All Spruced Up For Christmas Season Student Takes Creative Approach At Mead High

Sports fans know Stacy Clinesmith is a special athlete.

To Steve Lovell, she’s a special person and he found a special way to show her.

Lovell treated Clinesmith to a surprise candlelight dinner at midcourt of the Mead gym prior the winter formal dance two weeks ago.

Clinesmith said the dinner caught her completely off guard, but maybe she should have figured the Dec. 9 date would be different when Lovell, her senior classmate at Mead, talked her into attending the formal dressed as a Christmas tree.

The outfits provided a bit of levity for Clinesmith, the premier player in the Greater Spokane League who “had the worst game of my life,” despite the Panthers’ 64-51 win over Wenatchee.

The couples’ ensemble included green tights under a fluffy-type dress. Ornaments and candy canes hung on the “tree,” and they wore plastic headbands with stars to top the tree. Finally, their shoes were inside gift-wrapped boxes.

The dance was an adventure, moving with boxes on their feet and ornaments falling off. They said slow dances were especially tricky.

Before the dance, Clinesmith was blindfolded for the ride back to school. The blindfold was removed at the gym, which was dark except for the candles and the scoreboards, which still showed the Panthers’ winning score.

“I had no clue,” Clinesmith said. “I guess he knows where I like to be the most.”

Lovell was able to pull off the surprise with help from Clinesmith’s coach, Jeanne Helfer, Mead athletic director John Miller, other teachers and friends.

“That was the hard part because people I didn’t even know were coming up to me and talking about it,” he said. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, how did you know?”’

Clinesmith found out how taken in she was when she called her best friend, Kamiakin guard Carmel Lampson, and her future coach at the University of California-Santa Barbara the next day and they already knew.

“Wow, I was very, very impressed,” Clinesmith said. “My mood changed right away from the game, where I was depressed, to where I was happy and had fun the rest of the night. It was cool.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo