A family tradition

During the school year when Jami Bjorklund was in fifth grade, she would set her alarm clock for 5:30 a.m., get up and go into her father Jim’s bedroom, tap him and say, “Come on dad, let’s go.”

Jim would dutifully take his daughter to the club three days a week and rebound for her while she worked to improve her shooting.

“I’d have to say, that I didn’t think she would really do it as faithfully as she did,” Jim Bjorklund said.

That vignette is all you need to know about why Jami, after turning down Stanford, will go on to play next year at Gonzaga University, or why her sophomore sister, Angela, younger by 21/2 years, is being touted for an equal, if not brighter, future in women’s basketball.

“Jami has unbelievable determination,” said Angie of her sister. “It’s rubbed off on me, too.”

In choosing Gonzaga, Jami spurned the advances of most schools on the West Coast.

As for sophomore Angie? The sky’s likely the limit for a youngster who has dreamed of one day playing for Tennessee. Already college coaches from major universities have been in the stands of Titans games to watch her play.

“Angie’s a gym rat,” her older sister said. “She obsesses with basketball.”

The Bjorklunds, who have led University High to a 19-0 record and into tonight’s date with unbeaten Lewis and Clark for the championship in the Greater Spokane League, are the league’s top two scorers each at or near 18 points per game.

Theirs is a story of incredible family support. They are third-generation Spokane Valley basketball stars whose parents, Jim and Kris Bjorklund, grandfather Duane Ranniger and uncle Steve Ranniger, have been deeply involved in the development of their careers.

They are driven and competitive, yet spiritual and humble. In conversations about them the words “amazed” and “blessed” come up often.

“I’m awestruck by the fact they have their God-given inherited abilities,” their father said. “But I’m awestruck by how far they have pushed themselves to get to that level.”

They began as basketball players often do with YMCA and AAU teams in which Jim said that Jami wasn’t originally good, but was tall and had potential.

“I would say, ‘It’s just up to you how good you want to get, the sky’s the limit,’ ” he said. “But I didn’t push them myself.”

Angie concurs.

“He’s not the type to say, you’re going to do this,” she said. “He’s just been there supporting me and loving me and the same goes with Jami.”

From those early mornings at 24-Hour Fitness, with little sis sometimes in tow, a seed planted, Jami and Angie began attending NBC Camps and its Varsity Academy.

Jim Bjorklund credits that with not only teaching skills, but also the mental aspects of basketball and how to set goals both immediate and long term, encompassing everything from proper diet to the individual daily workouts, that enabled their talents to explode.

“In Varsity Academy we had goal books,” Jamie said. “My long-term goal was to get a college scholarship. From there I knew I could do it, if I worked hard. Angie, too, set a goal and we kept each other accountable. It’s awesome to have a sister who loves basketball as much as I do.”

They became fixtures with the Spokane Stars and as a sophomore starter for the Titans, Jami would start and become high scorer after overcoming congenital collar bone and shoulder injury scares. She has scored 1,043 points in her career, eighth all-time in the GSL.

They played together for the first time beginning with the Stars, two years ago. Angie joined U-Hi last year as a freshman and together they helped the Titans to their first state tournament in over a decade.

As much as they are alike (including 3.97 and 4.0 grade point averages, respectively), there are decided dissimilarities in their personalities, style and even basketball passions.

Jami, 5-foot-11 and dark-haired, was always tall for her age and strong (strong-willed, too, says her father). She’s a player equally comfortable shooting a 3-point basket or banging inside, and is considered by college coaches to be one of the best high school defenders on the west coast.

While the game is her love, it is also a means to an end – that end being a career as either a dentist or orthodontist.

“I told her, ‘If it’s too tough Jami, you don’t have to do it once you’re in college,’ ” Jim said.

Jami’s answer? “Oh really. Watch me.”

“I shut up after that,” Jim said.

Angie, blonde and 6-0 following a growth spurt between seventh and ninth grades, played on older teams and learned point guard skills because she was smaller than the other players.

Her game is smoother than her sister’s – although the two work together to incorporate the other’s strengths into their games – and she’s more a student of the sport.

She watches basketball incessantly on television, studying the moves of Pete Maravich, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. She’ll point out things her dad or sister didn’t notice, and go practice them.

That consumption with the game came home to Jim Bjorklund one day, “When she said, ‘Dad, can I just do basketball all my life? I just love it.’ I said, ‘Well, no.’ Then I said, ‘Well, yes, you can be a college coach.’ “

He would drop her off at the club after school and pick her up at 8. During summers when no one was available to drive, she would ride her bike.

“It’s really not how long you shoot, but I get so into it you lose track of time,” Angie said.

For the past two years she’s involved herself in pickup games with a group of guys, since finding girls who gym rat is difficult, other than at college, she said. It forced her to adapt her game to account for their superior athleticism.

“You have to make that extra move to get by them,” the once-shy athlete said. “I’d kind of just be the girl at first. I know the guys by name now.”

The Bjorklund sisters are best of friends and each other’s most ardent fan. Older sister Jami set the example with her discipline and drive. Younger sister is following it.

When they were younger the two would play one-on-one games to 100 on a court at their lake place. There’d be pushing and screaming as taller Jami would school little sister. One would storm off the court into the house banging doors, get a glass of water, then return for more.

Their game and U-Hi have been the better for it.

“Every day’s a blessing just to be around them and I think we need to remind ourselves of that,” coach Mark Stinson said. “The thing you see with these two is they are so humble and thankful and appreciative.”

But not perfect. If only, Jim Bjorklund said, their parents could get them to clean up their bedrooms.