Pushing Herself To Succeed Sasquatch Count On Triplett, And She Doesn’T Want To Let Down Team
Rebecca Triplett is being so hard on herself she can barely get through a sentence without slipping in another dig.
The subject is the Community Colleges of Spokane women’s basketball team. Triplett, the only starter back from last year’s NWAACC tournament runner-up, is unhappy with the way things are going five games into the 2000-01 season.
Sasquatch coach Bruce Johnson - a glass-half-empty-guy in his own right - also mentions his veteran’s early-season struggles. But Triplett, a 5-foot-11 power forward, doesn’t need her coach to remind her of something she already knows.
“I feel like I have these shoes I have to fill and right now I’m not doing it because I’m having a slow start,” Triplett said. “It’s really frustrating. I’m trying to do everything the coach says. I’m trying to be a good role model to these players.”
The players include four returners and eight newcomers to Johnson’s successful program. Only Triplett, a East Valley High graduate, played a significant role on last year’s 28-4 team. Five weeks of the season were lost when she fractured her right foot before conference play began.
She was around enough to contribute 6.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Johnson said she probably could have added more, had it not been for the Sasquatch’s four-guard offense. Triplett played post and could practically go to wherever it seemed right.
And that, she said, is part of the problem this year.
“It’s completely different. Last year, we were fastbreaking and I had to push myself as hard as I could. This year has been mentally tough. Sometimes I feel like we’re 3-4 steps behind and I have to push myself to tell these players, `let’s go.”’ Johnson, in his 13th year as head coach, said there are other factors getting in the way. Triplett’s foot injury didn’t help, cutting into nearly half her first year of college ball. She’s also been slowed this season due to a freak accident in ceramic class when her foot caught underneath a pottery wheel.
Triplett also didn’t play spring basketball. Instead, she chose to be a pitcher/first baseman on the Sasquatch softball squad.
“I was kinda glad to go into softball,” Triplett said. “I was doing so well in basketball. I was playing with outrageous players and then I couldn’t play. It took a lot out of me. So I thought, `OK I’ll try to do good in softball. Just have fun, relax.”’ Among her talented teammates who went on to play at four-year schools are Bernice Stime, now at Gonzaga; Heather Ridnour, at Eastern Washington; Amy George, at Cal State San Bernadino; and Karie Pruett, at Central Washington.
Triplett said she’s unsure whether she wants to play after this year. She might want to be a volunteer firefighter and eventually make a living as a firefighter.
But for now, it’s time get to where she knows she can be in basketball.
When the team travels to North Idaho College tonight, Triplett is expected to be in the starting lineup along with sophomore point guard Courtney Phinney (Central Valley), sophomore shooting guard Sabrina Brazzle (Ferris), forward Daniela Schroeder and sophomore post Alice Stearns (North Central). Freshman guard Lindsay Weiss, the hottest player on the team, who averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds in two games last weekend, has a bad knee.
Schroeder, of Salmon, Idaho, transferred from Villanova (Pa.) University and already finds herself in the starting rotation. She said her plan is to play at Gonzaga next year. Right now, she’s just trying to help CCS play to its potential as well as reinforce to Triplett that everything will be OK.
“I just try to help and keep her going,” Schroeder said. “I tell her, `You have to keep pushing yourself and help push the team.’ She gets frustrated every once in a while, but every player has her ups and downs.”