Kitsap Sun from Bremerton, Washington • 21

SCOREBOARD C2 PREPS C4 THE NBA C4 Watters qutmfcbe The Seahawks could be without the NFLs most durable running back in a playoff make or break game Sunday against the Jets SEAHAWKS D4 Year in review Seattle sports farts got new head coaehesfor the Seahawks and Huskies attd a new stadium for the Mariners 1999 D1 Sports THE SUN SERVING WEST SOUND THURSDAY DECEMBER 30 1999 SECTION Holiday blues for UW I Washington falls short in a Holiday Bowl thriller against Kansas State 24-20 By Jay Maebori For The Sun SAN DIEGO So much accomplished So much left to do Those were the extremes on which the Washington Huskies teetered Wednesday night after hanging with No 7 Kansas State leading the Wildcats through three quarters but falling 24-20 in the Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium Few gave the first UW team of the Rick Neuheisel Era a chance the century came to a close not there yet We have to be honest with ourselves But on our Kansas State quarterback Jonathan Beasley went on his merry way to the end zone rushing for school bowl-record three touchdowns including the eventual game-winning 1-yarder with 5:58 to play Air Force quarterback Cale Bonds did the same to the Huskies a year ago in a 45-25 Oahu Bowl loss Wednesday Holiday Bowl was not nearly that fiasco that eventually sunk former coach Jim Lambright While Washington had a pair of chances late to take the lead both See HUSKIES on C2 to pierce the defense ranked second in the country To not let speed scorch them the way Air Force did in Hawaii a year ago To finish better than the 1 lti-point spread Las Vegas dogged them with throughout bowl-game practices To let alone win quite happen Washington finishes the 1990s 3-5 in bowl games including losses in five of its past six postseason appearances listening to the prognosticators talk about what kind of avalanche if was going to be I think they realized the Washington Huskies are a formidable Neuheisel said just after the last season of WEDNESDAY Kansas St 24 Washington 20 INSIDEC2 Washington receiver Gerald Harris drops the ball but picks himself up Notebook AP photo by Lenny Ignelzi Huskies wide receiver Todd Elstrom is tackled by Kansas Ben Leber after making a catch It lift A S0UND Athletes of the Century win COACH Sonics I Seattle falls for the fifth straight time as Sacramento runs away with a 113-104 win The Associated Press Bremerton coach Wills pushed kids to work hard play defense Captain Bob Engstrom left and coach Ken Wills third from left accept trophies after Bremerton won the 1941 state basketball championship The Wildcats edged St John 30-29 in the title game ROUNDING OUT THE COACHING TOP 10 SEATTLE Chris Webber and the Sacramento Kings rediscovered their winning ways on the road by running into the floundering Seattle SuperSon-ics Webber had 31 points and 10 rebounds as the Kings handed the Sonics their fifth straight loss 113-104 Wednesday night you play a team with Gary Payton and they have lost four in a row not supposed to win the Webber said importance of this win can not be The Kings snapped their own four-game road losing streak and won for the fourth time in the last five games overall Darrick Martin stepped in for the ailing Jakon Williams and scored 21 points with seven assists time I get big minutes on the floor my game Martin said Martin has a history of success against the Sonics He had a 31 -point performance against Seattle when he played with the Los Angeles Clippers on January 23 1997 Payton led the Sonics with 25 points on ll-for-30 shooting Pay-ton missed his first six shots and score a point until there was 4:30 left in the first half Brent Barry had a season-high 24 points and Vin Baker added 22 points Westphal was pleased with Baker who has struggled offensively in recent games thought he played a really good Westphal said "He was lively and into it" The Sonics have five days off before playing 13 of their next 21 games on the road In a somber locker room the Sonics contemplated what has happened to their fast start "Adversity tests true character" Chuck Person said re going to find out what kind of character this team has" Webber began a game-breaking 10-2 run with a jump hook to put the Kings ahead 89-87 with 8:09 left See summary on C4 By John Wallingford Sun Staff The record says that on a tragic day 37 years ago Ken Wills died from a self-inflicted bullet wound For the legion of players whose lives he transformed the mark their mentor friend and colleague left on them is imperishable Wills The coach of the century was surrogate father to a generation of Bremerton boys who played basketball and ran track under his guidance were a damn fortunate bunch of said Louie Soriano a two-time all-state basketball player under Wills whose blue eyes tend to water when the subject turns to