Commuter Coach Travels Down The Road To Success Damon Driven By Love Of ‘Hobby,’ Says Long Days Not A Big Deal

Fellow coaches wince at the thought of Katie Damon’s daily commute.

They wonder why she would drive 500 miles per week to work in Idaho then coach volleyball at a small Washington school.

Yet Damon doesn’t think in those terms.

She considers it an honor to work as a counselor at Lakeland (Idaho) High and coach for her old school, Northwest Christian.

She insists that her daily routine is nothing extraordinary.

“All coaches run crazy hours,” Damon said. “It’s not just me. The only difference is I drive a little bit farther. Everyone I know knocks themselves out for these three months.”

Damon, a Spokane native, is in the midst of her fourth season with NWC, a Class B school near Colbert. The Crusaders, 6-0 through Wednesday, appear headed toward their fourth consecutive Panorama League championship.

Damon began counseling at Lakeland three years ago. The Rathdrum school sought her out because of a recommendation from Whitworth College, where she received her school certification.

Katie (Romine) and her husband of five years, Brad, a Lewis and Clark High graduate, live near Hangman Valley Golf Course. The rural setting allows Katie to pursue her other hobby, horses.

Her workday begins before 6 a.m. An average day, with practice but no match, means an arrival home around 7:30 p.m. Night matches at faraway Panorama sites can add another three hours to the total.

The typical home-work-coaching-home route measures 101 miles or 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Her semireliable Honda should pass 165,000 miles before season’s end.

“It acts up four times a year, just like clockwork,” Damon said of her 10-year-old vehicle.

Numbers alone don’t shed light on Damon’s motivations.

She selected counseling as an occupation because she says her Christian ideals tell her to help people.

Sometimes the rigors of counseling leave her spent. She finds the drive from Rathdrum to Colbert allows time to settle her thoughts. Many times, she listens to her pastor’s sermons on tape to mine a few more inspirational nuggets. She hopes to make her way through the New Testament in this manner.

Damon’s intense, competitive spirit is the general reason she coaches volleyball. The specific reason for coaching at NWC is different.

“The girls make it so worthwhile,” Damon said. “I enjoy being able to be a part of their lives. They give so much to me. I feel like sometimes they have such great insight.”

NWC has a family feel for Damon. A few of her former teachers are still there, including her old basketball coach, Jim Orr. Some of her players’ siblings attended NWC at the same time as Damon. And her mother, Bobbi, teaches science at NWC, although that wasn’t the case when Katie attended the private school.

Damon graduated from NWC in 1987, three years after moving back to Spokane from Sandpoint. She moved on to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., on a track and field scholarship, but gravitated to the volleyball program for curiosity’s sake. Track and field was passe by her sophomore year.

Through sheer work, Damon made herself a collegiate volleyball player. The game she had learned at NWC was nothing like the college game, yet she started for the Warriors by her senior season. That season, the team took fifth place at the NAIA national tournament.

The summer after her sophomore year, Damon had visited friends in Seattle and was in Seattle Pacific University’s gym when Brad Damon arrived for a pickup basketball game with his brother Clay, who played for the University of Washington.

Katie knew of Brad because his father, Floyd, was her orthodontist.

“The funny thing is, Brad had never been to Seattle Pacific before,” Katie said. “It was fate.”

More fate occurred when NWC’s longtime volleyball coach, Esther Collin, couldn’t return in 1994 because of health problems. Damon, finishing up her master’s, took over a team that included her sister, Lindsay. The Crusaders became the second Panorama team to qualify for the state tourney, and placed seventh.

Damon credits those players’ motivations for the state success. Long-term recognition is due Damon, whose coaching tenure includes just two league losses.

NWC has an advantage in the Panorama, Damon said, because living in or near Spokane allows the girls to play club volleyball in the off-season.

The Damons have talked of starting a family soon. Katie admits that she couldn’t keep up her current pace and care for a child according to her standards.

“I definitely won’t work full time, but I’ll still try to coach,” Damon said. “It’s my hobby.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; Graphic: On the road