Former Bear takes reins: Felice Orrell lands ‘dream job’ as coach of CV girls basketball

Central Valley varsity girls coach Felice (Moore) Orrell knows all about the traditions and culture that have grown up around girls basketball at Central Valley High School.

As a player she was not only shaped by it, she helped grow it. And she’s now charged with nurturing it.

A 2002 CV graduate, Orrell played under coach Dale Poffenroth and his then-assistant coach, Freddie Rehkow. During her time as a Bear she was a team captain and part of two state championship teams, including the undefeated, 29-0 squad her senior year.

Retired sportswriter Dave Trimmer covered those CV teams for The Spokesman-Review and took special notice of the young, 6-foot-2 post player because she was a friend of his oldest son.

“She’s an absolute sweetheart who worked hard to make herself good and definitely made her teammates better,” he recalled.

Hard work and a strong will to get better were the hallmark of her playing career that was extended when her toughness caught the eye of then first-year Eastern Washington coach Wendy Schuller, who made her the first recruit of her tenure in Cheney.

“She had come off of coach Poffenroth’s state champion team at CV and was as tough and competitive as any player I have coached,” Shuller recalled. “We talk a lot in our program about being tough, smart and unselfish, and Felice represented that as well as you can.”

Orrell, a team captain and member of several all-tournament teams as an Eagle, is one of three players from the 2001 state championship team to earn all-conference accolades in college. Emily Westerberg was an all-Pac-10 Conference selection at Arizona State, Raeanna Jewell earned honorable mention All-West Coast Conference honors at Gonzaga and Orrell was an honorable mention All-Big Sky center at EWU.

The former head coach at Eastmont High in East Wenatchee, Orrell spent last season as the CV varsity assistant, and when the Central Valley School District fired Ryan Bragdon less than a week before the first day of practice, the position was offered to her.

“I have two young kids and at that time my youngest, my 4-year-old, was sick with pneumonia. In fact, both of them were sick,” Orrell said. “To be honest I had planned to kind of step back this season and put my family first. My family is my huge priority.

“And then they offered me my dream job.”

Orrell was offered the job on a Thursday, and she took a day to mull it over. She took the weekend to get things in order to start practice on Monday.

“Life gives you so many opportunities,” she said. “I have been a head coach before, so I had my foundation. This was not totally an oh-my-what-am-I-doing situation.”

Still, most new coaches get a summer and a summer league season to begin setting a foundation.

Orrell had the weekend.

She was confident her team had a solid foundation of fundamental basketball, and she’s been pleased with the way they’ve all put their heads down, embraced the changes and made the experience fun.

“The culture we have here is very important,” she said. “My assistant coaches, the players, the administration, the parents – they’ve all been so supportive. I met with the parents and all they said was ‘Whatever you need – we’ll be there.’ ”

Laying out an offensive and a defensive strategy is one thing, but Xs and Os are not the most important part of the job, Orrell said.

“The most important thing I can do is to be a role model,” she said.

The Bears lost their debut under Orrell at CV, falling to Gonzaga Prep on their home court. The loss snapped the school’s 62-game home winning streak, 50-44.

After a tough loss to Beaverton (Oregon) in their second game, the Bears rolled through three straight wins and head into the first full week of the Greater Spokane League season with momentum.

Shuller showed up for the season opener and spent the game on the bench next to her first recruit.

“I sat with Felice and watched that first game and was extremely proud of her,” Shuller said. “It is going to be a lot of fun to watch her as she grows the program.”

Shuller is proud of both Orrell and Hayley (Hodgins)Middleton, the coach at Richland.

“It is great for girls basketball to have smart, accomplished women in the game, but the biggest winners are their players who have role models that show them that in many ways you can do it all,” she said.

Rehkow has long been Orrell’s mentor as a high school coach, and he’s continuing that role.

“I love bouncing ideas off of him, and he has a great feel on the pulse of the program,” Orrell said. “And he helped introduce me to the parents.”

Orrell has a clear vision of what her biggest responsibilities are as a coach.

“My job is to help these players become good human beings,” she said. “We talk about that in our team handbook. We want them to be good people.

“Especially as young women, the most important lesson I can teach them is to keep asking, ‘Why not us?’ ”