'Bigger than basketball': Colfax assistant coach continuing the standard his best friend and fallen coach set

Reece Jenkin was the best friend of Colfax High assistant basketball coach Ben Aune. So when Jenkin, head coach of the Colfax boys basketball team, succumbed to his battle with pancreatic cancer one week ago, Aune was devastated.

Aune, who played basketball for the Bulldogs from 2003-07, coached as an assistant under Jenkin the last 12 years and largely took the reins this year when Jenkin battled the deadly disease.

Now, the undefeated, top-seed Bulldogs are two wins away from a state title after a dominating win over rival Freeman High on Thursday night at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

“I’ll never forget the day he called me and told me, never forget where I was at on Dec. 11,” said Aune, noting the day Jenkin was diagnosed with cancer.

He said that day feels like five years ago.

“Obviously, there’s days where I’m pretty good and days I have really, really hard days, right?” Aune said.

Basketball has been a nice outlet, as he and the team try to simply focus on the sport during practices and games.

“It gives us two and a half hours a day to where it’s like, ‘You know what, guys, let’s get in the gym. Let’s forget about what’s going on and go forward,’ ” Aune said.

Still, their leader is in their hearts, and even on the bench, where a photo featuring Jenkin and Aune has laid during recent games, including Thursday’s win.

The photo of Jenkin on the bench makes sense to Jenkin’s son, star guard Adrik Jenkin, because that’s where his father coached the past 17 years.

“That was his love,” the younger Jenkin said.

Adrik Jenkin, who scored 19 points Thursday, said it’s really nice his father is still there.

“Obviously, not physically, but spiritually, we know he’s still with us,” he said.

The team hasn’t missed a beat this season despite their leader’s illness. Aune said he’s simply carried on his mentor’s teachings because he believed in what coach Jenkin implemented, saying he was able to learn from one of the best coaches in the state.

“We have a lot of the same philosophies on the game of basketball,” Aune said. “For as bad as this situation is, I was extremely prepared for it because I had watched the way that he had gone about it. I respect him as a coach a ton.”

Adrik Jenkin said Aune knows the coaching standard his father set.

“He knows what we run, and really nothing has changed,” Adrik Jenkin said. “Same standards that my dad has set 17 years ago of being that really calm and humble team. And so we’re working hard, and he’s really pushing us.”

Ledger Kelly, who also scored a Colfax high of 19 points, called Aune a great coach.

“He really had a good foundation from Reece,” Kelly said. “He pushes us every day in practice to be better.”

The support for the Colfax team and community has been widespread and constant. That didn’t stop Thursday night as many Colfax and Freeman fans showed their support by wearing purple.

Colfax cheerleaders wore purple bows in their hair and purple ribbons on their front shoulder. Their pom poms were also purple. Freeman cheerleaders also sported purple bows in their hair.

Almost the entire Freeman student section wore purple shirts, including juniors Logan Pecht and Avery Berglund.

Berglund said she cannot imagine what the Colfax team and community is experiencing, and the Freeman student body wanted to put their rivalry aside and show it cared.

“I think it’s a little thing, but it’s just our way of being able to show support because we don’t get to see them every day,” Berglund said. “We don’t get to tell them that we’re praying for them and we’re thinking of them.”

The small sea of purple was their way to voice their public support, she said.

“At the end of the day, we’re gonna support them because it’s something bigger than basketball,” Berglund said.

Many of the Freeman students, like Pecht, wore shirts that said, “Jenkin Strong.”

Pecht, who plays on the Freeman girls basketball team, said she and her teammates have been wearing the shirts during warmups.

“I think we all can’t imagine being in their shoes, and so we would hope that everyone would support us just as much,” Pecht said.

Adrik Jenkin said he didn’t notice the amount of support and love his father had until people from across the state recently expressed it.

“It’s really beautiful to see,” he said.

Aune didn’t notice the Freeman student section’s show of purple, but he did see it throughout the arena.

“It’s been extremely tough,” he said. “But as you can see, you look up in the stands, you see purple shirts from people that don’t know Reece. Our community has been absolutely phenomenal.”

He said he receives texts from people checking on his well-being. Even Freeman coach Kyle Olson reached out.

“It’s just super cool when your rival is calling you, being like, ‘Is there anything I can do for you? Like, what can we do for your team?’ So that stuff’s awesome,” Aune said.

Colfax will play No. 3 Okanogan in the semifinals at 7:15 p.m. Friday at the Spokane Arena.