state champions.

Wheeler is now part of the mix and the Renton Indians own a 24-0 record and No. 1 ranking among boys teams heading into the Class 3A state tournament that starts Wednesday.

It all comes down to four days and four wins. Together as one, the Indians are on the doorstep of history, poised to become the school's first state champion with an undefeated record and first champs since 1966 and '67.

"We really knew before high school that it was going to happen like this," said Wheeler, one of a core group of seven seniors who have played basketball together since third grade. "It was our time. It's basically just been confidence. It's not been thinking you're better than anybody. It's just believing that you can do it."

Shawn Henderson, a 6-foot-3 senior guard who leads the team with an 18.4 scoring average, remembers Wheeler's bravado.

"He just kept saying, 'Man, this team can be filthy,' " Henderson said of Wheeler. "He was the one who started all that 'wait-until-next-year' talk.

"We all just said over the years, starting with our freshman year, that we can win state."

Renton, an up-tempo team with great balance, reached state for the fourth season in a row despite graduating nine seniors after last season. This is a success story about a loyal group's final chance to excel after sticking together on the freshman and junior-varsity teams and biding its time primarily as backups on last year's team.

The Magnificent Seven are Henderson, Wheeler, Dante Calcote, Migail Graves, Chris Martin, Dominic Harris and Jahi Rankin.

"During their freshman year, these guys said they were going to win state someday," said Lewin Vadny, a Renton assistant who helped coach the freshman team in 2002-03. "It was like, 'Just wait.'

"Coach (Rick) Comer is fond of keeping seniors together and giving them an opportunity."

The Magnificent Seven went 17-1 as freshmen, 17-1 as sophomores on junior varsity and then helped the varsity finish 18-9 and reach state last season.

"They are a very deserving group," said Comer, Renton's 16th-year head coach. "They had to wait their turn, and that's what makes this so special.

"These kids have really stuck together in every way. Sometimes when kids don't get their way, they leave, but this team kept its chemistry. This is one of the greatest years I've experienced with a group."

Still, it won't be complete without a state title.

"If we go 28-0, that's something that's never been done at Renton," Henderson said. "If that happens, we'll never be forgotten."

To win it all, the Indians must overcome a lack of height. Their tallest starters are 6-foot-4 Alvin Green, a transfer from cross-city rival Lindbergh, and Wheeler and Graves, both 6-3. Graves, who bench-presses 315 pounds, makes up for his size with jumping ability and strength.

"We make sure we get up and down the court to get the other team's big man out of the game," Henderson said.

The top half of the state bracket looks like a land mine for the team from the Seamount League, which some consider a generally weaker conference. Renton could face three teams from the traditionally strong Metro League — O'Dea, Rainier Beach and Seattle Prep.

Henderson says his team can compete.

"We play the same style as Metro teams, but we're in the Seamount League," he said. "We'd love to transfer over, but we can't."

Says Calcote, a 5-8 point guard who will play football at Eastern Washington, "All we hear is Renton is nothing until they run with Metro. To us, if you're good, you're good. It doesn't matter what league you're in."

Top-ranked and unbeaten underdogs? "We're 24-0 underdogs, because we come from what people say is a weak league," Wheeler said. "We're going to do some damage at state."

Sharing the load
The undefeated Renton boys basketball team can hurt opponents in a number of ways. The top-ranked Indians (24-0) average 76.1 points per game with their up-tempo play that gets everybody involved. Four players average double-figure points.
Name	Year	Ht.	Pos.	Averages
Shawn Henderson	Sr.	6-3	G-F	18.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 6.5 apg, 2.4 spg, 1.2 bpg
Migail Graves	Sr.	6-3	F-C	13.6 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.9 bpg
Romeo Wheeler	Sr.	6-1	G	12.8 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 3.8 spg, 2.8 apg
Alvin Green	Sr.	6-4	G-F	10.1 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.9 spg
Dante Calcote	Sr.	5-8	PG	8 9 ppg, 6.2 apg, 4.8 rpg, 2.2 spg
Key — Points (ppg), rebounds (rpg), assists (apg), steals (spg), blocked shots (bpg)