There was a time in the not-so-distant history where making the 4A boys state basketball tournament was commonplace at Mariner High School. Under head coach Dexter Griffen, who coached the team from the 1998-99 season through the 2009-2010 season, the Marauders made the state tournament five times in 11 seasons.
Griffen resigned as the team’s head coach in 2010 and the Marauders haven’t been back to the state tournament since.
Hoping to restore the Marauders into a perennial state tournament contender, Mariner hired Griffen in May to once again be its head coach.
“What made me want to come back was to try and restore pride back into the program,” Griffen said. “Where all the hard work and time that me and my former players put into it to get it to where it was at, to see it dissipate, it made me want to come back and get it going again.”
Mariner athletic director Nate DuChesne said Griffen’s previous success, along with his ability to relate to the students after 18 years as a teacher at Mariner, made Griffen an easy choice to take over the program.
“Dexter is a proven winner in Wesco and he’s a fantastic coach,” DuChesne said. “He’s a great mentor to the kids, particularly at Mariner because he’s been teaching there so long. He understands our school and how to motivate the kids at our school, so it’s an ideal situation.”
In 11 seasons, Griffen had a 147-111 record at Mariner. In addition to leading the Marauders to five state tournament appearances, the 1998-99 team finished 21-7 and placed third in state — the highest finish in school history.
“One of the things we have with Dexter is instant credibility,” DuChesne said. “He’s won at a high level here at Mariner. He does the things that good high school coaches do. The kids play hard, they play unselfishly and they have a system that they run and they execute it well.”
The Marauders have won just 23 games in the past four seasons combined, including finishing 0-20 in 2011-12 and 3-17 in 2013-14. Though Griffen certainly has the pedigree to turn things around, he said it will depend on the effort his players want to put in the upcoming season.
“It always depends on the kids and how much success they want to have,” Griffen said. “If they’re willing to work and put in the time and the effort, more times than not you will have success. If you’re always having to be pushed and prodded to do what’s right to win, you’re not going to be successful. In order for it to keep going in the right direction, the players need to continue to keep putting in the time, effort and work and even more to get better results than they got last year.”
One of the players Griffen will rely on to set an example for the rest of the team is Kevin Villalobos, who was a first-team All-Wesco guard last season as a junior.
“He’s a very talented point guard,” Griffen said. “He plays well on both ends of the floor and he’s a great kid to coach.
“Kevin is the type of player that can create his own shot. He sees openings and he’s a guard that is a penetrate-first guard. His ability to get into the paint and break defenses down enables us to get easier shots and more open shots.”
A quick guard like Villalobos should help Griffen with his defense-first philosophy that led to so much success in his first stint at Mariner.
It’s been six years since Griffen roamed the sidelines for the Marauders, but DuChesne isn’t worried about how long Griffen has been away.
“Even though he hasn’t been coaching for the last six or seven years, he’s been involved and he talks to Mariner kids all the time about their games and what’s been going on,” DuChesne said. “He’s going to hit the ground running, for sure. He’ll do a great job.”
In addition to coaching his team on most Tuesdays and Fridays during the season, Griffen will get the opportunity to be a fan on Wednesday nights. His daughter Kylee Griffen will be a sophomore at Lake Stevens next season. She was named first-team All-Wesco as a freshman.
“The first game, hearing her name called in the starting lineup (for Lake Stevens) was cool,” Griffen said. “I remember her when she was little and after the game coming into the locker room wanting to shoot a basketball while I was talking to the team. Going from that to where she is now where she has a few scholarship offers already and started her freshman year was just a joy to watch.
“I’m very proud of her.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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