The end-of-the-year accolades continue to pour in for Whatcom’s best girls and boys basketball players and coaches.
Whatcom boys coaches Kent Victor of Lynden and Shane Stacy of Meridian are being honored by the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association.
Victor is being inducted into the WIBCA’s Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame. He has coached for 45 years, the past 20 years as an assistant with the Lions, helping them win seven state titles, including a school-record and Class 2A record three in a row from 2022-24.
Before joining the Lynden boys staff, Victor coached a variety of sports at Bellingham High and varsity baseball at Ferndale. He coached boys basketball in Council, Idaho, and at Mount Baker, where he also served as athletic director, before taking over the girls basketball position at Lynden, where he also was an assistant coach for middle school football and high school baseball.
“I’ve been extremely blessed in my coaching career,” said Victor. “The success that we’ve had in multiple sports is the result of so many. To all of those who coached me, the coaches I’ve coached with, and the young men and women that I’ve coached, thank you. Thank you for the relationships, the tough times, and the good times. Each and every one of you has a part in this Hall of Fame induction.”
Stacy is the recipient of the “Pat Fitterer You Gotta Love It” award, which is named for the long-time coach who won the Class AAA (now 4A) state championship with Sehome in 1996. The award goes to someone who embodies the positive culture that Fitterer developed with his teams.
Meridian coach Shane Stacy
“Being mentioned in the same sentence with Fitt is quite the honor,” said Stacy, who has coached the Meridian boys for 20 years and before that coached the Trojans girls for three years. “He is someone I have always looked up to with the way he developed a positive culture with his teams, regardless of their skill level. The positive culture that Fitt’s teams embodied are present here (at Meridian) because of our kids, coaches, and parents’ efforts.
“On a personal level, I learned long ago in this (Northwest) conference that if you let wins, losses, and trophies define you as a coach then you won’t make it that long. Balancing the competitor in me with the understanding that there is more to this than the wins and losses is something I have worked on over the years and continue to work on to this day. Like anything in life that one achieves, they achieve it by learning from their failures, and I am no different.”
Victor, Stacy, and the other inductees and award winners will be honored at the WIBCA’s annual Hall of Fame banquet on July 15 at the Nile Shrine Center in Mountlake Terrace. The social hour starts at 5 p.m. with the dinner and ceremony at 6.
Tickets to the event cost $40. To order tickets and for more information, click on Hall of Fame.
Current and past Whatcom County head coaches and assistants already inducted into the WIBCA Hall of Fame include Roger DeBoer (Lynden Christian), Dave Dickson (Ferndale, Bellingham, Squalicum), Brian Roper (Lynden), Monte Walton (Sehome, Meridian, Ferndale), Larry Skogstad (Ferndale), Pat Fitterer (Sehome), John Clark (Mount Baker, Lynden), Bill Kelly (Nooksack Valley, Blaine), Jake Maberry (Lynden), and Chuck Randall (Western Washington University).
Other all-state honors were announced recently:
* SB Live, a Sports Illustrated-sponsored high school website, announced its all-state teams on March 26, and Class 1B state champion Lummi Nation was recognized with two awards.
Jerome Toby Sr. was named the 1B coach of the year and junior guard Jerome Toby Jr. was named the 1B player of the year. Also on the 1B all-state second team was Lummi Nation sophomore guard Dyson Edwards.
Also earning all-state honors were Lynden senior Brant Heppner (2A first team), Lynden Christian senior Gannon Dykstra and sophomore Dawson Hintz (both 1A first team), and Meridian senior Talon Jenkins (1A second team).
For a complete list of the all-state teams including those for each classification, click on SB Live Boys All-State.
The Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association also had its senior all-state games last month in Bellevue and five Whatcom boys played in the Class 1A-2A game, which the 1A won, 97-80.
Heppner had 15 points, including three 3-pointers; Jenkins had 11 points and 3s; Dykstra had 8 points; Nooksack Valley’s Caden Heutink had 6 points; and Meridian’s Jaeger Fyfe had 3 points.
The WIBCA announced its boys basketball awards earlier and Heppner was named the 2A player of year and Toby was named the 1B coach of the year.
* SB Live announced its top 25 Washington state girls teams and its all-state teams and Class 2A state champion Lynden was honored in both lists.
The undefeated Lions were chosen as the second best team in SI’s Washington Power 25, which ranks all teams regardless of classification. Class 4A state champion Davis of Yakima was named the No.1 team.
And Lynden sophomore Finley Parcher was named to SB Live’s all-state first team, again for players regardless of classification. She also was named the Class 2A player of the year. Earning 2A all-state second-team honors was Parcher’s teammate, junior Payton Mills.
Two other Whatcom players earned all-state honors. Junior guard Ella Fritts of Lynden Christian was named to the Class 1A all-state first team, and junior post Grace DeHoog of Nooksack Valley was named to the 1A second team.
For a complete list of the all-state teams including those for each classification, click on SB Live Girls All-State.
* The Meridian girls also were recognized by the WIAA as the Class 1A scholastic champions. The team, coached by Bree Joy, had a 3.95 GPA, which was the highest among all 1A schools. Also recognized were the Ferndale cheerleaders, coached by Kelly Earl. The Golden Eagles were the 3A champions with a combined 3.698 GPA.
* The Washington State Girls Basketball Coaches Association had its senior all-state games in Seattle on March 22.
Four Whatcom girls played in the Class 1A-2A game. Lynden Christian’s Allison Shumate was named the 1A team’s co-MVP after scoring 18 points, including the game-winning basket just before the buzzer of the 1A’s 93-91 victory.
Shumate’s LC teammate Danya Dykstra had 10 points and 5 rebounds, Nooksack Valley’s Kate Shintaffer made all three of her shots for 7 points and added 4 rebounds, and Lynden’s Kiki York had 9 points and 4 rebounds for the 2A team.
During the WSGBC’s event, coaches and players of the year were announced. Lynden’s Rob Adams was named the state coach of the year after leading the Lions to an undefeated season and the 2A state title.
* The WIAA honors several athletes each week and for Week 26 (March 3-8), Parcher and Toby Jr. were chosen.
* For those who might have missed the state all-tournament teams, Heppner was chosen on the 2A first team; Dykstra and Hintz were chosen to the 1A first team, and Fyfe and Jenkins were chosen to the second team; and Toby was chosen the MVP of the 1B tournament.
For the girls state all-tournament teams, Parcher was named the 2A MVP and was joined on the first team by Mills. Shumate and Dykstra were named to the 1A second team.
