EVERETT – Coach Heather Burglund knew the significance last week when her Everett High School volleyball team qualified for the state tournament.
It had been 19 years since the Seagulls made it to state, one year too many for those still pained by the memory of their elimination in the 2003 district tournament.
So when Everett beat Jackson in a district tournament semifinal last week and qualified for state for the first time since 1985, Burglund braced herself for a wild celebration.
What she got were a dozen girls thrilled with their accomplishment, no doubt. But a huge party? That comes later.
“They expected to do this and they wouldn’t have been satisfied if they hadn’t,” Burglund said. “The girls aren’t happy with just reaching state. There are new goals now and it’s really great to see that fight in them.”
The Seagulls, 16-0 after beating Snohomish for the district championship, are determined to turn back the clock 31 years. They want to become the first Everett High team to place among the top eight at state since the 1973 team finished third.
Their quest begins today at the Everett Events Center, where they play University of Spokane, the state’s second-ranked team, at 2 p.m. in their first match in the 16-team Class 4A tournament.
It has been a long journey back for the Seagulls, who have improved steadily since Burglund became coach six years ago.
She walked into a program that wasn’t doing the things necessary to become a state-caliber team. Players rarely took part in offseason club programs and the team didn’t attend summer volleyball camps.
“Playing in the offseason is something they did in basketball and soccer and softball, but in volleyball they hadn’t done that,” Burglund said.
She changed that, drawing on her own experience as a former volleyball player at Cascade High School, where she was part of a state tournament team in 1994. Burglund remembers attending summer volleyball camps at Gonzaga University in Spokane when she was in high school, and she started taking the Everett team there after she became coach.
“A few individuals had gone to camps, but going together as a team is something we hadn’t done,” she said. “It gets your team jump-started. Plus, you work with a different coach and get a different perspective on how to do things. You’re getting an extra week of practice and it’s intense volleyball.”
This year, she took three complete teams to the camp, Everett’s varsity, junior varsity and freshman squads.
That, and the girls’ participation in offseason club programs, did more than elevate their quality of play. It brought them together as longtime friends who have become unselfish teammates, Burglund said.
Some of the Seagulls have played together since they were in fifth grade, and most of them have been on the same team since middle school.
“When this is over, I’m not going to miss just the sport of volleyball,” co-captain Nichole Barhanovich said. “I’m going to miss our team and our chemistry.”
“We’ve been together since eighth grade and we have a lot of great times together on and off the court,” said the other captain, Jennifer Luatua.
They also seem prepared to take on state-level teams, Burglund said. She took the Seagulls to a tournament in Fife this season that included several state-ranked Class 4A and 4A teams.
“It was really good for them to compete against and beat these teams,” Burglund said. “We came away knowing we really are good and that we can beat these teams.”
The Seagulls not only are unbeaten, they have lost just two games all season. They’re ranked ninth in the state by the Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association.
“We are peaking,” Burglund said. “We are at the best point of our season right now.”
Barhanovich, a setter, and Luatua, an outside hitter, are two of 11 seniors on the 12-player roster, and Burglund uses them all.
Others on the team are seniors Meghan Frauenholtz, Devonne Austin, Rossi Elliott, Katelyn Price, Becca Crossen, Elaina Olson, Dusty Bryson, Kelsey Larsen and Danielle Coleman, and junior Tomeka Evans.
“It’s sometimes hard to keep 11 seniors and a junior all motivated, but I’ve been able to play all of them and they all have contributed,” Burglund said. “It’s got to be a team effort and it’s hard on this team to pick one person who’s doing it all.”
And if anyone sees such a senior-dominated team and predicts a brief run at the top for Everett, be careful. The junior varsity team also won the district championship.
“This is a great and unique group of girls, and they are setting the tone for years to come,” Burglund said.
This isn’t any time to start looking ahead, though. The Seagulls didn’t take that approach last week in the district tournament.
After the semifinal victory over Jackson clinched a berth at state, Everett beat Snohomish for the district championship, avenging a difficult district loss in 2003 when Snohomish rallied from two games behind and eliminated the Seagulls.
The state tournament, held last year in Everett for the first time, was a bitter event for many of the Seagulls players to watch, knowing how close they had come to reaching it.
“That was really hard,” Barhanovich said. “But we were able to watch and experience it. It made it that much better to finally overcome that obstacle this year. We know we can play at a higher level and we know there’s still more to gain.”
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