Sports paved Lindsey Foster's path, which now has led back home

Lindsey Foster got her start in athletics in Port Orchard and now the 1999 graduate of South Kitsap is back home — and still in sports, after being hired in July as the South Kitsap District athletic director.

Sports have always been a big part of Foster’s life, from basketball to volleyball and baseball/softball. She starred in basketball at SK and that turned into a college basketball career that took her into coaching. Now she is going to oversee sports and activities at SK and three district middle schools – Marcus Whitman, Cedar Heights and John Sedgwick.

In addition to the new job, Foster returns home at the same time she's being recognized with induction to the Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame, scheduled for Feb. 5 during ceremonies at Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo.

“I’ve come to understand the unique power that sports have to bring people together and to be a source of pride, inspiration and conversation in communities everywhere,” Foster said. “I feel both honored and humbled on my induction into the Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame and to be in the conversation of those who voted for me.

“My accomplishments on the basketball court aren’t mine alone, though. From the first day my dad Jim put a basketball in my hands, I have been overwhelmed and humbled by the support of family, friends, coaches, teammates and teachers and their many, many sacrifices of time, effort, money and sleep that I am forever grateful for.

“Basketball has given me gifts beyond what I could imagine and more than I can ever give back.”

Starting with T-ball at 5, Foster shone no matter what sport she tackled

It started for Foster in T-ball as a 5-year-old, playing baseball as a shortstop-pitcher in South Kitsap Eastern Little League with boys. She would have continued on with baseball if not for gender rules when she hit seventh grade at Marcus Whitman Junior High and was redirected to fastpitch softball that girls play in this state.

“If there were any skeptics (that a girl couldn’t compete well against boys) she held her own and was a real asset,” says her mother, Linda Foster. “It was just fun to watch.”

Blessed as a natural athlete along the lines of her dad, Jim Foster, who pitched for Stadium High School in Tacoma and for a short time at Olympic College, Foster became highly competitive no matter the sport. It was basketball, though, where she really excelled.

“I grew up loving to play basketball,” says Foster, who would spend countless hours ­— rain be damned — shooting at a driveway hoop with a group that usually included best friend Haley Green, daughter of Doug Green, who was Lindsey’s coach though elementary school.

Boys in the neighborhood joined in, including Travis Hanson and the Stroud brothers, Luke, Logan and Garrett. Hanson would go on to play six seasons of minor league baseball in the St. Louis system, reaching as high as triple-A in the Pacific Coast League, after being picked in the 9th-round of the 2002 MLB draft by the Cardinals, and now resides in California where he has a business.

When Foster came home from college in the summers she, of course, hit the home basketball hoop with regularity. Dad knows.

“I would play against her in pickup games, and she just tore me up,” says Jim.

Set numerous records during tenure at South Kitsap, Northern Arizona

Determined, poised and confident, Foster built a résumé in sports that would hold up well as she advanced to high school. She played basketball in the South Kitsap Youth Athletic Associations and became a star point guard that learned the art of passing, setting other players up to score from watching pro like Gary Payton.

“I loved The Glove and how he played and defended,” says Foster of Payton. “And I loved watching John Stockton. I was more interested in my assists than scoring points. I was always more excited about making a team pass and somebody else finish.”

Foster played at SK with some good ones that could finish, including Natasja Allen, who would play at the University of Hawaii, and 6-foot-3 Sara Bracken, who would go on to Rice University in Houston. She also followed another good SK point guard in Kyla Evers, who also went on to Hawaii.

"Kyla Evers was a fantastic athlete,” says Linda Foster. “When she graduated, Lindsey slid into that slot (point guard), but she was ready for it. She played on the Columbia Cascades and traveled all over with the team for several summers.”

All that excellent talent did pretty well for the Wolves. In the 1998-99 season SK went 27-3 and finished third in state, and for the third consecutive year Foster was named to the All-Narrows League first team, including being named the league’s MVP in 1999.

Foster had choices for college, including Eastern Washington, UC Irvine and Montana. She thought she'd land at Irvine, but Northern Arizona in Flagstaff won her over.

“I was so excited to go to a school in Southern California, but I ended up having a phenomenal visit to Northern Arizona,” Foster said. “I fell in love with the people there.”

The Lumberjacks were rebuilding after winning the Big Sky Conference prior to Foster showing up, so she wound up playing four years for the Lumberjacks, setting all kinds of records, including assists.

“Lindsey had all of the great qualities a coach looks for in a point guard,” says Meg Sanders, her coach at Northern Arizona and now an assistant at Arizona State. “She set the tone every day through her consistent effort and leadership. She was a great passer and a very unselfish teammate. Defensively, she was tenacious, using anticipation and smarts to steal the basketball. Lindsey has very high standards, loved the game and was a joy to coach.”

When her playing days ended in 2003 (she was a grad assistant for the 2003-04 season), Foster was first in free throw percentage (81.8), assists (379), steals (238) and minutes played. She is now 8th in three-pointers made (131).

Foster made All-Big Sky honorable mention in 2000 and 2001 and was the team MVP for the 2000-01 season.

Great player, greater person: Friends, family speak of character, dedication

As good as Foster was as a player, she was better as a human. They still love her at Northern Arizona.

“Lindsey is beloved out here by the people who were around for her career,” says Cody Bashore, assistant director for athletic communications.

That love likely stems from her commitment and loyalty along with her playing status that Foster showed to the people there.

“Lindsey has stated so many times how much she loved it here in Flagstaff and how grateful she is for the opportunities it opened for her going forward,” says Bashore. “I’m so thrilled she gets the opportunity to go back home and work for her own high school.”

Her return home was not direct. She diverted to UC Riverside as an assistant for six years, starting in 2004 and working for head coach John Margaritis. She left there to become an assistant in 2010 at CSU Northridge to Jason Flowers. Foster was associate head coach when Flowers stepped down in April of 2020. Foster was named interim head coach. Because of COVID-19 she never got to coach a game as head coach, but did some quality recruiting.

“It has been a huge blessing to rejoin the community that helped me, supported me and raised me, and be with my family,” says Foster.

Her current family includes parents and wife Lakin Saucedo, a singer-songwriter who has opened for various artists like Gladys Knight and Sheryl Crow, and 18-month-old daughter Ryan.

Her family is beyond happy to have her back home, and proud of her accomplishments while away from Kitsap, including coaching in two NCAA tournaments, the first with UC Riverside in 2007 (a 57-50 first-round loss to Arizona State) and the second in 2015 at CSU Northridge (a 73-60 first-round loss to Stanford).

“Friends have helped her along every step,” says Linda Foster. “She is a good person. Lindsey has good character. That is what we are most proud of. We are a pretty tight nuclear family. We have worked at that, and Lindsey too. We only saw her two or three times a year when she was coaching D-1, so she started looking outside of D-1 so she could be close to the family, and available for the family.”

Terry Mosher is a sports columnist for the Kitsap Sun who writes about different personalities in Kitsap athletics. Contact him at bigmosher@msn.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Lindsey Foster returning to South Kitsap High, Kitsap Hall of Fame