THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN Feb. 19, 2016
Back in 1986, Missy Asbury helped continue what would become a legacy as part of the St. Maries volleyball team.
Known back then as Missy Sines, younger sister of current St. Maries girls basketball coach Jay Sines, Missy was a 5-foot-4 outside hitter on state champion teams from 1986-88, part of a run of 10 state A-2 volleyball titles under coach Mitch Santos from 1984 to 1993.
Those Lumberjacks teams had to play against bigger teams such as Coeur d’Alene, Lakeland, Moscow and several others, not like it is today. As a point guard, Sines also helped the Lumberjacks win consecutive state girls basketball titles in 1987 as a junior and 1988 as a senior. In 2009, she would return — this time as head volleyball coach — to lead the Lumberjacks to their first state title since 1993, with her libero daughter Tia Asbury as the Central Idaho League MVP.
Missy, who coached until 2014, has worked for more than 20 years for the Potlatch Corporation at its mill, recently as its patchline operator, which is where a line worker finds defects in layed-up plywood, then fills those defects with wood putty. She’s married to Corey Asbury, who made it to state finals at St. Maries in football (1987, 1990), baseball (1988-1990) and basketball in 1989 and coaches AAU hoops.
Kriss Gibson transferred from Bonners Ferry to St. Maries before her freshman season. As a 5-foot-8 junior middle blocker in ’87, the then-Kriss Ross was a late call-up from the JV volleyball team to attend the state title run, then returned as a senior to team up with Asbury to take home the ’88 championship trophy. She was also a forward-center on the ’87 and ’88 girls basketball state title-winning teams. Today, Gibson is in her third year as a clerk for the city of St. Maries, after working for 20 years at the Potlatch Mill.
Then there’s Staci Truscott, the ‘baby’ of the group. Staci Cady was a 5-foot-4 freshman and a late season call-up who played on the ’87 state volleyball team. She took the torch from Asbury and Gibson and ran with it, serving as a back row player while she won state championships from 1989-from 1988-91. After slow-pitch softball became a state-sanctioned sport before the 1990 season, Truscott was a second baseman on Lumberjacks teams that brought home the bacon in 1990 and 1991. Truscott is the principal at Heyburn Elementary in St. Maries.
WHICH BRINGS us to today. Lumberjack junior forwards Kiefer Gibson and Bryant Asbury, plus senior Chase Truscott, are all attempting to repeat some history set nearly 20 years ago by their respective mothers.
Gibson and Asbury are both starters on the boys basketball team that is trying to win its first state championship since 1960, after it finished third last season. Truscott is a team captain and emotional leader off the bench. Gibson is second on the team in points and rebounds per game, while Asbury is the fourth-leading scorer. Gibson has a 3.8 grade-point average, Truscott owns a 3.5 GPA and Asbury’s is above 3.0. All three boys live outside of St. Maries, with Bryant and Chase each living in the Flat Creek area south of the town of roughly 2,400.
But first things first — the top-seeded Lumberjacks (17-3) begin 2A District 1-2 tournament play on Monday at 7:30 at Troy High and the championship will be on Friday at Troy. If St. Maries wins districts, it would return to state, which tips off on March 3 at Capital High in Boise. As of this past week’s Idaho prep boys basketball media poll, St. Maries was ranked No. 2, just four points behind defending state 2A champion Firth (19-2).
The boys’ coach, Bryan Chase, is a 1990 graduate of St. Maries, so he saw all three moms win multiple state crowns.
“The boys are fully aware of what their moms did,” Chase said. “I think they think it’s pretty cool, they’re all pretty disciplined and work very hard. Their moms don’t miss a game. They’re the first ones to jump on them a little bit if they step out of line. They’re great kids, they’re a joy to be around. Their moms are all really tough, they’re all blue-collar people. That’s one of the biggest compliments you can pay a player is that they all play hard.”
And their mothers will be there every basket, steal, rebound and step of the way, although they don’t necessarily have nearly as much control as they did back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
LAST SEASON, St. Maries finished third at state with a 18-5 record. In the state 2A semifinals, the Lumberjacks lost 59-55 to Soda Springs, who went on to lose the state title, 52-39, to Firth.
The Lumberjacks took Soda Springs to the last seven seconds, but couldn’t get a 3-pointer to fall in the closing seconds that would have tied the game at 58. After finishing third the next day, St. Maries principal John Cordell allowed the team to stay one more night and the team watched the state championship game later that day at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
“The boys decided that night that they’d get here next year,” Chase said. “Our kids got so close and were heartbroken.”
Chase Truscott echoed the team’s sentiments to return to the state tournament and hopefully, the title game.
“Our goal is to win state,” Truscott said. “We watched that game and from that point on, that’s where we wanted to be. Our wins (this season) aren’t what’s on our mind. Our losses, including two to Kellogg, were rough. I really don’t want to lose another game.”
