Roosevelt's Resler puts it all down in a book

Q: Have you read the recently published book, "The Heart of the Team" by Bill Resler, the Roosevelt High School girls basketball coach? What did you think?

A: Good book. I recommend it to players, coaches and parents because all will get something out of it.

Resler's maverick (he calls it "oddball") personality comes through clearly. He is a tax professor at the University of Washington with a passion for high-school girls basketball.

He is an unusual bird in the state's athletic aviary. Example: You won't read many books about high-school sports where the coach-author plugs his favorite tavern — the Duchess Bar and Social Club — in the acknowledgements.

The book (Sasquatch Books, 227 pages, $23.95, written with Casey McNerthney) owes its existence to the documentary, "Heart of the Game," about Roosevelt basketball, which created an interest in the Roughriders' program.

The book is well organized and starts with the question a lot of people want to know about Resler, "Who is this guy?"

He went to Franklin High where he couldn't make the basketball or football teams. He inherited his mother's photographic memory. He enjoyed fraternity life at Washington State and he got into the UW law school only because his test score was in the stratosphere and compensated for lousy grades. He became an Army law clerk to stay out of Vietnam, is twice divorced and has three adult daughters.

He briefly practiced tax law, but hated the greed of his clients and wound up teaching the subject.

Resler, 61, is in his ninth season as the Roosevelt head coach and has won four Kingco Conference titles and the 2004 Class 4A state championship. His overall record is 181-49 and his team is 18-0 this season.

Resler has devoted admirers, but also critics and enemies.

I consider him one of the state's most fascinating coaches and will always admire him for playing all 12 girls in the close 2004 state-championship victory over Garfield. He played everyone because the team voted to stand by Darnellia Russell, whose eligibility originally had been rescinded by the WIAA for missing a year because she had a baby. It took court action to restore her eligibility.

All teams have their little dramas, but Roosevelt can specialize in grand opera, whether it's the Russell situation or gifted transfer Lindsey Wilson trying to mesh with teammates.

Resler's stated coaching philosophy is to use basketball to teach life lessons and to have fun. He teaches aggressiveness with themes such as "pack of wolves" and drills that send bodies flying. He also allows players to make a lot of team decisions, including discipline, through an "inner circle" of all varsity players that meets without coaches.

This is a guy who goes home and cries after making cuts. He also is funny. In the 2001-02 season, he noticed that an opponent had listed "Koreleona Davico" on the wall of the gym as being on the Roosevelt roster. No such girl existed, but he chided his team for not knowing their teammates. They eventually saw her name on the wall and figured it out, and before tipoff they joined Resler in the battle cry, "Let's go out and win this game for Davico!"

"Davico" became a season-long theme as Resler and girls made up stories about her and used contrived injustices against her for motivation.

The book, which has a foreword by Sue Bird, talks about a lot of the players. They all aren't stars but they are all interesting.

One of them, Alaina Forbes, earns this Resler compliment:

"It's rare to find adults with the ability to step outside themselves for the greater good of their community. Of all the teenagers I've met, only Alaina had that ability."

Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com