WOLVES SEEKING STATE PLAYOFFS

By Michael Dashiell
Staff Writer

The last time Sequim?s girls? basketball team made the state tournament, Ronald Reagan was president, Bruce Willis was a television star on Moonlighting and Washington D.C.?s basketball team was still nicknamed the Bullets.

In other words, it?s been a long time coming.

Needing just one win in their next two games, the Wolves ? both girls and boys teams ? are on the verge of going to Washington state?s version of the ?Big Dance.?

Girls? team first-year coach Greg Glasser said his squad is healthy and in the right frame of mind.

?Every day they are coming to practice ready to go; they?re really starting to get hungry,? he said.

Leading the pack is senior Justine Textor, who is the lone Wolf from Sequim?s last district tourney team (2004-05). Laine Briggs, Sarah Moores and Kelsey Langston provide rebounding and inside scoring while guards Cassie Kearney-Rogers and Gabby Jones handle outside shooting and the backcourt.

Success this season hasn?t been easy in Sequim?s return to the revamped Olympic League. The Wolves got eight league games against 3A teams and went 2-6, beating Bremerton and Port Angeles. But they stomped 2A teams in the regular season and in the league tournament, earning the Olympic League?s top district seed.

?I think (the schedule) definitely made us tougher; it?s to our advantage,? Glasser said. ?We had to take our lumps and really battle. We?ve had to learn how to prepare for certain game situations, different types of defense and different types of athletes.?

The key to wins in the playoffs, he said, is not being intimidated.

?We want to play our game,? he said.

Even if they qualify for the state tourney, there?s no history indicating the Wolves would get a win there. Sequim?s girls have never won a state playoff game, coming closest in the 1985-86 season they fell 40-36 to Woodway in the first round.
Sequim qualified for the tourney the next year but hasn?t been back since.

In 2004-05, under head coach Linsey Rapelje, the Wolves were just one win from the state 3A tourney but got bumped by an athletic Lakes Lancers squad.

Now, under Glasser?s tutelage, the Wolves have a chance to do something no other Sequim girls? basketball team has ever done: win a state basketball game.

?I have really enjoyed this year,? Glasser said. ?I?m so excited for these girls. They?ve really worked real hard.?

The Wolves were schedule to take on the Steilacoom Sentinels (5-3 in Nisqually League play, 9-10 overall) Feb. 27 ? results were unavailable at press time. A win puts them into state and a chance to take the top district seed on March 1. A loss puts them into a loser-out, winner-to-state game, also set for March 1.

Boys on tap
The road for the boys is similar but the back-story not the same.

Needing one win in its next two games to make state, the male Wolves are on the verge of returning to the apex of Washington state basketball since taking eighth overall in 2001.

Since 1948, Sequim has advanced to the state playoffs 11 times; they have finished second once, third once and fifth twice.

And though none of the 2006-07 hoopsters have seen a minute of district playoff time ? not even super transfer Ian Austin ? they will have an experienced hand guiding them.

Head coach Larry Hill was an assistant under Sequim coaching legend Rick Kaps when the Wolves made their playoff state runs in the early and late 1980s.

He said advancing through the district playoffs comes down not to a great offense or great defense, but belief that the team can and will win the next game.

?You don?t really prepare for the playoffs; you just get ready to play, work on what you?re good at doing. That?s about all you can do,? Hill said, while supervising a pre-district tourney practice. ?It?s your confidence level (that wins games).
 Obviously you have to have some ability. It?s confidence. Not bravado, but real confidence, like ?hey, we?re pretty good.??
Disciplined teams fare better than others, he said.

And Sequim is exactly that in recent weeks Hill said, starting with, of all things, a loss. The Wolves took 3A bruiser Olympic to the brink, falling 78-75 in overtime. Since then, Sequim has reeled off five consecutive wins, including a 19-point Olympic League Tournament championship victory over Port Townsend.

?That Olympic game is where it really came together,? Hill said.

Sequim played in a tough league, facing bigger 3A schools eight times in 14 contests. And despite their 1-7 record in each of those games, the margin of defeat got smaller and smaller as the season progressed.

The Wolves? district opening opponent, Fife (2-6 in Nisqually League, 5-15 overall), played all its bigger schools as non-league games early in the season, taking on 3A schools like Bonney Lake, Clover Park, Lakes, White River, Yelm and 4A Graham-Kapowsin. Fife went 1-5 in those games.

?Playing 3A teams will help us,? Hill said.

But the road to state and the state tourney itself is very different, Hill noted.

?Talent sometimes overshadows cohesiveness (at state),? he said. There are not as many game-changing individuals at the 2A level, though, he said.

Sequim will likely relay on solid guard play from Austin, Jordan Garrett and Ary Webb, plus bangers Dan Lauritzen and Brayton Ruffcorn down low.

A storied history
Though it?s been nearly two decades, Sequim was a dominant team on the 3A scene for nearly the entire 1980s. Led by Kris Kruse, the ?80 Wolves lost a three-overtime game to Timberline in the 3A semifinals and eventually took third overall. Timberline won the state title.

And then came that 1988 team, with what Hill simply calls ?an unusual collection of talent?: Ryan Kaps, Brandon Funston, Derrin Doty, J.D Patterson and Don VanTom.

?There was a lot of pressure on that team,? Hill noted. ?They were ranked number one, they were undefeated (20-0 in regular season).?

The team was so revered that road games nearly became home games with so many Sequim fans traveling to away games.
?It was just like ?Hoosiers,?? Hill recalled. ?They were fun to watch play.?

Sequim ran through their league opponents and survived each step on the playoff ladder until running into a talent-laden Rainier Beach team featuring scorer Steve Neilsen and future NBA star Doug Christie. Beach won that final 68-53.

Rick Kaps finished his career with 255 wins in 18 years, a .632 winning percentage and after his passing, understandably, a gymnasium named in his honor.

Sequim recaptured some of that magic in 2001 when James McCutcheon and Christopher Pendleton led the Wolves to an eight-place finish at state.

Now, the Wolves have a chance to write a state playoff story of their own, if they can get just one more win in two contests.

?It would be really fun for these kids to sneak into the tournament,? he said. ?Things can go bad quick (in the playoffs). Fortunately, we have two chances.?

Sequim boys
The Sequim Wolves? boys? team takes on Fife in the first round of the West Central District playoffs at 7 p.m., Feb. 28 at Curtis High School in University Place. See sequimgazette.com for detail of the district playoffs this week.


Sequim girls
Sequim High?s girls were scheduled to take on Steilacoom Tuesday night in the first round of districts at Curtis High School. Details were too late for this section?s deadline. See results and story at sequimgazette.com.