Penny: Led first Nooksack Valley girls basketball team

Continued from C16 at the middle school.

The following year, Nielsen-Howlett was brought up to the high school to teach history and serve as the girls physical education teacher. In the 1960s, P.E. was still separated by gender, so the girls and boys had separate classes. Being anointed as the P.E. teacher ended up being a blessing because it led to her future as the head coach for the Nooksack Valley girls team.

Before 1972, there were no competitive girls sports and they had to make do with a form of basketball called basquette. Basquette was similar to basketball, but instead of having five players on the floor for each team, there were six.

Three guards and three forwards but the guards and forwards were never on the same side of the court. The guards would play defense and the forwards would play offense.

According to Nielsen-Howlett, this sport was played because the men of the time said girls could withstand the physical nature of traditional basketball.

Nielsen-Howlett said all the women in the community felt it was about time when Title IX passed.

“It was long overdue that women should have the chance to compete. They were being denied that, denied the right for competition,” Nielsen-Howlett said.

Once Title IX was passed, NielsenHowlett naturally transitioned from P.E. coach to head coach of the girls team. She said it was initially challenging to teach the girls organized basketball as they had not experienced that level of play before. Nielsen-Howlett had to teach them the correct way of passing, dribbling and guarding on defense.

“You had to go back to the very basics with most of them,” Nielsen-Howlett said. “It took three or four years until that really got across to them”

Once that training kicked in, the Nooksack Valley girls team was a successful staple in northern Whatcom County. In 1976, Nielsen-Howlett led the Pioneers to their first league championship and state playoff berth. Along with the league championship, Nielsen-Howlett was named coach of the year for Whatcom County in 1976.

Nielsen-Howlett said one of the fond memories she holds from that time is seeing how she and the girls improved over time.

“Each year I learned a little more,” Nielsen-Howlett said. “Not only did the girls progress, but I progressed as a coach.”

In 1979, Nielsen-Howlett retired but was brought back in the early ‘80s to coach as an assistant. She said it was a fun experience to return and help coach again.

Today, Nielsen Howlett’s impact is still being felt in the Nooksack Valley community. Before the Nooksack Valley girls game against Anacortes on Wednesday, Feb. 1 she was honored with a ceremony. Feb. 1 was National Girls and Women in Sports Day, so it was fitting to bring back one of the original pioneers in the Nooksack Valley and Whatcom County communities.

At the game, NielsenHowlett got an inside peak at the Nooksack Valley girls locker room and shared some of her wisdom and stories with the number-one 1A girls team in the state. She also received a standing ovation from the players, coaches and fans in attendance for the game.

Nielsen-Howlett is an avid fan of the Nooksack Valley girls and a relative of star player Devin Coppinger. Nielsen-Howlett sung the praises of this Pioneer girls team and said it is amazing to see how well they are doing this season.

Nielsen-Howlett helped break barriers in this county 50 years ago and her influence has carried through all these years later.

“It has been wonderful to watch it progress, it really has,” NielsenHowlett said. “I am really happy to see the girls allowed competition and allowed to compete because it has not always been this way.”

-- Contact Nathan Schumock at nathan@ lyndentribune.com.

Harriet “Penny”

NielsenHowlett was honored before the Nooksack Valley girls game on Feb. 1. NielsenHowlett was the first coach in Nooksack Valley girls history.

(Dennis Cairns for the Tribune)

Continued from C17 struction business, has been watching this process since the very beginning. He joined the committee out of motivation to help this community he is tied to. His mother was a teacher in the district for 30 years, he was a Ferndale graduate himself, and he has young children who will one day attend the new school. But more than this, Cornelsen said he has a personal interest in helping provide oversight to the process.

“I was also one of the people who were a little skeptical, or [who] had some concerns, about how money had been spent in the past with regards to capital projects,” Cornelsen said. “All that led me to want to be part of it. That led me to want to make sure my tax dollars and everyone else’s were spent appropriately.”

Shortly after voters passed a $105 million bond in February 2019, the existing Bond Task Force recommended to the School Board, which agreed, that a Bond Oversight Committee be created to ensure the funds were spent as voters intended.

Four years later, Cornelsen is still serving on the committee where he will see this project through to the end, which is scheduled to be in time for the new school year this fall.

“One of the main things I’ve learned going through the process is that there hasn’t ever been a solution that answers every single person’s desires,” Cornelsen said. “But I think through the process we’ve been able to address as many people’s concerns as possible. We’ve tried to accommodate the staff, students, and community as best as possible. It’s impossible to please everybody, but it was a far better process than had our group not existed.”

Cornelsen explained that, as it goes with any major change, there were adjustments to work out. For instance, the new design involves shared teaching spaces that are different from what teachers have been used to. But overall, from his perspective, the response has been positive.

The school’s principal, Ravinder Dhil- lon is happy to be in the new building after months of planning out how this transition would happen.

“Lots and lots of planning, planning went into [this], as you can imagine, moving into a new house is stressful. But, you know, moving 1,400 kids, over 200 staff - it was a big project,” Dhillon said.

Dhillon credits her team for helping plan out what has been a smooth transition. Dhillon explained that it has been exciting for her to watch the “climate and culture change” as students, teachers, and staff settle into the new building, designed to promote collaboration and utilize school spaces beyond the classroom.

“We have more collaboration happening than ever,” Dhillon said.

The school is designed so that classrooms are grouped by subject. There is a math wing, science wing, and so on, according to Dhillon. Each classroom is shared by about three or four teachers who teach the same subject, with a separate room that serves as a planning space where each teacher has a personal desk space but can collaborate with their

One of the many classrooms designed to be shared with between multiple teachers. A shared planning space is located down the hall where each teacher has their own desk.

(Sarah McCauley/Ferndale Record)