Steve Christilaw: State B tournament brings back memories

They say that memory is the second thing to go as you get older.

I forget what the first thing is.

Maybe it’s just that you have so many memories stashed away in the attic that you’re bound to misplace a few from time to time.

It’s one thing to forget where you left your car keys. Or walk into a room and completely forget why you wanted to go there.

But it’s another thing altogether to see someone you should know and not be able to place them.

That happened to me last week at the State B.

There are a lot of memories that come to me during a State B.

Memories of the old Boone Street Barn, yes. But even more of the people I’ve met there.

It’s just not the same to see the Naselle Comets at a State B tournament without seeing Lyle Patterson at the head of the bench. He was a B basketball institution.

Right off the bat, there, at the head of the Brewster girls bench was a familiar face that predates my career covering the tournament.

When I was in college I would drop in to watch a few games in the old Coliseum to catch the Bears on their march to three straight boys titles. They had plenty of memorable players, not the least of whom was a skinny kid with horn-rimmed glasses who ran the team on the floor. Roger Boesel.

And there he was, coaching the girls team from his alma mater on Wednesday morning and then taking them home Wednesday afternoon.

But there was one coach I couldn’t quite get a handle on.

Davenport coach Stacia Soliday took the defending state champions all the way to the title game. Along the way I talked with her several times, each time leaving me with a sense of déjà vu.

I do a pretty good job of recognizing faces and I had a nagging feeling. I doubted that I had ever covered her as a player – those folks I rarely forget.

But the way Davenport plays rang a bell, too. It was old school. Crisp, technically perfect passing – the kind you don’t see these days. The old school taught you to pop the basketball. Full extension of the arms to guide the basketball, and when you finish, your thumbs should be pointing straight down.

One of the Gorillas’ first possessions in the quarterfinals was a crisp, five-pass fast break where the ball never touched the floor. I can’t remember the last time I’d seen that happen.

The bell was ringing.

Soliday and I talked about point guard Sydney Abbott, who visibly tamped down what I can only assume is a fiery temper in favor of being the calm floor leader a team with five freshmen so desperately needs.

I asked the coach about her and I got an interesting, knowing smile.

The next night, with three teams from the Northeast 2B League in the semifinals, we talked about how strong the league is and how it was reminiscent of the days when the Bi-County League and the Whitman County League regularly dominated.

That got an electric, knowing smile from the coach. How did someone who has coached at Davenport for four seasons know about those two leagues that, well, don’t exist anymore?

So I did a little looking on the internet and, once I realized who she is, I began berating myself for not getting it sooner.

Slowly I began to piece it all together.

Nurse practitioner Stacia Soliday, ARNP, is all over Google. So is the name Monty Soliday – a name I immediately recognized. All-League football player from Reardan.

Profiles of Monty talk about how he married his high school sweetheart. A clue, I thought. Definitely a clue. In the immortal words of Sherlock Holmes, “The game’s afoot!”

And then, a few pages into my search, I found what I had missed – a story from 1997 about the new girls basketball coach at Sprague. A coach who had moved back to the area to attend nursing school at Eastern Washington and to marry her high school sweetheart.

A local woman who had played a couple years of women’s basketball at Seattle University and moved back to be closer to her high school sweetheart.

Stacia Marriott.

The Stacia Marriott who teamed with Jennifer Stinson to bring home back-to-back State B championships at Davenport. The Stacia Marriott who averaged 23 points per game, the same total as Stinson, for the Gorillas in 1992-93 en route to their second straight title.

Well, now. There’s the Bi-County League connection. Marriott played her entire career in the cauldron of that league. And she started her coaching career in that league as well.

Her coach, Jim Stinson (Jennifer’s dad), has literally written the book on the State B. Two books, in fact. And he considers that 1992-93 team the finest the State B has ever produced. Jennifer Stinson went on to rewrite the state scoring record book and is now the head coach of the women’s volleyball program at Washington State University.

Jennifer Stinson is quoted calling Stacia Marriott the glue who held that team together, a coach on the floor. A player who had to learn patience as a player because she could be pretty fiery and had a quick temper.

And so it has come full circle in Davenport. The coach on the floor has won two State B trophies as a player and one as a coach – and came mere minutes away from winning back-to-back titles as a coach.

Teaching from personal experience that a team needs an even-tempered floor leader.

There will be more state titles for Stacia Soliday at Davenport.

I wish I’d seen it sooner. There’s something special about a coach who goes back to his or her roots and coaches a team they grew up playing for.

Roger Boesel. Stacia Soliday.

It’s not all that common.

But it’s just another day in the life of the State B.