Pasco hires this 5-time tournament coach to lead boy’s basketball

Terry Watson never could shake basketball out of his blood, even after he stepped down as the head boys basketball coach at Liberty Christian in Richland in 2011.

He did that so he could follow his sons playing at Hanford High School.

But — and basketball coaches all know this — it never gets out of your system.

“I know. It’s tough,” said Watson. “For 25 years I’ve been doing it. I’ve just been working, helping raise a grandson, and coaching AAU and youth basketball.”

Last season, he was at Enterprise Middle School in West Richland.

So it made sense when Pasco High athletic director Gregg Huisingh found he had an opening for head boys basketball, Watson deserved a look after he applied for the opening.

After all, Watson put Liberty Christian boys basketball on the map. During his 10 years as head coach, Watson led the Patriots to the state 1B tournament five times.

In 2010, LC placed second.

Now 54, Terry Watson is in his 28th year working for a Hanford contractor and is currently a waste operations manager.

But coaching basketball is still a major part of his life.

“I talked to both of my sons (Jalen and Kendall), and they said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to go for the Pasco job,” said Watson.

He got it, replacing Jamelle Juneau, who left for his hometown in Louisiana and took over the head coaching job at his former high school.

Now, the real work begins for Watson. Now it’s about getting to know his coaching staff and players.

“I met the administration last week, and the other coaches last week,” he said.

Coronavirus mandates have kind of shut things down right now, making it hard to meet the players and see what they can do.

He’ll see what he has offensively before figuring out what kind of offense to run.

But he’ll stick to his defensive philosophy: Playing tough, get-in-your-face defense.

“I’m gonna look for effort,” said Watson.

That may be secondary to his first goal.

“The idea is to change the culture so that kids want to stay at Pasco and not go to Chiawana,” said Watson. “I’ve coached where I wasn’t supposed to win. But I stayed there. And the kids trusted me. You’ve got to sell it to the kids.”

How do you do that?

By showing them that you care about them. Which isn’t hard for Watson, because he does care. It’s why he’s always coached basketball.

“I miss the chance to talk to the players at practice about the everyday stuff, what’s happening in their life. Then you get into the basketball stuff.

“What I’ve missed most was the relationships I built with the kids. You get the wedding invitations, the birth announcements, years later from them,” he said.

When that happens, you know you’ve made a difference in their lives.

You’ve changed the culture.

21 for 21 top stories

Here are the first two of my 21 for 21 series, listing the top Mid-Columbia sports stories since 2000.

These are in no certain order:

1. Prep wrestling

High school wrestling has had its share of talent here in the Mid-Columbia region over the years.

Whether it’s been programs at Sunnyside, Warden, Kiona-Benton, or Chiawana, this region has had its fair share of champions.

In fact, there have been 131 individual state championships for Mid-Columbia boys wrestling since 2000.

Small schools Warden and Othello boast 23 state champs each (some multiple), while Sunnyside has 19. Kamiakin has the most among Tri-City big schools with nine.

Starting with three-time state champ Ale de la Pena of Kiona-Benton, who won his third title in 2000 at 125 pounds — and finishing up with the Chiawana program, which took the Class 4A team title in 2019 and 2020 — our region’s kids know how to grapple.

Besides de la Pena, here are the most impressive boys wrestlers over the past 21 years:

• Chiawana’s Isaiah Anderson, who has just competed two high school seasons, yet has two 4A state titles at 195 pounds, both in 2019 and 2020. Anderson has already committed to Oregon State.

• Another Ki-Be wrestler in Cruz Del Angel, who earned 1A titles in 2012 (170 pounds), 2013 (182), and 2014 (182).

• Prosser’s James Ellis, who dominated for 3A titles at 171 pounds in both 2000 and 2001.

• Othello’s Isaiah Perez graduated this past June, is headed on a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and then will attend BYU to play football. Before all of that, though, Perez was a 285-pound powerhouse, winning state 2A titles in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

• Kamiakin has had four wrestlers each win two state championships in the last 21 years: Mike Rodriguez in 2002 (112) and in 2003 (119); Tyler Sherfey in 2003 (130) and 2004 (145); Sisto Pina in 2012 (170) and 2013 (170); and Austin Almaguer in 2018 (132) and 2019 (132).

• Finally, Pasco has had two-time champs in the past seven years: Timmy Martinez in 2013 (120) and 2014 (126); and Isaiah Gonzalez, who bookended his prep career, winning as a freshman at 113 pounds in 2017, and then as a senior in 2020, going undefeated for the entire season at 160 pounds.

Girls wrestling was added as a competitive sport by the WIAA in 2007, and the Mid-Columbia region has seen local girls earn 23 state championships.

Among those most decorated are Kiona-Benton’s Sheridan McDonald and Grandview’s Desiree Zavala.

Both of them were four-time champs — McDonald at 135 pounds from 2008 to 2011; Zavala from 2013 to 2016 in weights ranging from 124 to 145.

Zavala has plenty of company in Grandview, which boasts nine individual state titles.

Marizza Birrueta won three state titles for the Greyhounds in 2013 (100 pounds), 2014 (106) and 2015 (110). Teammate Viannei Perez was a two-time champ at 105 pounds in 2015 and 2016.

Two other wrestlers of note: Othello’s Tatum Sparks won titles in 2014 and 2015; while current Hanford senior Taylor Wilson is a rising star, with championships at 100 pounds in 2018 and 2019.

Keep an eye out for Kennewick’s Asselin sisters — Ayanna was a state champ at 155 pounds in February; Alexia placed second at 170; and Aubreyanna finished third at 145.

2. COVID

It should come as no surprise that the pandemic wiping out most local sports this year is a major story.

It’s been a big part of our everyday lives since March.

And it’s not a happy story. People have died, or gotten terribly ill with conditions that will affect them the rest of their lives.

Sports pales in comparison to what’s happened to those who have died.

There have been no Tri-City Americans games since early March.

The last Tri-City Dust Devils game was played in September 2019, in the Northwest League championship series.

The region’s biggest sports event, the HAPO Columbia Cup, wasn’t held.

But the worst is losing youth and high school sports.

For many kids, losing sports — and other school activities — is pretty serious.

I shudder to think how things would have been for me in high school without sports. I’m not sure I would have graduated.

There are students out there with that same problem. Sometimes it’s a sport, or an activity, that is keeping them engaged in school.

And so, this year has been hard on the Mid-Columbia’s young athletes.

First, spring sports were wiped out. Then fall high school sports were delayed, and delayed again. Same with winter.

My heart went out to the seniors last spring, and it still does. But the class I really hurt for is the kids who were juniors in the spring.

Every year, in every sport, there are athletes who work so hard between their junior and senior seasons that they have a breakthrough. They suddenly get noticed by coaches at the junior college level and the four-year school level, and they get a chance to move on post-high school to play that sport and get an education.

With the pandemic, that chance for them may never happen.

Admit it, most of us felt this would only last a few weeks, a few months at most.

It’s been physically and emotionally exhausting for everyone, and there is a legitimate concern for the mental health of all students.

With any luck, there is hope that high school sports can resume starting Feb. 1.