Knights: Let’s do ‘this’

When the final buzzer sounded, Billy Johnson let loose.

“We did this! We did this!” Johnson shouted again and again, simultaneously punching the air with his fists while two chunks of cotton remained snug in his recently bleeding nose.

It was a proclamation and not a question, but about two months ago many would have doubted “this” could happen. That is, that the Kamiak High boys basketball team, which was 7-4 in mid-January and before this season had never qualified for a state tournament, could not only make state but also win its first district championship.

But sure enough, as Johnson and his teammates confirmed when they cut down the nets last weekend in the Jackson High gym following their victory over Mountlake Terrace, they did “this.”

Johnson, a 6-foot-7 senior post, and Kamiak (17-6) make their stately debut at 2 p.m. today when they play North Kitsap (17-9) in a Class 4A first-round tournament game at Tacoma Dome.

The Knights have soaked up the excitement but have remained focused since clinching a state berth Feb. 25 with a 68-62 victory over Shorewood. They’re not satisfied with the history they’ve already made at Kamiak High, which opened in 1993.

“We’re not done yet,” Johnson, who averages 10 points per game, said last week. “We’re the first (Kamiak) team to state…but our guys are pumped to go down (to Tacoma Dome).”

“We want to do some damage,” added senior guard Sean Hermes, Kamiak’s leading scorer (18 ppg). “If we play like we’ve been playing, we can do anything right now.”

First-time state participants rarely have great success (see graphic) but Kamiak coach Jeff Leary, in his seventh year, said he thinks his team can turn an assumed disadvantage into a plus. The Knights are playing their best basketball of the season, he said, and several hard-fought district tournament victories inside packed gyms have prepared them for pressure.

And who needs pressure? The past few weeks have been pure fun, according to Hermes.

“Everyone’s just been so excited for us,” he said. “We’re trying to get the whole school to go down to Tacoma Dome.”

Hermes and the Knights have received a flood of attention around Mukilteo. The school organized a special pep assembly for them last week and Kamiak athletic director Jack Kniseley said student support is strong. The school will send five buses – four carrying fans and another for the pep band – to today’s game. Kamiak’s dance team will perform at halftime.

“It’s like we’re like local celebrities,” Hermes said.

“My teachers have spent the first 15 minutes of class talking about it,” Johnson added. “Every two seconds someone is talking about it.”

But, similar to the plight of a famous web-slinger, with great achievement comes great responsibility. Kniseley and Kamiak athletic department employees have been busy preparing for the Knights’ inaugural journey. Their tasks included completing a load of paperwork, arranging transportation for various groups and finding hotel accommodations. Much of the planning was on hold until Sunday morning, when Kamiak learned the time of its first-round game.

This week will be extra special for senior wing Mark Iddins, who starts for Kamiak alongside his younger brother, sophomore point guard Ben Iddins. After playing together on Kamiak’s football team that advanced to the state quarterfinals in the fall, the brothers will enjoy a rare double-state experience.

“Everybody is surprised,” Mark Iddins said of the reaction to the basketball team’s success. “Everyone always thinks of (Kamiak) as a football school.”

And why not? Eight football-related plaques adorn the Kamiak gym walls while, before this season, boys basketball accounted for only one (The Knights hoops team won a regular-season Western Conference title in 2000 but lost a winner-to-state, loser-out district tourney game).

Despite their historical run to state, the Tacoma Dome will represent a new environment for the ground-breaking Knights.

“I’m sure we’ll come out nervous,” Mark Iddins said, “but hopefully we can get the nerves going the right way and concentrate on getting wins down there.”

If they can, Kamiak’s next “We did this!” chant will mean even more.