Bob Barker and one of his girls hoops teams from the late ’80s. (Photo courtesy Sherry Roberts)
Bob Barker spent 31+ years at Coupeville High School, working as a teacher, coach and Athletic Director, affecting countless lives over the years.
A 1959 grad of what would become Western Washington University, he led baseball and basketball (both boys and girls) teams at CHS, taking three to state.
Hailed by his former players as “the best coach I ever had” and “one of the three or four people who shaped who I am today,” his impact lingers long after his retirement.
In this series, Barker responds to my questions as only he can, eloquently and passionately.
David,
I guess that it is time to address your fourth question: What are my memories of working with the girls basketball teams.
I will begin with some related information that may seem superfluous to the actual answer of your question, however, thought I would take this opportunity to bore you with a little history of modern girls basketball at Coupeville High School.
When I began my teaching career at Coupeville in 1959, there were no girl interscholastic athletic teams.
At that time Pearl Wanamaker (from the Wanamaker family in Coupeville) was Superintendent of Public Instruction.
It seems that her philosophy was that the female build did not lend itself to the heavy physical exertion of competitive sports and in fact it would be harmful.
The only athletic outlet for the girls at that time was what was called GAA (Girls Athletic Association).
Now if my memory is correct, (and there is some possibility that it isn’t 100%) the interested girls would get together after school once or twice a week and indulge in some type of sport activity under the direction of a supervisor, which was usually their physical education instructor.
Since this was an after school hour activity the supervisor was awarded a slight monetary compensation just as the boy’s coaches were.
I vaguely remember field hockey, and volleyball as a couple of those sports.
The only competition that they were allowed was that in the spring some of the schools would gather together for a “Field Day” in which they would join in some kind of competition.
If you are interested in following up on a little history of GAA, perhaps some of the girls that graduated in the early-to-mid-60s could give a better explanation.
After Mrs. Wanamaker was voted out of office, girls interscholastic sports began to appear in schools around the state. I believe this was about the time that Title IX was passed by Congress.
Here is where the timeline gets a little hazy and since I don’t have my annuals to fall back on I may miss the start of girls basketball at Coupeville by a year or two.
Valerie Arnold was the first girls basketball coach and she was a 1963 graduate of Coupeville High School.
So adding four years for college, I believe that Valerie returned to teach at her alma mater no earlier than 1967. I don’t recall her entire teaching assignment but one of them was girls physical education.
My narrative of the beginning of girls basketball as it is now played at Coupeville begins with the arrival of the Hack family on Whidbey Island.
Mr. Hack had completed a career as a Navy pilot with his last station being on Kodiak Island in Alaska.
Of their three children, Joy was the oldest and entered Coupeville as a junior.
It seems that Alaska didn’t share Pearl Wanamaker’s idea on girls and sports.
Joy was a very talented athlete and had played basketball on her successful Alaskan high school team.
Joy began agitating for a girls basketball team.
Valerie finally agreed to serve as coach and the administration gave the OK. This had to occur in the late 60’s or early 70’s.
Coupeville at that time didn’t have an organized girls track team either, however, I believe Joy was able to get entered into some local track girls meets and that she later competed in the Washington state track meet in the broad jump but here again I am depending on a vague memory.
Outside of Joy Hack, the skills of the players on the first Coupeville girls basketball team were very rudimentary and as the boys basketball coach I found their games a little painful to watch.
They lacked the basic skills of dribbling, passing and shooting.
However, this was to be expected as probably the only basketball they had ever played, to this point in time, was a short unit in a P.E. class.
Outside of Joy, I am unable to recall the names of the other girls on this team, but I give these girls credit and they should take pride in the fact that they were the real pioneers of girls basketball at Coupeville.
My memories of coaching girls basketball are nothing but good.
Coaching the girls gave me a chance to interact with them and know them in a way that was entirely different from the classroom.
In general they were terrific to work with and I found them to be as fiercely competitive as the boys.
While I wasn’t able to lead them to any league championships they were all champions in my book.
Another highlight of coaching the girls was that I got to coach a couple of my own daughters, Traci and Tina.
David, if you find that you have fallen asleep while reading my ramblings, I might suggest that you file this e-mail away in your “saved messages” and retrieve it on those nights that you experience insomnia.
Sincerely,
Bob Barker
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