Tag Archives: Gary Baskett

My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2021

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The time has arrived for The Big Blog Post. At the end of each year, I always look back at the posts from the past 12 months and recognize some of my favorite writings. Most years it is quite tough to simply identify the 10 blog posts I wish to immortalize for this annual tradition—and that doesn’t even entail ranking them.

An element that makes the task hard is the volume of which to choose from. I don’t know how I did it, but I wrote more in 2021 than I did the previous two years. The 173 posts I wrote this year barely edged out the 172 posts I wrote in 2020 and the 165 I penned in 2019. Of course, nothing will ever compare to the ultra-productive (and pre-wife/pre-kids) year in 2014 when I wrote 253 posts.

As I preface every year before jumping in, this countdown is based almost entirely on my personal preferences. Very little consideration is given to “how well” the posts did in terms of total views. With that said, let’s get the 8th edition of The Big Blog Post underway….

10. Dollar Tree Scavenger Hunt (January 25) – My sister and I put our heads together and designed a Dollar Tree scavenger hunt for our kids to participate in. Writing the blog post about the adventure was almost as fun as watching Sloan, Mikayla, and John complete it. The three children had to find five items that fit certain categories such as “a red drink” or “a green food.” The blog post captured some good, clean Dollar Store fun and recapped Sloan’s discoveries (this TikTok did too).

Sloan scored big with her Trolls bath bomb, an item that satisfied one of the scavenger hunt categories.

9. Rolling Out the Modernized WSU Brand (September 21) – A post that focused on my professional career made the countdown this year and for that I am really happy! In 2021, our Office of Marketing and Communications rolled out a modernized brand at Washington State University. What made this effort so unique was that it was mostly an in-house undertaking. In this blog post I was able to discuss my role on the project while shedding light on some of my co-workers who were the real heavy lifters. I was proud to be part of our brand team and enjoyed spending time this fall giving presentations to the WSU community about how the modernized brand should be reflected on social media.

It was an honor to work on the modernized brand. This is a screenshot of our brand new Washington State University secondary logo.

8. Don’t Blink’s 10th Anniversary (May 17) – This year marked the 10th anniversary of Don’t Blink and I took time during the month of May to celebrate. This blog post kicked off the festivities as I briefly addressed the past, present, and future of Don’t Blink. Although short, the significance of this post couldn’t be overlooked when building this list.

My blog turned 10 on May 14, 2021.

7. A Montana Homecoming (October 11) – October was a month of football homecomings for me. After seven years away from Washington-Grizzly Stadium, I finally got to watch the University of Montana football team play in its friendly confines once again. The football game was a blast but the entire weekend was one that Sid and I will always remember. A week later, I traveled to Pullman with my dad and brother to watch my first Cougar football game in Martin Stadium since 2004. In both posts I wrote about nostalgia I felt but I also detailed the new memories that were made.

It was a sweet homecoming as Sidney and I visited Missoula to watch University of Montana football and to enjoy other experiences too.

6. Marriage Advice After 40 Years (August 17) – In terms of word count, this post is the shortest, but it might contain the most significant advice of the year. My parents marked their 40th anniversary in 2021 and us three kids and our families had the pleasure of celebrating it with them. As the festivities came to a close, we asked my mom on our family text thread for the secret to their success. She selflessly shared it and I re-purposed it for this blog post so that I might share it with my readers.

My mom gave some great advice based on her 40 years of marriage with my dad.

5. The Youngest He Will Ever Be (September 8) – This year I have back-to-back short but sweet posts on the countdown. Just like with my mom’s marriage advice, I got to the point with this one about my son. I articulated a thought that came to my head during a recent morning that Beau would never be younger than he was at that moment. I ran with it and realized that no matter how challenging he might be on a given day, we need to treat the present as special because he will only grow older from that point on. The post seemed to resonate with other parents and my wife even shared it on her social media (something that is only reserved for the posts she feels passionate about).

During 2021, I started to put in perspective that Beau would never be younger than each passing day.

