By Tim Clinton

SPORTS EDITOR

Craig Heyamoto looms large in the Seattle sports world.

No, he doesn't throw the football, shoot hoops or drill soccer balls into the upper vee.

But he keeps track of those that do for the teams they play for.

The 1971 graduate of Highline High School is the statistics crew chief for the University of Washington and Seattle Seahawks football teams and assists for the Husky men's and women's basketball teams, the Seattle Storm women's basketball team and the Seattle Sounders men's soccer team.

Heyamoto and his Huskies crew are so good at the craft that they are selected to work the Rose Bowl as well as the national championship game.

But, unlike the pro players he follows, he does not even remotely get rich for his efforts. He receives only small per game payments, all of which he combines into a scholarship fund to help students in the University of Washington sports information department.

"While being paid is appreciated, no one I know does this work for the money," said the 64-year-old Normandy Park resident, who has doubled as a lawyer for Boeing in his regular job since 1983.

Heyamoto's first love in sports was the University of Washington football team when he watched the Huskies play Wisconsin in the 1960 Rose Bowl as a child.

"My father lettered in baseball at the UW," he said. "Following the 1959 season, the Huskies earned a trip to Pasadena for the first time in years. I had not been a football fan before, but dad sat me down and said we were going to root for the Huskies. I've been a big fan ever since."

His first forray into the world of stat keeping came shortly thereafter.

"Dad coached youth baseball in the Highline area and I kept score for those teams," Heyamoto said. "A brother of a classmate learned of my interest in stat keeping. When he left for college, he offered me a job as the football and basketball statistician for the North Puget Sound League."

Heyamoto filled that role all three years he was a student at Highline High School.

"This entailed gathering the stats from each team in the NPSL, compiling the league's team and individual stats, typing them out and then mailing the stats to the media," said Heyamoto, who doubled as a sports stringer (freelance reporter) for The Seattle Times at the same games he attended.

His education at Highline further fueled his interest.

"I had great teachers at Highline," he said. "They instilled a lifetime interest in learning in general and mathematics and computer programming specifically."

Heyamoto went on to major in mathematics and law at the University of Washington, with degrees in both.

His Times contacts helped him land statistics jobs at the 1971 NCAA track and field and 1973 wrestling championships.

"I met people in the UW athletic department and got a job working at football and basketball games beginning in Fall 1973," he said. "In 1975, I wrote a basketball stat keeping program, something that was unique at the time. This led to me being asked to run the new computerized scoreboard at Husky Stadium in 1976. No one else in the department had computer experience."

The stat crew chief position at the UW opened up the following year.

"I was given the job, which occurred during my last year of law school," Heyamoto said.

The year 1977 also stood out as his first full year on the Seahawks' crew after helping out as a fill-in substitute their first season in 1976.

"The crew chief was the Sports Information Director at the UW when I first started working there," he explained.

Heyamoto became the stat crew chief for the Seahawks in 1982.

"I'm primarily responsible for calling the yardage/yard lines on each play," said Heyamoto of the two football crew chief jobs. "This involves matching what happens on the field with what the stat guidelines say. In addition, I manage the crew."

Heyamoto has been on the UW's basketball crew since 1975, and on the women's since 1986. He worked for the Seattle Sonics from 1995 until their departure for Oklahoma City, then started with the Storm their first season in 2000. He started with the new professional Seattle Sounders with their inception in 2009.

"For UW women's basketball, I keep stats for the home radio broadcast team," he said. "For the Storm, I do the same for the home TV broadcast team. For UW men's basketball and the Sounders, I am a member of the crews. I'm the manual backup for both."

In addition to being the crew chief for Husky football home games, he attends as many road games as he can to help out fellow Normandy Park resident Bob Rondeau in the radio booth. They have worked closely together since 1980.

"I pay my own way," he said. "But our Husky football crew works the Rose Bowl game and CFP national championship, both of which we are flown in to work."

Rondeau was admitted into the UW Hall of Fame last year, when Heyamoto was given the school's Don H. Palmer award for those who have made a special commitment to the UW athletic department.

"What a surprise," Heyamoto said. "I know a lot of people who work at Husky events. They don't do it for the money or fame. They do it because they want to support student athletes and the UW. To be thanked by my school for 'work' that I love doing was so special."

Also special to Heyamoto is the time before games spent with fellow crew members, who in some cases include his brothers Gary and Brian.

"Gary (Highline class of 1972) calls defense at UW games, runs the audit computer at Seahawks games and is the shot clock operator at UW women's basketball games," Heyamoto said. "He is a practicing dentist. Brian (Highline class of 1973) is responsible for rushing, passing and receiving stats at Seahawks games. He retired after 38 years at Boeing (in finance). Both lettered in baseball at Highline."

Heyamoto's name is also attached to an NCAA basketball rule change he recommended.

"I have had a few of my suggestions accepted in the past," he said. "One was whether a last second, half-court heave should count as a field goal attempt by the NCAA."

The tries no longer count as shot attempts.

All of this started with watching the 1960 Rose Bowl, after which he has only missed two Husky football games either on TV, radio or in person. For the two, he later watched the tapes.

"Little did I know that about 50 years later, our Husky stats crew would be keeping statistics at the Rose Bowl game," Heyamoto said.