As the crowd roars to a deafening decibel level inside the Baker High School gymnasium, Suzy Cole keeps her voice to a whisper.

She leans close to Kelsey Lehman, rattling off numbers and the words “rebound,” “assist” and a variety of other basketball terms.

Cole and her daughter, Lehman, keep statistics for the Oregon School Activities Association at both the district and state 1A basketball tournaments which take place each winter at Baker High School.

Cole started in 1988 with Farrel Baxter. Cole took over the statistics job the next year.

“I’ve always loved basketball,” she said.

On Feb. 29, the second day of competition for this year’s state tournament, Cole mulled the question of how many hours she typically spends in the gym during the state tournament.

She starts adding up the time, and settles on 53 hours over four days.

And it could be much more.

Changes

For many years the job of keeping statistics was low technology — it took a piece of paper and a pencil. Cole enlisted the help of students — one person was the “caller” to describe the action, and two others kept track of stats by using tally marks.

Around 2000, the system switched to a computer.

“There’s a code for everything,” Cole said.

Now she is the “caller” and Lehman quickly keys in the codes, which provide a live feed of the game action through the OSAA website.

At halftime, they print each team’s statistics from a small printer that sits right on the stats table. Although Cole and Lehman are the official stats crew, they are joined, more often than not, by Lehman’s daughter Ellee, who is 4½.

Ellee spends nearly as many hours at the gym as her mom and grandma, fully supplied with stuffed animals, sculpting clay and snacks.

But she’s a helper, too — at the end of each halftime, Ellee takes the sheet of stats to each coach, who often kneels down to say hi and give her a high-five.

“We’re starting with her handing out stats,” Cole said with a smile. “She loves the gym, and loves games.”

Lehman, who graduated from Baker High School in 2011, helped her mom with stats throughout high school, and returned to the tournament when she moved back to Baker City in 2017.

Cole’s oldest daughter, Krysti, graduated from BHS in 2010. She also assisted her mom, and she went on to do statistics for the University of Kansas — a role she’s had for nine years.

Generations

With 36 years worth of tournaments, Cole has watched generations of players battle on the court for district and state titles.

And although she’s called out the names and numbers of countless players, she still recognizes quite a few family names who return year after year — especially those who now have children playing in the tournaments.

“When I’ve done stats for you for four years, I remember you,” Cole said. “That’s really fun with 1A.”