Freshman Orientation :: Libby Stump

They were there, in Yakima, last March, all taking in the performance of a lifetime, a magical, memorable performance on the type of night that demanded it from somebody. A state championship was on the line.

The coach was the closest, to the action, to his star player. He'd removed her early in games throughout her senior season, knowing it was hurting her numbers but needing to get valuable minutes, valuable experience for the players on the bench. She agreed. Team above self, always.

He'd gotten the job at Lynden Christian when she was just a fourth grader at the school, she and her classmates part of the youngest age group at camp that summer. "It was pretty apparent, even then, that she was passionate about basketball," Brady Bomber says.

"There was an excitement about the game, even at that young of an age. There was a passion to play that was unique. As we got to know her and see her develop, we knew she was going to be a very special player for us."

Her dad would have chuckled, about his daughter being passionate about basketball. He would have agreed, but he also knew how it started, how it began, with her being dragged along to another basketball tournament for her older siblings, brother Cole, sister Emma.

There she would sit, in the corner, back to the action, her focus on the Barbie dolls she had brought along to keep her occupied, anything but what her siblings were doing. I'm going to be a cheerleader, she told her parents. I'm not going to play basketball. I love dolls. I love dresses.

Did she ever. Rod and Ezra Stump only needed to have one threat at the ready to make their youngest child toe the line. Libby, I'm going to make you wear jeans tomorrow. No dresses. Worked every time. "She was a total girlie-girl growing up," says Rod.

The switch got flipped, in YMCA basketball, in a little, tiny gym with little, tiny hoops, complete with a 3-point line. One day she hit a 3-pointer. Everybody watching went crazy. For her, for what she'd done. Yeah, this is pretty cool, she thought. "That was when Libby started to like basketball," says her dad.

But no time to reminisce now. Rod's got a game to watch, Libby's last one as a Lady Lync. Trouble: Tied at the half in the Washington Class 1A state championship game, Nooksack Valley has taken a three-point lead on Lynden Christian, which is trying to win state title No. 14, into the fourth quarter.

Sitting courtside, Kate Ridnour had the same emotions she would have experienced had the Lynden Christian player everyone was looking at to save the day been her sister. She'd been part of her husband Luke's 12-year NBA career, but this was something different.

She'd come into their lives not long after the Ridnours had purchased the wing of a church in Lynden, its activity center, and turned it into a basketball court. Or a volleyball court. Whatever was needed by the youth, whatever programs needed to be hosted, the Ridnour Athletic Complex, the RAC.

Libby Stump was drawn to it. And the Ridnours were immediately drawn to her, coming over from nearby Ferndale for hours at a time, talking, connecting, then competing.

"She's such a special person. Right from the start it was, oh my gosh, I love this girl," says Kate, who grew up in Nine Mile Falls, northwest of Spokane, and played volleyball at Central Washington.

"I think I saw so much of my high school self in her, when it comes to the work ethic, the intensity, the drive that she was showing in her workouts. This is the kind of kid who is so easy to pour into because she is equally pouring out that same energy and effort and attitude."

Luke was the two-time state champion at Blaine High, where he was coached by his dad, was the Pac-10 Player of the Year at Oregon as a junior in 2002-03, played in the NBA until he retired in 2016. Basketball was his life. Kindred spirits, finding each other at the RAC.

"Luke started to see that too, that this is someone you can invest in," Kate says. "She eats, sleeps, breathes basketball. We were looking at our old selves in high school, so it was super easy to connect with her on a personal level."

The text message arrived earlier that day, the day of the title game, from Kate to Libby. If you want to win, you know what you need to do. You need to shoot the ball. You need to have a game tonight. "Luke was saying the same thing. She needed to do something she hadn't done all season," says Kate.

"I think she knew, this is my night. It was incredible. Every shot she was making, we'd seen her do that shot a million times at the RAC over and over and over again. It was the perfect ending to her story in high school."

Spoiler alert! Okay, too late for that. The Lady Lyncs rallied, won trophy No. 14. But not without some drama.

Lynden Christian found itself trailing by three late in regulation. Stump passed up a 3-pointer to take the ball to the basket. She made it, was fouled, made the pressure-packed free throw to send the game to overtime …

… where Lynden Christian trailed again, 56-55, with possession but with the clock now under 10 seconds. Nine, eight, seven …

… Stump got the ball, dribbled left, found nothing, pulled up from 12 feet, hit a jump shot that settled quietly, softly into the net. What was striking was that she pulled it off, the entire end-game sequence, without showing a single sign of stress or being rattled. Just like it was another game at the RAC.

