In Snohomish County’s distinguished basketball history, the name deKubber holds a special place.
First there was Jack deKubber, who coached boys basketball for a total of 18 years, including the final 15 years at Snohomish High School where he took several teams to the state tournament, including a 1970 team that he took all the way to the state championship.
Later there was daughter Lori deKubber, a four-year letter winner at Snohomish who went on to become a four-year standout at Western Washington University.
Together they were part of a prominent basketball family, and on Wednesday night they will be inducted together into the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame.
The deKubbers will be among six individuals and one team added to the Hall of Fame at a banquet ceremony in the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at Everett’s Xfinity Arena. The other athletes being inducted are softball player Herb Mathis of Everett (deceased) and football player Shane Pahukoa of Marysville. The other coach being inducted is Keith Gilbertson Jr. of Snohomish, and the sports contributor is former Edmonds School District coach and administrator Kim Wilson of Lynnwood.
Also joining the Hall of Fame will be the 1960 Everett High School football team, coached by Dick Abrams, that went 9-0 and outscored opponents by a combined 228-31 while being ranked No. 1 in the state in an era before the state playoffs.
Jack deKubber was raised in Lynden, where he graduated from high school in 1954. He started his coaching career with one year at Granite Falls High School and then two years at Arlington High School where he took a team to the state tournament for the first time in school history.
In the fall of 1962 deKubber moved to Snohomish High School and began a 15-year stretch of success. From 1967 to 1970 he guided four straight teams to the state tournament, and his 1970 team finished 25-2 and won the Class 3A state title after playing all season in a Class 2A league.
Snohomish beat undefeated teams from West Seattle and Pasco in the state semifinals and finals, and after the championship game the team returned home to a joyous celebration, beginning with an impromptu parade through town.
“It was awesome,” said the 79-year-old deKubber. Townsfolk were waiting for the team at a grocery store parking lot, “and there were people in hundreds of cars. … We ended up at the high school where there was a rally with maybe a couple of thousand people. It was just a small-town, wonderful feeling, and it was unbelievable.”
deKubber coached his final season in 1976-77 and ended up at the state tournament one last time. He then retired from coaching and returned to school to get a master’s degree and principal’s credential, and later became a junior high school vice-principal until his retirement in 1989.
He still has a primary residence in Snohomish, where he continues to follow high school basketball while also playing lots of golf and staying in touch with former players. “The kids that I had were awesome,” he said. “They were just great kids. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Lori deKubber got her start in sports in an era when doors were just beginning to open wide for girls. Having a dad who coached certainly helped further her love of sports, “but I think would’ve found it anyway,” she said. “It was in me from a very young age.”
At Western Washington from 1981-82 to 1984-85, deKubber led the Vikings in scoring for three of four years. By the time she completed her senior season she ranked second in career scoring at the school to Jo (Metzger) Levin, another Snohomish County product. deKubber was named to the WWU Hall of Fame in 2013.
After receiving a degree in community health, she became certified as an athletic trainer. She worked at a physical therapy clinic and also coached at Shoreline Community College, and then returned to WWU where she is today a clinical athletic trainer for campus recreation services.
Her induction into the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame “is a great honor,” said the 51-year-old deKubber. “And it’s really brought me back to think about how my career evolved and how many people along the way were significant in that. When I started there was not much available for girls, but people stepped up and said ‘We’re going to coach these girls,’ and they spent time with us and gave us the opportunity to really love what we were doing.”
Being inducted with her father “is particularly exciting because we have a shared love of sports and a love of basketball in particular,” she said. “Both of us played, both of us coached, and to be able to inducted into the Hall of Fame at the same time is really a great honor.”
Jack deKubber agrees. “For me, the fact that my daughter is also going into the Hall of Fame is just an awesome feeling,” he said.
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