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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Helfer Stands And Delivers Mead High Girls Basketball Coach Deflects Credit, But Panthers’ 26-Game Gsl Winning Streak Speaks For Itself

Dave Trimmer Staff Writer

One day, not so long ago, Mike Helfer turned his back on $100 and walked off the racquetball court.

Winning a bet that he could beat his wife by playing left-handed wasn’t worth it once she whistled the ball at his head.

“I’m not proud of that. Everybody has a cross,” Jeanne Helfer said. “I pray every day for composure. I pray every day I’ll be positive. I pray every day that I’ll be able to handle those things the way Jesus would want me to.”

Harnessing that desire to win is neverending, but it is Helfer’s ability to channel the intensity - which once led her to chase a referee into the locker room after a loss - and maintain her priorities that have made the Mead girls basketball program among the most successful anywhere.

Beginning in 1990, when Mead made its first trip to state, the Panthers finished first, second, first, fourth and third in the Class AAA tournament.

Last year’s team went 27-2, and two players earned scholarships to major Division I colleges. With just one returning senior and two returning starters, the Panthers are 13-0 with a 26-game winning streak in the Greater Spokane League.

“I don’t believe it’s a system, I don’t believe it’s what I’m doing, I can’t take credit for that. I just can’t,” said Helfer, who struggles to talk about herself. “I’ve been blessed with being in a position where the administration is behind me, the community is behind me - not me, behind the program - and the kids believe in that program.”

So what is it that has allowed Mead to go 80-9 in the last 5 GSL seasons? The Panthers don’t learn the Helfer system until they reach high school as sophomores.

“I don’t know what the magical formula is,” she said. “I don’t think there is any magic in it because I’ve been blessed with great athletes that have bought into it.”

That seems a little too simple to explain an overall record of 135-21 the past 5 years.

“I think, for the girls basketball program, it started 12 years ago when (principal) Steve Hogue hired a quality person that would run a quality program,” said Carl Barschig, who became the assistant girls basketball coach the same time Helfer accepted the job after one year as a junior high coach at Clarkston.

“She has the right philosophies and beliefs to develop the kids. The people who hired didn’t go out and hire a quality coach; they hired a quality person. I think that’s the secret to success.”

“You can have the talent, but if you don’t do something with it, you don’t get the results,” Central Valley coach Dale Poffenroth said. “I’ve seen a lot of talented teams that didn’t get to the end. Obviously it helps tremendously to have a lot of kids to choose from … but she gets a lot of mileage out of kids (who aren’t pure basketball players).”

Entering this season, Central Valley was the only team that has been consistently successful against the Panthers, winning six of 10 league meetings. No other GSL team has beaten Mead twice in more than four years.

Though she strives to keep it inside, Helfer’s competitive fire never stops burning.

She doesn’t remember the 1990 and ‘92 championship games her players won as vividly as she recalls the 1991 final she may have lost.

“I remember not calling a timeout or not calling two in a row when Auburn made that run,” she said. “I still deal with that. Spiritually, I say, ‘God Loves me, God knows I did my best and I treated the kids with dignity.’ But I don’t handle those defeats very well. I try to learn from them, try to evaluate them and let them go. But it’s tough … because I think I robbed a lot of those kids from winning a state championship. But if I had called a timeout and we won, I wouldn’t take the credit for it. That’s just the way I am.”

Never a practice person, Helfer would rather have four games a week and one practice. Therefore, she tries to have short, intense practices, then gives her team a week off during Christmas and a couple of days during the season.

“We try to keep them mentally and physically fresh,” she said. “We work them extremely hard, so we’re very quality oriented, but we want fresh minds and we want them a little hungry. We have never really changed, except I think I practiced a lot harder and lot longer, early.”

“Hard’s not the word for it, but she challenges you,” senior Jodi Cory said. “She’ll push you until you don’t know if you can be pushed any farther. She knows everybody’s limits. She’s kind of intense, but she’s not scary once you get to know her.

“It goes beyond basketball. Part of it is her work ethic, the level we practice at every day. Her expectations are very high and she’s never completely satisfied.”

That’s one reason Helfer doesn’t coach the girls during summer league. Besides wanting to be with her family, she’s afraid her intensity would wear out the players.

“But what do kids do?” she asked. “You tell them to do something and they don’t want to do it, their heart’s not in it. I played basketball every day of my life. I didn’t do it because my coaches told me to. I don’t want them to do it because somebody’s standing over them. I want them to do it because they want to.”

Helfer tries to break the season into three parts and then breaks games into small parts to keep the players from being overwhelmed, especially since every team is gunning for the top gun. And there are plenty of gunners, since GSL teams have won five of the last seven Class AAA state titles.