"Honestly, I get more nervous thinking about that game and the situations I was in now. That and-one free throw? What was I thinking? But after that? We're not losing now. There is no way I'm going to lose this game. After that, I was just chill," she says.

"Now I look back and wonder, how did I have the composure to shoot that shot? I don't know."

The final line: 35 points, 12-of-21 shooting, 10 of 11 at the free throw line. The parting gift: State tournament MVP.

"I was just so happy for her," says Bomber. "She had put so much into it. My hope is that our players are able to play their best when the opportunity presents itself on the biggest stage.

"There were multiple games when we shut her down at the end of the third quarter or halftime. She was always willing to see the bigger picture and wanting our team to have the most success.

"She could have scored more points, had better numbers throughout the year, but when we needed her in two or three games to really put on the cape and make some plays, she was always able to do that.

"My happiness was that she had the game she did when she was so willing to not have that game if that's what the team needed. We were happy she was able to have that moment on that night."

Before she was handed the state tournament MVP trophy. Before she released that sweet, game-winning jump shot. Before Tree of Hope, Northwest Blazers, Way to Win. Before any of that, she was just a girl with a ball and a hoop in the driveway.

"She wasn't one you had to motivate. Just the opposite. Hey, time to come in," says Rod, who unexpectedly tossed a cord of wood onto what had been a small fire the day he called his daughter over to the television set.

She was in the fourth grade, playing regularly and had developed a strong dislike of losing and wanted to do something about it so it never happened again. He showed her a team that hardly ever did. Connecticut, when the Huskies were at their peak, was playing in the NCAA tournament.

"I watched one game and was hooked," she says. "I recorded their entire NCAA tournament and I can't tell you have many times I re-watched them blowing teams out. I'd watch, pause, go to the driveway, try to copy what they did. I became obsessed with it."

Mom, Dad, I want to do that, she told them. I want to play college basketball so bad. "That's when basketball took off and I started getting better and playing up a year, started playing more, year-round, started practicing by myself," she says.

Okay, not only by herself. It was just part of a day's schedule: school, homework, wait anxiously, impatiently, for her dad to get home. If Wilt Chamberlain holds the NBA record for rebounds (23,924) and John Stockton the record for assists (15,806), Rod Stump isn't far behind.

"That was the joke, that I used to be the leading rebounder. Then as time went on, I started getting more assists as she started making a few more," he says. "We spent hours out there. Good memories."

If basketball took up a major part of her heart, there was always room for more, like it had no bounds. When she was in sixth grade, maybe seventh, her dad took her to help with Special Olympics. The fit was natural, pure, unforced, love on love.

"That was her first experience with it. She loved it and everyone loved her. She was just naturally good with kids with special needs," he says. "That's one of her gifts. That's God-given. That's just Libby being Libby."

It never felt like a chore, like she was checking a box or adding a line to a college application. She was just following her heart, what felt right. Special Olympics turned into helping with Unified Sports, which turned into eating lunch in the special education classroom.

"I love helping kids and being around people with special needs," she says. "It's very fulfilling."

At the time, Brian Holsinger was just starting his time as an assistant at Oregon State. He wouldn't have known anything about a middle schooler from way up in Washington. But the second-year Montana coach sees the same things now, with Stump on his team.

That stuff's bedrock, hardwired into her, unchanging. "The kind of character she has, you can't find a better kid. She has the highest character and treats people so well," he says.

When she was a freshman, Lynden Christian finished second at the start tournament to La Salle. When she was a sophomore, the Lady Lyncs faced in the championship game No. 1 seed and undefeated Cashmere, which was led by Hailey Van Lith.

Does the name ring a bell? She was the NCAA Wichita Regional's Most Outstanding Player in March for a Louisville team that made the Final Four. She was first-team All-ACC and the Cardinals' leading scorer last season.

And on March 7, 2020, Lynden Christian had to find a way to slow her down in her final high school game or it would be a second consecutive runner-up finish.

"We thought we had enough pieces on offense to score," says Bomber. "We were curious to see how we'd match up defensively with them. We were in uncertain mode. We had a plan but you just never know.

"It was probably two minutes into that game, okay, we're going to be just fine. We're going to have a chance down the stretch. That was probably one of the most well-played games I've ever watched as a fan of the game."

