EDITORIAL: Baker City should remain home for 1A hoops

Published 12:45 pm Friday, March 4, 2022

The excitement level in the Baker High School gym on Wednesday night, March 2, wasn’t as easy to measure, in a quantitative way, as the din produced by hundreds of basketball fans.

But you didn’t need a decibel count to gauge the enthusiasm.

The Class 1A state boys and girls tournaments have returned to Baker City after being canceled, along with so much else in 2021, due to the pandemic.

As the Powder Valley Badgers boys — the nearest thing we have to a home team — were beating the Nixyaawii Golden Eagles to advance to the semifinal round, the gratitude among the fans to once again gather in the BHS gym, watch basketball and cheer for their favorite teams, was palpable.

State basketball is back in Baker City.

And here it should stay.

This is the final year of the current contract with the Oregon School Activities Association, which picks sites for state tournaments.

Baker High School has hosted the boys state tournament for Oregon’s smallest high schools since 1974, and the girls tournament since 1977.

It’s an excellent venue for the events. The BHS gym is one of the finest in Eastern Oregon, and a cadre of volunteers ensures that the tournaments run efficiently.

Baker City is also an ideal destination for Class 1A teams. Although many schools that compete are in towns smaller than Baker City, making this in effect a trip to “the big city,” it’s not so big that it seems unfamiliar.

The tournaments, besides being an annual tradition that Baker County residents relish even if they don’t know any of the players, also gives the local retail economy a boost that can help propel businesses out of the winter slowdown and into the beginning of the busier spring and summer tourist season.

Baker City’s relationship with the OSAA has been a strong one for a long time, and it should remain so as it moves into its second half century.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor