A STRONG Finish

DAYTON - For McKayla Bickelhaupt, the2012 basketball season started to turn around when she began to trust her new coach.

To the junior Bulldog that didn't mean following Clayton Strong blindly. Rather, it meant dropping what she thought was right for her or for the team and doing what he thought was right.

It was during the Christmas break, after the team had fallen to a rock bottom, 0-8, record and the naysayers in town were louder than ever. Just then, before the pivotal matchup against Lacrosse-Washtuchna, Strong showed his own unwavering belief in the 2012 team, telling them more fervently than ever in the locker room that they could win and turn into a winning team.

They did.

The team placed second in districts after beating the likes of Asotin and Tri Cities Prep, exceeding expectations among many in the community who had all but written off the girls' season.

"It's nice to prove them wrong," senior player Nicole Lambert said.

Lambert, Bickelhaupt and others in the local sports community credit Strong, a firstyear head coach who nonetheless came in with tons of basketball experience and even more passion for the game, with taking a group of individual players and forging it into a family.

"He's done a great job with that team," WP Cardinals head coach Jerry Baker said.

Former Dayton girls head coach Scott Hudson said Strong inherited a team that was in rebuilding mode and was able to get past two winning teams in league to make it into the regional playoffs. He believes the team could have gone even further.

Although the girls ran headon into the power house team from Brewster, the Lady Dogs showed a newfound mettle and hung in there until the better end, prompting the opposing team's coach to compliment Lambert and her team on their tenacity.

So what came together for Strong and the Lady Dogs to beat everyone's expectations for 2012?

Fullerton said it begins with the elementary school teacher's knowledge of the game.

Strong was born in Honolulu, where his father worked on a naval base. When he was a year and a half, the family moved to Potlatch, Idaho, and stayed there through his graduation from Potlatch High in 1996.

By then, Strong already had a high school career in basketball under his belt. He joined the team as a freshman and got his taste for the team's first state tournament as a spectator.

The next year he became a starting post and the team had a winning (20-4) record again, though went two-and-out at state after drawing the defending state champions. In his junior year, the Loggers ranked first in state (25-2) but lost the '95 title game after failing to come from behind.

As a senior, the team got into the state title game again but the Loggers had the opposite problem, blowing a big lead and letting the other team back in.

"It taught me not to give up," Strong said. From his coach, Ron Lovell, the varsity player also learned the value of consistency and the power of bonding as a family on the team, something players and other observers said he managed to apply to the Bulldogs.

After high school, Strong had a chance to play on the Walla Walla Community College team but didn't feel mentally prepared. Instead, he went to school at Gonzaga, played intermurals and became a huge fan of the other Bulldogs.

From shooting hoops at home to devising imaginary tourneys, "that's all I really did growing up," Strong said about his passion to play and watch the sport. He first began coaching as a JV and C squad assistant boys coach for the Dayton team in 2004, came back to assist head varsity coach Roy Ramirez for two years when he was beginning to build a winning team. From Ramirez, he learned late-game situational coaching and press breaks. Adding that to his lessons from being a high school player who benefitted from his own coach's consistency, Strong slowly and steady began to add his own building blocks to a team Hudson had begun to rebuild and took it beyond. It also helped to have two new freshmen players, Lexie Ramirez and Sarah Phillips, who weren't only promising but were accepted and mentored quickly by the older players such as Lambert, Bickelhaupt and Shelby Smith, then made their own inspiring contributions to the team.

And, Strong himself noted that the basketball season started with the buzz and momen- tum of a successful football season, which helped lift all athletes' spirits. All these factors combined with Strong's own approach to coaching.

Fullerton said she noticed right away how Strong got through to his players.

"He really explains things very clearly to the players," she said. "Before, the girls did things (they were asked) but weren't always sure why they were doing it. The girls responded. Once they started winning, the emotions and tactics started moving up ladder."

Strong introduced clever ways to bring the girls together as a team. He instilled pride by requesting they dress well before and after the game instead of wearing sweats. He encouraged them to work together with other students to turn up their cheering volume from the sideline during the boys games. Before Saturday games, the team would have breakfast together. Lambert said she appreciated Strong's consistency.

"He sticks to what he says," she said. "He's reliable. That's something we needed."

Everyone was asked to contribute equally to the team. No late shows to practice. Drills with a deflated ball to force passing over dribbling and boost team work. With the additional support of volunteer coach Andee Thurston, the practices became harder and more focused on fundamentals, but they also included more positive encouragement, Bickelhaupt said.

"We started believing in each other more and doing things we didn't think we could do (before)," she said.

Buttressed on one side by the veterans Lambert, Bickelhaupt and Smith, and on the other side by the younger inspiring players like Courtney Fuller, Ramirez and Phillips, the team began to get in sync and once in the winning groove showed the Lady Dogs were more than the sum of their individual parts.

" People will remember this team and who was on it," Strong said. "They will remember that they were fighters who played for each other with passion, courage and heart."

Strong, who was hired as head coach in May with not a lot of time to prepare for summer basketball, said this year's momentum and eight returning players will carry into next year's season.

"The girls are already talking about summer basketball," he said, careful to manage expectations after this year's turnaround season. "You savor it (a successful season) and hope for another chance to go back (to regionals) but there's no guarantee."