NEAH BAY — It’s all a matter of interpretation.
Neah Bay senior Faye Chartraw is well-versed in the fundamentals of basketball.
There’s a term for the type of on-court style Chartraw displays: “Old-man game.”
Some may feel that term is faint praise, but it’s truly a compliment to basketball junkies who understand exactly how effective such a player can be.
Chartraw possesses a knack for scoring, boxes out well for rebounds, sets tough screens and defends the interior post well.
She worked to develop a mid-range jump shot, which has become a lost art in the sport, while also improving what’s become an absolute necessity of the modern game: a repeatable 3-point stroke.
Others took notice, as the 5-foot-10 post was named North Olympic League MVP and voted to The Associated Press Class 1B All-State team after averaging 19.4 points and 10.6 rebounds this past season.
Chartraw also is the All-Peninsula Girls Basketball MVP as determined by a poll of area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
Chartraw was a big reason the Class 1B Red Devils went 21-3 on the season — including wins over 2A Sequim and 1A Chimacum, Port Townsend and Forks — and finished fifth at the 1B state tournament.
She was chosen to play in the Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Association Senior All-State game and will be the first member of her family to attend college after receiving an athletic scholarship to hoop at Lower Columbia College in Longview.
The success came after a summer and fall spent playing mainly against men in pickup games at the Neah Bay Community Center gym.
Chartraw had to shake off some reluctance by the male players to let her play.
“Not a lot of girls go play in those games,” Chartraw said.
“I had to fight to get out on the floor.”
She still hears some remarks, but most players have come around and realize her skills.
“Yeah, for the most part I’m accepted, but there’s little mean moments where they give me crap,” Chartraw said.
She enjoys the higher caliber of play and the way it changes how she approaches the game.
“It’s played at a faster pace, so I have to think about what I’m going to do a step or two ahead,” Chartraw said.
“Another thing I can do is set people up more. Instead of being the scorer, I can be the passer and find other ways to make an impact.”
Chartraw focused on building up her dribbling and ball-handling skills coming into this season.
“I knew I was going to have to be one of the main ballhandlers in tough game situations, against pressure defenses and in zones,” Chartraw said.
“I spent a lot of my summer break working on my handles and outside game.
“I’d be working on my 3-points, shooting off the dribble drive, and in mid-range.”
She also worked on another crafty way to score, a one-handed scoop shot that proved invaluable in drawing fouls and earning free-throw attempts.
“Even if I go up against people that are bigger or taller than me, that move is hard to defend and I get fouled a lot,” Chartraw said.
“I don’t know [where it came from]. My mom [Crystal Chartraw] probably taught me that.”
She shouldered progressively more responsibility for the Red Devils’ success in each of her high school seasons, but her leadership and production peaked this season, a year after the graduation of high-scoring Cierra Moss, now a member of the Peninsula College women’s basketball team.
“I always felt like a team leader,” Chartraw said of her freshman through junior seasons.
“[This year,] I wanted the team to listen to me and understand what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong.”
The return of Kaela Tyler from a year at Tulalip Heritage in Marysville also helped.
“It was really nice to have my cousin Kaela Tyler come back and be a captain with me,” Chartraw said.
“The girls listened and we made a really good team.
“They play for me, I play for them.”
Neah Bay coach Tony McCaulley liked what the pairing brought to the court.
“She and Kaela played pretty dang good together,” McCaulley said.
“Faye played better than last year. She took that leadership role pretty seriously.”
Her best game was her final game as a Red Devil in the third-place game at state.
Chartraw put up 30 points, scoring on the inside and knocking down 3-pointers, while getting to the line to hit 10 of 11 free throws and hauling down 11 rebounds as Neah Bay fell to Republic 75-72 in a classic two-overtime thriller.
“I played my little heart out,” Chartraw joked.
Next up on the agenda: playing college basketball for Lower Columbia, a program that finished seventh in the NWAC tournament this season and recently opened a $9.5 million renovation of Myklebust Gymnasium and Fitness Center.
She’ll still play for the Red Devils — Lower Columbia uses the same mascot — under coach Chad Meadors.
“He came and watched when we played Crosspoint and he told me I was tricky,” Chartraw said.
“I hurt my knee in that game, and I guess I was pulling some tricks to get points and to get stops on defense.”
Call Chartraw’s style, tricky, crafty or even old-fashioned, it’s certainly effective.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
