La Conner honors late coach Rich Watkins

The middle school basketball game between La Conner and Conway here last week was emotional.

So, too, was a special pre-game ceremony.

Before the teams tipped off for what was a seesaw, down to the wire 49-46 La Conner victory, Braves coach Greg Edwards honored his mentor, the late Rich Watkins.

"Rich really helped me out my first five years of coaching," Edwards told the large crowd gathered at the middle school gymnasium. "I had great respect for him."

A beloved figure at La Conner Schools – he also mentored longtime high school baseball coaches Jeremiah LeSourd and Andy Otis – Watkins died earlier this year.

Edwards saluted Watkins for the legacy he left on the La Conner campus, one marked by unwavering optimism and tireless energy in support of the school district's students.

Then Edwards called forward Watkins' widow, Karen and daughters, Katie and Ashley – both of whom are La Conner alumni – to receive a photograph and basketball signed by team members.

The applause that followed was heartfelt.

Rich Watkins, who had been a stellar athlete at Mead High School in Spokane, was just 58 years old at the time of his death. He had undergone a bone marrow transplant in his early 20s to treat a condition in which his body had stopped producing red blood cells.

He was a patient of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Don Thomas, widely considered the father of bone transplantation, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"He taught us to celebrate each day because tomorrow is not a given and to live each day to the fullest," La Conner resident Jaime Stroebel-Reinstra said of Watkins prior to attending a celebration of life service for him last February.

That spirit was rekindled a week ago Tuesday when Watkins' memory was heralded in the building where he had been such a positive force in the lives of local youth.