January 10, 2008 in Voices

EV senior post Kathy Tate has waited for her time to play

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Kathy Tate has been patient, and it’s beginning to pay dividends.

The East Valley post player waited through her junior season while the Lady Knights’ fielded a senior-dominated team that earned the school’s first trip to the state Class 3A high school basketball tournament.

“I would have liked to have played more last year,” she admitted. “That was hard to do, sitting and watching so much.”

This season the 5-foot-10-inch Tate is one of just two seniors, along with Bryana Manchester, and while she now starts as a post, the patience she honed a year ago is serving her well again.

“We’re such a young team this year that we have to have patience,” she said. “Most of them have never played at this level and it takes a while to get used to it and to adjust to it.

“I think we’re finally getting to the point where we’re all on the same page.”

All that practiced patience has led to a relatively calm atmosphere surrounding the team.

After last year’s run to the state tournament coach Freddie Rehkow resigned and eventually took the job leading Central Valley.

Tate said she wasn’t surprised by the change and finds the new atmosphere under long-time-assistant-turned-head coach Rob Collins refreshing.

“That’s been really nice this year,” she said. “It got pretty hectic last year. Calm works for this team.”

It especially worked early in the season, when sisters Morgan and Bryana Manchester were injured for the first few games.

“I think our young players stepped up and learned a lot filling in,” she said. “They didn’t panic and I think they gained a lot of confidence from those games.

“Now that we have the Manchesters back, we have a good group.”

East Valley is off to a 1-9 start in the Greater Spokane League, but as a Class 3A team in the predominantly Class 4A league, the standings between the Lady Knights, Mt. Spokane and North Central matter more than the team’s record against Central Valley or Lewis and Clark.

The Knights lost to North Central by just seven points in their season opener, and fell by just three points Tuesday at Mt. Spokane, which needed 21 fourth-quarter points to pull out a win on their home court.

“You try to treat every game like it’s just another game,” Tate said. “But we know these games with North Central and Mt. Spokane are more important than the others. But we still try to go through the same process to get ready for them.”

The Lady Knights get rematches with both teams in the final two contests of the regular season, Feb. 12 at home against Mt. Spokane and the finale at North Central Feb. 15.

Playing against post players significantly taller is a challenge Tate relishes.

“I play against some players who are pretty tall,” she said. “But to be honest, the ones who give you the most trouble are the smaller posts, the ones who are more agile.”

No matter who she faces, Tate said she goes through the same pre-game process.

“For me, it starts the day before the game,” she said. “I have the same process for every game. I picture myself playing against who I’m up against and I picture myself having success. I think about what I have to do and I see myself doing it. Sometimes I even dream about it and, hopefully, the dream comes true.”

Tate believes that East Valley’s best basketball still is in front of the team – much the way last year’s squad caught fire late and wound up in the state tournament.

“I think the thing about last year’s team was that everyone finally had the same goal, and that was to get to state and to do well once we got there,” she said. “Everything else was put aside and we all shared just that one goal together.”

The one team, one dream concept hasn’t kicked in yet.

“We’re working toward that,” she said. “I think we can get there.”

The team did not find itself all on the same page until it faced elimination from the playoffs, losing a home playoff game it should have won.

From there, however, the team got on a roll, winning a pair of loser-out games in the Tri-Cities to punch its ticket for state.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Tate said. “We had to come together like that or we would have been done.”

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