T O U R N E Y T O W N  ARCHIVES

This page is part of the Tourneytown.com archives and is no longer updated.

Tenino high school girls basketball coach Jennifer Oakerman, left, celebrates a good play during her team's quarterfinal game against East Valley on Thursday in the Yakima Valley SunDome. Photos by BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic

“We love her,” says junior Amanda Homann, who will be one of the Beavers’ key returners next year from a team that finished 21-5 after heartbreaking losses to East Valley and Chelan, last year’s finalists. “She’s just always so excited.”

Excited? Listen: Wile E. Coyote was never this animated. She’s a whirlwind of expressive emotion. In any game, she jumps, she screams, she claps, she writhes with every shot attempt, she tugs at the sweater tied around her waist, she points at this player and that hole in the zone, she gestures and mouths instructions only her players will understand, she jumps (again) and she screams instructions that, over the din of shouting fans, P.A. announcements and referees’ whistles, her players can’t possibly hear.

All game long.

Of course, she was the same was as a four-year starter at Mossyrock High School, where coach Gary Stamper — who she considers her mentor and who still coaches there — played her in the post during her freshman and sophomore years, at shooting guard as a junior and at point guard as a senior. She played everywhere, and she was always on the floor — much of the time literally, diving for this loose ball and that errant pass. And she can’t wait until she has 10 players who all play exactly that way.

“I’m enthusiastic and energetic, and I want them to play with passion and enthusiasm,” she says. And she made it clear from the start that players would play her way or not play.

“We could tell from the first practice it would be like that,” says Homann, whose separated shoulder on Wednesday kept her out of the lineup against East Valley and Chelan. “She makes us work really hard. She’s a real competitor.”

The community seems to have taken to Oakerman, as evidenced by their solid fan following at the tournament when the Beavers’ boys team didn’t qualify.

But then, as Oakerman believes, maybe that’s just the way Tenino is.

“I really believe it was fate that I ended up in Tenino,” says Oakerman, who was the head coach at Adna last year (her first as a high school coach) before the job opened up at Tenino. “I’ve never seen a community that supports its high school teams like Tenino does. We go to a game at Forks, which is four hours away, and our stands are full. We play road games where we have more people there than the team we’re playing against.”

And those crowds invariably include many of parents of her third-grade students, as well as the third-graders themselves. Many of them, just because they adore their Miss Oakerman, have joined up with the town’s “Little Dribblers” program, performing at halftime of the big kids’ games.

Oakerman’s daily schedule with her third-graders always includes a morning “basketball talk,” not because it’s part of the recognized curriculum, but because the kids feel like it’s the way they get to take part in her program.

One of those third-graders can’t wait to become old enough to play on her team. Which is sort of a problem, because he’s a boy.

At home games, her third-graders always come down to the bench to give her high-fives before the game. After Tenino’s opening victory on Wednesday, one of them called her cell phone to say Good job, Miss Oakerman.

The Beavers are back home now, having lost two of their three games to arguably two of the best three or four teams in the tournament. In the locker room after their Friday defeat, she reminded her seniors that every book has an ending, “and now you’re going to open a new one.” The younger players — all of whom played in the SunDome this week — she told to feel the loss.

“I want you to feel it,” she told them. “I want you to know why you want to come back next year ... and what you want to do when you get here.”

Well, if they do, it isn’t hard to figure out what Jennifer Oakerman will do.

All game long.

© 2003 All photos, content and design are properties of the Yakima Herald-Republic.

For questions or additional information about this site,
e-mail us at:

Tourney Bracket
:: Girls tournament
  
Other Games
Saturday
:: Lakeside 39, Ephrata 23
:: Chelan 45, Nooksack Valley 42
:: Blaine 51, Connell 33
:: East Valley 44, Pullman 31
Friday
:: Ephrata 48, Riverside 41
:: Lakeside 52, Hoquiam 39
:: Nooksack Valley 67, La Center 52
:: Chelan 57, Tenino 54, 2OT
:: Pullman 48, Connell 40
::  East Valley 50, Blaine 43, OT
Thursday
:: Ephrata 55, Woodland 38
:: Riverside 54, Eatonville 45
:: Lakeside 43, Granite Falls 36
:: Hoquiam 42, Port Townsend 40
:: Pullman 38, La Center 30
:: Connell 54. Nooksack Valley 44
:: East Valley 34, Tenino 31
:: Blaine 48, Chelan 41
Wednesday
:: La Center 69, Ephrata 37
:: Pullman 41, Woodland 33
:: Connell 54, Eatonville 33
:: Nooksack Valley 42, Riverside 35
:: Tenino 55, Granite Falls 45
:: East Valley 50, Lakeside 47
:: Blaine 44, Hoquiam 43
:: Chelan 59, Port Townsend 38
 
Latest Statistics
:: Girls tournament
 
Team Capsules
:: Girls tournament

Record Books
:: Girls records
:: Girls champions
:: Girls all-time scoring leaders
 
District Results
:: Girls tournament
 
Boys Tourney
:: Boys tournament