State tournament notebook: Barringtons light it up in Tacoma

By Casey Olson • March 10, 2009 1:44 pm
Federal Way senior Jeffrey Forbes goes to the basket during the Eagles' win over the Garfield Bulldogs in the Class 4A state championship game Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. The Eagles won 62-54.
Federal Way senior Jeffrey Forbes goes to the basket during the Eagles' win over the Garfield Bulldogs in the Class 4A state championship game Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. The Eagles won 62-54.

The Barrington family had a busy four days inside the Tacoma Dome. Senior Andre Barrington and sophomore Brittany Barrington both starred on their respective Federal Way High School teams during the state boys and girls tournaments.

“I’m so proud of the whole team,” Andre Barrington said about the Federal Way girls. “It’s just so great to watch my sister play. I have watched all of their games.”

Brittany Barrington led the girls to third place by averaging 11.7 points during their four games and Andre Barrington led the Eagles in scoring during two games and averaged 15.5 points during the tournament.

Andre has already signed a national letter of intent to play linebacker in the fall at Washington State University and led the Federal Way football team its first state playoff win since 1976 in November. Brittany and the rest of her Eagle basketball team will be a preseason favorite to win the 2010 title.

Powerful pregame motivation

• The Federal Way boys basketball program and head coach Jerome Collins has a great tradition of producing some of the most talented players in the state. During his 25-year tenure at Federal Way, Collins has coached future NBA players like Michael Dickerson and Donny Marshall.

Dickerson and another former Eagle, Jeremy Sloane, even gave pregame speeches before Saturday’s championship game win over Garfield. Dickerson retired from the NBA in 2003 because of a series of injuries and attempted a comeback with the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this season, but was waived during training camp.

Sloane, who graduated from Federal Way in 1988, attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and flies F-16 Fighting Falcons, including a two-year stint with the USAF Thunderbird demonstration team.

All-Tournament

• The Federal Way boys basketball team was well-represented on the 2009 4A Boys All-Tournament Team, which was voted on during halftime of the championship game. Eagle junior Cole Dickerson and Andre Barrington, who would have been my vote for co-most valuable players, earned first-team honors and senior point guard Michael Hale was on the second-team. Garfield sophomore Tony Wroten was named the tournament MVP after finishing with zero points in the first half and eight total against Federal Way in the title game.

The first-team also included Kentridge’s Gary Bell and Lake Stevens forward Sean Stickney.

On the girls’ side, Federal Way sophomore guard Brittany Barrington was named to the all-tournament second team.

Free throws

• Federal Way didn’t win everything Saturday against the Garfield Bulldogs. Three Garfield students won a free-throw shooting contest during halftime of the title game, 2-1, over three Federal Way students.

SPSL North

• The South Puget Sound League North Division proved it was the best basketball league in the state on both the boys’ and girls’ side. Not only did Federal Way win the boys state title, but the Kentwood girls took the 4A girls crown. The North also had the third-place teams in the Federal Way girls and Kentridge boys. The Auburn Riverside girls finished fourth.

Garfield dominance

• The Garfield Bulldog boys basketball program came into Saturday’s championship game with a state-record 11 state titles. The 2009 title was Federal Way’s first.

Premature celebration

• The Federal Way student section got a little too excited with 10.1 seconds remaining in Saturday’s title game against Garfield. One blue and one white streamer were thrown onto the Tacoma Dome court, along with a white T-shirt. The game had to be stopped and the Federal Way bench was assessed a technical foul.

Attendance

• All-day attendance Saturday was 6,589, up from last year’s Day 4 crowd of 4,732. Total attendance for the tournament was 31,884, an increase over last year’s 30,092.

Still an Eagle

• Federal Way senior guard Jeffrey Forbes will take his state championship to Eastern Washington University in the fall on a full-ride basketball scholarship.

Forbes was the Eagles’ defensive stopper all season long and deferred a lot of the scoring load to teammates like Cole Dickerson, Andre Barrington, Michael Hale and Isiah Umipig while checking the opponents’ best offensive player night in and night out.

Forbes, who averaged 11.5 points a game, will be joined in the 2009 Eastern recruiting class by Rainier Beach guard Dvonne Pickett, who will be playing at the Tacoma Dome this weekend at the Class 3A State Tournament.