Ok, Maybe This Time It’s For Real
With Dick Bjerke, a coaching career isn’t over until it’s over. And even then, it isn’t over.
“But now it’s over, this is it. I’ve got to get out,” the 67-year-old Clallam Bay assistant said Friday afternoon after fidgeting away a couple hours at coach Mike Jannausch’s side watching the Bruins bounce Reardan from the girls State B basketball tournament at the Arena.
As it turns out, the 59-51 win put Clallam Bay into the trophy round of eight teams and set up a 2:30 showdown against Kittitas this afternoon to determine fourth and seventh places.
So Bjerke’s coaching career, which has spanned four decades, won’t be over until sometime Sunday when he returns to his Olympic Peninsula home and takes another shot at retirement.
He failed miserably in his first attempt, letting Jannausch lure him out of his recliner five years ago to help with the Bruins program. Prior to that, Bjerke had coached 16 years at Juanita, where he won two girls State AAA championships, including a one-point win over Shadle Park in 1981.
After leaving Juanita, he moved to Newport and took his girls to the State AAA tournament three times in five seasons before deciding to give up coaching.
He and his wife bought a home near Clallam Bay and settled in. A short time later, Jannausch called.
“He asked me if I’d come back … as his assistant,” Bjerke said. “I knew all the girls … and really liked them. I thought it would be fun, so I said yes.”
It took him a while to completely engross himself in coaching again, but for the past three years Bjerke has been a fixture at practices and on the Bruins’ bench - doing enough jumping, pointing and hollering for Jannausch and himself.
“I’m still a crazy man out there,” Bjerke admitted. “I go ballistic on the bench, screaming at players and stuff. I gotta get out of it. I gotta.”
Jannausch, who probably knows Bjerke as well as anyone, is uncertain what to read into his assistant’s comments.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked if he believed today’s game would be Bjerke’s last. “But if it’s not, he’s probably going to get divorced, and I don’t want to see that happen … although, if he ever decides to remarry, he can marry me.
“He’s a great guy and he’s taught our kids so much. We’ve made a pretty good team, so far.”
Still clocking in
Even though he started as a volunteer, Gary Klassen has been punching a (shot) clock at the girls State B basketball tournament the past 17 years.
Klassen, who teaches social studies at Greenacres Junior High and coordinates drivers’ education for the Central Valley school district, first became enamored with the B tournament while he was teaching at Selkirk.
After moving to Spokane, he decided to become more involved and volunteered to help at the girls tournament when it was moved here permanently in 1981. Officials put him to work running the shot clock, and he’s been at the switch since.
“The first few years, I alternated with somebody and only did about half the games,” Klassen said, “but I’ve done all 26 (games) the past 10 or 12 years.”
Klassen is a big fan of the decision to move the tournament from Spokane Falls Community College to the Arena, where it is played concurrently with the boys.
“It’s just great having it here,” he said. “When we were out at the Falls, it seemed like we were all by ourselves. Now we’re right in the middle of all the other people.”
AWOL offense
With only three seniors on its roster and eight losses on its record, Mossyrock didn’t figure to be much of trophy threat in this year’s State B - and wasn’t.
But few expected coach Gary Stamper’s young team to be as futile, offensively, as it was in back-to-back losses to Kittitas (46-26) and Summit (40-27).
The Vikings made only 18 of 90 field-goal tries and were just 1 of 9 on 3-pointers. In the first half against Summit, they were 3 of 21, finishing 9 of 51 for the game.
Against Kittitas, they made just 8 of 20 free throws and had more turnovers (29) than points (26).
, DataTimes