“Gosh I’m always filling up my gas tank!” exclaims Bob Winters.  “We stay busier now than we were before we retired.” Bob and his wife Maurine are busy these days supporting their kids and grandkids. The retired football coach from Toppenish and wife of more than 50 years have three children with head coaching jobs in the state and two granddaughters that are standouts for their high school sports teams.

Their son Rock is the head football coach at Zillah and his daughter Whitney is a sophomore at Zillah and a standout in both volleyball and basketball. They love to watch Rock’s teams play, but are struck with conflict even during football season. Toppenish High School recently honored Bob for his 30 plus years of service at the school and named their new football field after him. “When they name a field after you, I think you are obligated to attend home games,” says Maurine, “we are Wildcats at heart anyway! We’ve got to know a lot of the kids there even though Bob isn’t coaching anymore.  Sometimes when we are at other schools supporting our kids I catch myself yelling ‘Go Wild–’; it usually gets a look from Bob when I do.”

“Mom is a sports fan!” says Rock, “She always knows how the Utah Jazz are doing and where they are in the standings. She follows the Mariners and Seahawks too. You don’t want to sit next to Mom at a game either! She really gets into it, yelling at the refs and cheering on her team, Dad has to calm her down sometimes. They have always supported us kids in sports when we were growing up, so it’s not surprising they are driving all over the country to see their grandkids play.”

“We were visiting Bob’s Mother today,” Maurine says of her 93 year old mother-in-law, “when we told her we had to leave early today, her response was- ‘Let me guess, you’re going to another game.’ ” It wasn’t just another game they were going to that day, it was the 1B State Tournament. And they weren’t there to watch just one team but two.

Their son Rick took on the coaching job of the boys basketball team where he is also the Superintendent of schools, St. John-Endicott. Rick’s daughter Alli is a standout player as a Junior for the girls basketball team at SJE as well. Both teams were playing in the tournament that day. But the SJE connection doesn’t end there, Rick’s sons are involved as well. Brayden serves as team manager for his Dad’s team and brother Ben plays in the pep band. This keeps Bob and Maurine busy when they make the nearly 200 mile trek to St. John to see that part of the family play.

When asked why a guy with all the responsibility of school superintendent takes on the role of basketball coach Rick humbly gave a short explanation to the long story. “Sometimes tiny schools need people to fill roles, and with my background I was comfortable taking it on. After talking it over with the family we decided that we could handle it for a few months. Whether or not I can continue as the coach is another question, but we’ve got this far so I am happy to be doing it and having a lot of fun.”

“My parents are just such dedicated good parents they try to see as much as they can,” says Rick. “They travel all over the place and back and forth to see us play and then back to see Mindi and Whitney. It’s amazing. Then of course Dad he is the constant coach that always wants to give advice. We tease him because he’s always talking about the keys. The key to this… the key to success is to try this and try that. So Mindi and I and Rock are always joking about Dad and his keys to success. But they are always there and always supportive.”

“Mom and Dad had the whole team over for pizza the other day before we played,” explains Rick,” and without warning I asked Dad to give them a pep talk. He did a wonderful job of giving a talk.” Yep the old coach has still got it!

“Mom is the loudest in the stands! She is a very competitive spirit,” said Rick, “She’s all over the referees- even in this contest up 17.” He was referring to one of Alli’s games in the state tournament which was one sided by half time.

Closer to home is their daughter Mindi, who is in her fifth year as the head coach of Zillah girls basketball. When they go to see Mindi’s games they also get to see their granddaughter Whitney play. Rock’s daughter Natalie also serves as team manager and travels with the team everywhere they go. When asked about her parents, Mindi fought back emotion to explain. “My parents have been a huge support to me, not only this season, but my entire coaching career at Zillah. In fact what has been neat for me is to see the relationships develop between my players and my parents. They kind of feel like they are extra grandkids.”

“All the miles they have put on and the time they invest. I love them to death for their support.” When asked about the keys Mindi’s response was in humor.”Every Sunday Dad says ‘I got a key for you’ and every once in a while they are keys that I am responding, Dad I don’t want to hear it again. I know we need to shoot more free throws! But really it’s true, not only that Dad cares so much, not only being at games, but he wants to give advice and he wants to help and it is great! And he does, he always has great keys!”

Rick’s season with the Eagles has been similar to that of Mindi’s with the Leopards. The Eagles started 3-7 on the year, experiencing four consecutive losses at one point.

 They then turned things around and went 7-3 the second half of the year and qualified for the state tournament by winning in district play. The Leopards also started slow, they were 4-6 at the midway point, they had experienced a five game losing streak themselves. But turned things around in the second half of the season and won 9 of their last 10. Mindi was named Coach of the Year in the SCAC West in light of the turn around. The Lady Leopards advanced all the way to the District Championship game against Granger. But on the same night that game was to be played, Rick’s Eagles had advanced all the way to the State Championship game against Sunnyside Christian. Responding to the question of where his parents would be, Rick said,”Well ya know Mindi is the golden child, so I imagine they will be there.”

“That is absolutely not true!” responded Mindi. “Rick is the spoiled one and everyone knows he’s the favorite!”  Bob and Maurine ended up at Rick’s game, but had the entire Lady Leopards team over for a team breakfast that morning. It was then that they explained they would be attending Rick’s game but would be there for them the following week as well.

Rick’s Eagles ended up losing in their championship game 49-43, as did Mindi’s Leopards 48-47. Mindi’s Lady Leopards will be in action this week in the SunDome.