Coach’s kid: Gonzaga Prep senior Olivia McIntyre continues basketball journey with support from father, boys basketball coach Matty McIntyre

If it seems like Gonzaga Prep senior Olivia McIntyre has been around the basketball programs at the school her entire life, well, that’s because she has.

“I remember being on my dad’s bench as a little water girl, and I thought the players were old and so cool,” she said. “So now, being a senior, I don’t really feel old enough to be here.”

Her dad, of course, is Gonzaga Prep’s Matty McIntyre, who has 15 years as the head coach, 26 years in total, and three State 4A championships with the school.

Life as a coach’s kid can be tough sometimes. Especially when the coach is a multiple state-championship winner at a traditional powerhouse and teaches at the same school. But Matty has resisted any temptation to blur the line between “dad” and “coach,” either with Olivia or her older sister Julia who also played basketball at G-Prep.

“It’s way more dad, way less coach – and dad is a lot more of just listening,” he said.

“He’s really let me kind of do my own thing,” Olivia said. “And I’ve really appreciated that we can kind of have our separate things and give each other space.”

“Her mother and I have really stressed this is her journey. This isn’t our journey,” Matty said. “And that’s probably one of the biggest blessings my parents gave me, is whether it was recreational soccer, basketball, football, whatever I was doing, they just supported me and made it my experience. I’ve tried to carry that on with with Olivia.”

But Olivia knows that Matty is there if she needs him.

“He’s always kind of my voice of reason,” Olivia said. “He’s a really good listener, and it’s really nice actually being able to talk to him about the basketball stuff, because he understands it so well.”

Both stressed there has never been an obligation or expectation for Olivia to follow in her father’s footsteps.

“I think that’s kind of a misconception, that people would think that I would feel a lot of pressure, that maybe he would put a lot of pressure on me and my sisters to play basketball, to like basketball,” Olivia said. “But him and my mom have been so supportive with us about basketball, and that it’s always kind of been our choice, and that if it’s fun for us, that we should do it. But as soon as that stops, there’s no pressure to play.”

Olivia also insists there has never been awkwardness about the experience of running into her dad in the hallways at school.

“I think it’s more funny than weird,” she said. “I’ve had him as a teacher, last year and this year, so that’s always funny – riding to school with him and then going into his classroom as a teacher. But no, I’m really grateful that they’ve been so supportive, and he makes a lot of sacrifices to try to watch as many games of mine as he can.”

The only time Matty was Olivia’s official coach was when she was in grade school for a YMCA program. Independent of each other, they both recalled the time Matty played Katy Perry’s “Roar” on his phone during a drill to teach the young players to protect the basketball.

“That was one of my proudest coaching seasons,” Matty said. “It was a six-week season coaching her and her friends, listening to Katy Perry and teaching them how to do pivots and jump stops.”

“We still joke about that today,” Olivia said. “But that was one of my favorite memories of basketball. I’ll never forget being in the (St. Aloysius) gym with him doing that.”

Gonzaga Prep girls coach Geoff Arte – a coach’s kid as the son of longtime G-Prep girls coach Mike Arte – was a classmate of Matty McIntyre, so he’s known the family a long time.

“I think the advantage a coach’s kid has is to come in with maybe a little head start on basketball IQ, because they’ve been around the game so much, which is important,” Arte said. “But I think maybe the biggest advantage they have, is they know what it takes to win – especially around Matty’s culture. … They know what it takes to get to Tacoma, and so they come in knowing all that hard work that’s going to have to happen over a course of a season.”

Olivia McIntyre is the type that coaches call a “glue player” – one who helps hold the program together.

“I think she only has one game over 20 points in her whole career,” Arte said. “But she always has 10 to 14, and she always has seven rebounds, and she’s gonna play good defense. You need those kids on your team. You need kids who are going to fight and scrap. And you can tell where she gets that, being around the boys program for so long growing up.”

After making something of an unexpected run at state last year, eventually falling in the title game to Camas 57-41, the team is off to a good start. The Bullpups went 2-0 at The Fitz tournament over the weekend before losing a close one against University Tuesday night. They’ll be missing all-league point guard Aylah Cornwall for a while due to injury, but McIntyre likes the direction the squad is headed.

“I think we have a good team camaraderie, honestly,” she said. “The girls get along really well, and we’ve just had a lot of fun with it these past few weeks. I think that translated to just getting after it in practice, making each other better, and go into it with a good attitude.”

McIntyre will finish her career at G-Prep as one of the program’s leaders in games played as a four-year letter winner. With that level of experience, and the years of basketball acumen being around her father and older sister, she has become an invaluable leader to the young Bullpups.

“There are times in games – and even in practice – when the girls kind of look to you, that’s when I probably feel it the most,” she said. “I want to make them proud, and I want them to trust me. And I want my coaches to trust me, to be in that position to be the leader.”

“She’s gonna have played almost 130 games for us by the time she’s done,” Arte said. “So yes, she is our voice of reason on the team and the kids look up to her.”