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Hard work bulks up Derochowski's goal
As a new player, he set his sights on a Div.-I school, then got one
DAN ITEL
Statesman Journal
December 12, 2005
It's no surprise the expectations for Travis Derochowski are high.
When you're 6-foot-9 and a basketball player, big things always are expected, literally and figuratively.
But add Derochowski's height with the fact that he already has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Montana State University, and the limits for him and his team this year are seen as endless.
The high hopes also are bolstered by the fact that the senior is the first basketball player from Class 2A school (Western Mennonite's enrollment is 120) to sign with a Division I school since Nyssa's Brian Jackson attended Oregon State.
You can already hear them saying, "If he can play at the Division I level, then he should clean up here."
And that's exactly what Derochowski hopes to do.
"The No. 1 goal that I have, obviously, is to win the state championship this year," Derochowski said.
When you know that Derochowski just started playing basketball as a freshman, it makes everything that's happened in his career and a claim on the state championship all the more impressive.
Freshman year, when Derochowski came to head coach Gary Hull as a gangly youth, the present seemed an impossibility.
"He bench pressed 70 pounds seven times," Hull said.
In fact, he hadn't really even played basketball before then. He'd barely even messed around in the driveway. He had been a swimmer with the McMinnville Swim Club until then. His brother, Tyler Derochowski, was a state placer with the McMinnville High School swim team last year.
"The swimming coaches there knew I had potential in swimming," Derochowski said. "But I wanted a new challenge, and I ended up really liking it."
The eye-opener came in Western Mennonite's last game during Derochowski's freshman year at the state tournament. He had been called up from the junior varsity team to ride the bench during the Pioneers' playoff run. But in the semifinals of the Class 2A state tournament at the Pendleton Convention Center against eventual state champion Dayton, Western Mennonite was getting run out of the gym.
"I was getting so mad at our starters that I just yelled 'Who wants to be in this game?'" Hull said. "And Travis was the only person who stood up."
He wound up playing little more than four minutes, but he blocked Dayton post Dante Rosario (now a football player at Oregon) once. And that was all it took.
"Travis didn't care what the score was, he just wanted to play," Hull said. "That's where I saw something a little special in him. It wasn't about winning or losing, it was about competing."
That spring Derochowski came to Hull with a goal to play Division I basketball.
"I felt kind of exploited as a freshman," Derochowski said of his time on the junior varsity team. "I didn't have the greatest attitude. As time went on I started working with Gary in the gym and developed a better relationship with him."
Hull put Derochowski on a weight-lifting program and worked with him on foot work and post moves. Hull said it's not uncommon for a player to come to him with lofty goals. "But most kids fizzle out after a couple weeks," he said.
"(Derochowski) was very faithful with spring workouts," Hull said. "In 23 years of coaching, he's the most loyal kid I've ever had."
And Derochowski began to develop. After a semi-successful sophomore season, he joined the Portland Panthers, an elite summer touring team. It was there, playing in national tournaments alongside other future Division I players such as McNary's Phil Nelson (Washington), Jesuit's Seth Tarver (Oregon State) and West Salem's Cory Davis, a future teammate at Montana State, that pushed him to develop.
"It was a way different experience," he said. "Seeing those guys who were better than me only made me want to improve."
He was forced to get better. Banging up against bodies with some of the best posts in the state as a beanpole 6-foot-7, 205 pound sophomore has a way of doing that.
"He just needs a little work and he could be really good," said Davis, who will room with Derochowski at Montana State next year. "He's really big and he's good."
Last year, Derochowski averaged 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocks per game as Western Mennonite's virtually sole weapon. He helped the Pioneers to a third-place finish in the powerful Tri-River Conference, which produced state champion Regis and runner-up Salem Academy.
After another summer with the Panthers, Montana State came calling.
"I think playing Division I was a reasonable goal for me, but it was a challenge," he said.
"Travis is a big, strong, young kid who is only going to get better," Montana State coach Mick Durham said. "He runs very well for a big kid and shoots the ball well. Travis comes from a small school but has played against good competition on his AAU teams in the offseason. Travis won't back down, he has a good competitive drive."
And now his focus turns to his high school team. And that might not be as easy as it sounds.
"It's 2A basketball, and you don't see many 6-10, 6-9, 6-8 guys," he said. "But sometimes, to be honest, it can get difficult playing against lower competition, against a post that may be 6-4 or 6-5."
He said it's not uncommon for him to be undercut by a shorter player. And the defenses certainly focus on him.
And once state rolls around, you tell a player on a 2A team that it's not as high of quality as 4A.
"I've just learned to be content," Derochowski said. "Some of the competition at 2A is just as good as 4A."
And that's the difference of this year's team. Derochowski can't do it alone, and he has help now.
Bryan Martin, a transfer from West Salem, and Mike Woodard, both guards, can lead the Pioneers in scoring any night.
In Western Mennonite's season opening win, Derochowski scored two points while Woodard led the team with 22.
"Travis came to me and said 'Sorry, coach. I felt like I played one of my worst games,'" Hull said. "I told him I thought he played great, rebounding, hustling up and down the floor, playing with energy."
It's those little things and the unselfishness that has changed in Derochowski.
"Last year we didn't have those shooters and those guys to attack the basket," Derochowski said. "I'm a lot more confident in giving it to those guys now."
Oh, and last week, Derochowski benched 285 pounds.
"It's been fun for all the guys to see what dedication can do," Hull said.
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