Grace Academy took it to Highland Christian early on in Northwest 1B boys basketball action.
The Eagles, who won 42-24, forced the Knights to play catch up Jan. 4 at the Marysville Boys & Girls Club.
ARLINGTON — This year has seen some success that has been missing in Arlington and the surrounding area.
There are mostly three criteria that make a story interesting. The first is winning. Whether or not a team wins can be a deciding factor of how much attention it gets, but that is not what this list is about.
Not to be mistaken with the winningest seasons of the year, this list has not been created to rank the level of success a particular team had, but merely to discuss the significance one team or season had on the community’s history. Some deal with great stories of perseverance, and some potentially start traditions, such as our top story:
No. 1 Arlington football
Coach Greg Dailer had the Eagles soaring to heights they hadn’t seen in more than 10 years. Before the 2010 season, the last time the Eagles (8-3) played in a state playoff game was a 24-21 loss to Hudson Bay in 1999.
That all changed, though, when an injury-depleted Arlington defeated Jackson 42-21 to win the Western Conference title.
Of course, the Eagles’ season ended with a 38-19 loss to Bellarmine Prep, but they overcame key injuries to get that far — which is further than most outside of Arlington were expecting at the beginning of the season.
What makes this story so interesting is just how well the Eagles came together in the face of so much adversity. It takes a special kind of team to be able to keep winning after losing a starting quarterback (Blake McPherson), halfback (Riley Cobb) and tight end/linebacker (Bo Brummel) — especially since all three were on pace to earn All-Wesco North honors.
But the Eagles did it. Replacements Skylor Elgarico and Colton Hordyk kept the chains moving for Arlington while the defense turned into a turnover-producing machine.
The irony is that Arlington coach Greg Dailer was quite concerned with his depth to start the season. With a small roster (40 players), those injuries truly had to be covered by two or three reserves.
No. 2 Lakewood girls soccer
The Lady Cougars committed a lot of “firsts” on the pitch in 2010, with the most important being a Cascade Conference championship. Manager Jeremiah Wohlgemuth guided Lakewood to a 15-0-1 record in the regular season to take the league title.
Overall, the Cougars finished undefeated (14-0) in conference play, but their season ended with a 1-0 loss to Klahowya in the first round of the state bracket.
What might have been the most interesting story of the season for the Cougars, was rebuilding a rapport that was broken at the end of the 2009 season with the suspension of eight players just after the regulars season ended. Forgiving and forgetting was an achievement in itself, but turning that into a motivation to be the best Lakewood girls soccer team in program history was inspiring.
The Cougars needed that kind of teamwork with their defense-first playing style that stifled nearly every opponent. In 19 games in 2010, the Cougars allowed just 11 goals.
Along the way, the Cougars got their first win against powerhouse Archbishop Murphy, going 2-0 against the defending state champs in the regular season.
No. 3 Eagles boys golf
Led by a group of underclassmen, the Eagles came out of nowhere to win the Wesco North title.
Typically, when younger players are integral to a team’s success, it’s based on one or two, but the Eagles saw top-level performances from at least three players this season, and it was Jack Lindley’s turn at the league championship, shooting a 76 to earn co-medalist honors.
Helping the Eagles to the top of the leaderboard were freshmen Anthony Allen and Brandon Heise. Those two also advanced to the state tournament the following week.
No. 4 Powder Puff for charity
The most memorable stories of the year often unfold on the gridiron — the curse of football — but they don’t often involve a charity game. Tired of just watching their sons from the bleachers, the mothers of Lakewood and Arlington squared off for a powder-puff game to raise money for their respective youth football leagues.
The game was a tremendous success as the fans saw an exciting contest and the moms raised nearly $5,000 to go toward scholarships for underprivileged kids wanting to play youth football. Wanting to give the fans a good show, both teams practiced for a number of weeks leading up to the game.
With husbands leading cheers on the sidelines and hardly a seat left in the bleachers at Haller Middle School, Lakewood shut out Arlington, 16-0, using a stout defense. Dana Krueger earned MVP honors with her play on both sides of the ball and a few tremendous catches.
Another matchup is expected in the summer of 2011.
No. 5 A year worth waiting for
The Cougars picked up the pieces from a 3-7 finish in 2009 and used them as motivation to create havoc on the Cascade Conference in 2010.
Led by quarterback Justin Lane, Dan Teeter’s boys looked like a completely different team in 2010 en route to a 7-3 record. The Cougars went toe-to-toe with eventual Class 2A state runner-up Archbishop Murphy and 1A power King’s, losing by a combined 10 points.
This season was Lakewood football’s coming out party, as Teeter had been planning to build around this year’s senior class almost four years ago.
Lakewood finished one game away from the state bracket, and will be looking to better that with a large returning class in 2011.
No. 6 Stilly Valley all-stars
A pair of junior teams represented Stilly Valley Little League in the state tournaments after winning their district.
