A CHILD OF HER OWN.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

CORVALLIS - She has coached hundreds of kids, but now Judy Spoelstra has one she can call her own.

Last spring, three days after he was born, Spoelstra adopted a son.

Single and an adopted child herself, the Oregon State coach admits to being in a near-state of giddiness since she became a mom.

"The fulfillment is indescribable," she said, though the ear-to-ear smiles, the twinkling in her eyes and overall glow provided description enough. "The joy."

Her Gill Coliseum office is now cluttered with bottles as well as basketballs, toys as well as trophies and playpens as well as playbooks.

"Nothing seems like work," she said. "I get to hold him, change his diapers, figure out all there is to know about him."

The 43-year-old Spoelstra is not the first mom among the Pac-10 Conference women's basketball coaches.

Washington's June Daugherty has twins, USC's Chris Gobrecht is the mother of two children, California's Caren Horstmeyer also has two children, and Arizona State's Charli Turner Thorne has two children and a third on the way.

Spoelstra is not the only single mom in the Pac-10, either. UCLA's Kathy Olivier has a teen-age daughter.

"This is the 21st century," Spoelstra said. "People have evolved. You're seeing acceptance with others. I'm not worried about public opinion.

"If people hear the joy in his voice and take one look in his eyes, it's accepted."

Evan Nytanu Spoelstra is 4 months old now. His birth mother is Cambodian, his father three-quarters African-American and one-quarter Hispanic. His skin is far darker than Spoelstra's.

"I'm not naive enough to think we're past that," Spoelstra said. "There will be situations in his future that will be uncomfortable or make him uncomfortable because of his ethnicity.

"But he is loved and he is secure. It will not be a factor. He will have good role models - players on the team with his same skin color and assistant coaches who are male. He will tie it all in."

Spoelstra chose the name Evan - Welsh for John - because that is the middle name of her brother. The infant's middle name, Nytanu, means "rainbow" in Cambodian, and was given to him by his birth mother. Spoelstra is a Dutch name.

"We've got the world covered," Spoelstra said.

The process of Judy Spoelstra becoming a mother was a lengthy one. There are financial as well as other considerations.

"When all was said and done, including the adoption process and the lawyer fees, it cost between $15,000 and $20,000," she said.

It was not an overnight development. An agency had to be chosen. Decisions had to be made on affordability and living arrangements.

The question "is this the time" had to be answered, Spoelstra said.

"I began thinking about all this 10 years ago, when I was in Bozeman (coaching at Montana State)," she said. "I did a lot of investigating."

About a year ago, she made her first contact with Open Adoption and Family Services Inc., a private agency based in Portland.

It is an agency that puts no restrictions on the marital status or sexual orientation of potential parents, only on the compatibility of those parents with the philosophy of the agency and their fitness to be parents, said Adrienne Van Der Valk, an OAFS staff member who is based in the Eugene office and worked with Spoelstra early in the adoption process.

A seminar in Corvallis and another in Portland put to rest Spoelstra's fears that being over 40 and single would keep her from adopting a child.

"There were six couples at the Portland seminar," Spoelstra said. "Three from Oregon and three others - all male - from Vancouver (B.C.), Boston and Washington, D.C.

"We talked about why we wanted to be parents. It was very touching."

Spoelstra's story?

"I've always wanted to be a parent," she said. "In my profession, I have 15 kids every year, but I only get them when they are 17 or 18 years old."

She leaned heavily on her past. With her older brother, Bob, she was adopted by John and Beryl Spoelstra of Wenatchee, Wash., more than 40 years ago.

"Part of my story is that I was adopted," she said. "It was a gift I was given. No matter who my birth parents were, they gave me the greatest gift - my parents."

In late April, Spoelstra's name was tossed into a pool of potential adoptive parents. In a process that often takes a year to complete, the ink was still drying on her letter of acceptance when the call came for Spoelstra to adopt.

Barely a month had passed when her son-to-be was born on May 22 in Portland.

Spoelstra was playing in some exhibition basketball games in Japan at the time. The former OSU all-American was tracked down and told that Evan's birth mother - with three other boys in her family, a fourth was not financially in the cards - had chosen the OSU coach to be the child's parent.

On May 25, Spoelstra's return flight landed in Portland. After meetings with the birth mother, the OAFS counselor and hospital officials in Portland - plus a hurried trip to the store for the needed baby items - an out-of-breath, all-but-overwhelmed and thoroughly ecstatic Spoelstra was a mom.

"One of the things that impressed me about Judy was the realistic idea she had of what would be required of her as a mom and juggling that with her career," Van Der Valk said.

"She has prepared herself for years, and prepared her staff. She has created an environment in which she can be with him as much as possible and still be a coach."

For Spoelstra, the thrill of this victory appears unmatched in her life.

"I've won a lot of great games, been involved with buzzer-beaters, and those moments are crisp in my mind," she said. "But this whole process with Evan ... there has been nothing greater happen in my life. Nothing could surpass it, except maybe when I get a little girl."

Indeed, Spoelstra plans to adopt again, "when Evan is about 3 years old," she said.

How will she do it?

Coaching is not an 8-to-5 job with weekends off. Coaching is long hours, travel obligations for games and recruiting, and frantic calls in the middle of the night.

In recognition of that, Spoelstra has hired a "round-the-clock" nanny and plans to have her son by her side as often as possible - at home and on the road.

Bob De Carolis, the OSU director of athletics and the father of three children, including twins, said from an administrator's standpoint, "We want to make sure we give Judy all the support we can.

"It's tough being a parent, and even tougher being a single parent. I'm sure there will be some logistics to work out, but she is not the first person in this situation.

"And," he said, "she really is happy."

CAPTION(S):

Oregon State women's basketball coach Judy Spoelstra takes her 4-month-old adopted son, Evan, on a tour of Gill Coliseum. C o l l e g e B a s k e t b a l l Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard Judy Spoelstra has turned her office into a nursery since adopting Evan, who was born on May 22.