When you are a 6-foot-2, 16-year-old girl, you stand out. When you score 32 points in only your third high school basketball game, you really stand out.
But when your last name is Soares, your mother’s last name is Anderson, and you wear the red and black of Mount Baker High School … you are part of a legacy.
Introducing … Rebeca Soares.
“I knew there was a younger sister,” Mount Baker coach Tiffany Ramirez said of the transfer from Brazil. “We hoped she’d come. (When she turned out) a lot of the girls were ecstatic. There’s that name and legacy.”
Ah, yes, the legacy.
It goes back at least 65 years to when a young Art Anderson led the Mounties to Whatcom County’s first basketball state championship.
It continued in the mid-1980s when Art’s daughter, young Susan Anderson, was named the national Gatorade player of the year after rewriting the Class 1A tournament record books while helping Mount Baker earn four state trophies.
It popped up again in 2017 when Susan’s older daughters, Jessica and Stephanie Soares, joined Mount Baker for one season and led the Mounties to their first girls basketball state championship.
Now this season, the Mount Baker legacy has another Soares — sophomore Rebeca — starring in Deming. The tall and skilled center already has guided the young and inexperienced Mounties to a 5-3 record, two more wins than they had all of last season.
And despite the burden of her name and family history, she’s enjoying the experience.
“I’m used to the pressure and expectations because of my Mom and sisters,” said Rebeca, who also plays for the Brazilian U16 junior national team. “This is an opportunity to get better. There’s no pressure. I’m just having fun with the team. I just want to enjoy the moment.”
So far, she’s done just that, averaging 21 points on 61 percent shooting from the floor, and collecting 14 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game.
And perhaps no one is enjoying it as much as Grandpa Art and Grandma Marcia, who get to watch not only Rebeca play but Jessica coach as an assistant for the Mounties.
“We’re really proud that she’s here; we watch them every chance we get,” Art said. “We’re really happy to have them come here. It’s natural to want to see your kids and grandkids.”
Jessica (left) and Rebeca Soares hold up a program featuring their mother, Susan Anderson (21).
The Anderson Legacy
Of course, lots of grandparents delight in coming to their grandchildren’s basketball games, but it’s rare to have it be at the same school where three generations of the family have starred.
There have been several others in Whatcom history, including three prominent ones this season (see the breakout below), but few have had the impact on a community as the Anderson family tree has had on Mount Baker.
It started in 1958, the first year Washington state high school athletics was divided into three classifications, when the upstart Mountaineers won the very first Class A boys basketball state championship.
The star of that team was a 6-foot-5 center named Art Anderson, who led Mount Baker to an upset of No.1-ranked Highland in the very first tourney game and would give the school its first-ever state title in a team sport and its only boys basketball state crown.
“I think I knew more (about the Mount Baker legacy) than my kids did,” said Art’s daughter, Susan. “I understood what a big deal it was to win state.”
The Andersons would move to Denver, where Susan and younger sister Debbie were born. Eventually, Whatcom County’s pull brought them back to Deming when Susan was in fourth grade. And despite being the tallest in her class, she didn’t start playing basketball until seventh grade.
“My Dad didn’t force me to play,” she said. As for Art’s place in Mount Baker lore, Susan was like any other teen. “As a player you’re not paying too much attention to the history.”
Once she started paying attention to hoops, however, there was no stopping her. A slim 6-foot-2 center, she was not the most physically gifted, but no one worked harder at her game — waking up each day at 5:30 a.m. to lift weights or to run a couple of miles around the old homestead.
With a guard’s shooting touch, unstoppable moves in the paint, and an unrelenting competitiveness on both offense and defense, she broke all the Class A scoring records — records that would stand for almost two decades.
Starting as a freshman, she helped Mount Baker take seventh, sixth, seventh, and third at state from 1983 to ’86. She averaged nearly 25 points and 13 rebounds per game her senior season, earning her not only all-state recognition but the Gatorade national player of the year award.
“She’s coordinated, but there are big girls who are more coordinated,” her high school coach, the late Jim Freeman, once said. “She has a great attitude and dedication. But so have other players. It’s just that you rarely find it all in one person.”
But even more telling was what she did off the court. She had a 3.9 grade point average, gave credit to her teammates even when the spotlight was on her, and shared her Christian faith through her humble actions.
“She’s been an inspiration to me,” her father would say of his 18-year-old daughter, who is generally accepted as the greatest girls basketball player in Whatcom County history.
Susan would go on to play four years at the University of Texas, where she helped the Longhorns make it to three Elite Eights and one Final Four and where she is still in the top 10 of career lists.
“My Mom doesn’t hype herself up as much as she should,” said Jessica. “The (Mount Baker) legacy wasn’t talked about much.”
For Rebeca, it became more real when she arrived in Deming as a high schooler.
“My Mom always told stories of Grandpa and Mount Baker,” she said. “Now I see my Mom’s name and pictures everywhere (around the high school).”
Rebeca Soares has helped drive the Mounties to a 5-3 record.
The Soares Legacy
Basketball led Susan Anderson in a very different direction after college. She played for Athletes In Action, a Christian sports ministry, and ended up in São Paulo, Brazil, a metropolis of almost 12 million people roughly 6,800 miles away from Deming, Washington, population roughly 350.
