Tappin remembers giving away basketballs to young camp goers. Tappin, who has retired from his glass company in Healdsburg, but still works with contractors in the area, believes to build up the progam, youth programs must be rebuilt. Now, Healdsburg, which has dropped to Division IV, has about 850 students. When Tappin coached, Healdsburg had nearly 1,200 students. While Healdsburg had some strong teams under Tappin?s successor, Sal Costanzo (the 2003-2004 team with Jamie Van Horne went 29-1), Windsor has cut into Healdsburg?s enrollment. Lannie and Addison are like, ?I?ve gotten enough points so let?s get the ball to the others.? Senior co-captain Addison Brush reminds Tappin of one of his top players, Lannie Bebber. Tappin has been impressed by the girls? learning curve. ?They?re learning to win those close games.? ?I think every game we?re playing better,? Sellards said.
Sellards believes her team can play Petaluma closer than the first meeting, when the Trojans won by 19 points. Last week, the Greyhounds upset Sonoma, which tied Petaluma for the SCL title last season, and then edged nearby rival Windsor Saturday night. Healdsburg has been one of the hottest teams in the Empire. ?I?ll say, ?Get the hell out of that offense,? and she will.? ?I talk to the girls and I think Jackie and I work well together,? Tappin said. ?We?re on the same page,? Sellards said of Tappin. ?For all kids they just have so many more interests today.? ?That?s a pretty good observation,? Johnson said. Tappin said coaching really hasn?t changed, although he?s noticed that some of the girls? don?t seem as fundamentally sound and that there are usually just one or two girls on a team that are good shooters. He told me to shut up, that assistant coaches can?t say anything.?
The ball went in the backcourt and I told the ref it was Headldsburg?s ball. ?Jackie and I had a good laugh in one game. ?I always stood when I coached,? Tappin said. Tappin has missed just one practice and has attended all the games. ?When she called me up she told me to dust off my tennis shoes,? Tappin said. He was a father figure for me growing up.? ?Oh yeah, I called him right away,? Sellards said. He told Henderson, who now goes by her married name of Sellards, that if she ever coached varsity, he would assist her. Henderson had been trying to get Tappin back into coaching. Henderson, whom he coached beginning in fourth grade, has coached frosh and JV girls at Healdsburg the last five years. Tappin stepped away from coaching just over eight years ago.
?We used to talk a half-hour before the games and ask what kind of show we were going to put on. ?We used to laugh about that,? said Johnson. That their teams always seemed to play important games against one another and the competition was sometimes fierce, most believed Tappin, 70, and Johnson, 68, didn?t especially like one another. 1 ranked Petaluma, there is also a turn-back-the-clock feature that should interest fans of the 1980s and ?90s.įirst-year Healdsburg coach Jackie Henderson, who starred as a Greyhound just over 20 years ago, is being assisted by Harry Tappin, her high school coach and the man who won 12 consecutive Sonoma County League championships, had a 110-league game win streak, won three section championships and took his 1991 and ?92 teams to state title games.Īnd Tappin?s arch-nemesis for much of that time is longtime Petaluma coach Doug Johnson, who also has won numerous league championships and took the Trojans to state in 2000. In what promises to be a quality girls? high school basketball game tonight when Healdsburg hosts No.