PREP GIRLS' BASKETBALL: Ebert still a Ferndale teammate

| MARK MALIJAN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

She played as big a role as any coach or anyone on the playoff roster, helping the Golden Eagles reach the Class 3A state tournament for the first time in 30 seasons. When Ferndale plays Hanford in the program’s first state game since 1988 at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Bank of America Arena, team members believe Ebert will be right beside on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

“Every time I roll up the shoulders on my jersey, I touch the patch, and it’s like I’m touching her,” senior captain Carleigh Newman said. “I can feel her presence out there with us. When I high-five Aly (Alyssa Locker) or anybody else, I see the patch, and it’s like seeing her. She is always out there on the court with us. We love Chelsey, and she is still very much a part of this team.”

The patch, which is in Ebert’s favorite color, is just one of many ways the Golden Eagles remember their teammate, to whom they have dedicated their 2007-08 season.

“Before every game, we get in a circle and hold hands and Carleigh leads us in a team prayer,” Ferndale coach Patrick Foley said. “Then Carleigh always talks about how Chelsey is watching and how we’re playing for her.”

The team brings four pink balloons — in memory of Ebert’s No. 44 jersey — and attaches them near its bench for every home and away game.

“Sometimes when things aren’t going well for us on the floor, we point at the balloons and remember Chelsey,” Locker said. “We remember how she didn’t get down, no matter what she was going through or how much pain she was in, and it inspires us to keep on fighting through whatever is in front of us.”

The Ferndale public address announcer reminds fans that “Chelsey Ebert is in the house,” and before breaking team huddles the Golden Eagles say, “This is for you,” kiss their hands and point skyward.

“No. 44 still has a strong impact on every game,” Chelsey’s father, Jay Ebert, said in a phone interview. “It is wonderful to see the way that team has rallied around Chelsey and what they have been able to accomplish this year.”

Though Jay Ebert said he had to leave after the first quarter of the first few games following his daughter’s death because “it was tough not seeing her on the bench and knowing she should be out there playing,” he and his family are hoping to attend Ferndale’s state tournament games this week to support the team that has helped them through so much during the past year.

“What that team has done means everything to us,” Jay Ebert said. “The whole team has come to her graveside I don’t know how many times as a team. How many college and high school teams have done that? I bet you could count them on one hand. Their support has meant so much to us. It’s been inspiring to see the way Chelsey’s life affected each of them.”

AN ‘E’ FOR EFFORT

It only took Chelsey Ebert eight varsity games during the 2006-07 season to leave her mark on the Ferndale girls’ program.

Though only a freshman last year, she immediately caught Foley’s attention.

“You could tell right away, she was pretty skilled for a ninth-grader,” Foley said. “She had a good-sized body, and she knew how to use it. She was very athletically gifted, and it was obvious she was the best post player we had on the junior varsity team.

“I’m always a little leery about bringing up a young player right away, because you never know how they’re going to react to the varsity game, even though Chelsey was very mature for her age. But as a coach, you start thinking about who can help you in the playoffs. It was obvious that Chelsey might be one of those players, so we decided to bring her up and start getting her some of that experience.”

Ebert’s first game came against Sehome midway through the regular season. Three games later she scored her first field goal against Sedro-Woolley.

“That first time she scored on an up-and-under move, she was so happy,” Foley said. “I can still see her coming back down the court with this giant smile on her face. You can see how much she was enjoying the whole experience.”

She finished with six points last season and made an immediate impact on her teammates.

“She was like the team’s little sister,” Locker said. “She was always asking questions, like what she should eat and what she should wear. Everybody loved having Chelsey around.”

And they loved the effort and hustle she displayed whenever she was on the court — in either varsity or junior varsity games.

“She was rugged,” Jay Ebert said. “Her knees were always beat (up) because she would go after every ball. Other girls didn’t like playing against her because she was so rough and aggressive on the court. She was always in your face.”

Sounds exactly like the roughand- tumble, in-your-face attitude that helped get Ferndale to the state tournament this year.

“I think that’s why I liked her so much,” Foley said. “She embodied the approach to the game that I coach. I’ve talked before about playing hand-tohand combat defense, and that was her. She was a perfect fit for this team and way we play the game.”

Playing varsity basketball for Foley and the Golden Eagles was perfect for Ebert, as well.

“One of her proudest hours is when she was moved up from JV to varsity as a freshman,” Jay Ebert said. “That meant the world to her. She was so happy to earn a varsity letter as a freshman.”

So much so, he said she was buried in her Ferndale letter jacket and basketball jersey, which was signed by her teammates.

SHOWING TOUGHNESS

It was shortly after the 2006-07 basketball season that Ebert was initially diagnosed with cancer. She had a physical therapy appointment on March 23, thinking she had a pulled muscle, but an MRI showed a tumor in her left hip bone.

Besides her family and close friends, the news may have hit Foley the hardest.

“I remember when she was first diagnosed, it really affected me,” Foley said. “I had recently had a nephew die from a brain tumor when he was 19, so had had some experience watching a young person pass away from this. It really bothered me. But at the same time, I had to be a coach and a teacher and figure out a way to show strength to the kids that were dealing with it all.”