4. Hey Southern Belle, What Have You Learned After a Year? (May 12) – Around the one-year anniversary of Sidney moving to Washington, I wrote this blog post chronicling some of the major themes my wife learned from her coast to coast move from the South to the West. From food to drink to accents to climate to politics; it is all included! It was lighthearted and fun, but definitely a testament to the fact that Sid is a rock star and made a major transition look easy.

Sidney made the adjustment from the South to the West with ease.

3. What Made #GlenGotCarriedAway Special (July 6) – A big highlight of the year was watching my brother get married and serving as his best man. So much planning and anticipation led up to the July 4 wedding. The excitement truly reached its peak the week of the wedding when family and friends of both the bride and groom converged in Spokane. Those several days were filled with wedding activities, preparation, and camaraderie. This post examined the collaborative attitude embraced by people from different geographic regions, faiths, and life experiences to give Glen and Carrie a week they would never forget. This post allowed those who played a part in #GlenGotCarriedAway to truly reflect on how special it was.

Glen and Carrie got married on July 4, 2021. This is a photo during the reception with Beau.

2. My Top 10 Blog Posts of All-Time (May 31) – If I annually call this entry The Big Blog Post, the top 10 list I wrote at the end of May should be called The Biggest Blog Post. As part of my Don’t Blink 10th Anniversary Celebration, I counted down my top 10 posts of all-time in the decade-long history of my blog. That required me to look back on approximately 2,000 blog posts and choose the top .2%. It was a lengthy and involved process but I think the countdown succeeded at representing my best work. It also showcased the evolution of my writing as the posts that appeared on the countdown ranged from the blog’s first year in 2011 all the way through 2021. In what was probably the easiest decision in terms of compiling the list, my Beau Meets World blog post from 2020 was tabbed #1 in the history of Don’t Blink.

This year, Don’t Blink celebrated its 10th anniversary and I wrote a blog post ranking my top posts of all-time

1. Gary Baskett: One-Of-A-Kind (September 25) – This was a pleasure to write. At the same time, I also felt the weight on my shoulders. Mr. Baskett was a legend and who was I to write a piece about such a special man? After all, he had molded thousands of athletes who were much more successful on the field than I ever was. After going back and forth, I went for it. Coach B was about instilling confidence in others and how would I be honoring his memory if I didn’t have the confidence to write a piece that might bring some comfort and joy to those reading it?

The post would be shared widely and I had the pleasure of hearing from former Panthers who I both knew and didn’t know. However, it became evident that what I wrote about Coach B just barely touched the surface of the amazing person he was. I attended a “Victory Lap” memorial for Mr. Baskett held at the Mead High School track several hours after his funeral. It was there that former students from every decade throughout his career spoke about the impact Mr. Baskett had on them. These testimonies were incredibly passionate and I was so touched by the multiple people who mentioned that they came from broken families and that Mr. Baskett served as a father figure to them. Coach B deserved all the tributes that came his way, including this blog post that I am recognizing as my #1 entry of 2021.

My blog post I wrote about the impact of Gary Baskett is at the top of my list for 2021.

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A big THANK YOU to all my readers for your loyalty and support during this milestone year for Don’t Blink. If the posts listed above failed to pique your interest, I hope a couple of the 170 other posts I wrote in 2021 did. Be on the lookout for tomorrow’s yearly reflection. Don’t Blink.

My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2020
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2019
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2018
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2017
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2016
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2015
My Top 10 Blog Posts of 2014

Gary Baskett: One-Of-A-Kind

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Do you have a high school teacher you will never forget? Oh boy, I sure do! Mine happened to be a brawny man with jet-black hair who wore neon jumpsuits, sported tinted glasses, and kept a well-manicured mustache. Crazy enough, the only thing that overshadowed the unique external appearance of this larger-than-life man was the massive heart that ticked underneath his signature 1980s-era windbreakers.

It is hard to adequately quantify the accomplishments and impact of Gary Baskett. Oh, the state championships (4) and league titles (18) are easy. So are the coach of the year honors he received (3 state, 2 league) and the state champions he produced (33). But I am talking more about the ordinary young men and women he took under his tutelage over the decades. Those students he molded, much with the same care as his beautiful pottery, to become adults with strong work ethic, unbreakable mental toughness, and solid faith. These are the “accomplishments” and “impact” I am most interested in. However, although I know the number of students he had a positive influence on reaches several times into the thousands, I couldn’t give you an exact number.

