Winter's first whistle: small-town thrills

As the chill of November settles over Lincoln County, I’ve got that familiar itch again. Gym lights are flickering on, sneakers are squeaking, and the faint smell of floor wax is already in the air. High school winter sports are back, and in Davenport, Reardan, Odessa and Edwall, that means the heartbeat of winter is about to pound louder than a combine at harvest.

Davenport’s Gorillas and Reardan’s Screaming Eagles are primed for Northeast 2B battles, with Davenport heading to Reardan for boys basketball on Dec. 12 and wrestling on Dec. 11. Odessa’s Tigers, scrapping in the 1B ranks, are geared up for boys and girls hoops with that classic underdog fire. Little Edwall and the Christian Heritage Patriots out of Edwall bring their own brand of grit and fast-break faith to the hardwood.

In towns this size, winter sports aren’t recreation; they’re oxygen. Kids who spent fall chasing wheat now chase loose balls and takedowns, and every point feels like it belongs to the whole community. I’ve covered these gyms for a decade—buzzer-beaters in Reardan’s bandbox, overtime wars on Odessa’s super polished floor—and this season already feels wide open and wild, especially with the classifications shaking up the matchups.

But here’s the scoop I can’t stop grinning about: pickleball, the fastest-growing paddle sport in America, has Davenport blood running through its veins.

Most folks know the game started in 1965 on Bainbridge Island when three bored dads—Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum—cobbled together ping-pong paddles, a wiffle ball and a lowered badminton net to keep their kids busy. What fewer realize is that Barney McCallum, the guy who actually built the first real wooden paddles in his basement, grew up right here. Born in 1926, graduated from Davenport High, son of the town lawyer. After the Navy, he moved west, but he carried that small-town ingenuity with him. By 1972 he’d co-founded Pickle-Ball Inc., and the rest is senior-center history. Washington even made it the official state sport in 2022.

Walk into the Davenport rec center any Tuesday night and you’ll see former Gorillas trading hoops stories for dinks and lobs. Same competitive fire, smaller court, louder grunts.

So yeah, I’m fired up—for the steals, the pins, the upsets, and for the quiet pride of knowing the sport exploding across the country got its start with a kid from our wheat fields and a bandsaw.

Winter’s here, the lights are bright, and the stories are just getting started. See you in the bleachers.