Cactus Shadows' sportsmanship show the bright side of high school sports

Richard Obert
The Republic | azcentral.com
Shadow Mountain and Cactus Shadows girls basketball played a game of 4-on-4 on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018.

A small percentage of athletes gets college sports scholarships.

Even fewer make a living in a sport.

So take time to appreciate the small measures of sportsmanship in this current climate of chasing scholarship offers and rings.

Thursday, while doing an interview with a Shadow Mountain boys basketball assistant coach for a future story, I witnessed great sportsmanship by the Cave Creek Cactus Shadows' girls basketball team.

It came to Shadow Mountain with 10 freshman players. Shadow Mountain, playing with seven freshmen all year, had only four available to play. One was out because of grades. Another two were out because of ankle injuries.

Shadow Mountain freshman coach Billy Distler asked officials if his team could still play with just four. Referees told him they had never been in this situation before. But they said OK, go for it.

Cactus Shadows stepped up and agreed to play only four players. They subbed out during the game, but the Falcons always had just four players on the floor.

"It was amazing on their part to do that for us," Distler said.

Shadow Mountain varsity coach Erica Matthews was impressed.

"I never would of thought a team would do that," Matthews said.

Cactus Shadows won the game, 41-21, but Shadow Mountain showed no quit, outscoring the Falcons 13-2 in the final quarter, as Cactus Shadows wasn't interested in running up a score on a team that was undermanned.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert.