Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.
PAHRUMP -- The banners on the walls at Pahrump Valley High School's gym tell the tale of the surrounding town.
There's the so-called "glory days" at Single-A, the 1980s when a scant 1,500 people inhabited what was then primarily a farming community. There's the darker times of the mid-1990s, when the 2A Trojans had success in golf and little else.
And now, 3A banners line the gym, showing Pahrump's strength in softball and girls basketball.
With close to 30,000 people now calling the town an hour west of Las Vegas home, Pahrump Valley High is on the cusp of breaking into the top level of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association.
The current enrollment cap for 3A is 1,200 students, with schools above that at the 4A level. There are exceptions, as schools can petition to go up or down -- Bishop Gorman and Bishop Manogue are both under 1,200, and Vo-Tech is petitioning to go down to the 3A level.
According to Pahrump Valley athletic director Rich Lauver, the school's enrollment is between 1,050 and 1,100, and Nevada Department of Education numbers show that Pahrump's sixth- through eighth-grade middle school has another 1,050 students.
In short, crossing 1,200 isn't an if, but a when.
"My personal belief is that within five years, we could be at 4A," Lauver said. "Not next year, and not the year after."
For some sports, it's not a pretty prospect. Football went 5-5 last season, a record that included wins against 2A Lincoln County and the three new 4A schools in Las Vegas. Last season's baseball team went 3-9, and boys' basketball went 4-22.
But the news isn't all bad "over the hump." Girls' sports have been very competitive, with the golf team taking the 2002 3A state title, and the softball team steamrolling to last year's state crown.
But nowhere have the prospects been brighter for the Trojans than in girls' basketball. The Lady Trojans went 32-1 last season, culminating in a state championship win against Lowry at Reno. The one loss was at Centennial, hardly something the Trojans were ashamed of.
In fact, last year's performance was so good, it led coach Bob Hopkins to schedule a fairly ambitious nonleague schedule this winter.
The Lady Trojans are 17-4 this year, with 12 of those games coming against 4A competition. With league play just under way, Pahrump Valley has one more 4A game slated for next month.
Hopkins, in his seventh year as Pahrump's coach, said his scheduling had nothing to do with preparing for a future in the 4A -- in fact, he thinks that the NIAA will continue to raise the 3A enrollment cap before Pahrump can reach the 4A level -- instead, he said, it's simply about helping his team get better.
A big reason that the Lady Trojans have been so successful has been the play of Veronica Villa, a senior who last year was second-team all-state as a guard. Villa said when she heard of her team's ambitious schedule, which included 10 60-mile trips into Las Vegas in just over a month, she thought it was a good idea.
"I was excited, we need to get better," Villa said. "The tougher the schedule, the better we get."
But Hopkins doesn't think his team or others would be as competitive at the 4A level, primarily because unlike the dominant 4A programs in Las Vegas such as Bishop Gorman and Centennial, Pahrump's girls basketball players have to play in other sports. For example, Villa excels as a setter for the volleyball team, and is interested in playing volleyball for UNLV.
"Since the school is so small, we don't have a choice," said Sara Coleman, a Trojans forward who also plays soccer and softball. "Playing one sport, it keeps you in shape for the next sport."
Darla Hopkins, Bob's daughter, was on last year's state champion basketball and softball teams, and also was on the 2002 golf team that won the 3A title.
"If everyone here in our program just stuck to one sport, we wouldn't be as dominant," she said.
But where Pahrump's size may present a disadvantage in forcing players to play multiple sports, it does have one advantage in providing a stable farm system through the one middle school.
"We have a strong program in junior high," Bob Hopkins said. "Everything we do comes up from sixth grade through seniors. They know coming in knowing what they're going to do; it's helped a lot."
Despite Hopkins' belief that the Trojans won't see 4A, others around Pahrump have quietly expressed concern about the prospect. Suggestions have been made that Pahrump should petition to stay at 3A, or even that Nye County should build another high school rather than let its one school grow. Others, like Hopkins, believe the 3A enrollment cap will rise, but with two 4A schools barely above the 4A floor, that prospect may be less likely.
The campus, in the Calvada development south of Pahrump's two traffic lights, shows the signs of growth. It's a motley collection of buildings clearly built at separate times, halved by the standard, colorful architecture of the Community College of Southern Nevada building and a small, weathered bleacher adjacent the football field.
Lauver said the school's athletic facilities are undergoing a $1.3 million upgrade, which includes $500,000 in private donations. He said his school's administration rejects the idea that they'd be better off staying in 3A.
"If we have 4A numbers, I say we're a 4A school now and we'd better step up and produce at the 4A level. Otherwise, we'll be like some of the Las Vegas 4A's and we'll get throttled across the board," he said. "It could be a tough situation for quite a few years. We'll have a shot at some leagues in different sports, but sports we're very dominant in at 3A could finish up second or third."
archive
