St. Maries coach Bryan Chase returns to Hoopfest amid cancer battle
Bryan Chase played Hoopfest with FC Buckets, skipping chemo for the weekend and sharing the court with family as St. Maries celebrated its state title year.
Bryan Chase came back to Spokane Hoopfest with FC Buckets and spent the weekend on the same courts where he first played in 1990, even as he skipped chemotherapy that week during his fight with pancreatic liver cancer. The longtime St. Maries High boys basketball coach shared the court with his daughter Madi Forrest, his son-in-law Tanner Forrest and Tanner’s sister Rylee Forrest, turning a downtown Spokane tournament into a family reunion.
For North Idaho basketball fans, the sight carried extra weight because Chase’s St. Maries program just won the 2026 Idaho 3A state championship, the Lumberjacks’ first state title since 2021 and third in school history. The victory gave Chase eight state trophies in his 12th season at St. Maries, a run that has made him one of the most familiar names in the region. Former players and current kids he has coached stopped by for photos, a reminder of how widely his reach extends beyond St. Maries.
Hoopfest itself has grown into a massive regional event since June 30 and July 1, 1990, when 512 teams and 2,009 players took part in the first tournament. The 2026 edition, held June 27-28, was promoted as the largest 3-on-3 outdoor basketball tournament on Earth, with more than 6,000 teams, about 225,000 fans, 3,000 volunteers and 425 courts spread across 45 city blocks.
That scale has also made Hoopfest a community fixture beyond basketball. The Spokane Hoopfest Association says the event has built more than 30 outdoor basketball courts and donated more than $2.5 million to local charitable organizations, including Special Olympics. For Chase, who has spent more than a decade building St. Maries into a perennial Idaho contender, the tournament linked family, survival and the next chapter of a coaching career that still has unfinished business.
He is still hoping for one more season on the St. Maries sideline if the medical pieces fall into place, which would keep one of North Idaho’s most recognizable coaches tied to the program he has carried to statewide success.
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