The Linden Family
2025
Football, Basketball, Track and Field, Volleyball
Blessed with otherworldly genetics and pedigree, when it came time for Jon and Krista Linden to begin building a family together, they were fairly certain about two things:
* Their children would be tall with blonde hair.
* And they would have quick reflexes and athletic hops.
But it’s what the two of them had little clue about that has made this family one of the best collections of one-sport talent that has ever been seen in Pierce County.
Hence, tonight’s prestigious recognition - the Linden family is the recipient of the Tacoma Athletic Commission’s annual “First Family of Sports Award.”
And although Jon was a football and basketball whiz at Fife High School, and Krista was a tennis and basketball player, but stood out in swimming at Brighton High School (Colorado) High School, most of their seven children - all daughters - gravitated toward one sport.
Volleyball
Besides being standouts with long-running Puget Sound Volleyball Academy, five of the sisters - Lara, Eva, Annika, Elsa, and Emilia - were varsity players at Fife High School. Five of them earned at least one season of all-league honors. And four of them went on to play in college.
“I don’t ever remember telling our kids, ‘You have to go to practice!’” Krista Linden said. “We have never forced any of the girls to do it. … we kind of just followed their lead.”
An accomplished sports-playing lineage in this family can be traced back generations - on both sides.
Carl Linden - Jon’s father - immigrated from Sweden and was an accomplished football player in East Bremerton High School’s first graduating class. He then went on to play at Bethel University in Minnesota before moving to Pierce County where he became a longtime church pastor.
His children - Jon (football, basketball, track and field), Nils (football) and Jenni (volleyball) - all played sports at Fife, then went to compete at Bethel University as well.
And Ron Lindgren - Krista’s father - played basketball at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Illinois before competing at Drake and Central Missouri. He ended up moving to Colorado where he was a professor, then started his own landscaping business.
Ron also had a household of athletes: Krista, the oldest, was an accomplished swimmer and at one point, was asked to help start a women’s swimming program at Bethel University.
Tim, the second-oldest, played basketball at Bethel. And then sisters, Katherine (Kentucky) and Trisha (Kansas) played volleyball at the NCAA Division I level. Youngest brother, Josh, played football at NAIA’s Ottawa University in Kansas.
“My dad was really strict, and the one thing we could do was play sports, and do a lot of them,” Trisha said. “We have a basketball hoop in our driveway, and we beat on each other.
“He just loved seeing us playing sports.”
To those from Pierce County who watched 6-foot-4 Jon Linden pass for touchdowns as the quarterback in football at Fife, or set the basketball program’s single-game assists record (12) - it comes as no surprise his children are supremely talented as well.
“Everybody knew from the moment you saw Jon on a basketball court or football field - he was a natural athlete,” said Rick Ancheta, the former Fife boys basketball coach. “He had a maturity way beyond his years. As a freshman and sophomore, he would play like a senior.”
As fate would have it, Jon and Krista met for the first time one morning in the Bethel University weight room.
“He was working in there, and I asked how I could lift weights and not get more muscular in my arms,” Krista said.
They didn’t date until years later when Jon returned in 1990 as a fifth-year senior after playing four seasons of college basketball, and one season of football.
It just so happened that Jenni - Jon’s youngest sister - lived on the same dormitory floor where Krista was a Resident Assistant (RA).
Jenni reintroduced them, and the two athletes became a couple - for good.
Two years later, after Krista accepted a teaching position at Seattle Christian School and transplanted to Washington, the two wed in the summer of 1993, and moved into the house in Milton that Jon bought and remodeled. It is still the family headquarters today.
In 1995, their first daughter, Lara, was born in their house. And almost every two years after that, another daughter arrived to bring added joy to the growing family.
Not long after graduating from Kentucky, Katherine decided to enroll in the nursing school at the University of Washington, and moved in with her sister and brother-in-law.
While there, she spent many days babysitting the oldest Linden daughters, and would bring out a volleyball out to show them how to serve.
