Mike “Smitty” Smith and his three best friends have an annual tradition.
On the last Friday of June, they drive from Vancouver to Spokane, load up on pasta at the Old Spaghetti Factory that night in anticipation for the weekend, when they take to the streets of the Lilac City as four of the 250,000 people who flock to Spokane Hoopfest, the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament.
Smith, a P.E. teacher and longtime high school basketball and football coach in Clark County, met Gary Garrison, Owen Hanson and Tony Kutch in the fourth grade. They went on to attend Wy’East Middle School and Mountain View High School together, where they graduated in 1985.
As they got older, and like many childhood friends determined not to fall out of touch, the quartet entered into the famed outdoor basketball tournament. Little did they know they were starting a tradition that, decades later, would be unbroken.
They (admittedly) can’t reach the rim anymore, their limbs hurt more than in years past and injuries have become more of an issue in recent years, but over 25 tournaments later, they’re still going strong.
“We just stayed connected and we’re best buddies,” said Smith, who most recently was the head girls coach at Prairie in 2013. “We always do things together.”
On Sunday, the team, the Azteca Thunder Men, whose name comes from its sponsor, Azteca Restaurant in Spokane Valley, won its bracket for the 10th time in 26 years played.
The more than three decades of friendship started through sports, and its sports that have helped keep their bond strong.
As a P.E. teacher and coach, Smith is living the very credo he preaches to kids.
“Sports can lead to lifelong friendships,” Smith said. “I just think that’s so important … a lot of people miss out.”
The four of them grew up in Vancouver, where they still live.
Garrison and Smith own a boat together, and went wakeboarding for many years. They even built a cabin together.
“We’ve always helped each other out,” Smith said. “We all do things together.”
Smith, a P.E. teacher at Marrion Elementary School in the Evergreen Public Schools, says the friends’ tradition underscores the role sports plays in developing lifelong relationships — a driving force in his desire to pursue a career in P.E. and coaching.
And while Smith admits the team is perhaps less mobile than they were in previous years (Hanson, Garrison and Kutch are 51; Smith is 50), they reap the benefits of having played together for so long, and understanding each other’s games.
Garrison is the go-to scorer. If he’s on, “people can’t stop us,” Smith says. Kutch’s game is fluid both in the post and out on the perimeter. Smith is the team’s primary inside presence. Hanson is a shooter.
But their true secret weapon?
Chemistry.
They know exactly where one another is going to be at any given moment, and given an in-game situation, the move they’ll likely make.
“I’ve coached some twins before in basketball, and they know where they’re going to be,” Smith said. “That’s how we are.
“It’s a cool brotherhood because we have each others’ backs.”
In 1985, they played for a Mountain View squad that ran the table for an undefeated regular season, yet lost in the first district game, back when districts carried loser-out stakes.
More than 33 years have passed since the loss that ended their high school basketball careers, but Smith contends the quartet is still bitter.
During Hoopfest a couple years ago, he team received a pleasant surprise.
“We hear, ‘hey boys, you better get the blue flame going!’ ” Smith said. They looked up to see their high school basketball coach, Steven Moen, who coached the Thunder from when Mountain View opened in 1981 to 1991.
Smith, who said Moen’s influence inspired him to start coaching, had loosely kept in touch with his former coach on Facebook, and dropped a line that his band of former players would be taking the court in Spokane. The team could hardly believe it.
“It just jacked us up,” Smith said. “We swept people. We were so excited to have our coach there watching us after 30 years.”
Before last weekend’s tournament, the group’s 26th, Smith ruminated as to whether it would be their last. Their bodies are aging, he thought, perhaps if they won another championship, they could feel accomplished enough to hang it up.
But after winning its 10th title, they thought, how could we?
“That’s what we do!!” Smith said over text message. “We will be back next year seeking number 11!!”