It was there she met Rogerio “Ro” Soares, a 6-foot-6 professional basketball player who also worked for AIA. They married in 1995, and while Susan soon retired from playing, she didn’t retire from basketball.
The two have worked for AIA under the umbrella of CRU (formerly Campus Crusade) for nearly three decades as sports missionaries — coaching ministry teams, hosting international missions teams, organizing camps, and doing their best to spread the Gospel through sports.
Oh yeah, and starting a family of basketball players. Not surprising with their parents’ genes and commitment to the sport, the five children were tall, athletic, and passionate about hoops.
In Brazil, however, sports are not organized around schools. When younger, the Soares children played for ministry teams that Ro would coach and before moving on to club teams.
“Ro was the coach who taught them how to dribble and shoot the right way,” praised father-in-law Art.
But even when they were good enough to play for national youth teams, college opportunities were limited — especially on missionaries’ salaries.
So, the couple decided to send the kids to the United States to try high school ball. And Art and Marcia were more than willing to give them a place to stay … and play.
The first to go was oldest son Timothy, who attended Mount Baker High School for two years, staying with the Andersons. After graduating with all-league honors in 2016, he went on to be an All-American at Master’s University, an NAIA school in the Los Angeles area, and is still playing professionally in Japan.
“He had a good experience,” said Susan of her son’s Deming days. “He was very outgoing; he wanted to do it. We missed him, but it was neat for him to build his relationship with my Mom and Dad.”
Next up were Jessica and Stephanie, who only came to Mount Baker for the 2017 basketball season. The whole family (except Timothy) was on furlough in the States and so joined the girls in Deming.
Jessica was a senior, Stephanie a junior, and the two of them took the unheralded Mounties to the 1A state final, where they upset undefeated Cashmere and superstar Hailey Van Lith by one point for the state championship.
Jessica, despite being plagued by injuries, would also played at Master’s University. She returned to Whatcom County, teaching and coaching at Bellingham Christian and helping out with the Mount Baker junior varsity and varsity.
Stephanie was an all-American at Master’s and then transferred to Iowa State, where she blossomed into a Division I standout. Despite a knee injury, she was the fourth overall pick in the 2023 WNBA draft.
Youngest son Tiago was just an eighth grader when the family moved to Deming when the older girls were in high school so never played for the Mount Baker varsity. But he, too, went on to play for Master’s and is a senior this season along with former Ferndale star Jazen Guillory.
Which brings us to Rebeca, eight years younger than Stephanie, and the last in the line from Brazil to Deming. She came alone at the beginning of the school year and to make the transition easier, attended Bellingham Christian where Jessica was teaching.
Because Bellingham Christian does not have high school sports and she lives with Jessica in the Andersons’ old house in Deming, she could play for Mount Baker, which she did starting with the volleyball season. And both Rebeca and Jessica have been pleased with the arrangement.
“She needs a school environment,” said Jessica. “She adjusted to the academics … and she’s super social and gets along with everybody. I think it’s great she’s not just a basketball player. They get to know you and see the whole person.”
While she’s enjoying her time in America, Rebeca said the best part is being able to share it with her older sister.
“We were close,” Rebeca said of the three sisters. “It’s nice having her support. She’s been through what I’m going through. And she’s a teacher and an athlete.”
Mom also has been pleased, not only with Rebeca’s experience so far but with all her children’s time at Mount Baker.
“It’s worked out,” said Susan. “Our kids didn’t have any picture of what it was like (to play high school ball in the U.S.). But so many other people have been great to them … been a part of their lives.”
Rebeca agrees: “I knew it would be different. Meeting new friends was a new thing. But the people were super nice. People knew us (because) our grandparents know a lot of people.”
As for what the future holds, Rebeca wasn’t making any predictions.
“I might stay another year,” she said. “It depends on opportunities later. I do want to go to college and play basketball.”
Still, in the midst of all the talk of championships, scholarships and even a legacy that goes back more than six decades, Susan wants to make sure all the children remember their priorities.
“Sports is important to us,” she said, “but thankfully, God is still the most important thing in their lives.”
Generations Of Glory
The Anderson-Soares family isn’t the only three-generation line this season. Two others are well known in Whatcom County: The Dykstra dynasty and Heppner clan.
Lynden Christian senior Gannon Dykstra, sophomore Gunnar Dykstra, and freshman Tyra Dykstra are children of Grant Dykstra, who starred for the Lyncs in the mid 1990s. And senior Danya Dykstra is the daughter of Greg Dykstra, who also played in the early ‘90s. Grant and Greg, of course, are sons of Glen Dykstra, the all-state guard who guided Lynden Christian to the 1976 state title.
Across town you have Lynden senior Brant Heppner, a three-time state champion, whose father Brian was a member of the 1990 Lions state championship squad, and whose grandfather was all-time great Howard Heppner, who led Lynden to its first two state titles in 1961 and ’62.
There’s one other family tree worth noting. Brody Price is a junior at Lynden; his father, Chris, played for the Lions in 1997 and ’98; and his grandfather, Chuck, was a Lions star who graduated in 1970. Chuck’s father didn’t play, but Chuck’s grandfather and Brody’s great-great grandfather, Pete, did in 1925 and ’26. That’s a five-generation connection.