Katherine ended up coaching a couple of them on a local recreational youth team, too.
“I do remember they got into it,” Katherine said. “And at the time, I was playing in a sand volleyball league with friends in Seattle - and (the girls) were good enough to hang out with us there.”
On a couple of family trips to Colorado, the Lindens would visit Trisha and her family, who had started a club volleyball program and built an indoor facility, where the girls were exposed to a fun - and serious enough - side of the sport.
“It was a luxury to have that as their introduction,” Krista said.
But the sport did not become a serious endeavor until the late Jan Kirk, who was also the legendary Fife volleyball coach, spotted the oldest girls and asked Krista and Jon if they would be interested in bringing the girls in for a tryout with Puget Sound Volleyball.
“Club volleyball has always been expensive, so for them to be part of it was initially hard for them to do,” said Pat Taitano, now the Puget Sound Volleyball president who is also the women’s coach at Tacoma Community College.
“They just didn’t know if it was worth it.”
But Jon and Krista did take their two oldest daughters to an open gym for the club, just to see how they would respond to other high-level athletes.
“I am looking at these 18-year-old girls, who are the best in the region, just warming up,” Jon said. “And Eva is there. She’s 10. She doesn’t know what to do, but is running behind the end line on one end of the court while the girls are hitting.”
Balls were sent whizzing in Eva’s direction at all speeds.
“A ball was going at her head, and she put her hand up like this (in a dig technique) and I just saw that natural quick-twitch reaction.”
And while the girls dabbled in other sports - most of them played for Upward Basketball with Jon as their coach - as a family, they decided if they were going to invest in a year-round activity such as volleyball, the sole focus would be on that.
“We just started weeding the other stuff out,” Lara said, “and volleyball became more fun. And I made more friends.”
Very quickly, the Linden girls excelled at the sport. Consider:
* Lara started it off as a multi-year 2A SPSL all-league first-team outside hitter at Fife (2010-12) playing for Kirk late in her coaching career. She went on to play at Northwest University in Kirkland.
* Then came along Eva - the most talented of the sisterly bunch, by all accounts - who was the league’s most valuable player in 2013 and 2014 before heading off to Portland State and then finishing up at Southern Methodist University.
* Annika, a right-side hitter and setter, was also a multi-year 2A SPSL all-league first-team selection (2016, 2017). She played one season at Bellevue College.
* Elsa, a four-year letter winner, was an all-league first-team outside hitter who opted not to pursue college volleyball.
* Emilia, the No. 6 sister, played both middle blocker and outside hitter - and was an all-2A SPSL first teamer at both positions. She currently is playing at Tacoma Community College.
* And the youngest - Sofia - is completely different altogether, both in stature (4-foot-10) and position (libero) as she finished up her sophomore season at Fife last fall. Her nickname is “Spike.”
For 17 consecutive years, the Lindens had at least one daughter (and up to four playing at one time) playing with Puget Sound Volleyball.
“When your kids play a sport you didn’t play … you have to try and understand what they are doing and match their interest level,” Jon said. “You can’t care more than they do, but you’ve got to care as much.”
Then there is the side story about the sister who did not play volleyball (but badly wanted to). Klara, the fifth-oldest, was born at 28 weeks, and has faced medical challenges her entire life.
When she tried playing a sport, it was often interrupted by another brain surgery (one of 18 she’s had her in life). But she did sit in the stands with her parents and “Super Fan” grandfather Carl and cheered on her sisters.
“Volleyball has been a second parent for our kids, teaching them things we value without us having to be the teacher,” said Krista, who has a busy life - running the non-profit “Step By Step” she founded in 1997, which offers maternal-support services to families - and mothers, in particular - in need.
She also founded the Puyallup-based “Farm 12.” Restaurant and Event center near the fairgrounds. In her spare time, she trains for marathons and half-ironman competitions.
Meanwhile, Jon has operated his own construction company for three decades.