Truscott, who also played fullback and linebacker, helped St. Maries reach the state quarterfinals before losing to Aberdeen. He has been looking at schools like Lewis-Clark State College and Rocky Mountain College but most importantly, he wants to go where he can become a teacher.
“The teams who played in the state championship, Grangeville and Aberdeen, were the only ones we lost to,” Truscott said. “It was something I’ll never forget, being with my teammates.”
Chase’s father is Tom Truscott, a graduate of Riverside High in Chattaroy, Wash., who is an assistant football coach at St. Maries.
Santos also made an appearance before last season’s state 2A boys basketball tournament at a St. Maries team dinner to show off some hardware.
“Last February, Mitch brought some state medals before a team dinner (before the state tournament),” coach Chase said. “Their eyes lit up, it was a big motivation.”
Santos has been just as proud of the boys as he was — and still is — of their mothers.
“I have really enjoyed watching how much these three boys have grown,” Santos said. “Their moms are always there and have been very supportive and behind the team. As players back then, those three moms always came ready to play. They worked hard in practice and were mentally tough and driven. Missy was one of the most consistent players in all three sports. Kriss was one of the best rebounders to play at St. Maries and Staci played very big and tough for being smaller statured.”
KIEFER GIBSON is a junior firefighter, certainly a bit more dangerous than your average high school guy. He gets to help put out small house fires, car accidents that require his assistance, and other things.
“Basically, it’s a way to evolve into becoming a firefighter,” Gibson said. “We have classes one day, station training another and during another day, I help out with the younger guys. We can respond to some certain fires, with certain restrictions because of our ages. We’ve responded to wildland fires, car wrecks.”
Like the other two boys, Kiefer has enjoyed hearing about his mom’s successes. She puts those state medals away for safekeeping.
“At my house, mom has them all locked in boxes,” Kiefer said. “I think it’s really cool. They expect a lot out of you to try to provide that. I think that’s good, they’ve provided a good example for us.”
“I think it’d be a big deal for our school,” Kiefer said of winning a state title. “We always have a lot of fans who support us.”
The young lad picked up quite a bit of his work ethic from his parents, Kriss and Andy Gibson, a 1996 St. Maries graduate who was a standout tight end on the football team and as a wrestler, plus he is an assistant coach on the football team. Kriss was a manager of a bowling alley in Bonners Ferry as well.
That came from some tough practices from volleyball assistant and softball head coach Steve “Konk” Konkright and Santos.
“You came out with some bruises,” Kriss said. “We scrimmaged each other and our coaches said you practiced like you played. I teach my four boys — Kiefer is the oldest — to give it 110 percent or don’t do it at all. Kiefer wants to be a dentist later on.”
BRYANT ASBURY was a small child when he witnessed his first title game in 2009, at the ripe old age of 9. He is now 16 and will turn 17 on March 30.
“I was there to watch my mom when they won state (volleyball) at Coeur d’Alene,” Bryant said. “It was sweet, it felt good to be there.”
Asbury, who also pitches and plays center field on the baseball team and is in the 4-H club, shares some bitter endings during that state run last season.
“We felt like we should have been playing Firth,” Asbury said. “We felt like we could have played them better. We’re really confident this year, but we hope we don’t get cocky. But I think we can make it.”
Missy Asbury said how much tougher it was to fight through a league with more teams in the area.
“We played against Coeur d’Alene, Bonners Ferry, Post Falls, teams like that,” Missy said. “It was a little different for us. We played club volleyball, which I don’t know how many teams did that back then. We’d go down to California, play against teams from there, Hawaii, Texas. We played some tough teams, but it made us better. When we came back, we were pretty good and it was a big part of our program. Plus there was no rally scoring, so it was the first team to 15 points, win by two. These kids today, to see them get so competitive, it gives you chills. Some people look at you like you’re crazy when you mention winning a state title. It’s such a cool feeling.”
Missy talked about the three mothers pushing and encouraging their kids.
“Obviously we’re competitive, so we push our kids both academically and athletically,” Missy said. “The game against Soda Springs, that was pretty emotionally tough, they fought so hard and fell. It was pretty heartbreaking.”
Staci repeated that sentiment.
“Once you start winning, you don’t want to lose,” Staci said. “It was exciting, it seemed like that’s what we did, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to win state. In softball, we worked pretty hard. I don’t remember any blowouts. I tried to teach him hard work, go and do your best and to be a good teammate. I was a team captain, so I’d say I see a lot of me in him. They’ve had a great season and when they’re all playing well together, they are all unbeatable.”
And of course, Bryant has the sweet nickname of “Bub”.
“My great-grandma, Joyce Sindt, called my Dad ‘Bub’,” Bryant said. “He didn’t like it, so I got it.”
A nice family small story to a trio of accomplished boys — as well as their mothers.
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