2A Prep Boys Basketball: R.A. Long secures best season in school history at State
Live and Learn – Lumberjacks refuse to let past repeat, sink Selah for 3rd place
Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com
YAKIMA – You can tell a lot about a team by the way it responds after a loss. And if run of the mill losses are revealing, then a tooth-and-nail loss in the semifinals of the state tournament leaves nothing to the imagination. Rather, it leaves the defeated stripped down to their most basic components with nowhere to hide and exceedingly short time to regroup.
So it was when the R.A. Long boys basketball team suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the eventual State champion from Bremerton in the semis of the 2A State Tournament, Friday, at the SunDome. And nobody would have judged the Lumberjacks particularly harshly if they’d failed to show up the following morning for a bronze medal match against Selah on the final day of the season.
But the Jacks did more than just show up. They marched into the vault of the SunDome with a stoic focus and something to prove before waltzing out the backdoor as the most successful team in school history.
With an overall record of 25-2 this season the Jacks set a new high water mark for wins in a season at R.A. Long. And by capturing the third place trophy they also managed to tie the 1939 Longview High School team for the highest finish in the program’s history.
Of course, much has changed since Longview had just one public high school.
“Who knows… there was probably only like 15 teams back then,” R.A. Long coach Jeray Key quipped.
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