Lee: Jeff Pietz’s Eagles succeed with balanced approach

Lakeside girls basketball coach Jeff Pietz paused to make a point at the end of the interview.

“I want this to be about the girls, not about me,” Pietz said.

I told Pietz it would be but emphasized I needed to lay a foundation.

Probably everything one needs to know about Pietz can be summed up in this statement: He’s from basketball-crazy Reardan and he’s a disciple of highly successful coach Gene Smith.

Pietz acknowledges that much of what he does has been and continues to be influenced by his mentor.

Before landing at Nine Mile Falls, though, he spent the first 15 years teaching and coaching at Seattle Prep – the last five years as co-head coach when the school captured a State 3A championship in girls basketball.

He returned to the Spokane area in 2007-08. He took over a program with a rich state tournament history, including two state titles.

It’s been a come-full-circle season for Pietz. He’s seen a lot of Smith this year because he has a granddaughter playing at Lakeside.

The Eagles, ranked No. 3 in 1A, concluded regular-season play Tuesday with their 18th straight victory, lifting their record to 19-1. The lone loss came the second game of the season against Great Northern League champ East Valley, which is ranked third in 2A. The game was tied going into the fourth quarter before the Knights pulled away late and won 59-48.

Pietz knows he has a good team. Just how good remains to be seen.

Lakeside plowed through the Northeast A, leaving all comers in the Eagles’ wake.

“That’s a little bit of a concern,” Pietz said. “Other coaches in the league want us to do well and they’re a little concerned that we haven’t been pushed.”

So Pietz has emphasized conditioning and competitiveness in practice.

“If I’m concerned about anything it is probably the conditioning part of it, not the game part of it,” he said. “We’re pretty blessed to have this group.”

It’s a team led by six seniors, four of whom start – Lindy Jacobson, Stephanie Marikis, Kelsey Jones and Jocelyn Cook-Cox. The fifth starter is junior Shaye Swannick, whose dad, Bob, coached at Reardan.

Two sisters come off the bench – sophomore Sonja Marikis and Sienna Swannick – along with seniors Callie Best and Jackie Mahowald.

Cook-Cox leads the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game. But seven players average 4.5 or more.

“We’ve had five different leading scorers,” Pietz said.

One mark of a good team is playing above the level of a lesser-talented team. Lakeside has done that consistently, getting off to good starts in all league games.

Pietz’s players aren’t just basketball players, either. Jacobson and Stephanie Marikis ran on Lakeside’s state-title cross country team; Jones was first-team all-league in soccer; Best has signed to play soccer for Gonzaga University; Mahowald is a state champ in the triple jump; Cook-Cox, a four-year starter in basketball, has been the league’s defensive player of the year in soccer twice and coming into this season was twice first-team all-league in basketball.

Blend all that together and no wonder the Eagles have high hopes as the postseason begins.

“The moment they stepped into the program, we’ve stressed teamwork and family,” Pietz said. “No one is bigger than the team. The girls genuinely like each other and it shows on the court.

“If we play up to our potential, we’ve got as good a shot as anybody to get a trophy at state. They work hard. They’re very business-like.”