Hermiston girls basketball looking for respect

Good teams get rewarded for their efforts, usually with high rankings in the polls and high-caliber teams that want to play you.

Unless you play in Eastern Oregon, where your conference consists of four teams and the competition is a step behind.

That’s the problem Hermiston High School girls basketball coach Steve Hoffert has in the Columbia River Conference. Conference play doesn’t start until after Christmas, so he has to find competition for his team to fill the void.

The Bulldogs played Kamiakin, Southridge, Hanford, Kennewick and Sunnyside, and went to the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, where they finished 3-1 against some pretty stiff competition.

The only problem with that scenario is it hurts his team when it comes to the OSAA state polls, which bases its rankings on RPI and Colley rankings (strength of schedule and playing at your own level).

Hermiston, which lost last year’s state title game to La Salle 51-46, plays at the 5A level. With just four teams in the CRC, and the rest of the 5A teams on the west side of the state, Hoffert has to be resourceful. The Bulldogs can’t travel for every game, but no one wants to “travel here or get beat.”

“It’s something we deal with,” Hoffert said. “We win, and we don’t worry about it. We are one of the best teams in the state, but we have no competition. We play teams who we feel will give us that competition. We are beating good teams, and we work hard, but we don’t get respect for it.”

The Bulldogs (17-3, 5-0 CRC) are ranked sixth by the OSAA this week, with four teams above them having worse records. Top-ranked Silverton is 20-0, while No. 4 Marist Catholic is 13-7. No. 2 Springfield (16-3) beat the Bulldogs by five points Dec. 30. They lost by six points to 6A South Medford (ranked fifth) three days before that and got dinged points in the poll for their effort.

“If you play 6A or 4A teams and win, that hurts you because they aren’t 5A,” Hoffert said. “If you challenge yourself, like we did with the tournament in Arizona, we dropped 20 points in the RPI ratings. We aren’t going to give up because of that.”

When it comes to the postseason, conference or district champions automatically qualify for the 16-team state bracket. The CRC gets one other team in the playoff system.

“You win your conference, and that helps with that,” Hoffert said.

Hermiston will play Friday night at Pendleton (8-12) in a CRC game. The Bulldogs are led by returning first-team all-state players Jansen Edmiston (14.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3.1 steals per game) and Sara Ramirez (13.9, 6.2, 3.2, 2.6). Add in two-year starting sophomore post Maddy Juul (13.7 points and 7.2 rebounds), and they have a solid base.

“Jansen and Sara are two of the fastest girls you will play against,” Hoffert said. “They can compete with anyone in the state. Maddy is a top rebounder and a very solid player. Our system is solid. It’s fun to coach, and it’s gratifying.”

NOTE: The Bulldogs will host a Breast Cancer Awareness game Feb. 23 when they play Pendleton. The girls will wear pink uniforms and hand out pink roses to the crowd. The team also will honor cancer survivors and their families.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Hermiston girls basketball looking for respect."