The players have responded.

“She just wants to make everybody the best they can be,” junior point guard Stacy Clinesmith said, “and she does a great job at it.”

Cory added, “She’s a great coach, but it’s more than basketball. She has every player’s complete respect and you’ll play your heart out for her.”

That’s also why she gets so many multisport athletes to turn out for basketball.

“We don’t treat everyone the same, but I try to treat them fairly. I’m not black-andwhite,” she said.

Because she wants athletes on her team, not just basketball players, Helfer, herself a multisport standout at Walla Walla High School and Washington State University, will make allowances for other sports.

“I want them in as many sports as they can be in,” she said. “Stacy Clinesmith is going to hit a free throw not because she hit 10 million free throws (in practice). She’s going to hit that free throw to win a game because she’s been in a state (soccer) championship. … Allison Beatty (makes the pressure free throw) because she has thrown the javelin with the pressure of going to state on the last throw of the competition.

“I want those type of athletes. I want them to put their eggs into as many baskets as they can because I think I’m robbing them if I don’t. If I have to ask those kids to play basketball all year-around for me to win a state championship, then I’m not going to coach.”

Until the last possible moment before a Mead girls basketball game and the first possible moment after, 3-year-old Amanda is in her mother’s arms.

Helfer’s message to Amanda is always the same: “Mommy loves you.”

Obviously, Helfer understands the game isn’t life.

Barschig recognized that.

“No. 1,” he said, “you have to have quality players. But, No. 2, you have to give the players that program that will give them a chance. It’s hard work, trust, commitment, all the way from the players, the coaches, the parents to the administration.”

Twelve years seems a long time for an assistant football coach and former boys basketball coach at Royal City to stay as a girls assistant, but not to Barschig.

“I believe in everything she teaches kids, her philosophies about life and basketball,” he said.

“She can relate with you,” junior Chelsea Clark explained. “She doesn’t just help us in basketball, she’ll help us with other problems we have, too.”

But basketball is the avenue.

“My kids never lash out,” Helfer said. “There’s not a program in this city that can say that my kids ever talked down to kids. They never badmouth. That’s a tremendous amount of responsibility to handle that pressure, everybody’s after them and they just shut up. We’re not going to tear somebody down to make us look better.”

Poffenroth, who can almost match Helfer’s success as an exciting rivalry has developed, had nothing but praise for the sportsmanship and integrity of Helfer’s program.

The high school career of CV guard Lisa Lentz ended last week with a serious knee injury. Soon after, she received a sympathetic and encouraging “Panthergram” from Helfer. That’s a common practice by the Mead program.

There is so much more to Helfer.

There’s the respect she had for the programs that were on top in the late 80s as the Panthers were trying to earn respect. There’s affection for the 1988-89 team that took the Panthers within one game of state, the level now that is almost taken for granted. And there’s empathy for the teams on the bottom that have to battle the inner turmoil that even her teams face without the salve of winning.

That is all part of the process that makes Helfer more than a basketball coach and the Mead Panthers winners.

“I give them responsibility,” she said. “I said, ‘It’s your season. It’s not my season.’ That’s why I don’t take credit for those things. I don’t take credit for those numbers, I don’t know how many wins. It’s not mine; I just want to share. I just want to make this experience the most positive, life-like experience and life-learning experience I can for these girls.

“They take me on a ride. I want to join them. I don’t want them to do it for me. I want them to do it because they believe in it and because they believe in themselves and they believe in the team. Yes, they do play hard for me, these kids would run through walls for me, I think, and that’s great. But they also know I go to bat for them. I care about these young ladies.”

As much as she cares about winning.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Helfer’s winning numbers GSL titles: 1991, 1992 (tied with CV), 1993 District 8 titles: 1991, 1992, 1994 Eastern AAA regional titles: 1990, 1991, 1992 State placings: 1st 1990, 2nd 1991, 1st 1992, 4th 1993, 3rd 1994 GSL record since 80-9 Overall record since 135-21 1994-95 record: 9-0 GSL, 13-0 overall Career record (11 years): 210-104

This sidebar appeared with story: Helfer’s winning numbers GSL titles: 1991, 1992 (tied with CV), 1993 District 8 titles: 1991, 1992, 1994 Eastern AAA regional titles: 1990, 1991, 1992 State placings: 1st 1990, 2nd 1991, 1st 1992, 4th 1993, 3rd 1994 GSL record since 80-9 Overall record since 135-21 1994-95 record: 9-0 GSL, 13-0 overall Career record (11 years): 210-104