Competitive to the core

Any pain, physical or mental, seems long gone.

Tricia Lamb sounds as happy as she did when St. John-Endicott was a State B girls basketball power and she accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Washington State.

“You can’t not like San Diego,” she said in a recent telephone interview from her new home. “We call it a small big city. You get the big city aspect of it but if you’re out and about you run into people you know. And the weather is fantastic.”

She is just as enthusiastic about her work as a paralegal.

“I work at the U.S. attorney’s office in the real estate division in civil litigation,” she said. “I love it. I like the litigation aspect of my job, preparing for trial. I like the competition.”

Competition is what drives Lamb.

She’s finally playing again after her chronically injured ankle healed and she’s the varsity coach at Coronado High School.

“My schedule is pretty busy,” Lamb said. “My position is pretty flexible, but we usually set practices so I can make it. We’re actually pretty good but we’re young.”

Basketball was always fun for Lamb in high school. The Eagles were state champions her junior year (1996), fourth the previous year, third the year after. She was a two-time State B player of the year and scored more than 2,000 career points. Her Eagles were also state placers in volleyball and she was a state champion hurdler.

“My family still keeps me in touch with the State B,” she said. “Even though it has changed a lot I still follow it a little bit. I think that B basketball in Whitman County, in Washington, is one of the most amazing things.

“In California there’s a different structure so I have to explain it to them. … Nobody really gets it unless you’re a Washington basketball fan.”

Lamb moved on to WSU, which is the dream of every Whitman County athlete.

“The win-loss record wasn’t the most important thing to me,” she said. “I had an amazing experience, just the college atmosphere. Basketball-wise I learned a lot from (coach) Harold Rhodes. You grow up, learn the kind of individual you are.

“Playing at that level of competition, you couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Lamb started all 54 games she played for Rhodes, despite the bothersome ankle, and was an All-Pac-10 pick as a sophomore after averaging 16.4 points. She twice scored 33 points and set a school record with eight 3s, on her way a season total of 69, a mark that still stands.

The trouble was Rhodes’ 17-season tenure ended after her sophomore year and Jenny Przekwas was hired.

Lamb lasted one season, the first of many defections in the new coach’s short three-season stay.

Despite the abbreviated career, Lamb remains in the Cougars’ top 10 for career 3-pointers and 3-point percentage.

“Personal reasons,” Lamb said. “I was upset I was leaving. I didn’t really want to but it was the right decision for me. The atmosphere just changed dramatically.”

She wanted to finish her career in the state, but finding a school where her credits would transfer and a coach would take her for one year was difficult. She landed at Cal State Fullerton, where she was slowed by that ankle. She believes pushing through the injury her junior year after major reconstruction was the problem.

“When you have that mentality to play through injuries, it’s worth it at the college level,” she said. “But you have to let your body heal, you have to step back from the competitiveness.”

After finishing up at Riverside Lamb moved to San Diego to get her graduate degree because she had family there. Law school may be in her future but for the moment she is enjoying the competition.