SPOKANE — Glance through the Class 2B girls section of the state tournament media guide and the first school listed is Adna.
Underneath the roster is a gray box of info. It gives the basics, such as school location and athletic director. Over on the bottom right lists the names of the coaching staff.
And there’s five assistant coaches that make up head coach Chris Bannish’s staff. It is the largest staff in the classification.
Why the high number?
“We all have roles,” Bannish stated. “It is hard, some guys will overstep their boundaries, but I let them because most of them have been there.”
Even though every decision and every crucial play set is called by Bannish, his stable of assistants – Cody Young, Casey Dotson, Scott Albert, Patrick Richardson, Mike Marte and Kenya Lorton – are heavily involved in everything that has aided the Pirates to their first ever Class 2B state championship game appearance.
Dotson was a former head boys coach for Adna for a decade, loves the X’s and O’s plus is Bannish’s “right-hand man.” Richardson helps with stats, Marte washes the jerseys, Albert lays out the training plan, Lorton and Young are the youthful voices as recent college grads.
And practices aren’t a walk-in-the-park.
“Having that many, some people might think that’s crazy,” senior guard Karsyn Freeman said. “We keep the tempo up just how a game should be.”
With a senior-laden roster that has been through ups and downs in multiple sports, they are around each other all the time. The coaching staff is the same way.
Over the years, trust has been deeply developed and communication between the players and coaches is substantial.
This isn’t a group of full-fledged adults having to listen to several coaches. For a bunch of teenagers, they respond to the criticism and don’t take the camaraderie for granted.
“Our coaching staff is like family, they’ll do anything for you,” fellow senior Kendall Humphrey said. “We work hard in practice and it shows on the court.”
Bannish gives Young a lot of credit for helping the mentality of Freeman. Young’s college career ended prematurely five years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He uses that message routinely as motivation.
“They’ll be head coaches one day,” Bannish said of Young and Lorton.
As the Pirates prepare for their first ever state title game in basketball, there will certainly be voices willing to input opinions on how to slow down the guard play of Northwest Christian. Or ways to get 3-point shooting on a roll.
And Bannish can’t wait.
“Sky is the limit for these guys,” he said.
