Eatonville guard Bailey Andersen carries on three-generation hoops tradition

Like most athletes in a small school, Bailey Andersen dabbles across genres.

Just a sophomore at Eatonville High, Andersen already has spent time during the fall sports seasons playing on the soccer and volleyball teams. Last spring, she ran track for the Cruisers.

But each winter, she returns to her sweet spot athletically and she picks up a basketball.

“It’s just always been basketball,” Andersen said. “I just love it. But probably around fifth grade, when we started playing in different leagues is when it really started.”

It was then that that Andersen started playing on AAU teams. Those teams played some tournaments around the Northwest. She bounced around from team to team before finding a club where she felt at home.

“That’s when it really took off,” Andersen said. “When high school came around, I didn’t keep playing for that team because of school and stuff going on. But that’s when it really took off.”

Andersen comes by her love and talent for basketball naturally – and genetically. The 5-foot-6 guard is the third generation of her family to be a part of the Eatonville basketball program.

Her mom, Deanna (Fountain) Andersen, played point guard for the Cruisers in the early 1990s before going on to play collegiately. During her tenure as a player, Deanna combined with Deanna Morris to take Eatonville to the state tournament in 1992.

That group of Cruisers went 0-2. In fact, Eatonville’s girls have just two state places since 1988 – a fifth in 1995 and a sixth in 2001.

Grandfather Dan Fountain led the Eatonville boys to the state tournament in the Tacoma Dome three times during his 16-year tenure as coach, including one of his first teams in 1983-84. And he’s enjoying watching both his daughter and granddaughter develop up close.

“He knows everything (about basketball),” Bailey Andersen said of her grandpa. “I mean, it took me until my eighth-grade year to even beat him at ‘Around the World.’ We’re always competitive in the family. I love it.”

Having his granddaughter playing in the same gym where he and his daughter both played and/or coached has brought grandpa back to the floor in a volunteer capacity. Especially this season, when Deanna applied for and was hired as the Eatonville girls new head coach after Erik Swartout left the post after three seasons.

“Deanna has her own style,” Fountain said. “It’s been very neat. I’ve been able to watch both of them develop. I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with Bailey. And I love to teach basketball, so it’s been a pleasure to be with the girls.”

It was a job the new coach initially tried to recruit others to take, including Emerald Ridge assistant coach Spencer Barnett, who coached Bailey and other current Cruisers in AAU ball (and who is the father of Jaguar senior twins Maya and Marecia).

“He had them as seniors, so he couldn’t do it (at Eatonville),” Deanna Andersen said. “He and I talked pretty in depth, and he said, ‘You know, you’re the one that needs to take it.’ So finally, I just decided to apply and go ahead and do it.”

The overflow of Fountains has reaped immediate benefits. After Bailey and her teammates slogged their way through a three-win season during her freshman year, the Cruisers doubled that victory total in their first six games of the current 2022-23 season. Eatonville actually began the year going 7-0 before finally losing for the first time in the championship game of a tournament in Centralia to 4A Eisenhower of Yakima at the end of December.

As of Jan. 22, the Cruisers sat at 11-3 overall, 3-1 in the 1A Evergreen Conference with their only league loss coming at the hands of Montesano, the No. 4 RPI team in 1A. The Cruisers are No. 15 in the RPI, which suggests that this group could make a run at the 1A state tournament March 1-4 at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

“For sure,” Bailey Andersen said. “I just feel like we’re a family. We’re closer out there than ever. We’re best friends. We have no problem yelling at each other and then just coming right back together because we know we want it as bad as the person next to us and we’ll do anything for each other.”

Who’s to doubt her, really?

Already, the younger Andersen has made folks look up and take notice – even her mom. In a recent league win over Hoquiam, 37-28, Andersen scored 22 of the 38. She’s posted double-doubles already like the 23-point, 12-rebound performance against 2A Orting back on December 21.

And even earlier in a 78-61 win over Morton-White Pass, she looked up at the Eatonville gymnasium wall and her mouth dropped. She turned to her mom with one sentence.

“I just broke the record,” Bailey Andersen told her new coach.

“What?” Deanna said.

The sophomore had just scored a school single-game record 45 points, breaking the mark of 43 that her former teammate Hailey Rath had posted four years ago, also as a sophomore.

“We were down the whole first half,” Deanna said. “Then the whole team stepped up and created these opportunities and she was just the finish. Some of my girls threw some of the most fantastic passes from the outside with the cuts. They made her look good.”

Under their new coach, and the grandfather they have behind the scenes, these Cruisers have continued to make each other look good as the season has wound on.

With his daughter as the new head coach, Fountain came over to the girls side of the program for the first time. Even after retiring from the boys job, Fountain had never strayed too far as a continuing resource for whomever the boys coach was.

“He’s at practice every day,” Deanna said of her dad. “He does a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, but it’s also if I want to split into small groups, I can ask him to work with the posts or another group. The girls all respect what he has to say.”

It’s all worked for the Cruisers better than their new coach could have imagined, from daughter Bailey to the rest of team.

“I think she’s the one who’s blossomed with the scoring, but they’ve all come out and done their part,” Coach Andersen said. “I’ve never seen such an unselfish group. I don’t think it’s just Bailey. It’s fun to watch. And I am pleasantly surprised with where we’re at. They’ve surpassed even what my expectations were for them.”