Richard Torseth - 1974

I grew up on East 28th Street, the residence of East basketball. It was not a coincidence that Les Eathorne lived on a street with East in its name. I feel like I was born into East Basketball, I did not choose it. It was chosen for me when my family moved on to East 28th Street and three houses away from coach and his two soon-to-be Knights: John and Mark Eathorne.

At the time my dad was the sports editor for the Bremerton Sun. That meant that he had to keep his distance and his allegiances to himself when it came to the local teams. I was not burdened by such nonsense. There is not a memory in my life that does not have East basketball as either background music or at center stage. I knew who Lyle Bakken was before I knew most of my relatives. But that was due to John and Mark. You just had to know certain things about East basketball if you were to be part of the neighborhood.

My first coaching lesson with Les came when I was about eight or nine. Les hauled Mark, Robbie Sawyers, Darrell Nelson and I up to the gym on a Sunday afternoon. This was always the golden moment of the week for us. As soon as we were in the building we were off to the small gym to swing on the ropes, mess around on the wrestling mats and throw the basketballs from one end of the gym to the other. There was no real basketball being played.

Les had organized the Sunday teams in the main gym and suddenly burst through the door to find us hanging from ropes and laying on the mats. He looked us all over and said “You have until 4:45 to learn how to dribble a basketball or this is your last trip to the gym.” With that, he walked out. We looked at each other and somehow got it into our small brains that the golden moment was about to go away unless we got down to business. Somehow we learned to dribble and preserve our gym pass.

Friday nights were sacred. Watching the Knights play to a packed gym while flying up and down the floor was a cherished experience. I am tattooed with memories of Wayne Gibson throwing bounce passes under defender legs, Alan Martin putting on shooting clinics with his beautiful jump shot as he challenged Port Angeles’ Bernie Fryer and Dave Pyles playing with endless energy.

While I was blessed to be part of the two teams that won back-to-back state championships, my Knight memories are always first about my teammates who have become my life long friends. Thirty four years after we played, I am again on a team with Walker, Olson, Eathorne and Garinger and the work together on this project has been seamless and a joy.

This is probably the touchstone lesson I learned from Les. While he taught us to play the game fast, he really was teaching us that if you want to go far, you will need to go together. You will need to pick each other up from time to time and be willing to rely on a teammate as well.

In both my work as a consultant and as a youth coach to basketball and soccer teams, every teaching moment has been underwritten by Les. Work hard, share the ball, play together, play smart and have fun. He always asked that we players give something back to the game of basketball. It has been both my privilege and my intention to do that in my work. They do not know it, but there are many kids and clients walking around with the Les Eathorne gene in them. I’m proud to be just another Knight who’s passing around this great bug.

Rick Torseth
Class of 1974
Human Securities, Inc.