The 1986 3A state championship game, revistited.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/highschoolsports/2004036978_flashback27.html

This is a great article about the 3A (now 4A) title game in 1986. After the game, my overall impression was that Gonzaga Prep was a much more talented team (they had several returning players from the runner up team the previous year), but that Juanita was overloaded on the experience side which enabled them to keep the game close. In addition to winning the previous 2 championships, Juanita also was bolstered by several members of the little league world series team. To say that they had some players with big game experience would be a tremendous understatement. Without players like Kurt Steck and Shawn Rainwater, though, they just didn't have the horses to match up with G-Prep. In addition, they had struggled the entire regular season in winning many close games. In the seventh week of the season they had finally lost their first seasonal game in 3 years when Sammamish beat them in overtime, 21-14.

Besides the players mentioned in the article, the two that stood out for me on the G-Prep side were Glen Cavanaugh and Dinny Hansen. Both of these lineman were men among boys, and went on to play at Stanford. On the Juanita side, Mike O'Hearn (now Titan on American Gladiators) was very dominating on the defensive side of the line. The Rebels also had another D-lineman whose name escapes me. He was undersized and had a non-stop motor. I remember one of the Seattle papers did an article on him the week of the game, and Tarbox told the reporter to come during practice to interview the player (something that was almost unheard of). The reason for this, Tarbox said, was due to the fact that the player was constantly injured. As much as the coaches tried to keep him out of contact, however, he kept finding ways to sneak back out onto the field. With those concerns on his mind, Tarbox felt could eliminate the problem with an interview during practice.

One of the things that I recall following the game was some of the Juanita players saying they thought Renton was the best team they faced all season. The Indians, whom Juanita had beaten the previous week in the semi finals, featured Terry Ennis as coach as well as running back Ahmad Gold and tight end Clarence "Butch" Williams. Unfortunately I chose to travel to Spokane to watch G-Prep beat up Kelso, 35-0. Big mistake. I've since heard that Juanita's 22-14 victory was one for the ages.

Another playoff game in which I thought Juanita was overmatched came in the opening round of the playoffs against Ingraham. Most people (including myself) thought the Rebels were going to win this game easily. During player introductions, what I remember most is Ingraham's fans booing Juanita quarterback, Darrell Cloud (he had attended Ingraham before transferring to Juanita). This is the same Darrell Cloud who attended Whitman Middle School (and later Ingraham) from 1981-83, only to be sexually molested by Neal Summers who was a teacher at the time. Darrell Cloud would return to Whitman more than 10 years later and execute him.

Ingraham started the game off having the ball and wasted no time establishing themselves. In what is to this day one of the demoralizing drives I've ever seen, the Rams took the entire 1st quarter to open the game with a touchdown. They did it running pretty much just 1 play; power I left. They had some huge Pacific Islander left tackle (I think his last name was Mefi) who would seal off the line. Then James Clifford came through and put the first guy he ran into flat on his back. The play concluded with Chris Doyle handing the ball off to Greg Lewis who would knife his way for 3-5 yards. The play looked pretty much unstoppable. True to their reputation, Juanita made some adjustments and put Ingraham in some passing situations. They were then able to force turnovers and punt, thus throwing Ingraham out of rhythm. The Rams only managed to score another 3 points on route to losing, 16-10.

Juanita was an amazing program during the 80's. In addition to having success in football, they also won state championships in basketball and baseball. At one time they had a student body of 2000 kids, and had 150 boys out for football. Today it is roughly half that, and the football turnout is roughly a third of what it was. I'm not sure where everyone has gone. Since that time, the population in Kirkland has more than doubled. The only high school that has been built during that time is Eastlake, and they are on the other side of the Lake Washington School District. The only explanation I can think of is that some significant gerrymandering has taken place. The numbers simply do not add up.

In any event, the powerhouse that was Juanita is unprecedented. There have certainly been programs who have matched and exceeded what they did in individual sports at the 3A (now 4A) level, but no one has even come close collectively. Pretty amazing.

Gonzaga Prep was trying to win their second state title after failing against Juanita the previous season. They had become my favorite high school football team in 1982 after defeating nationally ranked South Kitsap. Throughout the week I had grown weary of hearing all the hype surrounding the Wolves. The final straw for me was when Ed Fisher led his team onto the field and a handful of his players wore gold helmets as oppossed to maroon which was suppossed to show which players gave 110%. I'm sure SK fans will disagree with me when I say that it looked very tacky.

The only close call G-Prep had all season was against Kennewick in the quarterfinals. They prevailed 27-21 in 2 overtimes in what was their second of 4 straight playoff wins against the Lions. Kennewick had a great program during the 80's. The only reason no one on this side of the mountains had never heard of them is due to the playoff format that was in place until the 2005 season. Before, it was impossible for more (or less) than one 3A (4A) team from east of the mountains to make it to the semifinals. That meant they had to get past G-Prep at some point which was easier said than done. Had the format that exists now been around during the 80's, we probably would have seen them in the finals/semifinals more than 3 times.

Lots of fun topics to discuss that are relative to this '86 title game. I'm sure the same could be said for almost every one of them.