Etiwanda digs deep for crown
SACRAMENTO — They had one window now, prying the glass open just a little, fighting back because these Etiwanda Eagles would never quit no matter how hard the titan in front of them punched.
Down by five to San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty with two minutes left in Saturday’s Open Division state final at Golden 1 Center, coach Stan Delus calmly sat his players down in a timeout. Pointed at each of them, and with his voice steadily rising to a crescendo, delivered the message that will go down in Etiwanda program lore.
“Change your mindset … that’s all you have to do right now in this moment,” Delus roared. “So step up now and play the moment.”
For three years, junior Kennedy Smith had been playing the moment. And as the minutes ticked down and Etiwanda fought back, tying the game at 67 with a handful of seconds left, possession and a shot at a state championship, it seemed only right that the ball be in Smith’s hands for her shot at another moment.
She dribbled baseline, firing a long midrange jumper, the ball ticking off the backboard and swirling around the rim once. Twice. Dropping,
heart-wrenchingly, off iron. And into the waiting arms of junior Jada Sanders, who scored on the put-back as the buzzer sounded and pandemonium ensued in a 69-67 win.
Her teammates mobbed her at half-court, melting into a puddle of disbelief, spilling out like the gallons of emotions the Eagles have expended in a miraculous season.
“It went up, I said — ‘Wow,’ ” Delus said, miming his eyes widening at the layup, the Eagles bursting into laughter in the postgame news conference.
They beat La Jolla Country Day in the regional semifinal. They somehow knocked off Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, the familiar foe that took them down in the Southern Section finals, in the regional final.
And they outlasted Archbishop Mitty, three massive wins against three of the best private-school programs in the United States for a program that will always see itself as a public school representing the Inland Empire.
“To do it with local kids from the neighborhood … this is not normal,” Delus said, reflecting on the wins before tipoff.
“We got wind that there was some disappointment about playing us instead of Sierra Canyon — hey, they wanted get-back from last year, I get it,” Delus said of Archbishop Mitty’s loss to the Trailblazers last year in the state final. “But I have to make sure people understand, we’re not just this school … for some strange reason, we’re still looked at as, we’re good, but are we that good? Can we be that good?
“We can,” Delus continued. “We actually can.”
Sanders walked away the hero, but Smith was the endto-end
engine, putting up a stat line that spoke for itself but couldn’t speak for the sweat she left on the floor: 30 points, 13 boards, six steals, four blocks.
Three years ago, in the summer of Smith’s freshman year, she walked into a practice against reigning 6foot-4 Etiwanda post monster Jessica Peterson. And Delus never will forget how Peterson, now a center at Southern Methodist, went at her. Challenged her.
So Smith, Delus described in the fall, waving his arms to demonstrate, went right back. Caught the ball. Elbow. Bucket in the post. She was there to play as an equal.
“She never backed down from anything, Kennedy Smith,” Delus said earlier this season.
These Eagles have waded through mud all season, mucking up the pace at their discretion, executing down the stretch. And as they held the state championship trophy aloft, the familiar chants came from the loyal brass behind the bench.
“E-High! E-High!”