Crater's varsity girls basketball coach Scott Dippel was recently announced as the high school's new principal for the 2024-2025 school year in Central Point.

Sports programs — at least ones that tend to enjoy success on the scoreboard — pride themselves in fostering a sense of family within the team.

When it actually is a family affair, though, that can often be a tightrope to walk, especially when a parent-child dynamic is placed in the spotlight.

For Crater girls basketball coach Scott Dippel and eldest daughter Addison, it’s been nothing but a blessing on each side of the equation.

“I really like it,” said the 17-year-old starting guard for the Class 5A top-ranked Comets, who prefers to be called Addi. “My dad’s a really good coach and I think that’s the main reason why we’re so successful. We prepare thoroughly for each game and we always know exactly what we’re going to do right when we step on the court.”

Those words certainly speak volumes for her father Scott, who knows the parent-child dynamic could become stressful if you let it — and not even just among the two parties involved.

“She’s in a hard position,” said Scott, who notched his 200th coaching victory this past Tuesday. “Anytime that you’re a kid of a coach, there’s a scrutiny there that is different, and it is difficult being a kid like Addison, who’s a little on the introverted side at times, too.”

It’s certainly not an uncommon theme in sports.

Just this winter here locally, the Dippels are joined by the Plankenhorns (Scott and Andrew) of North Medford boys basketball, the Robersons (Jeff and Timnah) of Cascade Christian girls basketball, the Schumacks (James and Corbyn) of South Medford wrestling and the McNultys (Kacey and Gannon) of Eagle Point wrestling.

Scott and Addi suggest that there are a few keys that help make it all work and lessen the potential for any semblance of a fractured relationship, either among the family members or the extended family members that make up the Crater Comets.

Just another playerAnyone who has played a sport over the years, be it basketball or beyond, has experienced the notion that a coach’s son or daughter may be getting preferential treatment.

Whether it’s playing time, prominent roles or featured positions, it comes up all the time, and sometimes well-meaning parents aren’t even aware it happens.

There’s also that odd dichotomy between a coach’s child not being held to the same expectations as the other players, to them being the bearer of overwhelming expectations few could live up to.

Very intentionally, Scott did not want any of that to be the case for Addi, whom he began coaching in a competitive sense when she was in fourth grade.

“I played for my dad for a lot of years in a lot of different things so I kind of understood that dynamic,” he said, “and have kind of talked to her about what happens with that and that I have to hold her to the same standard that I hold everybody else to. I try not to be more hard on her than I would on other players, but that really can come up at times.”

For Addi, there hasn’t really been any other feeling than that she’s just another player as she’s grown up in the Comets program.

“I don’t think my dad pushes me any harder than he does anyone else,” she said. “I just think he has high expectations for me, but he also has high expectations for every girl. It’s like every girl is kind of his daughter as well.”

That spirit of consistency has been extremely important, from making each player feel valued to creating a type of team chemistry few can match these days.

Crater’s junior class, of which Addi is only one piece of a deep puzzle, has been coached by Scott since they were also in fourth grade, as well as a few in the class above them.

“I think our team has a lot of good chemistry since we’ve known each other for so long,” said Addi, “and I think that’s part of the reason why we’re such a good team.”

Added Scott: “One thing that helps a little bit with this group and the girls she’s been with is that I’ve coached these girls for a long time. It’s kind of cliche to say that you kind of treat them like your own daughter, but I think that’s helped in her seeing that my treatment of other players at times is the same: That I hold them to high expectation, that I’ll get after them but at the same time I’ll build them up, the same way I will with her.”

Leave it on the courtAs Scott was looking at an unfolding life where he may conceivably coach all three of his daughters with wife Jennifer — Addi’s sisters Harper (12) and Macy (on the verge of turning 10) also play basketball — he received some sage advice from former championship coach Terry Harrison.

Harrison helped guide Willamette to 5A titles in 2007 and ‘09 and Marist to the 2018 crown, and also was in position to coach his own daughters. Their family agreement, passed on to Scott, was that when the game was over, the group wouldn’t talk about the game for a long time afterwards.

“I’ve kind of stuck with that a little bit,” said Scott, “and I think that’s helped our relationship, that it’s never too high and never too low in our conversations.”

Addi couldn’t agree more.

She watches just about the same amount of game film on her own as her teammates — OK, maybe a couple extra times there’s a “come look at this” moment with dad — and it’s not like the car rides or dinner conversations revolve around what’s happening on the hardcourt.

“I feel like my dad is my dad at home and he’s my coach in the gym and they don’t really overlap much,” said Addi, who carries a 3.9 GPA and is considering a future as an ultrasound technician. “We don’t really talk about basketball very much off the court.”

