He was never easy on her.
She would take a shot and he would block it. She would take another shot and he would block it, too.
It was an act often repeated when Chris Rohrbach and his younger sister Caitlyn played basketball in the backyard at their home in Edmonds. As the kids’ mother, Karen, remembered it, Chris showed no mercy.
“We used to have some pretty good battles,” said Chris, who is three years older than Caitlyn. “I never took it easy on her because she was a girl and my sister. Every once in a while she would hold her own.”
There was also a pride issue at stake. “I didn’t want her to go around the neighborhood saying she beat me,” he said.
Sometimes Caitlyn would come in the house crying. But always, without fail, she’d be out there the next afternoon taking her lumps.
Then one day, the tables turned. Caitlyn got the best of her brother.
“And off she went,” said her father, Mike.
Recently, the player who used to get shoved around by her brother was playing in an exhibition game pitting her college team, Seattle Pacific University, against Northwest University.
A Northwest player got the ball with a clear route to the basket and was driving hard for what appeared to be an easy two-pointer when the SPU player caught up with her and caused a pretty good collision underneath the basket.
The SPU player was called for a foul, but she showed that no basket would come easy if she had anything to do with it. That’s what comes from mixing it up with your brother in backyard games.
Why do you think Chris Rohrbach made it so tough on his sister? “Subconsciously, it was to make her better,” he said, “but at the same time I was competitive and didn’t want her to beat me.”
As she chased after the Northwest player the other day, a fierce and determined look came over Caitlyn’s face. It’s an expression her father has become familiar with.
It says: Whatever it takes.
“If you have 12 girls on your team with her competitive drive, you’re going to win,” said her former coach at Meadowdale High School, Dan Taylor. “She gives full effort.”
Last season, after transferring from Alaska-Fairbanks University, where she started as a freshman in 2006-07 and averaged almost 11 points a game, Rohrbach had to sit out at SPU because of conference rules. She was, however, allowed to practice with the Falcons.
In that kind of situation, players often don’t work as hard because they’re not trying to earn a starting job.
“The first three weeks of practice you wouldn’t have known she wasn’t competing for a position,” SPU coach Julie van Beek said. “She was so much into practice that I never thought of her as a red-shirt player. Then just before the season started, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, Caitlyn’s not going to be playing this year.’”
But she will be playing this season. A lot.
So why did van Beek let her escape to Alaska-Fairbanks coming out of high school? It wasn’t that she didn’t like Rohrbach as a player. Indeed, she regarded her very highly. “But at the time we had two or three girls on the team very much like her,” the coach said. “Part of recruiting is you can’t have too many of the same kind of players.”
Rohrbach turned down SPU’s invitation to walk on and headed north to Alaska. “New ventures,” she said.
One of which she was unaccustomed to: losing. In her only year at Alaska-Fairbanks, the Nanooks suffered more losses (17) than Rohrbach experienced during her entire high school career. “That played into why I left,” she said. Additionally, she says she didn’t see “eye-to-eye” with her coach.
After deciding to leave Alaska, she considered two schools in the Lower 48: SPU and Central Washington. The former had everything she wanted. “I knew when I came on my visit,” she said. “It just felt right. The girls (on the team) were close and they loved working hard. The coaches were amazing and encouraging.”
Coach van Beek felt blessed to get another shot at Rohrbach. The coach likes her game (Rohrbach can play any position on the floor). Her energy. Her competitiveness. Her “basketball sense,” which is “one of those things you just can’t teach.” Her leadership. And her intelligence. “You say ‘do this’ and it doesn’t take five times for her to learn it,” the coach said.
Rohrbach’s athletic gene pool runs deep. Her father was a starting linebacker on Don James’ 1978 Rose Bowl team. Her mother played college basketball at Whitworth and the University of Washington. Older sister Meagan played basketball and volleyball at Meadowdale. Brother Chris had a nice career as a wide receiver at Central Washington and this season was scouted by the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League. And younger sister Lynsey, a senior at Meadowdale, recently broke one of Caitlyn’s volleyball records. And, of course, called her right away to let her know about it.
For the parents, there were always more games than there was time to see them all. “We always had a senior and a freshman in high school,” Karen said.
There was a rule in the house that when schedules conflicted, Mom and Pop showed up at the senior’s game. When Lynsey graduates in the spring, there will be no more Rohrbach children coming through Meadowdale High School. “We may have to adopt someone to go and support,” Karen joked.
Like Caitlyn, Lynsey is an outstanding student and hopes to attend Stanford University next year. She has no plans to continue her sports career, which means Caitlyn will be the only active amateur athlete in the family.
Dad and Mom will be there lending support.
For many years, Mike served as the chaplain for the Husky football team and got to know hundreds of kids. When they had problems, they knew they could confide in him.
Now he has the same role with the Husky basketball team.
His middle daughter will tell you that her father knows how to boost a kid’s spirits. After she left for Alaska, Mike started sending Caitlyn postcards each week with little messages. “He knows a lot about life and sports and everything,” she said. “He always has encouraging things to say.”
When she came home, she figured the cards would stop. They didn’t. Which is something she looks forward to each week.
“Sometimes a card will come,” she said, “and it’ll be just what I need.”
Much better than a blocked shot.
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