“Our family has loved watching the girls play. Sisters root for sisters. Parents rooting for their kids. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - it has been a family affair. And for all of those memories, we are grateful.”
* Their children would be tall with blonde hair.
* And they would have quick reflexes and athletic hops.
But it’s what the two of them had little clue about that has made this family one of the best collections of one-sport talent that has ever been seen in Pierce County.
Hence, tonight’s prestigious recognition - the Linden family is the recipient of the Tacoma Athletic Commission’s annual “First Family of Sports Award.”
And although Jon was a football and basketball whiz at Fife High School, and Krista was a tennis and basketball player, but stood out in swimming at Brighton High School (Colorado) High School, most of their seven children - all daughters - gravitated toward one sport.
Volleyball
Besides being standouts with long-running Puget Sound Volleyball Academy, five of the sisters - Lara, Eva, Annika, Elsa, and Emilia - were varsity players at Fife High School. Five of them earned at least one season of all-league honors. And four of them went on to play in college.
“I don’t ever remember telling our kids, ‘You have to go to practice!’” Krista Linden said. “We have never forced any of the girls to do it. … we kind of just followed their lead.”
An accomplished sports-playing lineage in this family can be traced back generations - on both sides.
Carl Linden - Jon’s father - immigrated from Sweden and was an accomplished football player in East Bremerton High School’s first graduating class. He then went on to play at Bethel University in Minnesota before moving to Pierce County where he became a longtime church pastor.
His children - Jon (football, basketball, track and field), Nils (football) and Jenni (volleyball) - all played sports at Fife, then went to compete at Bethel University as well.
And Ron Lindgren - Krista’s father - played basketball at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Illinois before competing at Drake and Central Missouri. He ended up moving to Colorado where he was a professor, then started his own landscaping business.
Ron also had a household of athletes: Krista, the oldest, was an accomplished swimmer and at one point, was asked to help start a women’s swimming program at Bethel University.
Tim, the second-oldest, played basketball at Bethel. And then sisters, Katherine (Kentucky) and Trisha (Kansas) played volleyball at the NCAA Division I level. Youngest brother, Josh, played football at NAIA’s Ottawa University in Kansas.
“My dad was really strict, and the one thing we could do was play sports, and do a lot of them,” Trisha said. “We have a basketball hoop in our driveway, and we beat on each other.
“He just loved seeing us playing sports.”
To those from Pierce County who watched 6-foot-4 Jon Linden pass for touchdowns as the quarterback in football at Fife, or set the basketball program’s single-game assists record (12) - it comes as no surprise his children are supremely talented as well.
“Everybody knew from the moment you saw Jon on a basketball court or football field - he was a natural athlete,” said Rick Ancheta, the former Fife boys basketball coach. “He had a maturity way beyond his years. As a freshman and sophomore, he would play like a senior.”
As fate would have it, Jon and Krista met for the first time one morning in the Bethel University weight room.
“He was working in there, and I asked how I could lift weights and not get more muscular in my arms,” Krista said.
They didn’t date until years later when Jon returned in 1990 as a fifth-year senior after playing four seasons of college basketball, and one season of football.
It just so happened that Jenni - Jon’s youngest sister - lived on the same dormitory floor where Krista was a Resident Assistant (RA).
Jenni reintroduced them, and the two athletes became a couple - for good.
Two years later, after Krista accepted a teaching position at Seattle Christian School and transplanted to Washington, the two wed in the summer of 1993, and moved into the house in Milton that Jon bought and remodeled. It is still the family headquarters today.
In 1995, their first daughter, Lara, was born in their house. And almost every two years after that, another daughter arrived to bring added joy to the growing family.
Not long after graduating from Kentucky, Katherine decided to enroll in the nursing school at the University of Washington, and moved in with her sister and brother-in-law.
While there, she spent many days babysitting the oldest Linden daughters, and would bring out a volleyball out to show them how to serve.
Katherine ended up coaching a couple of them on a local recreational youth team, too.
