Heartbreak at the Baker Dome

The Borderite winter sports season is wrapped up after both boys and girls basketball teams were bounced from the district playoff in back-to-back games at Mt. Baker High School on February 10. Boys basketball took the game down to the wire, narrowly losing to Mt. Baker in the final seconds, and the girls basketball team weren’t able to mount a large-enough comeback to defeat the Mountaineers. 

Girls bowling travelled to Tukwila for the 1A/2A State Championship on February 8 and 9, finishing 11th out of 12 teams, and earned the program’s second consecutive 1A Academic State Championship, with the team combining for a 3.76 GPA, the highest among all 1A bowling programs in the state.

Boys Basketball

With two seconds left on the fourth quarter clock, down by a single point against Northwest Conference (NWC) rival Mt. Baker, the Blaine boys basketball team had one final chance to extend its season, but a dramatic final shot attempt couldn’t be made, and the Borderites lost a heartbreaker, 47-46.

The Borderites searched all season for its first conference win, but came up two points shy, falling out of the District 1 1A Playoff in the opening round on February 10 at the Baker Dome in Deming.

Seniors Josiah Weeda and Dulio Kanagie once again led the team in scoring, with Weeda recording a game-high of 15 points with 10 rebounds, and Kanagie adding 14 points along with 10 rebounds. All four seniors, including Beckum Bleazard and Jacob Dohner, scored in the final game of their high school careers.

Head coach Chas Kok commended the group of seniors who he said kept the team poised throughout an at-times grueling season.

“I was really proud of those four seniors in specific because all of them improved quite drastically throughout the year,” Kok said. “Those four, because they bought in to what we were trying to teach and the culture, we were able to be in that game and play teams hard all season.”

Kok mentioned the improvement of Kanagie throughout the year, and how that showed up in an epic duel between the Blaine big man and Mt. Baker center Kell Reardon, who recorded 13 rebounds, four blocked shots and four steals.

“In the mental side of the game, he’s improved quite a bit,” Kok said of Kanagie. “His effort, his energy, I think really improved and I think he just trusted his natural ability. He’s one of the better athletes I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach, so he has a natural ability and was able to play confidently towards the end of the year.”

Kanagie was constantly battling with Reardon underneath the basket, drawing multiple fouls and keeping attention away from Blaine’s perimeter shooters. In the waning minutes of the game, Kanagie hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 46-46 before Reardon also made one of two free throws to put Mt. Baker up for good.

“One of the things I like to tell the team is, ‘be proud of your efforts,’” Kok said. “I thought last night was one of the games where we could say we were proud of our effort. We went for loose balls, we competed in different areas that we had struggled with earlier in the year.”

Head coach Chas Kok said he was impressed with the way the team – despite not coming out on top against conference opponents – always played with tenacity, playing close to NWC powerhouses like Lynden and Ferndale in the regular season.

Making up for a week of cancelled games due to a major snowstorm, the Borderites played three games in four days, culminating in a do-or-die playoff against Mt. Baker. Kok called it the “second winter break,” and said the team had to dig deep to continue into the postseason with full effort and energy. 

“It says a lot about their character and who they are as people,” Kok said. “I’m really proud of them.” 

Stats provided by WhatcomPreps.com

Girls Basketball

Despite falling to a 20-6 deficit to open the first quarter against Mt. Baker in the opening round of the District 1 1A Playoff on February 10, Blaine girls basketball mounted an impressive comeback that fell just a few points shy of the Borderites advancing to the semifinal round. The Borderites fell to Mt. Baker 43-35, ending its season with a 4-15 (1-11 NWC) record.

After last season’s team had a mass exodus of players, head coach Vic Wolffis got down to business, recruiting an almost-entirely new team with just one returning player, a monumental task for any coach at any level.

Wolffis said the team had just one player coming out to offseason workouts, with the rest of the team joining just a week before the beginning of preseason preparations. He was proud of the effort and risk that these new players took every game and every practice, win or lose. 

 “They came out this year and knew that we’d have some really tough games and tough competition,” Wolffis said. “They did something that took bravery and courage, all year. They just kept battling when it may have looked like there might be nothing to battle for anymore, and they did it. We’re really proud of them.”

Blaine simply didn’t have an answer for Mt. Baker’s sophomore center Rebeca Soares, who dominated the interior with 24 points, 19 rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals. 

The Borderites had to find ways to score outside the paint, and got another great game from guards Kate Koreski, who finished with nine points, eight rebounds and three assists, and Brietta Sandell, who added nine points, seven rebounds and three steals.

Despite outscoring Mt. Baker 24-19 in the second half, the Borderites couldn’t complete the comeback, ending the season with a loss to a bitter conference rival. 

“They were great at bouncing back,” Wolffis said of this year’s team. “We had some games that were really tough – disastrous almost, we were barely functioning – and they’d come back the next day and practice … ready to get after it.”

Blaine had just one senior – Brie Smith – competing on the varsity roster after senior Callie Cruz didn’t recover from an injury she incurred last season. Wolffis said the tenacious effort and leadership from Smith was special.

“I’ve been coaching this game for about 36 years, I don’t think I could point to a player that has given more effort more consistently than Brie does all the time,” Wolffis said.

Stats provided by WhatcomPreps.com

Girls Bowling

The Blaine girls bowling team capped off another stellar season with an 11th place finish at the 1A/2A state championships in Tukwila on February 8 and 9. The team also claimed the 1A Academic State Championship with the seven-bowler team combining for a 3.76 GPA.

The first place academic state championship was the second consecutive award for the team.

Head coach Matt McAuley, who works as a paraeducator in the Blaine School District, said the team puts as much emphasis on studying as it does chucking bowling balls, treating bowling practice as a study session.

“We want everyone to be great at bowling, it’s a lifetime sport, but academics comes first, they’re student-athletes,” McAuley said. “Between their shots, if they need to finish a paper, they can work on that paper.”

Competing among the best 1A/2A bowlers in the state, the Borderites finished 11th in a field of 12 teams, scoring a collective total of 5241 points as a team. Hudson’s Bay won first place in the state tournament with a team score of 7571.

In a field of over 100 bowlers, Ainslee Ellis had the best individual performance for the Borderites with a cumulative score of 862 across six games. Ellis scored a high of 166 in her final individual game of the state championship. 

McAuley said the team, like so many other Whatcom County teams, wasn’t able to practice all last week due to snow closures, so the team had some rust to shake off. 

But despite an unplanned week off right before the state championship, the Borderites still competed along with the best bowling programs in the state. Just three years into the program, McAuley and his team have earned district championships, state berths, and now two academic state championships.

“I’m just really proud of the girls this year, they really played tough and improved so much – more than I was expecting,” McAuley said. “They put in so much work, and it was amazing to see in the classroom how much work they put in. I was really proud of them and I can’t wait to keep building this program.”