‘I knew I had found my destiny’

Before there was Jennifer Stinson, before there was Lance Den Boer, before there was equality for girls high school basketball, there was Tammy Tibbles. Her Creston teams battled Aileen McManus’ Reardan teams in the State B title game three consecutive years from 1981 to ‘83. With Tibbles leading the way, Creston won the first and third meetings. She is currently a Spokane firefighter.

Although all my childhood memories had visions of playing rat ball or shooting hoops in the rain, I had never played on a structured basketball team until my eighth grade year. That year I was lucky and got to play in four games. The rule of the house was I couldn’t miss Bible study for basketball. But the four games were enough to give me a taste of what it felt like to finally find what I was meant to do. I immediately loved it. It became everything to me, and for a lost, troubled, young teenager, it was a lifesaver.

I am a good example of the benefits of sports in a young person’s life. It gave me direction, determination, and most importantly confidence. I don’t even like to think about where I might have ended up if it had not been for basketball. But in fact it was more than just basketball that impacted my life it was the experience of playing state B basketball.

It was fall 1981, my freshman year. I was 14. I had just recently been uprooted from my Seattle suburb home and moved to the podunk town of Creston, population 300. To say I was experiencing culture shock was a slight understatement. My basketball career was tenuous at best. My parents did not want me to play. They had seen the attention I had gotten from my brief flirtation with organized sports and didn’t want me to become enraptured by it. As it turned out, their fears were realized. And they became my greatest achievements.

Basically I ended up telling my parents that if I couldn’t play basketball I would just run away and keep running away. Surprisingly, this fight with them went on every year, and every year I won.

I had no idea what to expect playing basketball at a small school. In the beginning I just thought it would be subpar to the experience I would have had at a bigger school. I could not have been more wrong. At the start of my freshman season, I was surprised by the support of the town’s people. The season before the team had finished a stellar 2-18. And yet the people were there to support their community’s youth. It didn’t take long before people took notice and realized that this team was different. This team had a bright future. Even though we didn’t make it very far that year it was not unusual to see signs in the windows of businesses declaring that they were closed and at the game. A sight you would never see in a big city.

Although I had felt the support of a small town throughout my so-so freshman season, I was still unaware of the impact that the State B Tournament could have on the communities and athletes involved.

The first time I stepped into the Boone Street Barn was for the championship game of 1981. I was immediately awestruck. The atmosphere was electric. It was a packed house and I ended up sitting in the nose-bleed section. I will never forget the feeling. It was defining. I could not believe I was watching these young women playing basketball in front of 8,000 faithful fans, cheering for all they were worth. I can feel that moment as if it was yesterday. I knew I had found my destiny.

Shortly after that game I found out that my older brother was getting married and had set the date: March 6, 1982. I was very excited for my brother. They proceeded to make the arrangements and set their plans in motion. Then it hit me. March 6, that’s the first Saturday in March. That’s State B. I immediately called my brother and informed him that he would have to change his wedding date. I was going to be playing a very important basketball game that day. Of course everyone thought I was daft. They did not believe, given the success of last year’s team, that we would make it that far. But I knew. And I was adamant. Again I prevailed and my brother somehow convinced his bride to change the date.

After the wedding date was changed, I felt like a spoiled teenager who had to have her way about something that was just unrealistic to everyone else. So just to prove that I wasn’t a spoiled delusional little brat I played on that date in that Barn for the next three years.

I would have to say that besides winning two state championships, that moment of sitting in the stands and realizing what the B Tournament was all about was my fondest memory of the tournament. To this day I take with me the love of a community that has transcended time. Something I don’t think I would have experienced anywhere but the State B.