Rebecca DeCoria leads Cheney hoops squad

When Regan Dulaney took over the Cheney High School girls basketball program this season, she found a pleasant surprise: senior guard Rebecca DeCoria, who became Dulaney’s biggest backer in the Blackhawk locker room.

“She’s just such a big part of Cheney,” said Dulaney. “If I ever think of Cheney, I do think of her.

“As a first year coach, it’s been great because she’s been on board from day one and you can just feel she wants to do whatever is best for the team.

“If you had to tell her she had to sit out for the whole game and do jumping jacks, she would do it if you told her that would make the team better.”

Three years ago, DeCoria transferred to Cheney from Cascade High School in Leavenworth, Wash., and like any high school student who moves to a new school, she had to make adjustments.

“I got here in time to start summer soccer,” DeCoria said. “I think sports really helped that (getting adjusted) along.

“I was able to meet a few kids through soccer, so when I came the first day, there were a couple friendly faces that I knew.

“It’s a small town here, and so a lot of people have lived here a long time, and trying to work your way into those groups, it was a little difficult at first. People are pretty accepting here, so it wasn’t too bad.”

“I had the chance to coach her over the summer time,” Dulaney said. “I thought she had been there her whole life because she knows all the girls on the team, and everybody in our entire program.

“I didn’t even know she was a transfer until we had got into the season and I had talked to her. It made me think, ‘Wow, what a tremendous person.’ “

DeCoria has leaned on her experiences as the ‘new kid in town’ to take over the leadership of a young Blackhawk team.

“I think she has a genuine concern for other people’s feelings and including them,” Dulaney said. “I think that comes from moving and feeling on the outside that she knows how that feels, and she’s going to make sure someone else doesn’t feel that way.”

“It goes back to other experiences in my life, where I saw people being left out, or myself being left out, and not wanting anyone else to feel that way … ever,” DeCoria said. “It’s a horrible feeling, so why would you want anyone else to feel like that?”

While the Blackhawks have struggled out of the gate in the Greater Spokane League, DeCoria is trying to make the best of her final season in Cheney.

“I just have to remember this is my last season and I can go out very upset about our record, or I can have a positive attitude and have the time of my life because it’s going to be done (soon),” DeCoria said. “I don’t want to sit there and dwell on the losses, because if I do that, how much fun is my last season going to be?

“You have to stay positive and have a good time no matter what.”

DeCoria, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average, can trace her love for the game of basketball to her earliest childhood memories.

“I grew up around sports,” DeCoria said. “I started playing when I was 3.

“I have three big sisters. The oldest is nine years older than me. I would go watch her games, and I would be transfixed on the game. I was just in awe.

“When I was little, in my garage when I was 4 or 5, I had my own little basketball hoop. I would be bothering my dad, and he would go ‘Rebecca, go make 60 baskets outside and then come in and tell me.’

“So I’d go out there for an hour and I’d come in and go, ‘Oh, Dad, I made 60. I made 60.’ Then he’d go, ‘OK, go make another 60.’ It was their tool for a baby sitter for me.

“I would just go out there and shoot hoops until I couldn’t anymore.”

With her career at Cheney winding down, DeCoria recalled an early season meeting that brought her life in basketball into perspective.

“At the beginning of the year, our coaches called us in to the locker room individually to tell us what team we would be on. My coach started talking about how this was going to be my senior year, and I was getting teary eyed already, and we hadn’t even played our first game.

“It’s scary; because it’s something I could always cling on to. If I have a stressful day, I go to practice, and it’s gone. It’s always been that outlet for me.

“It’s getting scary thinking about that I’m not going to have that. I’m going to have to find something else to replace it, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”