Hansen: Immaculate Heart has more than just Faith and Grace in state basketball playoffs

“I don’t know,” he said. “We don’t keep stats, but we’re 24-4. Is that good enough?”

If you want numbers, these are the ones that count: Ethridge and her brother, standout Immaculate Heart freshman Peter Ethridge, live on a 10-acre ranch in Three Points. They have 12 chickens, a steer, two goats and two pigs, Tommy and Taylor. During the upcoming 4-H showcase at the Pima County Fair, Meredith will proudly show Tommy and Taylor to the judges.

If Tommy and Taylor are as impressive as the state tournament-bound boys and girls basketball teams at Immaculate Heart, you can expect some blue ribbons.

On Thursday afternoon, the Knights’ boys and girls teams will get into the school’s 14-seat school bus to begin a three-hour journey to the Class 1A state tournament in Prescott. Meredith and Peter’s father, former Salpointe Catholic all-city football player Dan Ethridge, will drive the bus. Danehy will drive a rental van for those who can’t squeeze into the bus.

This is Class 1A basketball. There’s no feeling of entitlement, no AAU superstars, and no frills. Friday’s tipoff time for the IHHS boys: 9 a.m.

“So far this year, we’ve been to Elfrida, Baboquivari, Sells, Tombstone, Patagonia, St. David, all over the map,” says Dan Ethridge, who is also Immaculate Heart’s principal and athletic director. “My first coaching job out of college was in Bisbee, so I got to know all the back roads.”

There’s nothing to suggest that Immaculate Heart’s basketball teams should be anywhere but on the Road to Happiness. For the fourth time in school history, the girls team is in the state tournament, the No. 4 overall seed. The boys team, 16-10, coached by Desmond Ondoua and Ethridge, is making its first-ever tournament appearance.

The IHHS boys open against the Joseph City Wildcats, a Navajo school with a strong basketball tradition located 80 miles east of Flagstaff.

Danehy’s girls begin play against the Greyhills Academy Fightin’ Knights of Tuba City.

A few days ago, after Danehy’s girls team clinched its first conference championship in school history, someone produced a school yearbook from 10 years ago. They flipped to the basketball section and saw this printed message:

“IT’S A MIRACLE! WE WON A GAME!”

The Knights no longer need miracles to win basketball games.

Immaculate Heart has won 18 consecutive games behind sophomore point guard Emily Haynes — who is probably good enough to start for any team, any level, in Tucson.

Danehy, who earlier in his career coached Green Fields Country Day School to records of 30-6 and 28-4, is a bit unconventional. Not only doesn’t he keep individual statistics, he doesn’t prepare a scouting report on opponents, not even those waiting in the state tournament.

“After a possession or two, we figure it out,” he says. “My girls might not be the biggest and the strongest, but they might be among the smartest.”

Haynes and Meredith Ethridge are joined in the starting lineup by Grace Aroz, Sarah Martin and Faith Copeland, prompting Danehy to say, “We’ve got a Faith and a Grace, all we need is Hope and Charity and maybe we can win the state championship.”

There are 77 students at Immaculate Heart this year, which doesn’t leave much room for error. Connor Pickett, a 6-foot 3 senior with a Class 6A ability, is averaging a team-high 18 points per game. He makes up for much of the enrollment deficit.

Every afternoon at 5, the Knights boys and girls practice simultaneously at the school gymnasium, dividing the court in half. On Monday, Dan Ethridge was prepared with a scouting report of Joseph City. As with coaches in higher classification schools, Ethridge obtained intel through the coaching network.

“I gave a coach my report on a team they’re playing — a team we’ve played — and he gave me information on Joseph City, a team he played multiple times,” Ethridge said. “There’s not a lot of video available at this level. You do the best you can to be prepared.”

Neither Ethridge nor Danehy and their teams will be daunted by the odd start times nor the travel. Over the years, they’ve dealt with logistical problems and more.

Danehy remembers the Knights playing a tournament that required a late-night game in Apache Junction — a midnight return to Tucson and a 5 a.m. wakeup call to get to the Glendale Arena for a 9 a.m. tipoff.

“The Arizona Coyotes had played a hockey game there the night before, and all the maintenance people did was put down a basketball court over the ice,” he said. “We never did get warm.”

But this year, the Immaculate Heart basketball programs have heated up like never before.