Korrie Bourn was announced Monday (June 6) as the new head coach for the Liberty Bell High School girls’ basketball team, replacing Stephanie Mitchell who retired from the top spot at the end of the 2021-22 season. Mitchell led the Mountain Lions for the past four years, coinciding with her daughter Jadyn’s court career at Liberty Bell.
Bourn, like her predecessor, is a Liberty Bell alumnus, graduating in 2008 after a four-year career as a starter and all-league player in both the 1A Caribou Trail League and the Central Washington 2B League her junior and senior seasons.
She took her first year of college off from basketball, attending the University of Washington. “It might sound cliché,” she said in a phone interview, “but I found it too gray and needed a change.” So she headed for Spokane where she got back into the game, playing two years at Spokane Falls Community College, first as a walk-on, then earning a full scholarship her second year.
Next, it was on to Eastern Oregon University in La Grande and two years of NAIA competition with a full scholarship. Bourn earned All-American, All-Conference and NAIA Scholar Athlete awards.
In 2014, Bourn moved back to the Methow Valley, and was offered the head coaching job, turning it down because she just didn’t feel ready for the position. She did work as Coach Ed Smith’s assistant in the 2015-16 season. She returned to the Mountain Lion bench for the shortened 2021 COVID spring season and continued this past year as Mitchell’s primary assistant.
She’s ready now to take control of a program that will be young and inexperienced. “I want to build a program that is well-rounded and out in the community,” she said. “I want to create a program that sends good people out into the world.”
Helping to create a new energy in the local youth program, Bourn believes, is the key to building a stronger program at the high school level.
Bourn, now 32, played basketball growing up in Winthrop from her earliest days in the Methow Valley’s AAU program. She followed sisters Brooke, Beau and Kelsey through the Mountain Lion varsity program, each being coached by their father Mike in high school. Mike Bourn headed up the Mountain Lion program for 17 years, departing for Oroville after Korrie’s graduation in 2008.
“I’m totally excited, and looking forward to giving back to the community that raised me,” Bourn said. She lives in the Winthrop area with her husband, Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Robert Grim, and their two daughters.
Coaching notes
Liberty Bell Activities Director Michael Wilbur said Monday that interviews will be held later this week for the boys’ varsity head coaching position. The recruitment opened on May 17, according to the school district website, and will remain open until a coach is named. Interim head coach Ryan Surface continues to lead the team into the summer league season.
Erik Brooks will continue to head up both the boys’ and girls’ cross country programs in the 2022 fall season. Brooks has earned several Washington 2B Coach of the Year awards from the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association, having led the Mountain Lion boys and girls to multiple State B Championships since taking the job in 2016.
Also renewing for the fall campaign is football head Coach Jeff Lidey, who will remain after his 2021 Mountain Lions notched their first state tournament victory last Fall.
Beth Blank will assume the top duties for volleyball after the departure of Christine Scott at the end of last season. Blank has helped with the program each of the past three years. Her daughter, Ellie, hopes to return this fall for her senior year after sitting out last year recovering from major knee surgery.
Rounding out the fall sports coaching line up will be Katie Overbeck returning for her third year as the girls’ soccer coach.
