KENNEWICK — Alison Crumb was in a crisis.
She had just played her final game at Western Oregon University the evening before, and the orange sphere her solar system rotated around was about to disappear.
“I was a mess,” Crumb said last week. “I had always been a basketball player or part of a team.”
The phone rang that Sunday. It was Julie Stewart, Crumb’s coach at Peninsula College, and she needed an assistant coach.
Moving back to her hometown — Crumb is a 2003 graduate of Port Angeles High School — to be a coach wasn’t what she planned to do, and she had student loans to pay off, but Crumb managed to make it work.
After one season, Stewart resigned and recommended Crumb as her replacement.
Crumb applied, and Peninsula College athletic director Rick Ross soon offered the job to the 23-year-old.
“I was like, this has got to be some kind of joke,” Crumb said.
It was already summer when she was hired and the Pirates had only one player returning for the 2009-10 season.
Peninsula went 3-21 overall and 2-14 in region play that first year.
“We were terrible, and I was probably terrible,” Crumb said.
“I had never recruited before, not a day in my life.
“I said, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do, but I don’t know how to do it.’”
The Pirates have been trending upward since, and this season, her sixth, Crumb has led them to their first Northwest Athletic Conference North Region championship since her sophomore year in 2005.
They are playing in their fourth straight NWAC tournament at Toyota Center with deepest squad of Crumb’s tenure.
And last week, Crumb was named North Region Coach of the Year.
‘I just love her’
Whitney Nemelka, a sophomore guard, transferred to Peninsula this past offseason after beginning her college career at Salt Lake Community College in Utah.
“She’s the best coach. I just love her,” Nemelka said of Crumb.
“I’m just very thankful for her, the fact that she took me on, coming as a transfer, and just changing my whole perspective of basketball and just changing everything around for me.
“She made me love the game again and made me get all my confidence back, and it’s all because of Coach Crumb.”
Cherish and Cierra Moss, both freshmen from Neah Bay admit to being scared of playing for Crumb.
Crumb quickly won them over.
“I have so much respect for her as a coach and as a person,” Cherish Moss said.
“She’s really nice and gives it to us how . . .”
Cierra jumps in: “No sugar-coating.”
Cherish continues: “Yeah, she just gives it to us.
“I’ve been able to learn so much from her.”
Whether it’s freshman Zhara Laster hanging on Crumb after a game in January, or sophomore Gabi Fenumiai lifting her coach after being taken out of her final home game last month, or the former players who posted on Facebook congratulatory messages for the region title or Coach of the Year honor (“Congrats on being Coach of the Year, Crumb Nation,” Taylor Larson, the program’s all-time leading scorer, wrote.), it’s clear that the players love Crumb.
She probably has never had a player not like her, right?
“I’m sure I have,” Crumb said.
“If there are any this year, they’re doing a good job of hiding it.
“And if they are, I’m excited, because I’ve told them that’s a really good quality to have as an adult, anyway.”
When recruiting, Crumb has two favorite characteristics in potential recruits: competitiveness and the desire to be part of something much bigger then basketball.
And she sees her job as much bigger than coaching basketball. She also has to be a guide for young women who are usually living away from their parents for the first time.
“For me, winning games is really important, but having an influence on someone just learning to be an adult is more important,” Crumb said.
“Now that you don’t have your parents anymore, I’ve going to be here as much as I can to help you.”
‘Own who they are’
Crumb also is there to tease her players as much as she can.
“Do you need me to stick around and finish your sentences for you?” she’ll say to players about to be interviewed by a reporter.
She dishes, but she also takes. For instance, the Moss sisters constantly remind Crumb that their teams have done better than Crumb’s at the past three Nate Crippen Memorial basketball tournaments in Forks.
“I just try to be myself and want them to be themselves,” Crumb said.
“I want them to sort of own who they are. And I can’t do that, if I’m not doing it.
“I’m not afraid to open up to them.”
Playing for Crumb might be fun, but it isn’t easy. Players must be competitive and willing to work hard.
“She always makes it fun, but she definitely makes it very serious,” Nemelka said.
“I like how she coaches. She knows how to have fun, but then when she needs to be serious, she knows when to put a foot down.”
Even this year’s players — those fourth-ranked region champions — have drawn Crumb’s ire.
“We’ve had our fair share of throw-downs,” Crumb said.
“It’s not fun for me when they’re not competing, when they’re not working hard.
“You’re disrespecting the game of basketball, and that pisses me off.”
That’s because basketball is more than just a game to Crumb.
“Treat the game with respect, because it gives so much,” she said.
“Discipline, team work, sacrifice. All of that translates into life.
“How you attack an adverse situation in basketball is the same way you approach an adverse situation in life.”
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
