It has been quite a year for high school sports in Federal Way.
The city proved again that Federal Way is defnintely a sports town and has some of the best athletes in Washington. If state championships are how you judge the success of a certain city, then Federal Way was dominant during the 2008-09 school year.
The four high schools in Federal Way captured a grand total of nine individual and team state titles. And it wasn’t because one school was more dominant than another. All four added at least one state title to their trophy case in 2008-09. Beamer led the way with four Class 4A championships (three by members of the school’s track team and the 200 freestyle relay team in girls swimming), followed by three at Decatur (285-pound wrestler Tevyn Tillman, girls singles tennis player Meghan Cassens and the girls tennis team) and one each at Federal Way (boys basketball) and Jefferson (shot putter Kayla Adams).
Here’s a look back at the 2008-09 school year:
Spring sports season
• Todd Beamer High School senior Duran Ward ran wild at last month’s Class 4A State Track and Field Championships.
Ward brought home state championships in the boys 100- and 200-meter races and also ran the second leg on the Titans’ title-winning 4×100 relay team Saturday in Tacoma, which also included Anthony Hogan, Travis Koch and Dominique Maxie.
Ward’s wins in the 100 and 200 came just ahead of Federal Way junior Trenton Pinson. Ward edged Pinson by two-thousandths of a second in the closest finish of the day in the 100 in a time of 10.802, compared to Pinson’s 10.804.
The efforts helped Beamer finish in a tie for second place in the team standings with Kent-Meridian and Central Kitsap. All three teams tallied 34 points. Mead High School won the Class 4A state title with 49 points.
“Everything felt so good,” Ward said. “My mindset was just to go out and run as hard as I could. Everything worked out pretty good.”
The relay title was Beamer’s second in as many years. Ward and Koch were also on the team that won the 4A state championship during the 2008 meet. The Beamer foursome ran a school-record time of 42.17 to edge Central Kitsap.
• But the Beamer titles weren’t the only state championships won by Federal Way school district athletes in track. Thomas Jefferson sophomore Kayla Adams continued the Raiders’ dominance in the shot put.
Adams took home TJ’s second Class 4A shot put title in a row with a winning throw of 41 feet, 1 inch to edge Bethel’s Jackie Brown by one inch. Brown’s best throw went 41-0.
Adams’ shot put title comes on the heels of Sofia Malamura’s state championship in the shot put at last year’s state meet.
• Decatur sophomore Meghan Cassens not only won the Class 4A girls singles championship last month in the Tri-Cities, but also single-handedly lead the Gators to their first-ever team state title. Cassens was the lone Decatur girl to qualify for the state tournament.
Just a year after losing in the state title match, Cassens cruised to the 2009 title over Lake Stevens’ Antonia Liebenow, 6-1, 6-1.
Winter sports season
• A season after watching the Ferris Saxons cut down the net following the 2008 Class 4A state boys basketball championship, the Federal Way Eagles stood atop that same ladder inside the Tacoma Dome as the 2009 champs.
The Eagles cruised by the Garfield Bulldogs, 62-54, to garner the program’s first-ever state title.
“I can’t even describe it,” said senior Andre Barrington, through tears of joy. “We learned how to use what happened last year and nobody wanted to have that feeling again.”
The victory over Garfield, the most accomplished basketball program in state history with 11 titles, was a microcosm of the Eagles’ magical season. Federal Way had four players average in double figures during the year, but it was their fifth-leading scorer, Isiah Umipig, who carried a lot of the offensive load against Garfield. Umipig, a 6-foot junior guard who came in averaging seven points, was the star of the championship game. Umipig led all scorers with 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
“This is our year,” said longtime Federal Way head coach Jerome Collins. “It’s a testament to our kids. They have great chemistry. This is one of the most unselfish ball clubs I have ever coached.”
The Federal Way boys were one of four teams from the district to play at the state basketball championships. Also competing in Tacoma were the Eagle girls, who surprised everyone with a third-place finish, the Decatur boys and Beamer boys.
• Decatur High School senior Tevyn Tillman is a beast.
For the second year in a row, the wrestler walked out of the Tacoma Dome with the 285-pound individual state championship. He beat Anacortes’ Bryant Dickerson in the title match at Mat Classic XXI.
“It was way harder this year,” Tillman said after winning the 2009 title. “Repeating is always harder because that initial excitement that is always with you the first time, is not there. The first time, you are putting it all out there.”
The state title capped Tillman’s 41-1 season and ended one of the best wrestling careers for anybody to ever roll through the Federal Way School District. He was also a first-team, All-SPSL lineman for the Gator football team.
Tillman’s teammate and training partner, Darren Faber, and Beamer senior Trevor Mills both lost in state title matches. Faber to Auburn’s Jake Swartz at 189 pounds and Mills to Snohomish’s Sam Ottow at 130.
But, even in defeat, both Faber and Mills were more than classy after their championship matches, which is just par for the course for 99 percent of the wrestlers out there.
“He’s like a rock,” Faber said of Swartz. “I’m just honored to be able to wrestle him.”
“Sam is a great wrestler,” Mills said. “Although I didn’t win, it was a pleasure to be on the same mat as him.”
Although I was never mentally tough enough to don a singlet, the wrestling state championships are one of my favorite events to cover. There’s no where to hide on a wrestling mat.
Fall sports season
• The Todd Beamer Titans had a titanic day at the Class 4A State Girls Swimming and Diving Championships in their home pool at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
Beamer snared a relay state championship and finished in fourth place in the Class 4A team standings.
Leading the way for the Titans was the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Kelly Erickson, Jessica Soria, Rachel Kim and Eryn Murphy. The foursome easily outdistanced second-place Newport to snare the school’s first-ever girls state swimming title.
Beamer finished in a time of 1:38.94 during the finals, almost two seconds ahead of Newport.
• It was a long time coming for the Federal Way Eagles football program. For the first time since 1976, the Eagles qualified for the state playoffs. Federal Way beat Gig Harbor, 24-19, in a Class 4A preliminary round game.
“The monkey on my back was getting pretty big,” Federal Way head coach John Meagher said with a smile. “We had been there four times before and hadn’t gotten it done. But tonight there was just a different feeling on the sideline than the other games. We kind of had the deer in the headlights look in those games.”
Federal Way lost to Tahoma in 2000, Bothell in 2002, Gig Harbor in 2006 and Cascade last season. Meagher was the head coach in all four of those games.