Van Lith hit a pair of deep threes to close the third quarter, giving her 27 points for the game with the fourth quarter still to go. Her team led 51-43. They were on their way.

"We were fortunate to have played a very tough non-league schedule and tough league schedule," says Bomber. "We'd been in some dogfights that we thought prepared us for that fourth quarter, where it wasn't new territory for us. I think that allowed our girls to just play.

"We didn't change anything. We were a little more efficient on offense, we got a little better shots, we got out in transition a little bit. It kind of snowballed. You could feel the momentum change, possession by possession."

Van Lith ended the game with the same 27 points, on 10-of-26 shooting, that she took into the final period as Lynden Christian outscored Cashmere 15-4 in the fourth quarter. The Lady Lyncs shot 12 for 18 in the second half, 60 percent for the game, and won 58-55.

Stump? The then sophomore quietly led her team with 12 points off the bench, a hyper-efficient outing on 5-of-8 shooting. She made two of her three 3-point attempts, added two assists in 17 minutes.

"Libby was as productive for us as a freshman and sophomore as any kid we've had," says Bomber.

She was a state champion. A few days later, COVID arrived. Schools shut down. Gyms shut down. The Ridnours? They couldn't do it. Fines may come their way, but they decided to keep the doors of the RAC open, to give kids a place to go, to keep from feeling isolated, to find an outlet.

They wanted to provide a light that shone brightly in a time of darkness.

Stump started making the short drive from Ferndale to Lynden. One hour at the gym would turn into two, two would turn into three, three would turn into all day.

"I wouldn't be here without COVID," she says, not callously but honestly. "It was somewhere I could go where I could be productive and get better at something I love to do. I loved the structure. I loved getting better.

"My knees hurt so bad. My shins hurt so bad. But it was so fun. I got to go hoop whenever I wanted, any time of day, for as long as I wanted. I didn't know what I was chasing, but I knew this was my chance to get ahead."

She trained with Luke's dad, Rob. When Luke went to the gym with their oldest son, Trey, Kate would tip Libby off and she'd be on her way minutes later.

"That's where I got my jump shot. I spent hours and hours and hours there because there was nothing else to do. I just spent a crazy amount of time in the gym, and my game got so much better. I grew so much confidence at that time, playing against boys, anyone."

Her club experience began with The Way to Win. Then she was recruited to the Northwest Blazers but was stuck on a lower-level team, the kind never seen by college coaches. "I was so under the radar, it was crazy," she says.

One night during her junior year, when she was, naturally, at the RAC, she got a call. Could she drive to Seattle the next day and try out for Tree of Hope?

Tree of Hope is coached by Mo Hines, who was an assistant at Washington State when Holsinger was there, prior to him moving on to Oregon State. The club is housed at Pacific Courts, a facility owned by Cindi Oliver, mother of Lady Griz Keeli Burton-Oliver. "It's a small basketball world," says Stump.

What the coaches at Tree of Hope saw was what Bomber saw in May 2021, 14 months after COVID had shut down high school sports across Washington. Libby Stump was a different player. She had remade herself, all paid for in sweat equity.

"When she came back, it was clear she had taken her game to higher levels," he says. "Her skill level and her strength had improved. It was noticeable when she walked in the gym. Her hard work was evident."

As Tree of Hope made the rounds in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, with Stump finally showcased on the top team, coaches everywhere were asking themselves, Libby Stump? Where did she come from? She lit up Des Moines, Chicago, then probably wished she had left her phone at home.

"I think I got 10 offers in two days. It was crazy. My phone just exploded," she says.

That spring, Holsinger was named the new women's basketball coach at Montana. Hines wasted little time planting the seed. "He texted me the night before our first tournament, Montana, exclamation point," recalls Stump.

She texted back: What about Montana? I need more information. His reply: University of Montana. One of the best guys I know is the head coach there. You'd be the perfect fit. Her: I don't know about that, but that would be cool.

"When I got this job, he immediately called me and said, Libby Stump, she's the real deal," Holsinger says. "I wanted to see it for myself. I knew our culture fit her and her family, but I just wanted to make sure she could be successful.

"She is a bit of an undersized guard at the wing, so I wanted to see her play against really good competition. We started watching her in July, and she was producing against the best players in the country."

