Vikings fans double their state pleasure
Published 10:53 pm Sunday, February 28, 2010
RENTON — Life is great for Lake Stevens hoops coaches Mark Hein and Randall Edens.
About 18 hours after celebrating their matching district championships on the same court in Mill Creek, the Lake Stevens High School boys (Hein) and girls (Edens) basketball team coaches made a trip south with a handful of athletes to find out their slots in the 2010 Class 4A basketball state tournament brackets. Dozens of other coaches and players from around the state convened for the state draws at Washington Interscholastic Activities Association headquarters.
The double-elimination state championships begin Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome. The Lake Stevens squads, both seeded No. 1 from District 1, are among six local qualifiers.
Vikings fans can root for the girls in the morning and the boys at night in the first round. The Lake Stevens girls team (18-5) plays District 3 No. 4 seed Rogers of Puyallup (18-9) at 9 a.m., the earliest possible time slot. Lake Stevens beat Rogers by 12 points in a non-league contest earlier this season.
The Lake Stevens boys team (18-5), which edged Stanwood in overtime Saturday to snare its first district title in 43 years, plays Eastlake (17-8) of District 2/4 at 7 p.m.
“It’s really fun,” Hein said of Lake Stevens sending two district championship-teams to state. Saturday night “just seemed kind of surreal to win our first district title (since 1967) and then also just to be able to share that experience with the community and the girls program as well — it was amazing.”
Edens, the Lake Stevens girls coach, said he and Hein, who both teach at Lake Stevens High, began discussing last week the possibility of both teams winning district crowns. When it happened, it seemed too fantastic to be real.
Saturday “was a special night that we will never forget. It was like a dream for our kids and for the school,” said Edens, whose team beat Marysville-Pilchuck 60-55 in the District 1 girls final.
M-P (17-6), coached by Julie Martin, will play District 2/4 No. 1 Garfield (14-9) at 7 p.m. in the opening round. M-P hasn’t been to state since 1997, when Martin was a high-scoring senior for the Tomahawks. Regardless of its opponent, M-P is thrilled to be state-bound.
“To be completely honest, we are excited just to be down there,” said Martin, “and all my girls are ready to go.”
Also eager to compete following an even longer state drought is the Edmonds-Woodway girls team, the District 1 No. 3 seed. The 22-2 Warriors, who haven’t been to state since 1993, have an extremely challenging first-round matchup against unbeaten, top-ranked Auburn Riverside (25-0). E-W and Riverside, led by speedy University of Washington recruit Mercedes Wetmore, are set to tip off at noon.
Guided by first-year E-W coach Duane Hodges, the Warriors lost 56-54 against M-P in a district semifinal but bounced back with lopsided wins in loser-out situations against Shorewood and Arlington to qualify for state.
“It’s good that we lost. Actually, it really was,” Hodges said. “We had intense practices and two loser-out games. It made us play with intensity.”
The Jackson boys squad also handled loser-out pressure. The District 1 third-seeded Timberwolves recovered from an extra-devastating district semifinal defeat against Lake Stevens by beating Mountlake Terrace and Cascade to earn a ticket to Tacoma. Jackson last played at state in 2006.
In the first round, at 2 p.m., Jackson (20-4) will face Skyline (20-3), the top seed from District 2/4.
Skyline, which features 6-foot-9 forward Cory Hutsen and star football receiver Kasen Williams, will have a size advantage, Jackson coach Steve Johnson said. But “athletically we stack up so we’ll just have to shoot well, no doubt. We’ll just have to see how it shakes out,” said Johnson, whose team has an excellent backcourt led by junior Brett Kingma (25.1 points per game) and seniors Ryan Todd (14.2 ppg) and Marshall Massengale (12.3 ppg).
The other local boys tournament qualifier, Stanwood (16-7), gets the honor and enormous test of opening against top-ranked Federal Way (23-2). District 1 runnerup Stanwood will play the defending state champs at 10:30 a.m.
“I think I told you (Saturday) night that I really was just happy to be here (at state) and that seeding wasn’t a big deal. But apparently it was a big deal,” Stanwood coach Zach Ward said after the boys draw.
Spearheaded by 6-7 University of San Francisco recruit Cole Dickerson (24 points and nine rebounds per game) and California State University Fullerton-bound point guard Isiah Umipig, Federal Way is “super-athletic. It’s going to be pretty tough to simulate what we’re going to see Wednesday,” Ward said, “but we’re going to do our best. We need to be fired up and excited to play.”
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.
