It's been said that everybody loves a winner.
Why, then, doesn't everyone love Prairie High School's AlAldridge?
By the narrowest of measuring sticks, Aldridge is a successstory. He is best known in girls basketball, a sport in which he isbelieved to be Washington's winningest high school coach. Aldridgehas a 22-year record of 462-99 at Prairie, and his Falcons havequalified for this week's Class 4A state tournament in Tacoma, wherethey hope to win the program's fifth state championship.
In addition, the 51-year-old Aldridge has coached state highschool champions in softball and water polo, and his prize-winningjazz bands have stocked several trophy cabinets.
Yet with all the measurable success, Aldridge has detractors. Thecritics deride his methods and his style, questioning how he dealswith students and the emphasis he places on winning.
The secret of Aldridge's success is no mystery.
'He outworks everybody -- in boys and girls basketball. No oneputs in the hours that Al does,' said Columbia River boys coachDavid Long, who coached River's girls basketball team for severalyears.
Aldridge often is the first person in the school building and thelast to leave. Ken Storey, a longtime Prairie assistant basketballcoach, figures Aldridge watches 20 hours of video tape a week duringthe season, a figure the coach sheepishly says is somewhatexaggerated. During the off-season, Aldridge will coach more than100 games, and spend countless hours supervising open gym.
The payoff shows in the scoreboard, smiles and scholarships.
Aldridge has had one losing season buried among the 18 statetournament appearances and 12 league championships at Prairie. Mostof his players leave the program feeling love and respect for theman. From community colleges to Pacific-10 Conference schools, 43Prairie players have accepted college basketball scholarships,including two on the current team.
The players leave Prairie not only remembering the championships,but the small touches Aldridge provides. Such as an annual Christmasdinner at his house, or the necklaces and stuffed animals he's beenknown to give on Valentine's Day.
'He is the nicest man. He would do anything for any of us,' saidHeather Nevenner, who played at Prairie from 1994-98 and currentlyis a Blazer Dancer. 'One reason he's had such a successful programis he never left anything undone. He has taught me things I willcarry out for the rest of my life.'
Opinions are mixed
Outside the program and the Prairie community, feelings forAldridge range from respect to resentment. He has been accused ofcrossing the line several times during his coaching career, fromrecruiting players to needlessly yelling at players to goingoverboard with his summer program.
The accusations have always been hearsay, as it's never beenproven that Aldridge bends or breaks the rules. Still, theperception is powerful reality.
'I always respected him. I thought he worked really hard. I justwasn't always pleased with how he went about things,' said KarenHill, who coached at Fort Vancouver during the 1980s. 'I never hadany trouble with him. Guess I was just lucky.'
Several current and former coaches declined to talk aboutAldridge. As one said, 'When winning becomes the most importantthing, any time you say something's wrong, it sounds like sourgrapes.'
When asked that perhaps there some good to say about Aldridge,the coach said, 'I don't have anything good to say about (him).'
'I suppose,' Aldridge said, 'I can be misunderstood. Hopefullyfor the people in the know, they understand my intensity and theyunderstand my competitive spirit and that I have the kid's bestinterest at heart.
'And that I care for them.'
As if the girls were his daughters.
'Those kids are my life,' said Aldridge, who married in 1998 andhas no children.
Finding his calling
From childhood to now, Aldridge has always preferred toparticipate rather than spectate. He tried just about every sportimaginable while growing up in Vancouver, from football to fishing,from hunting to horseshoes. He wasn't good at everything, but thatdidn't stop him from wanting to win.
'If we were going to line up pennies against the wall, it wasgoing to be for something,' Aldridge said.
Cut from the Fort Vancouver basketball team in ninth grade,Aldridge settled on swimming and track. He went to Mount HoodCommunity College on a track scholarship, and eventually ended upcompeting for Central Washington's accomplished water polo team.
Coaching came by happenstance. Aldridge's roommate, Ron Rakoce,talked him into helping coach a girls basketball team at BattleGround High School. In time, Aldridge took over a freshman team,then the junior varsity. When Prairie opened its doors in 1979,Aldridge felt ready to try a varsity team.
Success was immediate, although Aldridge admits he was a littlelucky. Prairie went to state his first season, placing fifth in thetournament. That team had the school's first star, Tami Stuart, apost player who went on to play at Boise State and 22 years laterstill holds seven school records at Prairie.