That's the burden of being a 5-foot-8 perimeter player being evaluated by Division I coaches. You've got to prove it. And prove it again, because there are doubters that someone a few inches taller doesn't have.

"I still wasn't convinced halfway through July, but she just makes things happen," says Holsinger. "You couldn't deny how productive she was on the floor. She just made the right plays. She was in the right place to grab rebounds, she came off (on-ball screens) and made big-time pull-up jump shots.

"Finally, we were, who cares how tall she is, she just makes plays. She just gets the job done. Then you combine that with being unbelievably coachable, great teammate, great student. We're like, we've got to go after this kid."

It was all new, this world of recruiting, but it wasn't new to the Ridnours, who became her next point of contact after her parents. When something came up, "I texted my dad, I texted my mom, then I texted Kate. I text her about everything in my life."

And when that wasn't enough, she did her own home visit. (Break here as Stump is swarmed by the Ridnours' five boys, No. 6 arriving next month. Thirty minutes later, once they give her up, adult time.)

"For everything about basketball, I'd go over there. They just know it. Luke played it. Kate went through the recruiting process. They always reminded me what's important. They were a big sounding board," she says. "That family has been awesome for me."

Luke Ridnour's advice: No. 1, go somewhere you can play. Just because it's your dream school doesn't equate to a dream experience if you're not playing. No. 2, don't decide anything until you step foot on campus. Don't just listen to coaches. See what feels right.

"He would give her that kind of wisdom. I was on the sideline being her biggest cheerleader. I was just so genuinely excited for her," says Kate. "I just tried to encourage her that the Lord had a spot for her."

She had multiple offers and opportunities to visit. Her first stop would be Montana. While it didn't factor into the decision, Rod certainly liked the idea of his daughter being in Missoula. He had played football and was a roommate with Bryan Tripp at Wenatchee Junior College.

Bryan Tripp's dad, Gene, played football for Montana. Bryan did too after transferring back home. His son, Jordan, was a Grizzly as well.

The family – Rod, Ezra, Libby – came, they saw, they were done. The recruiting process was over. "We went to 5 Guys our last night. Well, this is a no-brainer," says Rod. "She fell in love with Missoula and the team and Brian and the Lady Griz in general."

They returned home and Libby Stump started making the rounds to tell those closest to her about the visit, the experience. Bomber was first, then the Ridnours.

"She came home from that trip and came over and is just grinning ear to ear telling us all about it. She was just beaming. Libby, this sounds perfect. Luke was laughing. He said, you better go there. I wasn't even that excited as you are when I committed to Oregon," says Kate.

"She's so rare. She's the kind of person you built a team around. She is going to set the standard for work ethic, for energy, for attitude, for effort. She's so special. I tell her, Libby, you don't even see what's written all over you."

Last spring, after she became a state champion for a second time, she reached out to Holsinger. What can I do to best prepare me for the college game? He told her, "Keep doing your workouts, keep shooting. Shoot, shoot, shoot. It's something you can only really experience once you get here."

That shot, drilled to near perfection, will get her minutes this season as a true freshman. The coaching she received at Lynden Christian will help as well, because Holsinger loves his defense, and Stump has been hearing about its importance for years, has seen what it can do, how it can lead to wins.

"The level is different but we worked on a lot of similar stuff we work on here. It really prepared me. I've been hearing for four years, it doesn't matter if I stop my girl, it's a team game," she says. "We've got to help each other out. The ball scores.

"When we were most successful, we were helping each other the most. Defense is all five working together. There are no shortcuts. I think I have a good base of doing it the right way. (Bomber) really invested a lot of time in making sure we all understood and were great at it."

But there are moments, plenty of them, when she gets frustrated, overwhelmed. "There is no way to fully prepare, and it's true," she says. "It's so different. The time, the dedication, the focus you need to have in practices is unbelievable.

"I've had good coaches throughout and I'm still, whoa. You've got to be locked in all the time. I still can't believe I'm here. It's top level and you feel it. I love it. I geek out."

She does as well when she looks up at the rafters of Dahlberg Arena and sees all the banners, the history of success they represent, the players who have come before her, who laid the foundation that she is hoping to add to.

It's a lot like LC.

"Lynden Christian is a pretty crazy spot. It's a lot like here, the legacy that it has on the women's basketball side," she says. "A lot of my teammates had moms and grandmas that played for the Lady Lyncs. It's just crazy the traditions it holds and how much it matters. It's a really big deal."

Yep, she'll fit right in.

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