Ebert started chemotherapy treatments at Children’s Hospital in Seattle soon after the diagnosis.

She and her family also received an outpouring of support from the Ferndale and Whatcom County communities, highlighted by a head-shaving event for Locks of Love at Ferndale High School attended by more than 300 people in early April.

“This community showed us so much support,” Jay Ebert said. “Everybody wanted to be a part of Chelsey. I was really happy to see the way her story and her life affected people.”

Ebert remained close with her basketball teammates despite the painful chemotherapy treatments.

Just as she did on the court, she continued to show her toughness in this new battle.

“Chelsey always had a smile on her face,” Newman said. “She never once complained about how much pain she was in. It was amazing.”

MISSING THE SMILE

Ferndale was supposed to play a girls’ game two days after Ebert’s death on Dec. 28.

“There was definite thought to canceling the game,” Foley said. “You know, I thought about giving the speech about what Chelsey would have wanted and so forth, but I decided to let the kids decide. When we all got together for the first time, they had all pretty much heard that Chelsey had died through various sources, so I pulled our four seniors out and asked them what they wanted to do. There was no hesitation from any of them — they said right away that they wanted to play on for Chelsey.”

The Ferndale gym was decorated with a giant pink “CE” on the wall, and Locker delivered an emotional pregame statement to the crowd before a tearful moment of silence. As it turned out, Arlington, which wore pink ribbons to honor Ebert, didn’t stand a chance in the game, as the Golden Eagles ran away in a 61-42 victory.

But after that game, Ferndale began to struggle.

First came a 16-point loss at Lynden on Jan. 5, followed by a 15-point loss at Mount Baker three days later. The Golden Eagles lost their third game in less than a week on Jan. 11 against visiting Burlington-Edison.

“At first, I thought it was just the peaks and valleys of the season,” Foley said. “We were playing some pretty good teams there, and I just figured it was something basketball-related. Looking back on it now, I know it wasn’t. It was a difficult time for everyone. We all had to grieve a little in our own way.”

Ebert’s presence wasn’t just missed by the players on the court.

“After we came back from winter break, it was like the whole school was down,” Locker said. “We missed seeing Chelsey’s smile, and we missed hearing her laugh in the lounge.”

But as time passed, both the school and the team began to heal.

Ferndale won a Jan. 15 game against Class 2A state tournament entry Sehome 41-33 and has dropped only three games since — a one-point overtime loss to Anacortes, which was ranked No. 1 in Class 2A at the time, a two-point loss to Class 1A state champion Lynden Christian and a one-point loss to Squalicum in a regular-season finale that had no postseason implications for the Golden Eagles.

Ferndale breezed through the first two rounds of the Class 3A Northwest District Tournament and then claimed the district championship and a berth to state when it beat perennial state power Meadowdale 51-45 on Wednesday in a hard-nosed game that would have made Ebert proud.

During the run, Foley said he has referred to Ebert in team meetings and games “at times when it would be meaningful,” while the players have made sure she is never far from their thoughts.

“Chelsey was with us every step of the way,” Locker said with a huge smile. “We took her down to Arlington with us (for the district tournament), and we can’t wait to take her down to state. Other players are always asking us what the pink CE means, and I just say, ‘That’sChelsey.’ It’s neat telling them about her and what she means to us.”

THE EBERT EFFECT

Ebert’s presence will continue to be felt long after the conclusion of the 3A state tournament this weekend.

Before her death, she sat down with her father to create a list of things she wanted her family to do.

“I had her sign a picture of her wearing her letter jacket and have it on my desk,” Jay Ebert said. “It reminds me of her, of course, but it also reminds me of the many things she wanted me to do. We talked for hours about it all, and she was very point blank about it saying, ‘Dad, these are things youwill take care of.’ ”

Among other items, the list included a wish to have her family donate money to the local AAU program and support any children adopted by the Bikers Fighting Cancer, a Whatcom Countybased club of motorcycle riders who have had cancer or loved someone with the disease and whose purpose is to raise money for kids with cancer.

Ebert’s list also included a request that her family help Ferndale get a new gymnasium scoreboard in the next few years and set up a scholarship to benefit some of her former teammates.

Jay Ebert said his daughter gave him another list with criteria for the scholarship winners from the basketball, volleyball and softball teams, stating that she wanted a pink $1,001 check for spending expenses to be delivered to the scholarship winner in a pink envelope each year. Ebert stipulated that winners didn’t need to be the stars of the team, but they needed to be a senior starter who met the criteria she set out, including grade-point average.

“I was blown away by the level of detail and thought she had put into this,” Jay Ebert said. “She was really trying to make a difference. She had more impact on this community and this world in her 15½ years than most people do in their entire lifetimes.”

It’s an impact that won’t soon be forgotten by the Golden Eagles.

“This team is like a family, and Chelsea is a member of the family,” Foley said. “Sure, when you lose a member of your family, you have to grieve and move on. But you never forget them, and they are never far from your thoughts.

“Chelsey will always be a part of this program as long as I’m coach here, and I’m not planning on going anywhere for a long time. Long after all these girls who knew Chelsey have left, I’ll still be telling the girls I am working with stories about Chelsey and what she means to me and this team.”