Caribou Chatter
Doug Flanagan
Tough to win on road for CTL boys
By Doug Flanagan
Dec. 10, 2010
One generally accepted supposition about sports, no matter what the level or type of sport, is that it's tougher to win on the road than it is at home.
But when it comes to boys basketball in the Caribou Trail League, there's proof that it's been especially tough for visiting teams to consistently win over the years.
According to figures provided to Caribou Chatter by Sean Campbell of wa1asports.net, Cashmere is the only current CTL team that has an all-time winning road record with a 191-140 mark. Chelan is 179-213; Cascade is 69-125; Okanogan is 126-290; Omak is 163-190; and Tonasket is 157-249.
"On one end is Cashmere, known for its powerhouse teams in the 70s and 80s. (The Bulldogs have) winning road records over five of six Okanogan County schools," Campbell wrote on his website. "The only school the Bulldogs have not been able to win at is Brewster. While in Grant County, Cashmere has pretty much played .500 basketball with some success at Lake Roosevelt and Quincy but not in Ephrata.
"On the other end of the spectrum is Okanogan High School. The Bulldogs do not own any winning road records in either Chelan or Grant County. They don't even own a winning road record within Okanogan County."
Cascade coach Paul Fraker said that he has his team prepare a bit differently for a road game.
"I know that our home record in the CTL is significantly better than on the road," Fraker said. "I think the players at home have a little extra energy and emotion. I always tell my players to create their own energy and try to feed off of the hostile crowds. As a coaching staff, we stress the importance of perfect execution in the first four minutes of the game to hopefully take the crowd out of the game."
When one digs a little bit deeper into the numbers, the win-loss discrepancy for CTL road teams becomes even more striking. According to Campbell, Chelan County schools have a record of 140-142 against Grant County schools and 264-226 against Okanogan county schools. Grant County schools have a mark of 96-142 against Chelan County schools and 198-166 in Okanogan County. Okanogan County schools are 143-350 in Chelan County and 102-264 in Grant County.
That means that road teams in the CTL have a record of 903 wins and 2,193 losses when playing in another county for a winning percentage of about 41 percent. (Note: Those numbers include records of teams that are no longer in the CTL, such as Brewster, Liberty Bell, Lake Roosevelt, Oroville, Quincy and Ephrata.)
So why has it been so hard for road teams to win? The first and most obvious answer is that the CTL has had a lot of elite teams over the years, and those kinds of squads have been good enough to put up big win totals no matter where they have played.
"Looking and comparing all the facts and figures, one can only see that the 'better teams' win on the road, plain and simple," Campbell wrote. "(Other factors) might have a small part in the overall picture, but it has been the top boys basketball teams in the CTL that have consistently won on the road."
But other factors are present, according to Tonasket coach Glenn Braman.
"Winning on the road in the CTL is difficult due to the great basketball that is played in the league," Braman said. "The gyms are so unique and different. Big, small, the backgrounds change. When Lake Roosevelt was in the league, we were serviced by three different referee associations. Not many leagues cover the area we do. Long bus rides and long standing rivalries where each school desperately wants to beat each other all create a difficult task to go on the road and get a win."
