Taking Friends To Court Adult Recreation League Welcome Break For Two Pals

The gyms are small. There is no halftime entertainment. Not all the teams wear matching T-shirts. And the fans - 15 or so on a good night - bring their own lawn chairs.

The play is sloppy. Passes aren’t crisp. Shots are released from anywhere and everywhere.

Some have played before. Others have not.

But it’s basketball, and that’s what appeals to Jennifer Clayburn and Lynda Davis.

“I love to play the sport,” Davis said. “It’s fun to get together with friends and compete. I’m a very competitive person.”

And that’s what the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department-sponsored Adult Recreation Basketball League is all about.

No flashy uniforms. No barn-rockin’, knee-knockin’ pressure. Just fun.

“It’s a break,” Clayburn said. “It’s just fun to go out and play with the girls.”

Clayburn, a quick, quiet 5-foot-4 point guard, and Davis, a lanky but smooth 5-10 post, represent nearly a decade of Northwest Christian High School basketball.

Clayburn won four varsity basketball letters from 1988-92. Davis - then as Lynda Young - began on the junior varsity in 1982 before moving to the varsity the next three years.

When Davis graduated in 1986, it would be goodbye, but not farewell. After stints at the Community Colleges of Spokane (‘86-88) and Whitworth College (‘88-89), Davis returned to NWC as an assistant coach.

The year was 1989, and Clayburn was in her second season. It didn’t take long for Davis to size up the young point guard’s talents.

“She thinks and reacts to the ball very well,” Davis said. “She has a head to see the whole court. She can find the gaps and the open player very well and she’s very competitive.”

Little Jennifer, as one referee - hand held little more than waist-high - fondly referred to her. The one with the big, brown eyes and huge smile. Very competitive?

“That’s an understatement, probably,” Clayburn said.”Basketball, mostly,” she said with a hint of a snicker, before shyly admitting, “well, probably everything.”

Clayburn’s father, Jack, joined Davis as an assistant coach at NWC in 1990, something Jennifer will always cherish.

“It was great,” she said. “It was probably one of the best experiences I could have. We talked (basketball) all the time. It was never a disagreement. We just enjoyed talking it over.”

Davis and Jennifer still talk.

“I catch myself telling her to use her bar arm,” Davis said, referring to the off-arm that can be used to shield the ball from a defender. “I think that helped her to protect the ball when she dribbled down the floor.”

The transition from coach-to-player relationship to a player-to-player relationship was smooth.

“At first, it was kind of difficult because I coached her,” Davis said. “And now it was like ‘OK, now I’m going to play with her.’ But now it’s better because we are friends.”

The friendship has allowed them to criticize each other’s games without being negative, something Davis feels less comfortable doing with the rest of her teammates.

“We can talk to each other,” Davis said of her relationship with Jennifer. “I don’t want (my teammates) to feel like I’m trying to be the boss out there. Toward Jennifer, I feel like I can tell her things and she can tell me things.”

And that’s what dad likes.

“They respect each other,” Jack Clayburn said. “They’re both basically looking at the game from the floor. And if Jennifer sees something and says we need to do this, Lynda says ‘OK, let’s do it.’ It’s a mutual respect between players.”

The respect has allowed Jennifer to flourish.

“We know each other and know what we are like,” she said. “It’s almost like knowing what the other is thinking. We click better than anybody else on the team.”

Clayburn, 21, and Davis, 26, have long since traded their high school stardom for recreation anonymity.

Do they miss it?

“I did at first,” Clayburn said. “But now I have so many other things that fill up my life and my time that I don’t as much.

“I’d rather play more competitively, but since I can’t, it’ll do.”