his beloved mentor don't think any one of us including Ted Tappe who was so talented achieved anything if it been for Ken And this is no mere clinging-to-the-glory-days sentiment kind of story It is true that Wills an elite miler and former major-college basketball player who coached hoops and track in Bremerton from 1936-62 could have won the honor on empirical data alone In 26 years as hoops coach at Bremerton and then West Bremerton high schools Wills won 72 percent of his games He compiled a 472 184 record and took the Wildcats to 15 state tournaments winning one and placing second three times But this isn't about the spoils of victory And yes his passion for perfection and a will in teaching fundamentals particularly when it came to man-toman defense and his ethos of mind-bending work prepared a singular stream of players for success in major college basketball But not the heart of the matter either If unsure why Wills was a peerless mentor in the annals of Kitsap sport allow 1944 Bremerton grad Joe Stottlebow-er to ram the message home See WILLS on C3 win seasons Heathcote now lives in Spokane 3 Les Eathome One of Ken Wills' top proteges at Bremerton High Eathome played for the former's only state champion in 1941 When he entered the coaching profession in 1949 Eathome proved he learned the master's lessons well He topped the 50Owin plateau in a career that took him from Camas to newly created East Bremerton and back to Bremerton when the schools reunited in the fall of 1978 He retired 10 years later but returned to coach Olympic High in 1995-96 and '9697 Eathome turn 76 in January lives in 5 Chuck Semancik Semancik passed away last month at the age of 84 but "Chuck Football" will live on forever The Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Famer compiled a 210-114-8 record during a 38year career all but four in Bremerton The hardnosed Semancik felt sports were a way of keeping kids in school and his teams were known for their toughness During a recent tribute players from Semancik's teams in the early 1950s and those who played for him at the end of his career shared stories about the man who truly cared about his players especially those who might have come from a difficult home life See TOP 10 on C3 2 Jud Heathcote This 1945 graduate of South Kitsap High was the winning coach in arguably tbe most important basketball game ever played Magic Johnson's Michigan State Soartans coached by Heathcote beat Larry Biiv Indiana State team in the 1979 NCAA championship game a game that awow 1 a nation to the concept of tbe Final Four tournament pools selection shows and Brent Musburger Tbe game invented two legends who went on to reinvigorate the NBA The 241 share of households that watched the Spartans' win 75454 makes it the ffw highest-rated college 'irM basketball game ever uCATurmx I feel more proud HEATH COIt can a national championship rather than I was part of that game" Heathcote later said significance of tbe two players involved has mushroomed over the years" Heathcote a hardnosed competitor at South who went on to play at Washington State never got back to the Final Four but his Spartans came close in 1986 and 1990 Considered one of the best teaching coaches of his day Heathcote more than stood the test of time After leaving WSU where he assisted Marv Harshman the burly man who was so animated on the sidelines went on to post a 420273 career record He was 340-220 at Michigan State Before that he coached Michael Ray Richardson among others at the University of Montana Heathcote retired five years ago as the fiftbwinningest coach in Big Ten history He won three Big Ten titles and had seven 20- THE SERIES Manette with wife Pat 4 Phil Pesco Pesco came to Olympic College as head basketball coach In 1948 and racked up six Northwest Conference championships in 14 years before a heart attack killed him at the outset of the 1962 season Upon his death at age 54 noted big man coach Pete Newell lauded Pesco as a basketball scholar "Most coaches exhaust the subject in five minutes" Newell said Phil could talk basketball for hours and remain stimulated" A teammate of Ken Wills' at Washington State Pesco enjoyed his best year in 1949 when a Ranger team led by Ted Tappe Sid Ryen atxi Darwin Gilchrist went 32 2 advanced to the National JC Tournament in Kansas and placed third The Sun continues it look at the standout athletes from West Sound SUNDAY: Baseball Athlete of the Century: Aaron Sele TUESDAY: Basketball Athlete ol the Century: Rick Walker WEDNESDAY: Female Athlete of the Century: Myrt Kressln TODAY: Coach of the Century Ken Wills FRIDAY: Male Athlete of the Century Don Heinrich helped the Bremerton High football team to a state title and was an All American at the University of Washington SECTION EDITOR: CHRIS BARRON PHONE: 792-9200 TO FAX: 4 US HSMMTJRngpRNi I i i I.