The Lake Stevens High School girls basketball program is in search of a new leader for the first time in nearly two decades.
Randy Edens, who guided the Vikings for 18 seasons from 2005-2023, announced Monday he’s leaving Lake Stevens for the same position with the Issaquah girls program.
“Ultimately there’s a little bit of curiosity to try and do something new,” said Edens, who’s only head coaching position has been with Lake Stevens. “This opportunity opened up really late and I was a little curious and I did a lot of fact-finding and searching.”
“I think it’s just seeing if I can do this elsewhere in kind of a fresh start,” he added.
Edens held the second longest tenure of current girls basketball coaches in Snohomish County behind only Ken Roberts of Snohomish. The 1994 Marysville Pilchuck graduate plans to continue teaching history at Lake Stevens, as well as maintaining his role as Marysville Getchell’s head cross country coach.
The Edens era in Lake Stevens was the most successful in program history. The Vikings reached the state tournament 10 times, appeared in 10 district or bi-district title games, won seven league championships and claimed five district titles. They placed at state twice, matching a program-best fourth-place finish in 2011. In total, Edens won 306 games during his tenure.
Lake Stevens made only one state tournament appearance in the 18 seasons prior to Edens’ arrival.
The longtime coach said he was fortunate to take over a program that already had the pieces in place to be successful.
With a talented 2005-06 group that featured a bonafide senior leader in Kristina Schumacher, who’s now the girls head coach at Inglemoor, Edens was allowed the opportunity to hone in on building relationships and program culture during his early years.
That was especially important since he worked outside of the school district teaching at Marysville Pilchuck.
“I just knew that since I was coming from a place off campus that I needed to focus on getting to know these young ladies,” Edens said. “That way they knew that I didn’t just care about them as basketball players, I cared about them as people. I think because we invested that into our young ladies each and every year, it’s ultimately led to a program where girls want to be and have success. The basketball side of things will take care of itself if you invest in people.”
The Vikings reached the state tournament in that first season and the program quickly ascended to a state tournament regular, reaching seven Hardwood Classics in his first eight years and establishing itself as one of the county’s premier programs. The program has made three since and never had a streak of more than four seasons without a trip to the Tacoma Dome.
Edens hopes to see Lake Stevens continue its success and expects that his new squad will inevitably match up with his former team in the future during the Wes-King Bi-District tournament. He plans to help Lake Stevens’ next coach with the transition as much as possible.
“I’m really appreciative of all my players and certainly their families and how they’ve treated us and our family,” he said. “It’s just been such a special place to be. I’m eternally grateful.”
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