By Brenna Wiegand
They’re always there in the bleachers at the various school events of their children and grandkids — mostly basketball games.
Carolyn and Jerry Roth will not miss a game if they can help it. And that’s a bigger undertaking than it sounds.
“You should see her working on her calendar,” their daughter Karen Martin said. “On some days there isn’t room for anymore things.”
After all, practically the whole extended family is or has been involved in the sport.
Let’s see…
All four of Jerry and Carolyn’s children played at Silverton High School and were recognized for their abilities. Karen, who still holds SHS’s record for rebounds in a game, played another year at George Fox College and plays in the Silverton Alumni games.
Steve Roth played at Western Baptist College (now Corban University), has coached at various levels for the past 20 years and currently coaches Silverton’s Junior Varsity boys team. His wife Sue played three years in college until sidelined with a knee injury. She, too, has done a lot of coaching through their boys’ pre-high school years.
Steve and Sue’s son Sammy plays at Pratum Elementary School and through the Silverton Youth Basketball Association (SYBA) team. The older boys Daniel and Toby are part of the Silverton boys varsity team.
Doug played four years at Western Baptist College (Corban) and coached the women’s team for a year, which is how he met his wife Marie. He is a farmer who has helped coach many of his sons’ teams.
Doug and Marie’s sons – Lucas in second grade and Cade in fifth – play in youth basketball leagues.
Jeff and Jennifer’s boys Josiah, fourth grade, and Titus, second grade, have played lots of basketball and this year gave football a try, giving Jerry and Carolyn a change of scene. Last year, Jen coached Josiah’s Upward Basketball team, a program based at Salem First Baptist Church. Their daughter Abby, 4, is still pretty young. Jennifer is the only spouse who didn’t play basketball.
“She was a track star,” Karen said.
Karen’s husband Brian played basketball, too, and their four sons have followed their parents’ example, all playing for Silverton High. Brian coached many of his sons’ teams through the years.
Martin twins Andrew and Taylor, who played on the college level, are both coaching: Andrew coaches the freshman boys at Silverton with former teammate Brent Satern. Taylor is an assistant coach at their alma mater, George Fox University. Taylor’s wife Kali played at George Fox throughout college, as did Andrew’s wife Melissa. Melissa played on a semi-pro Portland team and is an athletic trainer at Oregon City High School.
Jason Martin is playing for Chemeketa Community College and Davis Martin is on the George Fox team.
Jerry and Carolyn are Corban University supporters and still know many of the players, so they occasionally attend those games along with games for the SHS girls’ basketball team.
They find themselves running from court-to-court every summer at Salem Hoopla, a three-on-three basketball tournament sprawling down Court Street for seven blocks. The Martin boys have won the family division three years running.
“I’m proud of their attitudes and character, the choices they make, and their faith in God,” Carolyn said of the crew at large. “They bring us a lot of joy.”
“We’ve got a lot of nice kids playing,” Jerry said. “They provide our entertainment – and I like basketball.”
“It’s good – they’re always supportive,” grandson Sam Roth said. “We see them after the game and they’re always encouraging. It’s nice to know that they want to watch your game.”
The younger boys also get to play basketball with the older ones, including their uncles – and sometimes their aunts. This adds to the closeness of the family.
“We hold Thanksgiving every year in a gym in West Salem and the kids can all play basketball,” Jerry said.
When Sue was welcomed into the Roth clan 23 years ago, she could see it was a unique group.
“Everybody really cared for each other,” she said. “Carolyn used to watch my kids one day a week just so I could go do whatever I wanted.”
Carolyn has become a role model for Sue as a parent and, one day, grandparent. She makes sure her boys realize how unique their grandparents are. Fortunately, the Roth kids all married sports lovers.
“I’ve asked Mom and Dad several times if they could count the games they’ve been to,” said Jeff Roth, who, with Brian Martin and cousin Paul Roth and their families, own G&C Farms, with Willamette Valley Fruit Co.
“Let’s see… 10 games a week for four weeks; that would be 40 a month; and if that was nine months of the year … that would be 360 a year… and that for probably 40 years… Of course the math breaks down when we were kids…”
Decades ago, when Steve was playing Pop Warner football at Central Howell Elementary School, one of his teammates became cause for concern in the Roth household. For one thing, his mother never came to his games.
One day Karen came home and said, “His mother doesn’t seem to care for him.”
Putting together an end-of-season party, Carolyn called the boy’s mother to see if she was coming.
“Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t like football…”
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, lady. You don’t have to like football to go to your son’s thing,’”
said Carolyn, adding, “There are all kinds of situations like this.”
“Kids are OK if they know their parent is at work when these events happen,” she said, “but it’s another thing when they just choose to stay at home.”
With grandsons from elementary school to college playing basketball, Carolyn and Jerry Roth wouldn’t miss a game.
