On the surface, Saturday's boys basketball matchup between 2A Waldport and 3A Yamhill-Carlton seemed like an ordinary nonleague game.
In the history books, though, it was much more.
The game was the first in state history featuring two boys varsity teams with women as head coaches. Last season, Yamhill-Carlton's Heather Roberts became the first woman head coach for an Oregon boys team since Thurston's Genevieve Beaman in the 1930s. This year, Michelle Severson of Waldport and Lourie Hall of 1A Yoncalla joined the ranks.
When Roberts saw the Waldport game on her schedule, she said, "I thought, 'Oh, that's kind of cool that there's going to be two women on the sideline.' And we both have men coaching our girls teams. I think it's kind of fun.”
The best part, according to Roberts, is that “it's not really a big deal now” for a woman to coach boys.
“Last year, when I got the job, everyone made a big hype about it,” said Roberts, who has been assisted by former Wilsonville girls coach Cindy Anderson since she took over. “I think with all the stuff going on in the NBA, it's maybe becoming more normal.”
Severson coached Waldport's JV boys for three seasons before being hired as head coach in October, so she had a good idea of what to expect when she took over.
“When I started being the JV coach, I was a little bit nervous that the boys would be like, 'Oh, it's a girl coaching me,'” Severson said. “But it was wonderful. It's been great coaching them. The guys are so nice. So stepping into the head coaching role is awesome.”
Both Roberts and Severson have extensive experience coaching girls.
Roberts was a head coach for 17 seasons at Ashland, Lakeridge, Canby and Sprague before spending four seasons as the women's coach at NCAA Division III Southern Virginia University. She returned to Oregon last year and took the job at Yamhill-Carlton with the intention of coaching her sons, Moroni and Malachi, who are freshmen on the team this season.
Severson – a 1998 graduate of Waldport, where she played as Michelle Thueson – assisted in the women's program at Willamette University for five seasons and was head coach at North Salem for three seasons (2009-12). She moved back to Waldport and became the girls head coach for three seasons before assisting in the boys program.
Peter Ellingsen resigned as Waldport's boys coach to take the job at 4A Newport, and when the man who was hired to replace him left in the fall, and the Irish were in a pinch, Severson stepped into the role.
Severson reflected on how things have changed since her childhood.
“Growing up as a kid, and I played a lot of basketball, I would go and try to play with the boys during lunchtime in middle school, and they would never want me to play because I was a girl,” Severson said.
With a full season at Yamhill-Carlton under her belt, Roberts senses that the novelty of having a woman as coach has died down around the program.
“It's so normal now that I just coach the boys. It's what I do,” Roberts said. “I don't even know if they even notice anymore. I'm just 'Coach' now.”
Roberts admitted that there are times, though, when she just has to shake her head at her players.
“Sometimes I feel like they look at me more as a mom,” she said. “'Do you have any food? Do you have any snacks?'”
Roberts won 266 games in 17 seasons at the big-school level with girls teams, leading Lakeridge to a state runner-up finish in 2004. She said dropping down to 3A – where coaches share more of their athletes with other sports – was a bigger adjustment than shifting from girls to boys.
Roberts, known to be tough on her players, said she has not changed her coaching style for boys.
“I don't know if it fits it better, but my personality doesn't hurt,” she said. “When I went into this, a lot of men that coach girls said to me, 'I think your personality can carry this off.' I've been around boys, and I have four boys, so I'm not afraid to say things like it is.”
Roberts said she immediately noticed one difference between girls and boys. Upon entering the gym, she said, girls often sit and talk on their phones. Boys are on the court, shooting.
“After practice, I have to beat the boys out of the gym,” she said.
What differences stand out for Severson?
“Girls are a lot more emotional on the surface, and boys are a lot more emotional, like, internal," she said.
As for Saturday's game, Yamhill-Carlton (4-1) rolled to an 82-42 win over Waldport (0-4). The Tigers are much improved from last season, when they finished 4-21, which means they can expect Roberts to turn the screws a little tighter.
“I wasn't as hard on the team last year as I was on some of my really good Lakeridge and Ashland teams,” Roberts said. “But now, as we start to get better, my expectations will rise.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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