>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

There was Tanner McIntosh, all smiles, snipping twine at Baker High, minutes after his Imbler Panthers captured the OSAA 1A crown on March 5, 2005. 

 Little did he know at the time, this fun would fade, and he would hang up the sneakers, ending his basketball career. 

McIntosh went on to play two seasons at Eastern Oregon University.  He started immediately.  He was runner-up for Cascade Conference Freshman of the Year.

But then, after his sophomore season, McIntosh traded in his life on the hardwood for life on the ranch, leaving EOU, leaving school, leaving basketball altogether.

“I just needed a break, I guess,” McIntosh said Wednesday night via telephone. “I wasn’t enjoying basketball very much.

“It just wasn’t fun anymore.”

So he spent this past year in Condon, near his extended family, working on a ranch.

McIntosh’s days involved placing calves through chutes, branding them with an electric iron and giving them shots to prevent diseases such as Blackleg.

Meanwhile, he was an assistant varsity basketball coach at Condon-Wheeler High, and after all those shots in practice, and all that instruction to high school kids, the spark returned.

The energy is back. 

And so is he.

McIntosh will play at Lewis-Clark State next season, and will be eligible as a junior, announced by coach Tim Walker in his Wednesday press release.

So here comes the 2005 Class 1A Player of the Year. Here comes the 6-foot-8-inch kid who scored 1,931 high school points, good enough for No. 23 on the OSAA all-time list. 

Yes, McIntosh will trade in calf branding for calf raisers.  Electric irons for iron rims.  Days walking around the fence for days running around the perimeter.

Back to the hardwood?

Back to the hardwood.

“Tanner will be a great fit with what we do,” Walker said in his Wednesday press release. “We think he’ll be a good motion player because of his ability to stretch the defense and play in the post.

“We’re excited he chose Lewis-Clark State.”