“I do remember they got into it,” Katherine said. “And at the time, I was playing in a sand volleyball league with friends in Seattle - and (the girls) were good enough to hang out with us there.”
On a couple of family trips to Colorado, the Lindens would visit Trisha and her family, who had started a club volleyball program and built an indoor facility, where the girls were exposed to a fun - and serious enough - side of the sport.
“It was a luxury to have that as their introduction,” Krista said.
But the sport did not become a serious endeavor until the late Jan Kirk, who was also the legendary Fife volleyball coach, spotted the oldest girls and asked Krista and Jon if they would be interested in bringing the girls in for a tryout with Puget Sound Volleyball.
“Club volleyball has always been expensive, so for them to be part of it was initially hard for them to do,” said Pat Taitano, now the Puget Sound Volleyball president who is also the women’s coach at Tacoma Community College.
“They just didn’t know if it was worth it.”
But Jon and Krista did take their two oldest daughters to an open gym for the club, just to see how they would respond to other high-level athletes.
“I am looking at these 18-year-old girls, who are the best in the region, just warming up,” Jon said. “And Eva is there. She’s 10. She doesn’t know what to do, but is running behind the end line on one end of the court while the girls are hitting.”
Balls were sent whizzing in Eva’s direction at all speeds.
“A ball was going at her head, and she put her hand up like this (in a dig technique) and I just saw that natural quick-twitch reaction.”
And while the girls dabbled in other sports - most of them played for Upward Basketball with Jon as their coach - as a family, they decided if they were going to invest in a year-round activity such as volleyball, the sole focus would be on that.
“We just started weeding the other stuff out,” Lara said, “and volleyball became more fun. And I made more friends.”
Very quickly, the Linden girls excelled at the sport. Consider:
* Lara started it off as a multi-year 2A SPSL all-league first-team outside hitter at Fife (2010-12) playing for Kirk late in her coaching career. She went on to play at Northwest University in Kirkland.
* Then came along Eva - the most talented of the sisterly bunch, by all accounts - who was the league’s most valuable player in 2013 and 2014 before heading off to Portland State and then finishing up at Southern Methodist University.
* Annika, a right-side hitter and setter, was also a multi-year 2A SPSL all-league first-team selection (2016, 2017). She played one season at Bellevue College.
* Elsa, a four-year letter winner, was an all-league first-team outside hitter who opted not to pursue college volleyball.
* Emilia, the No. 6 sister, played both middle blocker and outside hitter - and was an all-2A SPSL first teamer at both positions. She currently is playing at Tacoma Community College.
* And the youngest - Sofia - is completely different altogether, both in stature (4-foot-10) and position (libero) as she finished up her sophomore season at Fife last fall. Her nickname is “Spike.”
For 17 consecutive years, the Lindens had at least one daughter (and up to four playing at one time) playing with Puget Sound Volleyball.
“When your kids play a sport you didn’t play … you have to try and understand what they are doing and match their interest level,” Jon said. “You can’t care more than they do, but you’ve got to care as much.”
Then there is the side story about the sister who did not play volleyball (but badly wanted to). Klara, the fifth-oldest, was born at 28 weeks, and has faced medical challenges her entire life.
When she tried playing a sport, it was often interrupted by another brain surgery (one of 18 she’s had her in life). But she did sit in the stands with her parents and “Super Fan” grandfather Carl and cheered on her sisters.
“Volleyball has been a second parent for our kids, teaching them things we value without us having to be the teacher,” said Krista, who has a busy life - running the non-profit “Step By Step” she founded in 1997, which offers maternal-support services to families - and mothers, in particular - in need.
She also founded the Puyallup-based “Farm 12.” Restaurant and Event center near the fairgrounds. In her spare time, she trains for marathons and half-ironman competitions.
Meanwhile, Jon has operated his own construction company for three decades.
“Our family has loved watching the girls play. Sisters root for sisters. Parents rooting for their kids. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - it has been a family affair. And for all of those memories, we are grateful.”