But I can give you this: I was one of them.

This photo is the image of Gary Baskett that I remember from my four years at Mead High School. Mr. Baskett was a talented, one-of-a-kind individual

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I started my freshman year at Mead High School in 2001. By this time, Mr. Baskett was already a hall-of-famer. He had cemented a rock-solid legacy and was a couple years removed from his wildly successful tenure as the head track and field coach. I suppose he could have just decided to focus solely on his pottery classes during the day while enjoying his evenings and summers to himself but that wasn’t B’s style. He rather be involved in the lives and development of young student-athletes, no matter the role.

As a Panther, I played football and competed in track and field all four years. It would be generous to label me as an average athlete. I lacked natural talent, I didn’t have size, and I wasn’t blessed with speed. But that didn’t matter to Mr. Baskett. The man who groomed All-Americans and state champions went out of his way to give me one-on-one coaching throughout my time at Mead.

I can’t begin to list all the ways Mr. Baskett helped me become a better athlete while maximizing the limited potential that I had. He worked me out in the weight room with incredible intensity. He met me before football practice to work on long snapping. He taught me to run properly. He would pull me out in the middle of class to work on my shot put glide in the hallway (no kidding!). Mr. Baskett was an extremely technical coach who instilled muscle memory. His insistence on doing things the right way coupled with his natural gift to motivate helped an athlete like myself level the playing field with those who were much more talented.

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But enough about me, let me focus just for a moment on how Mr. Baskett was revered by his teams. As I mentioned, he assisted with football during my time at Mead. He was the conditioning coach but also worked with the specialists and the offensive/defensive line. B was passionate, honest, and funny. He would lead stretches and you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth. His conditioning sessions were based around technique and heart rate management much more than length and exhaustion. His pep talks weren’t unlike his stretching and conditioning regimens—unorthodox and creative. He could be tough too. Mess around or not give 100% and he might make an example out of you. But if he did, Mr. Baskett would always track you down off the field to clear the air and offer a hug.

Yes, Mr. Baskett was old school. His coaching style was from the same era as his wardrobe but it still resonated with us simply because it was so genuine and passionate. There was a generational divide by the time he was coaching us in the 2000s but it was bridged by the respect we had for him. We truly did love him.

In fact, we loved him so much that we would try to emulate him. Mr. Baskett had a very distinctive voice and a colorful way of speaking that was fun to try and replicate. Many of us tried to master it and few succeeded…but I like to think I got pretty close. Over the past 16 years since I graduated high school, Gary Baskett is the first coach that is always brought up when I connect with my old teammates. When word got out that he passed, the Spokesman-Review article on his life was shared like wildfire among the Mead football alumni family.

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For as good of a teacher and coach that Gary Baskett was, he really was an even better man. He cared so deeply about others. Many people might not know that he held a dedicated place in his heart for the special education students at Mead. Or that he was a regular at all of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings. Or that he would volunteer his time to pull rope at JV track meets. Or that he would selflessly utilize his incredible artistic talents to beautify areas needing some colorful care. Or that he would gladly mock-up a creative t-shirt design for any cause you were looking to promote. The list is endless.

I do have one regret and it is that I never said “thank you” to Mr. Baskett after I graduated. I remember last year reaching out to my siblings and suggesting that we try to get lunch with B but it never materialized. Now it is too late to express my earthly gratitude to him face-to-face.

Although it doesn’t take the place of an in-person “thank you,” I guess this blog post might be the next best thing. On behalf of the countless Mead High School students who became better men and women because of Gary Baskett, we hope his family knows the immeasurable positive impact he had on us. His one-of-a-kind personality, epic storytelling skills, hilarious one-liners, and his deep devotion to others will be greatly missed. May God bless Gary’s soul and may his memory always shine bright at 302 W. Hastings Rd. Don’t Blink.