High School Boys Basketball: Wahkiakum rallies over Valley to claim District title
Too Stubborn to Lose – Mules earn Top-8 seed after 63-60 win in 1B District IV championship game
Sam Barbee for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com
1B Prep Boys Basketball / Report
MONTESANO — The afternoon before the Wahkiakum boys basketball team played for the District championship, Cooper Carlson sheepishly approached his mother. He had an admission to make.
He hadn’t gotten her a birthday card. Basketball had taken over his life with the season’s main goal looming. Just go win the thing she said.
Hours later, with a destroyed net hanging around his neck following an exciting and tense 63-60 win over Willapa Valley in Montesano for the 1B District IV title, they shared a moment. It was better than a card.
“Man it’s like, it’s actually crazy,” Carlson said. “We just worked so hard over the past two years.”
And the thing about this District title is it didn’t seem likely.
Carlson’s junior season ended in disappointment, and the Mules made it their mission to have a better result in Carlsons’ and Parker Leitz’s and Gage Robinsons’ and Jayden Stoddard’s final season.
It didn’t start great. Coach Rob Garrett was frustrated. The team was better on paper than it was on wood, and nobody could really figure out why.
“I mean, honestly, up until even a week and a half ago, I wasn’t sure if we were gonna figure out how to put it together,” Garrett said. “We had some rough stretches this year, as well, just with everyone being on the same page. And we just kind of had that come to Jesus talk at one of our practices, and it starts with the seniors.
“I told them, ‘You know that whether we want to or not, this season is coming to an end. Whether that’s in one week, two weeks, or three weeks, it’s coming. You’re gonna walk out of the locker room for the last time. And I want you guys to ask yourselves today how are you gonna walk out of that locker room with your heads held high?”
And then, it flipped. Just like that.
After having one of their best practice of the season. Garrett called girls head coach Ross Lofstrum to tell all about it. He couldn’t believe it. Then they had a practice that was even better, and all of a sudden they were peaking at the right time.
How? Why?
“(Coach Garrett) is straight up honest with us all the time in practice,” Carlson said. “He’s yelling at us, telling us what we need to do, what our roles are, but, like, it pays off.”
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