Timothy G. Gilmore grew up in Tacoma, Wa. Attended Mt. Tahoma High School from 1966-1968. Attended Big Bend Community College from 1968-1970 to pursue an AA degree and play baseball under Larry Labounty. He attended Central Washington University from 1970-1972, played baseball, got a Special Education undergraduate endorsement and has been teaching the last forty-one years in the same hallway at Centralia High School, Home of the Tigers. He just recently retired after a wonderful life in public education and will continue to live in the community of Centralia, Washington.
Tim married his wife Jerrilyn in 1978, they have been married for 35 years and currently have two children (Katie of Centralia and Kyle of Walt Disney World in Florida) and 5 grandchildren. Tim has lived, coached and taught in the same community for the entirety of his public education career.
Twelve years of special education, seven years of ninth grade Health and the last Twenty-two years teaching a ninth grade social studies curriculum called Law and Community. He has coached as an assistant in three different sports the last seventeen years and has had two head coaching experiences of eight years each in the sports of Baseball and Volleyball. Baseball from 1979-1986 and Volleyball from 1983-1990. All in all, between baseball, basketball, football, volleyball and volleyball officiating, Tim has coached a total of eighty-one seasons in his forty-one years.
With a passion and love for life he said yes to Ron Brown in 1974, coached a sport that he never played, and finally called it quits this last March after having been with the legendary Ron Brown as an assistant for 32 years. Yes, Ron has been hard to say no to. While being a head coach in two different sports in the early eighties, Tim left Ron for an eight year period. In 1991 Ron and Larry invited him back, thinking it was only for a short term, and twenty-three years later, both Ron and Larry have worn him out. Although many, Tim does not like talking about career highlights. His personal highlights have come with ninth graders in the classroom, coaching with such a wonderful fraternity of coaches in Washington and the family of coaches that he calls brothers at CHS. Former players and students that return to help, coach and mentor young men and women are the real reasons that he continued to coach a game he never played.
With pride, Tim will say that our program is one with an unshakable foundation, high expectations, strong spiritual values and a daily enthusiasm that says this game will not produce very many professional basketball players, but will produce proud citizens, lifetime friendships, husbands, fathers, grandfathers and loyal employees. Getting to know such people as Marv Harshman, Brad Jackson and Dave Harshman through the years at the Husky Hoop Camp and watching our high school players, year in and year out get to coach young players in Ron Brown’s Saturday Youth Basketball Program gives him all the memories he needs. His own son Kyle was able to play and coach in the program, which makes a father proud.
Tim would like to thank the fellowship of coaches in the State of Washington that have served as inspirational mentors in his career as a player and coach and he is so proud to stand among so many great people that do what they do for the heart of student/athletes.
