THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, December 11, 2015

During each of the past four seasons playing hoops, a fraternal set of senior twins is doing some of the dirty work for the Lake City High girls basketball team, in its quest to make like former lead singer Jim Morrison of “The Doors” sang and break on through to the other side and into the state 5A girls basketball tournament.

Kate Maryon, the Timberwolves’ point guard, was born one minute before her sister Olivia on Jan. 26, 1998, in Valencia, Calif., located 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. But slightly younger sis can claim the height, playing as a 5-foot-11 shooting guard/small forward opposite Kate’s 5-8 frame. Olivia has been on the varsity team for three seasons, including her second season as a starter, Kate for two, including playing her first season as a starter this year.

OLIVIA HAS pretty strong academic interests. Both girls carry a 4.1 GPA and are members of the National Honor Society.

“I want to be in astrophysics,” Olivia said. “I want to do something with NASA. I’d probably want to go into working with rockets and rocket fuel.”

Olivia is also in the pep band, where she plays the clarinet, so she’s been immersed in attending quite a few games. And don’t think she doesn’t want to be with her music-playing comrades, even when she’s playing hoops.

“It’s difficult and it’s not easy to play basketball while they’re there,” Olivia said. “There’s a conflict, a lot of time management. This (past) Wednesday I’ll have to practice in pep band between 5 to 7 at night. So I’ll leave basketball practice early in order to make it on time.”

Kate already wants to a physical therapist. Both girls have taken a heavy load of Advanced Placement and honors classes, in chemistry, English, history and others.

“I love how they (physical therapists) treated others,” Kate said. “Our senior project was watching how Pinnacle Therapy in Coeur d’Alene did their jobs.”

The girls’ parents are very accomplished, to say the least. Their mother, Tamara Odom-Maryon, works for Washington State University as the interim Associated Dean for Research and Research Professor in the College of Nursing.

“She works off campus in Spokane,” Olivia said. “She’s a biostatistic research professor.”

Mom always saw Olivia’s interest in the related fields.

“Olivia has always been interested in math and science,” Tamara said. “She is interested in engineering and leaning toward chemical or aeronautical engineering. She is taking astronomy as an elective this year.”

More importantly, the girls have been known as being very kind and respectful toward their fellow students, their teachers and others.

“I’m very proud of Kate and Olivia,” Tamara said. “They work hard and are self-driven. The greatest honor, however, is when other adults tell us that we have great kids that are kind, thoughtful, generous and respectful because these are the qualities we admire.

Don Maryon, the girls’ father, works within walking distance, or one mile, away from Lake City. Since 2013, he has been the Senior Vice President of Community 1st Bank, located on the intersection of Hanley Avenue and U.S. 95. Before that, he spent eight years as a business banking professional at Inland Northwest Bank in Cd’A. The girls were raised in Coeur d’Alene since first grade and moved there in part because living and raising a family in southern California got to be too expensive.

The girls also have two older brothers. The oldest, Zack Maryon, graduated with his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Idaho. Ty Maryon is a senior at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, where he’s been a swimmer and has gone to nationals each of the past three seasons.

Don Maryon has been Kate and Olivia’s club coach in basketball since they were 11. He said he has seen improvements related to unselfishness with his daughters.

“They always look to pass first,” Don said. “They don’t shoot enough. If they don’t think they helped enough, even in a win, they’ll get a little upset with themselves. The challenges will be one will have a good game, the other will have a so-so game, so we try not to get too excited about one (at the expense of the other).”

The pair have also been in swimming — Kate’s 200-yard freestyle team won a district title and finished sixth at state last month — and track and field to stay in shape for basketball.

LAKE CITY last qualified for the state girls basketball tournament in 2009 and last season was 16-10 (2-4 Inland Empire League). So far they are off to a great start going into their home opener tonight against Sandpoint, with a 4-0 record where they’ve won by 30 at Sandpoint, 38 at West Valley of Spokane, 27 over North Central and 16 at Moscow.

“We want to leave something behind when we’re done,” Kate Maryon said. “Our program’s been close to making it to state. We want to win league, do well at regionals, then play at state.”

During a pickup game at North Idaho College two years ago, Olivia said she got to defend none other than former NIC and current Gonzaga point guard Georgia Stirton, a native of Australia. One might think that at least on paper, Stirton, a college senior playing Division I ball, might have mopped the floor with Olivia.

Not so much.

“I feel like I guarded her pretty well,” Olivia said. “It was really cool. She tried to drive past me, but she couldn’t always do it. Madi Schoening (of Sandpoint) is always fun to guard. She’s really nice. In the summer during club ball, playing with the North Idaho Elite, we beat the Hoop Dreams, which had Destiny Slocum (of Mountain View, who signed with Maryland). Kate’s the hardest, I don’t like to guard her. We play one-on-one in the back yard.”

Both twins hope to play in college, possibly at the same school. One of the twins’ top choices to attend college is Montana Tech of the University of Montana, located in Butte, in part because it’s a smaller campus and fits the twins’ academic goals. While there are no athletic scholarship offers just yet, they’ve also visited the usual region swing of colleges such as the University of Idaho, Washington State University, College of Idaho, among others.

THE TWINS have done everything their basketball coach, Bryan Kelly, has asked.

“They are truly two of the nicest, hardworking girls I have ever been around,” said Kelly, in his fourth season at Lake City. “They showed up every time during our open gyms. The growth those two have shown have been wonderful. They’re truly a coach’s dream to have two senior girls that have bought into the program since I have gotten here.”

The twins have put up pretty solid numbers on the floor this season. Olivia has put up seven points and five rebounds per game, while Kate averages five steals per game — most players average roughly one or two per game — plus she leads the team with six assists per game, scoring four points per contest.

“She’s the better shooter and rebounder,” Kate said of Olivia.

“She’s better in getting steals,” Olivia said of Kate.

Olivia can actually play all five positions at times and can also defend all five positions when the T-Wolves need her to do so.

“Their presence on the court and defense is more valuable to our team than the numbers,” Kelly said. “Kate has worked her tail off with her effort. They get after it defensively with their pressure. We can go after it with smaller lineups.”

Plus the two can play a few mind games from time to time with their coach.

“I’ve never coached twins before,” Kelly said. “I’d always ask if they both get hurt if one of them also gets hurt. They’ve earned everything they’ve received. They’re going to be exceptional in whatever they choose to do.”

Olivia said on the court, both girls will know where the other is quite often.

“There’s this joke where I almost don’t really need to look to see where she is,” Olivia said. “Not that I’d ever not look where I pass, but she’s right there when I pass it to her.”

As a team, Kate wants to make sure the Timberwolves leave their mark on every opponent.

“We want make sure that win or lose, you know we’re playing you tough,” Kate said.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25