The junior boys went right through their bracket behind the bat and arm of Ryan Walker, who struck out 10 in the championship game while going 4-for-5 with a home run. Walker was a story by himself this season, as he wowed opponents with his accomplishments, which included striking out nine consecutive batters in the Tournament of Champions semifinal.
The junior girls defeated Lake Stevens, 19-14, to take the District 1 championship. The Stilly juniors showed that they could hit with just about anybody, scoring more than 16 runs per game in the district bracket. The girls often did their work with the longball.
Both teams fell just short of their divisional.
No. 7 Relay for Life
While not traditionally a sport, Arlington’s performance in the Relay for Life simply cannot be ignored. Raising $228,000 for cancer-fighting research, it was the most successful inaugural Relay in American Cancer Society history.
The two-day event brought together 1,429 participants, as well as 32 corporate sponsors, breaking the national record set for a first-year relay that was previously set by the nation’s most populated city, New York City.
No. 8 Lakewood boys soccer
Cougars boys soccer was in ruins at the start of the 2009 season, but in less than a year former Lakewood star Bryce Barker took the reins and turned the program around with just a handful of experienced players.
Lakewood moved on to the district tournament before their season ended, but finished 6-8 in the Cascade Conference, which included a shootout win over Archbishop Murphy.
No. 9 Arlington girls track
The Lady Eagles had all their bases covered after the Wesco North meet. Arlington’s girls advanced at least one participant in every event to the district tournament en route to 179.33 points, which was 40 more than runner-up Oak Harbor.
Teresay Wadey (800) and Marissa Swegle (shot put) took home individual titles.
No. 10 Lakewood’s Barrio sisters
While those who read the April article might not have been aware of the Barrio family’s passion for softball, this was not news to those around Lakewood High School.
The two eldest of the four Barrio daughters (Kahlee and Arianna) are the first to represent a family that eats, sleeps and breathes softball.
Every once in a while, I have to be told — either by family or friends — that I get to watch sports for a living.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sports fan. The fact is, most of my time away from this job involves reading about sports, writing about sports or just watching it on television. But, with every passing year, I become more convinced that whatever your job is, it always ends up feeling like work.
What might be the most important game of the Wesco North season lived up to its billing.
Arlington lost its share of first place in a 66-63 loss against Monroe Dec. 21, but it was not without the drama befitting a matchup between a league’s top two teams.
The Eagles’ newest coach, Lonnie Hicks, is no stranger to softball in the Northwest.
“He’s pretty well-known around his area, holding camps — especially pitching camps,” said Arlington athletic director Tom Roys.
Hicks, who was the manager of the Western Washington University Vikings for nine years, was recently tapped to replace Dan Eng, who resigned over the summer.
Cougars coach Tom O’Hara can rest a little easier after his team’s performance at the Gus Compton Invitational at Mount Baker High School.
Coming off a 56-18 loss to Cedarcrest Dec. 16, the Cougars regrouped to finish 10th out of 19 teams — most from higher classifications.
“I’m happy because across the board, in both boys and girls, we won more matches than we lost,” said O’Hara.
Coach Matt Hart’s boys likely spent the holidays knowing exactly what to work on.
The Cougars were caught off guard by the Mariners in a 55-43 nonconference defeat Dec. 20.
Ironically enough, for as rare as a 30-point run is in high school basketball, nobody seemed to know it happened.
“I didn’t know it was 30 to zero,” said Arlington coach Nick Brown after his boys defeated Snohomish 76-34, Dec. 17. “But I did know it was up there.”
A 13-2 second-half run spelled doom for the Highland Christian girls basketball team in its Northwest 1B Conference opener.
A young Lady Knights team managed to keep pace with the physicality of the game with the Hawks, but ultimately lost 42-28 at the Arlington Boys & Girls Club, Dec. 14.
Entering their first Northwest Conference 1B game of the season, both Tulalip Heritage and Highland Christian were looking for consistency.
On Dec. 14, the Hawks played at a higher level longer than the Knights in a 76-32 win at the Arlington Boys & Girls Club.
“The scoreboard may not show it, but the kids felt good about how they competed tonight,” said Knights coach Jim Underwood. “We’re a young team and we’re improving.”
The Eagles tried to let their posts do all of the talking, but the Vikings kept too hectic a pace to let that happen.
In a 52-38 Wesco North loss to Lake Stevens Dec. 15, Arlington’s youth showed as they had yet to learn how to control the tempo.
Nobody can seem to remember the last time the Arlington boys won on the Marysville-Pilchuck hardwood.
After five lead changes in the fourth quarter and two overtime periods, the Eagles’ 61-58 win in Wesco North play isn’t likely to be forgotten anytime soon.
Playing the second of back-to-back, games, the Cougars walked a fine line between too little and too much energy.
In a 51-49 nonconference win over Blaine, the Lakewood boys hoops team overcame fatigue, foul trouble and a 14-point deficit Dec. 11.
