2A/3A Prep Boys Basketball: Mark Morris makes good on Bakamus Night

Naming Rights — Monarchs mop Kelso to christen Bill Bakamus Gymnasium

The new entry way to Bill Bakamus Gymnasium is displayed behind velvet ropes at Mark Morris High School during a dedication ceremony in between a boys and girls basketball doubleheader, Friday, Dec. 13. The Monarchs’ gym was named in honor of their longtime coach, who retired after last season as the fourth winningest high school coach of all-time in Washington.

Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com

Imagine, if you will, a gymnasium in an average size town in America. It’s a mill town. Or at least it used to be. Things have sort of been in flux in that regard.

But in that town there’s a high school with a gymnasium that’s not too different from others of a similar size, of which there are certainly hundreds, if not thousands.

And in that gym there there’s a pair of coaches. One is still blowing the whistle day-to-day and is tied for the highest winning percentage in the history of the sport. But it’s the other guy, the retired one in the corner, who just had the building renamed in his honor.

You see, the new guy may be 6-0, but the old guy finished his career coaching the boys in Columbia blue with a mark of 587-202. Over his entire career he picked up 693 wins, and ranks fourth in state history for All-Time wins, trailing just (former MM coach) Ed Pepple, Pat Fitterer, and Centralia’s Ron Brown.

So you can forgive the new guy if he was a little bit nervous in front of a full house at Mark Morris High School. After all, he was coaching the first game in the history of Bill Bakamus Gymnasium, and Bill Bakamus was sitting in the corner — watching.

Mark Morris boys’ basketball coach Bill Bakamus says there are a lot of real life circumstances to be learned from basketball, ‘but it’s not life and death.’ — March 24, 1993 / Courtesy of Mark Morris basketball

“This was the first time I honestly felt real pressure,” first-year Mark Morris coach Ken Kelly said. “If we would have lost tonight on Bill Bakamus Gym Naming Night I would have never heard the end of it from Billy B.”

Indeed. And he never would’ve heard the end of it from Kelso, either.

Instead, after a stirring pregame speech by Bakamus himself that helped to get the home crowd “frothy,” the Monarchs took care of business in classic fashion with a 63-36 win over the Hilanders in a non-league boys basketball date that had been circled on the calendars of local hoops fans for months.

Dalton Stevens led the Monarchs with a game-high 22 points and the home team as a whole wasted little time assuring that it would be a storybook style night of celebration on Ted M. Natt Court at Bakamus Gym.

“It means a lot. Last year we opened the season with them and it wasn’t very good, we played a pretty bad game,” Stevens said. “So we had that taste in our mouth from last year plus the emotional game, and the physical game that Kelso brings, so we were really proud of what we put out tonight.”

Mark Morris mounted a seven point lead in the first quarter and then held Kelso to just seven points in the second frame. With Stevens beginning his work on the block, and then stepping out to the 3-point line to make the Hilanders pick their poison, the Monarchs were able to wrest full control of the contest. The Scots picked wrong time and time again, with Stevens hitting four 3-pointers to augment his burgeoning midrange game and an array of dynamic finishes near the rim.

When the Monarchs led 32-15 the Mark Morris student section, otherwise known as the Roundball Rowdies, began to taunt the Kelso side with an assortment of playful barbs.

Kelso’s retort? I’m sure you guessed it.

“Let’s play football!”

That’s what we in the business call tradition.

Alas, the Monarchs took a 37-18 lead into the team room for the halftime chat, and the rest was a victory lap with a cheap cigar for both of those aforementioned coaches.

“I couldn’t have scripted anything better, and I’ll give all the credit where it’s due - assistant coaches and the players I have,” Kelly said. “This has zero to do with me.”