Finally done playing, Kingma takes in sis’ game as spectator

SEATTLE — Jackson High School junior Brett Kingma ceased being known as the younger brother of University of Washington women’s basketball player Kristi Kingma at about 1:30 Sunday afternoon.

Upon walking into Hec Edmundson Pavilion for the Huskies’ final home game against Oregon, Brett Kingma was immediately hit up by two autograph seekers.

Whether or not they were among the 100 — yes, 100 — people who have requested to be Kingma’s Facebook friends in the past few days was unclear.

“It’s pretty cool — not so much being a celebrity, but knowing that people respect what you did and how much time you put into it,” Brett Kingma said Sunday, less than 24 hours after his underdog Jackson High team lost in the state finals of the 4A state basketball tournament.

“People know that, in 2010, Jackson had a great season.”

The historic run — the Timberwolves went from a third-place finish in the district tournament to an unexpected second-place finish at state — was still setting in for Kingma as of Sunday afternoon. He said the pain of Saturday night’s championship-game loss to Kentwood was still there but added that he’s able to appreciate the season for what it was.

“It was definitely a disappointing ending,” he said of the 67-58 loss to Kentwood and its 6-foot-9 star, UCLA-bound senior Joshua Smith. “After we had a pretty good run, we thought: Why not win it?

“But we’re all going to look back at it as a pretty incredible run — just with the people we had and not being the most physically-gifted team; we just worked harder than anybody to get there. It’s disappointing now because we realize how close we were to winning it all, but it was a pretty good experience overall.”

When Kingma woke up Sunday morning, he had no doubt that he wanted to get back into a gym — not to play, but to watch his older sister in her final home game of the 2009-10 season.

“It was a great ride while we were there (at state), but it’s kind of nice now that it’s over to get away and get that fire back,” he said late Sunday afternoon. “After the game, when the season’s over, you kind of lose your drive to compete. It’s nice to come and watch the game, watch other people and just enjoy watching basketball.”

Thanks to Brett Kingma and the 2009-10 Jackson Timberwolves, Snohomish County had a pretty good time watching basketball at the state tournament this year. Friends and family reminded him of that after Saturday night’s loss, and by Sunday he was well into the healing process.

“That helped a lot, being able to know that we shouldn’t dwell on it and to keep our heads up,” Kingma said of the kind words he received in the hours after Saturday’s game. “We were maybe the greatest Wesco (Western Conference) team ever — the first in 33 years to make it to the (state) championship.”

Oh, and as for those wanna-be Facebook friends? He still hasn’t gotten back to all of them. But Kingma’s big sister has been on his list for a while now, so he wanted to respond to her face-to-face Sunday.

“I love her to death,” he said of Kristi, who had 11 points in the Huskies’ 62-53 win over Oregon on Sunday. “She’s been the most important sister in the world.

“She texted me before every game, just telling me that she loves me. I try to do the same, but it’s been hard with all the games we’ve had lately. But I feel like I can support her now more than I ever have.”

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