'She was really a special player, a woman playing in a girlsworld,' Aldridge said.
The first taste of success was contagious. Five of Prairie'sfirst six teams went to state, with the 1984-85 team reaching thechampionship game. It was no accident, however, as Aldridge decidedearly on to model his program from ideas he gleaned from some of theNorthwest's best coaches, such as Auburn's Dennis Olson, OregonCity's Brad Smith, and Mark Neffendorf of Glencoe High School inHillsboro, Ore.
The backbone of Prairie basketball is defense, a word that hasbeen stitched into the player's socks since the early 1980s.Neffendorf turned Aldridge onto defense, after his Glencoe teamsroutinely pounded Prairie during summer team camps.
'I always thought defense was an area of the game where you couldhave control,' Aldridge said. 'You could teach defense and have somesay in the outcome of the game. Defense involves effort, so itmotivated us to play hard all the time.'
Danielle Dettorre, who played at Prairie from 1993-96, said:'Even if you weren't a great shooter, Al could always make you intoa great defensive player.'
Breaking the mold
Long believes Aldridge got a jump on competition because heunderstood, before most girls coaches did, that summer was just ascritical to building a program as the school season.
'It used to be roll the balls out, give 'em 3 1/2 good months,then put the balls away and see you next November. Al never didthat,' Long said. 'With girls, if you do not provide theopportunity, they will not play in the off-season. You need a coachto provide the summer program.'
Since the outset of his Prairie program, Aldridge used June andparts of July to play games and participate in individual and teamcamps. In Prairie's slick game program, the first thing writtenabout the Falcons is the team's elaborate off-season schedule.
While Aldridge can't require that players take part in summeractivities, he said, 'they want to play. They're not being forced toplay. The kids understand that if they're not playing and othersare, the others are liable to get better.'
It wasn't until the 1990s that most local girls basketballprograms started playing in the summer.
'Now if you want to compete with him, you have to work with him,'Long said.
Or get out, as Hill eventually did. She felt strongly that winterwas for basketball, and summer for kids.
'I used to tell (the players), go chase boys and do whatever youdo during the summer. Be a kid,' Hill said. 'It's an awful longseason. You get tired as a coach, and you know your kids are gettingburned out.'
The demands of Prairie's program don't end with summerbasketball. Aldridge's practices are no time for slackers. He'sintense, fiery and vocal -- and his players love him for it.
'When we have parent coaches in the spring, we goof off a lot,'Prairie forward Heather Cushing said. 'When we make a mistake, heknows how to push my buttons.'
Aldridge doesn't apologize for his passionate, intense coachingstyle. It's who he is.
A difficult taskmaster
The approach is the main reason outsiders often criticizeAldridge. They see him yell at players, or stomp, scream and whistleon the sidelines, and they conclude that he is a dictator, not acoach.
'Everyone sees him as that taskmaster and somebody that probablyyells too much, but if they saw him with the kids, they'd know himdifferent,' Storey said.
Nevenner said: 'Practices, yes they were intense. You wanted tocry on the way home because maybe you had a bad day or feel bad thatyou let him down. But we had a blast. He taught us how to have funat the right time, and when to work.'
Aldridge admits his feelings are hurt when people criticize hisstyle, because they overlook, or don't see, that he more oftenencourages and nurtures players.
'He is such a nice man, and some people just don't get it,'Nevenner said.
Nevenner started to cry as she told a story about a videoAldridge makes for each senior at the end of the basketball season.
'At the end of the video, he would type a note thanking me forall my hard work, and signed it 'your friend and coach.' It totallybrought me to tears,' she said.
As much as Aldridge dislikes the public's perception of hiscoaching style, it pales in comparison to his rage when accused ofrecruiting players to Prairie.
Informal charges that Aldridge has lured players from outside ofPrairie's school boundaries have been around for almost two decades.The most prominent accusation is that he uses his youth basketballcamps to pinpoint top middle school players, then informally makescontact with the player through Christmas and birthday cards, and anoccasional telephone call.
Aldridge said he has sent Christmas cards, but 'I've sent them toevery kid in camp. And I've only done it a few times. That'sexpensive to send out 120 cards every Christmas.
'I haven't recruited kids. Our program recruits kids. Kids havecome to our program because they want to be here. Parents have movedhere because they want to be here. That's the way it is.'
