Colton coach and I go way back

When I learned Seth Paine was boys basketball coach at Colton, a scene flashed before my eyes. It was the spring of 1990 and East Valley’s soccer team, on which he was a member, was playing. The Knights were one of the most physical, fearless and relentless teams I’ve ever watched, an unforgettable moment.

Seth played basketball on Rick Meddock’s first team and won just a handful of games. And he took up baseball in the summer on EV’s J&R Rigging American Legion team and exhibited a talent for that sport as well.

“You were the guy who tried to get me to play at WSU,” Paine reminded me Thursday night following Colton’s State 1B victory over unbeaten Columbia Adventist. “I don’t know if you remember that, but you told me I should walk on down there.”

He began coaching after high school with a district coach, Jim Phinney, got the bug working in junior high, for four years at Garfield-Palouse under Craig Brantner, now at Pullman, and in Asotin. Three years ago he got the head job in Colton.

“I thought I was ready,” he said. “Three years ago we won four games.”

But the players worked hard, getting in 42 summer games and earned the school’s first boys state basketball berth. Wednesday they earned their first trophy as well and tonight at 9 p.m. meet Neah Bay for a berth in the finals.

Said Paine, “The thing is, minus a couple of colorful adjectives, I told the players, ‘why not win the whole thing?’”

Having seen his competitiveness first hand, why not, indeed?