Winning perspective

Tyler Hobbs learned from the outset that life doesn’t always go as planned. That has resulted in a maturity beyond his years for West Valley’s two-sport star.

Hobbs’ mother, Nancy, died of cancer when he was in eighth grade. He gave up doing some things kids that age typically do in order to help his stepfather, Dan Love, with the care of two younger siblings, Hanna and Jacob Love.

Dan Love, who until this year worked 12-hour days as a plant manager at S&P Meats, is the only father Hobbs has known. His biological dad died in an automobile accident before he was born.

“Life isn’t fair,” Love, whose first wife also died, would tell his children. “Things don’t always go how you think they’re going to go. You have to pick yourself up and move on.”

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound leader on the Eagles basketball team favored to win the Greater Spokane League has profited from life’s lessons.

He said he took comfort knowing he still had a great parent, his sister and brother, a roof over his head, dinner on the table and a support system at school.

“I just tried to kind of look on the positive side instead of dwell on the negative,” Hobbs said. “I have to help out around the house a little more and stay home with my brother and sister. But dad does so much for us it’s not that big of a deal to return the favor.”

That positive approach has resulted in a superb athletic career at WV. Hobbs is a three-year starter in both basketball and football. He twice earned All-GSL football recognition on teams that won a combined five games. Last year he was All-GSL in basketball for the 3A state placers.

He averaged 15.7 points per game for the Eagles, who went 23-4 and finished fourth.

Last year’s state trophy, the second-highest finish in history by a school that next year will drop into the 2A classification, has not sated this veteran team.

Six players, including Hobbs, were on the varsity roster as sophomores and want to finish their careers in style.

“It’s been fun watching their progression over the years,” coach Jamie Nilles said. “They aren’t just players anymore. They’re like a second family.”

A state title, Hobbs admits, is “our ultimate goal. There’s a lot of pressure on us, but that’s what we’ve been talking about since the day after getting fourth.”

To do so, WV must first negotiate a GSL boys league that coaches believe is at its strongest in three years. The Eagles and Ferris are favorites, but almost everyone else has enough veteran bodies with which to contend.

“In basketball it’s rare you go undefeated,” said Nilles. “But I think you’ve got to lace ‘em up and go. You always play to win a championship.”

With players like Hobbs, Nilles likes WV’s chances.

Love was an athlete at St. Paschal’s Parochial School and WV, graduating in 1973. As a single dad he was either working or taking his children to practices and games. He remembers it was at Hoopfest, when Tyler was 12, that his son “figured out” the game of basketball.

Back then, Hobbs said, he was not a go-to guy. “I was a contributor, but wouldn’t say I was a leader,” he said.

That changed after eighth grade when he grew half a foot. He and his classmates all played junior varsity. Varsity the next year for the six sophomores was a learning experience. Last year Hobbs assumed a leadership role, and the Eagles flourished.

“I knew we would be a decent team, but we were mostly juniors and I wasn’t sure how all of us would handle big pressure games,” Hobbs said.

Nothing that Hobbs accomplished surprised his coaches. Nilles calls him “money.”

Maybe it means making 10 straight fourth-quarter free throws as he did to rally the Eagles past East Valley. Or maybe it was the 24-, 23- and 22-point efforts he posted during the district title game and in two games at state.

“Another game he’s taking a couple charges, another he’s cleaning house on the boards or making an assist to one of his teammates,” Nilles said.

Though basketball is his love, the future for Hobbs is likely as a Division I-AA Big Sky Conference football player following this year’s dominant GSL performance.

Whatever happens now or down the road, his dad said that his son will continue approaching life with a level head.

“I think I’ve had to grow up a little quicker (than most),” Hobbs said. “But it’s been a positive thing for me.”