Aldridge was once forced to formally defend himself regarding arecruiting charge.
In 1989, La Center filed a complaint with the WashingtonInterscholastic Activities Association, alleging Aldridge recruitedone of the school's top musicians to Prairie. Former La Centersuperintendent Bill Thomas charged that Aldridge had been to thehome of the student several times and worked out a deal to where themusician could play piano and other instruments for Prairie.
After a one-month investigation, the WIAA cleared Aldridge andPrairie of the charges, although the explanation was murky.
Asked if there were any evidence to support a claim that a bandstudent had been recruited to Prairie, then-WIAA executive directorCliff Gillies said, 'that depends on how you interpret what isinducement to transfer and what is recruiting.'
At the time, Gillies added that the WIAA had received severalcomplaints regarding Aldridge recruiting girls basketball players toPrairie. Mike Colbrese, WIAA executive director since 1993, saidhe's never heard of a recruiting protest regarding Aldridge.
Fighting back
Although it seems as if everything Aldridge does ends up in thewinner's circle, he has had a few setbacks.
In 1989, he resigned as Prairie's coach to start a women'sbasketball program at Portland Community College. The result was an0-22 season. Aldridge returned to coach Prairie the followingseason.
'It bothers me a little that I wasn't able to succeed there, butyou have to be realistic,' Aldridge said. 'I didn't have anopportunity to recruit kids, there was no program, no athleticdirector to give guidance and leadership, and I had six kids. Whatcan I say?'
The worst bout of Aldridge's life didn't happen in the gym, butinside his house.
In April 1994, while Aldridge was sleeping upstairs, an intruderbeat him with a baseball bat. By the time Aldridge got to his feetand grabbed his gun, the assailant was gone. It took weeks to mendthe bloody wounds and broken bones, but years passed before theemotional scars healed.
The assailant was never caught, and Aldridge still isn't sureabout the motive. Aldridge said he was told that the beating wasplanned, but the person who knew the intruders was unwilling to goto the police, for fear of reprisal.
Aldridge no longer cares how, who or why. He just wants toforget. Just last week, he had a nightmare about the incident, thefirst in years.
'It's made me less trusting, a little more defensive and probablyin some ways, resentful,' Aldridge said.
Shortly after the incident, Aldridge considered getting out ofteaching and coaching, but decided to stick with his career.
'I didn't want an incident like that to get me out of somethingthat I loved doing,' he said.
Look to the future
Aldridge's future is unclear. He plans to retire from teachingthis year, but could return to school through the state's rehireprogram. He intends to continue coaching basketball and softball,for at least four more years.
However long he coaches, Aldridge plans to stick with Prairie. Hehas a few goals left, such as reaching 500 wins, and perhaps a top-10 finish in the national rankings some day.
Boys basketball would be an intriguing challenge, one Aldridgedoesn't think he'll take up. Long believes Aldridge 'coaches morelike a boys' coach and gets away with it, because the girls respecthim, and they know he loves them.'
Public perception won't drive Aldridge out of girls basketball. Agut feeling could, however.
'The time you stop getting excited about the big games andgetting butterflies in your stomach, that'll be the time to stepaside and let somebody else do it,' Aldridge said.
Whoever it is, they'll be hard pressed to do it as well.
The Aldridge File
* Age: 51
* Profession: Music teacher, girls basketball coach and softballcoach at Prairie High School.
* Coaching accomplishments: Aldridge is believed to be the stateleader in wins among high school girls basketball coaches, with 461before Saturday's regional playoff game. In 22 years as Prairie'scoach, he has led the Falcons to four state championships inbasketball and one in softball.
* Career highlight: As runner-up for national high school girlscoach of the year in 2000, Aldridge was named to coach in theWomen's Basketball Coaches Association All-American Game inHartford, Conn., which was televised on ESPN.
* The athletes: 43 Prairie graduates have earned collegebasketball scholarships, ranging from community colleges to NCAADivision I. Among the most notable are Sonja Curtis (Oregon), TamiStuart (Boise State), Jessica Jones (Oregon State), Courtney Cushing(Santa Clara) and Brenda Pickup (Wyoming).
* In his footsteps: Two former Prairie players are now varsitygirls basketball coaches Kelly Bradstreet, in Oregon, and SarahSpjut, in California.
