Out In No-Woman’s Land As The Area’s Only Woman Coaching A Boys Basketball Team, Jennifer Mountain Shatters The Stereotypes

The state’s second-ranked team led Jennifer Mountain’s club 15-1 last Saturday when she signaled emphatically for a timeout.

St. George’s girls basketball coach Ross Thomas, watching the lopsided start from the bleachers with his assistant, Ed Tyllia, knew what Mountain would tell her team in the huddle.

Mountain’s team, the St. George’s boys, was acting as if its masculinity depended on immediately shooting the ball, Thomas said.

Reverting to Mountain’s patient offense, St. George’s made a run at undefeated Curlew - twice pulling within two points.

In the end, Curlew’s perfect record remained intact in a 57-52 win.

Mountain, the first-year Dragons coach, had encountered her initial “big” game in the Panorama League.

She undoubtedly learned a few things that will help Friday night, when the Dragons play their No. 1 rival - and the defending State B champions - Northwest Christian.

Mountain had pulled the right strings against Curlew: cajoling her players when necessary, offering pointers to the officials without overstepping the boundaries.

All of Mountain’s actions are getting much more scrutiny than the average Class B coach.

Mountain understands the curiosity people have about a woman coaching boys basketball.

After all, people are hard-pressed to name any women who have done the same, outside of Karen Heiken, who brought Indian Heritage to the State B tournament in 1983.

But Mountain and her players look forward to the day when her strategies are judged more than her gender. They wait for the time when people don’t ask questions such as, “What are you going to do about the locker-room situation?”

St. George’s athletic director Claudia Thomas approached Mountain about the job last summer when the Dragons’ previous coach, Marty Jessett, accepted the girls position at Cheney.

“When Marty told us he was leaving … he said, ‘Whoever’s your coach, I expect you to treat him just like me,”’ said Mike Thomas, son of Ross and a Dragons post player.

It didn’t take a great leap by the players to figure Jessett meant him OR her.

Mountain was already at St. George’s, coaching volleyball and track. But basketball was her first love.

“I think we just wanted a good basketball coach, and she fit the credentials,” said St. George’s senior Dan Cook. “Until she played against us (in practice), I had no idea she was a good basketball player.”

Not one to brag, Mountain never told her new players that she is the third-leading career scorer for the Gonzaga University women. Mountain, 25, a Portland native, scored 1,422 points from 1988-91.

Mountain also didn’t go into her new position with an “I’ll-make-them-accept-me” attitude.

“I thought she was going to try to earn our respect by making us run a lot - or yell at us a lot - but she never did that,” Cook said.

Mountain had more important matters to consider than how people might accept her unique position. Because of their success in soccer, many St. George’s boys missed the first eight days of practice.

“I could only install my new system for one week in practice before our first game,” Mountain said.

Despite that, and despite having no basketball-only players other than Jason Ala, the Dragons have given fits to Curlew and another undefeated team, Sprague-Harrington.

Mountain said the Dragons’ ultimate success - shades of the Curlew game - will depend on controlling the offense.

“My style is, we’re going to do it right,” she said. “If we don’t do it right, we’re going to do it again.”

If the players ever had reservations about Mountain, Mike Thomas said, they disappeared during the first week of practice.

The players also expected more ribbing from opposing players and fans, but so far the reaction has been subdued.

Mountain has heard a few disparaging comments, but, after all, many people put big money into the school and want things their way.

“There’s a lot of pressure that I think is ridiculous, but I’m dealing with it,” Mountain said. “I think there’s more pressure from myself than anyone. The administration has been great.”