Zags Vs. UI: From Here To Maternity
Consider this the first baby story of 1997, though certainly not the first-baby story of 1997.
At least, let’s hope not. But you never know. All it might take is one clueless referee blowing a block-charge call at the wrong time in a tie game for Julie Holt to have the, uh, mother of all contractions.
“To be honest, I’ve been hoping my appearance gives me a little advantage - I do look like I’m capable of having a baby at any moment,” she said. “I don’t think any of those guys want to have to deliver a baby.”
Not unless they covered Lamaze at the last rules clinic.
In fact, what we have here is not so much the first baby story of 1997 as it is a treatment for a sequel very much in the Hollywood vein:
Look Who’s Coaching.
On the home team’s bench Thursday afternoon at Gonzaga’s Martin Centre will be Kellee Barney, four months pregnant with her first child - who, given the extremely planned parenthood of Barney and her husband Michael, may already have a Social Security card, applications in to a dozen colleges and brochures for several Florida retirement communities.
And on the visitors’ bench, a very full seven months along with her second baby, will be Holt - who has turned all post-natal preparations over to her husband, Nick, even if it means seeing the nursery wallpapered with University of Idaho football posters.
Women’s basketball between the Zags and Vandals at 2 p.m. Forget the clean sheets and hot water. Two jars of strained carrots or mashed peas for the Spokane Food Bank get you in.
Rated - dare we say it? - PG.
No intent here to turn motherhood into a sideshow. No reason a woman coach has to give up Xs and Os just because X meets Y. But having two coaches from one ballgame in the family way must at least tie an NCAA record.
As for the notion of maternity leave, well, when you preach commitment and dedication to your players virtually every day of the season, balancing pregnancy and profession would seem to be the perfect example in practice.
“I have so many friends in the game - Chris Gobrecht and June Daugherty (the former and current coaches at the University of Washington), for instance - who’ve had kids and been successful,” said Barney, 35, who is in her third season at Gonzaga. “Besides, my biological clock is ticking away. It’s got to happen soon or it’s not going to happen.”
And since college basketball lasts five months from first practice to final buzzer, some of it has to happen during the season.
The Barneys opted for the, uh, easy part. Kellee is due June 4 - well after the season but before a long summer’s recruiting.
“I don’t know how Julie’s doing it,” Barney said. “The last thing I could do would be give birth in the middle of the season - but Julie’s been known to do some wild things.”
And not so wild. Her 4-year-old son Nicky was born in the middle of football season - and by happy chance for Nick, who is UI’s defensive coordinator, during a bye week of all things. “Awfully courteous of me, I’d say,” said Julie.
But now … well, Holt could have made it easier on herself scheduling Stanford, Old Dominion, Connecticut and Louisiana Tech on successive nights.
Baby Holt is scheduled to arrive Feb. 26 - the same day the Vandals are scheduled to depart on the monster road trip of the Big West season, to New Mexico State and North Texas.
“I won’t miss a game,” Holt insisted, “unless the baby comes at a very shocking time.”
Here’s the scouting report: If the baby is more than eight pounds, Holt will have to have a Cesarean section (“I learned that having Nicky,” she said).
“We play Boise on the 23rd,” she said, “a Sunday. I figure let’s win that game, go to the hospital and have the baby, then I can leave and go on the road trip. I’ll miss two days of practice, maybe.”
This, of course, will require some cooperation - though, as Holt herself said, she looks ready to deliver now. Twins.
Barney, meanwhile, has been accused of perpetuating a fraud.
“Nobody believes I’m pregnant,” she said. “I am starting to get a little bigger, but people will probably come to the game and say, ‘Sure, Julie’s pregnant, but what’s the deal with the other one?’ “
The deal with both of them is that they’re trying not to change their approach or their energy levels. About the only concession seems to have been on-court demonstration - “mostly because whenever I try to do something, it just looks like I’ve put a basketball up my shirt,” said Holt.
And those kinds of plays only work for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Their sideline demeanor hasn’t changed - which in Holt’s case would be cause for alarm, except baby’s demeanor is about the same.
“After one game, Nicky asked, ‘Mommy did you win the game?’ ” Holt recalled. “I said, ‘No, we didn’t.’ And he said, ‘I’m so sad you didn’t win - how’s the baby?’ And I said, ‘The baby is really pissed off’ - and the baby was. Mom was distressed and so was the baby.”
The bottom line is that “I try to act like this is a normal deal and part of life - because it is,” said Holt. “In my profession, it’s different - but one of the reasons I never miss weightlifting or anything we’re doing is that I want my players to know that this is just a part of life and they’re capable of doing anything they put their minds to.”
Three months behind Holt, Barney is further along in a couple of areas. For one thing, she knows her baby is a boy.
“Michael was hoping for a girl,” she said. “I won. Hey, I have a hard enough time fixing my own hair. My poor little girl would look like a ragamuffin.”
And the Barneys already have the name: Jarryd Michael.
“We do everything backward,” Barney said. “We had the name long before we even considered the timing. We picked our wedding date before he actually proposed.”
And the Holts? None of the above.
“We decided not to open our Christmas present at Thanksgiving,” Julie said. “This way it’ll be exciting.”
So’s double overtime … not that we need that much excitement.
You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review