Portland Oregonian

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

March 9, 1998

WHAT A DIFFERENCE FOUR YEARS CAN MAKE 

RACHEL BACHMAN  of the Oregonian Staff 



 Oregon City senior Lindsey Yamasaki has the trappings of a winner.

 Yamasaki chatted with reporters Saturday after the Pioneers girls  
basketball team beat Crater 48-42, a state-championship medal looped 
around  her neck and a gaggle of autograph-seeking girls at her wrist.
	
The scene made clear just how much has changed during her high school  
career: She has gone from student to mentor, and women's basketball has 
gone  from college curiosity to professional product.

 ``Little girls look at you, their eyes just gleaming, like I'm their  
idol,'' Yamasaki said. ``I love that. I know they watch me and they 
want to be like me or do things like me.''

 Yamasaki has entranced Oregon, winning four Class 4A state basketball  
titles and being named the 1996 volleyball player of the year. With 
grace,  skill and a scholarship to Stanford, she is poised to join a new 
breed of  high-profile national female athletes.

 ``In the state of Oregon, people knew who she was and would say stuff 
to  me: `Oh, how's your sister doing?' '' said her brother, Kobi, a 
20-year-old  student at Paloma Junior College in San Marcos, Calif. ``In 
California, people didn't really know who she was.

 ``But lately, she's been in Sports Illustrated and the volleyball  
magazines. My friends down here are going, `Your sister -- I saw her in 
the  paper, I saw her on TV.' ''

 Yamasaki, 6-foot-2, dazzled fans with deft ballhandling and a pull-up 
jump  shot where she hovers above the court, her opponents' heads at 
her waist.

 ``We don't have anyone who can guard her,'' said Dave Heard, coach of  
second-place Crater. ``She gets the ball and just rises up and shoots 
over  you.''

 Yamasaki, a local star even as a freshman, has improved and grown. She  
became a poster girl for the Oregon City basketball dynasty that has 
won five  straight state titles and three USA Today national 
championships.

 At the same time, girls basketball spiked in popularity. Oregon City 
became nationally known, and so did Yamasaki.

 Her father, Sid, said that aside from a few times in her sophomore 
season,  Yamasaki has embraced the spotlight.

 ``She's kind of enjoyed that,'' he said. ``It's her personality.''

 Yamasaki was on ESPN and in a full-page advertisement in Sports  
Illustrated. She and her teammates' striped knee-high socks became the style  
of choice for young girls across Oregon.

 Yamasaki was not just in the loop; it followed her wherever she went.

 ``She's been playing pickup games with the pro athletes -- like, I 
think it was Sheryl Swoopes,'' Kobi said. ``They'd call up and say, 
`Lindsey, we're  going to be in Portland practicing, if you want to come 
play.' ''

 How things have changed.

 Three years ago, The Oregonian ran a story headlined, ``Still no pot 
at end of women's basketball rainbow.'' Today, stars like the WNBA's 
Swoopes and Lisa Leslie can make large sums of money.

 ``I definitely think about, `What if there wasn't a pro league?' ''  
Yamasaki said. ``Then I should be thinking about what career I was going 
into. Now that it's an option, I don't think about it as much.''

 Yamasaki's poise, camera-friendly appearance and uniqueness are part 
of her allure. Should she make it to the pros, Yamasaki could be the 
Tiger Woods of  women's basketball.

 ``(People) are pretty amazed,'' Kobi said. ``They say, `How tall is 
she?  Six-two? She's an Asian-American?'

 ``You don't see many Asian-Americans in sports at all in America. . . 
.  Mostly, it's just white and black.''

 Yamasaki's grandmother is Japanese; her father is Japanese-American. 
She  said the older she gets, the more she sees her background as a 
point of  interest.

 ``Lately, I've heard a lot about that,'' she said. ``ESPN did a 
(piece)  about my heritage. I'm definitely unique, and I think that's good 
for younger  girls, seeing that.''

 Next season, the gaggles of girls will be at Stanford, and Yamasaki 
will  find herself with more similarities to Woods.

 ``It's neat hearing about him, that he went there and now I'm going 
there,  and things like that happen to kids that have been to Stanford,'' 
Yamasaki  said. ``I mean, big things happen.

 ``He's already a pro, and look where he was just a few years ago.''

 As for her own professional career, who knows? In today's 
ever-expanding  sports world, anything is possible.

 ``My dad, my brother and I all have the same shoes, and we call them 
the  `Air Yamasaki,' '' she said. ``It always had a little bit of a ring 
to it.''