Park Center's Cash Chavis brings highlight-reel plays to every game

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — The Park Center High School boys' basketball team is a favorite in Class 4A basketball, and they're gunning for a third-straight state title game appearance.

Park Center and Wayzata have split the last two state championship games, but it's the last Pirates loss that still stings.

"If you was like a part of the team last year and experienced the loss versus Wayzata, like you know like what we have to do and go through every day because we feel this pain every day we come to practice," said Pirates combo guard Cash Chavis.

Chavis is part of a talent-rich Park Center program. He's worth the price of admission. On any given night, he brings the house down with a highlight-reel play.

"We see it so often, we take it for granted, once a week probably he'll do something in practice, he'll do something in a game where, you know, coaches and I just kind of look at each other like, 'Did you see that?'" said Pirates head coach James Ware.

Chavis' stats are impressive, too. But it might be his intangibles that take him over the top.

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"The word I use to describe Cash is like, he's like undeniable," Ware said.

Cash is Big Ten bound, but he's not staying in the area. Next season, he'll play for conference newcomer Washington.

"The coaching staff was, they all played in the NBA and they was all guards, so I think they can develop me," Chavis said.

There's another reason Chavis plays: Syoka Siko, his teammate and close friend, was fatally shot before last season.

"He was a player, too, who wanted to go to the NFL, had dreams that got cut short," Chavis said. "I made him a promise before he died I was gonna make it for him, so that's what I'm working at."

This cycle, there are many championship contenders, but Park Center hopes the title matchup is familiar, with an upgraded result.

"If we want to win that game we can't make no mistakes, basically," he said.