Barrett’s early work paved way

Call her the founding mother of girls high school basketball in North Idaho, if not the state.

Long before Title IX started opening doors for female high school and college athletes, Jennifer Barrett decided to open a few doors herself back in the early 1970s.

A physical education teacher at the time at Moscow High School, Barrett founded a state invitational tournament, the first of its kind in the state, in 1972. Moscow played host to the tourney for three years.

“It all started with her,” said Sally Greene, who played in the first invitational as a sophomore at Lewiston High School and went on to be a head girls coach at Grangeville and Moscow.

Prior to starting the invitational, Barrett used to open the gym doors each Saturday for daylong “Play Days.”

“Those were the boringest things,” Barrett said, laughing.

With Title IX beginning to gain momentum, the Idaho High School Activities Association began coordinating the state tournaments, beginning with the 1975-1976 school year. The 2004-2005 state tourneys, which will be held in the Boise area this week, are the 30th.

“We were ahead of Title IX before it became an issue,” Barrett said of the 1972 law that was passed to provide equal opportunities for females in high school and college athletics.

Barrett, 57, who continues to live in Moscow and owns a retail business with her husband, coached those early Moscow teams. Her final two teams (1980-81 and ‘81-82) won back-to-back A-2 state titles. The Bears were led by 6-foot-2 post Andrea Lloyd Curry, possibly the most accomplished player to come out of North Idaho to this day.

Those teams will be honored when the five state title games are held Saturday at the Idaho Center in Nampa. The IHSAA started a “Legends of the Game” award two years ago as a way to showcase and preserve the heritage of past standout teams. Barrett and most of the girls from those years, including Lloyd Curry, will attend the ceremony.

Southern Idaho schools were a couple of years behind North Idaho schools in the early 1970s, Barrett said.

“We were ahead of the rest of the state,” Barrett said. “We were at a state tournament in Boise in 1978 and (my athletic director) and I were at a breakfast. The speaker said Boise is where girls basketball got started.”

Barrett and the A.D. exchanged glances, shaking their heads.

“I’m not going to take the credit because a lot of people helped out,” Barrett said. “We had obstacles, but there was a force here that got it going and kept it going.”

Barrett, who taught for 23 years, continues to attend prep games.

“I knew it was time to get out of teaching when a student told me his grandmother had me as a teacher,” Barrett said. “Some of my players’ daughters are playing now.”