May 12, 2004

Cowley signs a pair of talented, well-coached players
from West Anchorage program

Fresh off winning a state championship at West Anchorage High School, seniors Daniel Brown and Ricky Mason have decided to play basketball for Cowley County Community College.

Brown, a 6-0 combo-guard, averaged 21 points per game this past season and was named First-Team All-State. Brown won two state titles at Bartlett High School before transferring to West Anchorage his senior year, and winning a third state championship.

Despite battling a shoulder injury that required surgery after his senior season was completed, Brown was a prolific scorer at West Anchorage.

“Daniel is a player,” West Anchorage head coach Chuck White said. “I think he has a chance to be a good player at the (NCAA) Division I level. After having shoulder surgery, getting in good physical basketball shape is the only thing that is holding him back.”

White knows a thing or two about good basketball players as he led East Anchorage to 14 state championships in 34 years as head coach at the school. He then went on to coach three years at Eisenhower High School in Yakima, Wash., before leading West Anchorage to the state title in his first season as head coach.

White coached Mao Tosi, who played for Cowley head coach Randy Smithson at Butler Community College. He also coached Trajan Langdon, who went on to play at Duke and then in the NBA.

“He has made that a basketball hotbed up there,” Smithson said. “His teams play the best competition in the country, and he demands the best from his players.”

With West Anchorage trailing two-time defending state champion Bartlett by 19 points in the first half of the state championship game, White’s team came back to win in overtime 70-69.

Mason, who is a 6-1 combo-guard, is a stellar defender and is very aggressive on both ends of the court. He averaged 14 points per game, and was the catalyst to the team’s come-from-behind win in the state title game.

“He had three quick three’s for us that helped us come back from that big deficit in the state championship game,” White said. “Ricky is very quick and very competitive.”

Smithson has a great deal of respect for coach White and is looking forward to coaching kids who have learned from his tutelage.

“These guys are used to winning state championships, and have played for what I consider to be one of the best coaches in this business,” Smithson said. “These two guys come from a coach that I can’t demand any more from them than what they have already been demanded already. We need guys like this in our program, the kind that refuse to lose. These kids hate losing more than they like to win.”