It’s all a work in progress for Scott, who credits his more reserved wife for helping keep an even keel. Still, he’s already bracing for the challenges yet to come in coaching daughters who possess different personalities and characteristics.

“Addi’s kind of testing the ground for them,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve learned a lot going through stuff with Addi now of what to do and what not to do with the other two girls.”

Apple doesn’t fall farThe benefits of being on a team with a coach’s kid? There’s a mentality and perspective on the sport that often is undeniable.

Scott tells the story of Addi in the early days wanting to work a lot on her outside shot. So much so, in fact, that he finally stopped to ask one day why she so badly was wanting to practice 3-pointers?

“She was playing at the time with (current Crater posts Lydia Traore and Chase Weaver) and also with Jordynn Jones, who’s over at Cascade Christian,” he recalled, “and I remember her saying, ‘If I can shoot these 3s then those people don’t help on Chase and Jordynn and Lydia.’ There was an understanding, even at that age, of what advantage we could get as a team if she could be a threat outside and what it would do for our people inside.”

“She has a really high basketball I.Q.,” Scott added. “She’s kind of a reserved kid so she’s not going to be the one in the middle of the timeout barking out stuff to other kids — we’ve got other kids that kind of fill that role — but she will definitely go over and talk to other players about the things that she sees.”

Even with that sensibility, Scott said Addi’s preference has always leaned toward shying away from the spotlight.

“She likes to be the complement,” he said, “so she likes to do a lot of different things and kind of figure out what we need within the game. She’s really good friends and played forever with (Crater leading scorer Sage Winslow) and I think both of them have learned to complement each other really well.”

“She’ll be the one who will say, ‘Hey, we need to get so-and-so the ball more,’” added Scott, “or my girl’s playing really tight to me so get me on the same side as Chase or the same side as Lydia. She recognizes how people defend her, and for her defensively, she understands where she needs to kind of fit.”

And, in the end, it’s those factors that carry more weight than statistics.

“The thing that I’m really proud of is that I think she’s a really good teammate, both in how she can complement other players and also just in the support that she gives,” said Scott. “She’s had some great games and some great moments, but really those other things stick out the most.”

Family feastWith a roster largely intact for a third straight season, Crater has plenty of reason to feel optimistic about earning the program’s first state championship after finishing as big-school runners-up in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

Blending speed, athleticism and an undeniable unity, the Comets have already twice vanquished their closest rivals in the Midwestern League in No. 2 Springfield and are hungry to turn promise into reality when all is said and done this season.

A state semifinals loss to the Millers — their third setback in as many tries against them last year — provided the impetus for Crater’s determined approach to the 2023-24 campaign.

“I think the Springfield game definitely made us want to push to become better,” said Addi, who also plays soccer and is a sprinter on the track and field team at Crater. “We all hated how we felt after that game at state, so I think that’s helped us come together and become better as a team.”

The full-tilt aggressive approach spearheaded by the Winslow sisters — senior Abby and junior Sage — and the versatility in between from so many Comets to complement Traore in the paint has allowed for an 18-1 overall record and 8-0 MWL ledger entering Friday’s game against North Eugene.

Sage Winslow has averaged 18.3 points, 4.5 assists and 6.1 steals per game, while Traore comes in at 10.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

Like so many of her teammates, Addi has helped build a bridge in between those leaders by shooting 53% from the field — dialed in as Crater’s top 3-point threat — to contribute 11 points, 3.8 steals and 2.2 assists per game.

Go up and down the roster and you’ll find contributions, with seniors Addison Vranes and Abby Winslow joined by junior Alexa Gugliotta to create a stat-grabbing crew that has benefited from the help from so many that allow Crater to go at least a dozen players deep most nights.

“Earlier in the year I had a player from another team that was standing by me taking the ball out of bounds and she just said, ‘Coach, how many of these girls do you have?’” said Scott, who is in the seventh season of his second stint coaching at Crater (13th overall).

“I’ve always said that kids can invest in their team if they can see their piece come to fruition in games,” he added, “so I’ve always played a lot of kids. I think it’s important to do that, and it’s worked to our advantage more than it’s been to our disadvantage.”

And as if they were all his own daughters, Dippel can get a little sappy when he looks at the calendar and knows there are only so many days left with this current group.

“There really is a family vibe,” said the coach of his Comets. “It’s funny because even at the beginning of the year I’d get choked up thinking about senior night — just because we’ve been on this path with all the highs and lows — and now we’re like a week away from it. When you coach a group of girls, even for a season, you spend a lot of time with each other and you see them in points where they’re the most vulnerable and you see them when at their peak.”

“There’s a lot about this group that’s really special,” he added. “They just make me proud on so many levels, whether it’s the classroom, how they are in the hallways, how they are at practice and in the games, it’s a real gift that I’ve been given.”

And hopefully a gift that keeps on giving.