The CWAC will be without its winningest boys and girls basketball coaches over the last eight seasons when games begin next week, thanks to dismissals at Selah and Prosser earlier this year.
Tim Garza found out he wouldn’t be asked to return during his annual evaluation in March, shortly after Selah’s season ended in the CWAC tournament for the second straight year. It wasn’t until about three months later that Prosser administrators caused an outcry from community members and Mustang players by deciding to let Kyler Bachofner go following two straight third-place finishes at the 2A state tournament.
“He inspired me to become a better basketball player and a better human,” junior first-team All-CWAC guard Adriana Milanez told the Prosser School Board at a meeting on June 14. “Just hours before he found out this terrible news that his contract wasn’t being renewed, he was asking and planning things like new jerseys for our program, very excited for the season to come.”
She joined several other players in bringing signs to the meeting to show support for Bachofner, who compiled a record of record of 133-93 in 10 seasons at Prosser. After going 17-44 in his first three seasons as the Mustangs’ head coach, he won at least 14 games in his last six full seasons.
Viking rebuild
Garza won three trophies of his own at a program that hadn’t won one since 1963 prior to his arrival.
Before he took over in 2015 and won the first of three CWAC coach of the year awards with freshman Elijah Pepper leading the young Vikings to a CWAC regular season title, Selah hadn’t won more than six games in four years. The program hadn’t won a state tournament game since 1997.
“These players were hungry,” Garza said, recalling standouts like Calvin Herting and Zak Donato. “We had a saying, let’s make Selah boys basketball history and I just knew if we could kind of get going and do some things that this could be something.”
It turned into a 137-44 record over eight seasons, excluding three losses he missed while dealing with COVID-19 during the 2021-22 season. The former La Salle coach hired by athletic director Mike Lewis was drawn to the challenge of a rebuild and worked for three other ADs as he established a culture not just at the high school level, but through basketball camps for 2nd-8th graders.
Selah High’s head coach Tim Garza celebrates with his team after defeating Columbia River High during the Class 2A state tournament for fourth place at the SunDome, in Yakima, Wash. Saturday, March 3, 2018. (AMANDA RAY/Yakima Herald-Republic)
A pair of postseason stumbles that first year kept the Vikings from breaking a 12-year state tournament drought before they came back even stronger as Garza won CWAC coach of the year again. Pepper, who’s on track to become the all-time points leader at Division I UC Davis this season, won the first of six straight MVP awards for Pepper brothers Elijah, Noah, and Levi, and the Vikings finished 24-2 after falling to Foss in the 2A state title.
That marked one of two runner-up finishes in the first of Garza’s four straight state appearances, and only the pandemic prevented a 13-0 Selah team from reaching a fifth during a shortened 2021 season. But after the Vikings graduated seven seniors and went 10-12, Garza began to see troubling signs for his future.
An end-of-season evaluation he showed the Yakima Herald-Republic brought up concerns about the culture within the program and questioned Garza’s coaching abilities. After Selah went 12-11 the next season, which ended with a 76-72 CWAC semifinal loss to Grandview, Garza received an evaluation with far more complaints and was asked to resign.
He refused, wanting to show the same fight he tried to instill in his players. When second-year athletic director Brandon Gillespie chose to dismiss Garza, the coach began to receive messages of support from some former players and parents, as well as a few of his coaching peers.
“I loved all my players,” Garza said. “I hope I made a difference in their lives for the next chapter of their lives.”
Gillespie and principal Colton Monti, who served as Selah’s athletic director from 2016-18, declined to comment for this story, citing privacy concerns.
Prosser’s rise
As Selah’s boys fell from the ranks of 2A state title contenders, the Prosser girls took their place among the state’s best.
The Mustangs established themselves as CWAC contenders during Bachofner’s breakout fourth year in 2016, when point guard Marissa Cortes won the first of her two straight CWAC MVP awards and led Prosser to the Yakima Valley SunDome. Another standout player, three-time first-team All-CWAC forward Halle Wright, helped the Mustangs finally return in 2022, when they made a surprise run to the semifinals as the No. 11 seed.
Prosser girls head coach Kyler Bachofner talks to his team during a game against Archbishop Murphy in quarterfinal round of the state tournament at the SunDome in Yakima, Wash. Thursday, March 3, 2022.
Wright moved on to Idaho State while two other seniors with All-CWAC recognition graduated, and Prosser caused a public outcry by laying off longtime athletic director Kevin Lusk due to budget cuts. Bachofner joined dozens of others vocally opposed to the move at a contentious school board meeting and became president of a Prosser coaches union he helped start.
Teacher Kasey Blair took over as a part-time athletic director and the Mustangs, led by Milanez and fellow sophomore Lay’lee Dixon, just kept winning and this time earned a No. 4 seed on their way to third place. Blair resigned in June and not long after, with assistant superintendent Deanna Flores overseeing athletics, the Mustangs cut ties with Bachofner.
Flores didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment and new AD Jackson Haak said he couldn’t speak to event what happened before he arrived. Bachofner also declined to comment.
Moving on
Both teams will begin their seasons this week, with Prosser set to host Hermiston Tuesday night and Selah ready to travel to Toppenish on Friday.
The Vikings hired Medical Lake coach and former Central Washington guard Jordan Starr to replace Garza. The Mustangs promoted junior varsity coach Jessica Huntington, an East Valley standout and former senior captain at Eastern Washington.
Bachofner’s taken a coaching job at Lake Stevens. Garza, who holds a permanent federal position at the Yakima Training Center, said he’s enjoying a chance to reflect on so many great moments and wants to stay in the area.
“My head is held high,” said Garza, who works at the Yakima Training Center and would prefer to stay in the Yakima Valley. “Have I lost the passion? Heck no. I think it’s in my blood to coach and I did not stop coaching on my terms. When I do, it will be my terms.”