I.
Once upon a time, there were three words that constituted a sort of shorthand, or secret handshake, which could instantly verify Longview citizenship beyond all shred of doubt. From the late ’90s until…well, now, maybe? strangers whose paths crossed in the food court at O’Hare Airport or on the slopes at Whistler or on a switchback in the Himalayas or snorkeling in the Indian Ocean could simply utter, “Sit down, Fowler,” and discern the presence of a homie.
During the inimitable tenure of former R.A. Long boys’ basketball coach Kyle Fowler, who defibrillated the school’s hoops destiny in the late ’90s with his sincerity, enthusiasm, and incandescent, occasionally maniacal courtside disposition, those words became a common incantatory refrain of Mark Morris’s Roundball Rowdies during Civil War games. They continued gleefully chanting the same invitation, verbatim, at Fowler’s successor, Rally Wallace.
Ever stiff-necked and defiant, it was advice Fowler absolutely never heeded, even as the Jacks lost more often than they won in the rivalry, and endured many lifetime’s worth of loser-out dramatics. Love and loyalty, after all, are the spiritual adhesives of team sport, and find their ultimate realization not in success but in losing, failure, disappointment, and even – perhaps most of all – in despair.
For those who remember the last two-plus decades of R.A. Long’s quintessentially Wile E. Coyote-esque pursuit of the crosstown basketball vanguard, there was something fitting and perfect about looking across Ted M. Natt Court last Friday, as the Jacks stammered and grinded and improvised a harrowing, shambolic, splendid valentine to their fans in a district title-clinching victory over tough, plucky, relentless Tumwater, and seeing Fowler in the crowd.
Standing.
It evoked Fowler’s rectitude following the previous RAL district championship excursus, which he coached in 2003, and his upright meander – lurching, as if drunk with unbearable gratitude, from hug to sobbing, joyful hug -- in the locker room at The Evergreen State College following the definitive, most purely Fowler-esque win of his career in 2006. On that day, Fowler’s son, Luke, scored nine points, and fellow senior Karlis Liepa spearheaded a feral defensive effort, in a 16-3 Jacks run to close the game against a towering and talented Columbia River squad in a winner-to-state, loser-out district playoff. RAL came from behind to snatch a win from the abyss. Those three points allowed, and the stores of resilience and intensity required for a team to hold its opponent to such a pittance with the entire season on the line, are a most authentic signature of the Kyle Fowler style.
It hadn’t occurred to me until the moment I typed these words that this victory, which sent R.A. Long to state for just the sixth time since it ceased to be Longview’s only high school, was the last of Fowler’s 11-year career (126-107 from 1996-2006). Those Jacks drew Seattle Prep for their first-round state opponent. Prep, every drop as blue-blooded as R.A. Long’s first-round state foe following the district title run of ’03, Mercer Island, showed the Jacks zero noblesse oblige. Led by future NBA center Spencer Hawes’ 26 points, Prep beat the Jacks, beat Mark Morris (which was making its 28th state appearance since becoming Longview’s second high school in 1958) in the quarterfinals the next day, and was state champion two days later.
RAL endured deficits as large as 13 early in the second quarter. Seattle Prep’s student crowd chanted “Where are you from?” Fowler the Younger, Liepa, Scott Manser, Brad Hoover and Scott Pisapia helped RAL claw back to within one point with 11 minutes to play, but Hawes was too much, and Prep pulled away. Perhaps exhausted by that furious comeback, the Jacks were eliminated the next day by Ellensburg.
Kyle Fowler retired.
Wallace took over.
The Jacks – led by Pisapia, Tanner Bradley, Edwin Frauenfeld, Marcus Irwin, Taylor Woodruff, Trevor Sweet, et. al. -- were back in the Tacoma Dome two years later, where they picked up their first state victory since 1983. The point here (beyond the sweet-bitter pleasure of wallowing in nostalgia, which has gathered like seafoam around the hull of the Good Ship Lumberjack this year) is not to rank coaches. Iron sharpens iron, and in Longview, all paved-in-hardwood roads go through the Lion’s Den; before Fowler came along, no Jacks team in the modern era of high school basketball had challenged Mark Morris, even briefly. It reconfigured the program’s DNA, and that’s worth noting as the current R.A. Long generation, under Jeray Key, plays the best basketball the school has ever seen.
About that…
II.
“You will remember this week for the rest of your life. So give it all of your energy and attention, and at the same time, cherish it.”
— Adam Perry
“Remember, you are (in the state tournament) for a reason: you've earned it. Allow that confidence and swag to carry you through the tournament.”
— Scott Pisapia
“State is like districts. There’s a different feeling in the air: excitement, intensity, focus, the buzz of the crowd. The coach-/player-speak says, “It’s just another game.” It’s not. You’re playing for a state championship against the top teams in the state. You recognize it’s a bigger game on a bigger stage, but you you have to play it like it’s just another game. You can’t start trying to do things outside of your skills and role. Most of all, you have to enjoy the moment.”
— Nathan Amrine
“The best teams in state know how to gameplan to shut down whatever you do best, whether that’s a player, a scheme, etc. When you get to the best teams in the state, they have scouted and know what you do really well. It is essential that others are ready to step up if first and second options are taken away. My advice is pretty simple: enjoy every moment, be ready to overcome adversity, and represent R.A. Long with class and pride no matter the result.”
— Luke Fowler
The third-ranked1 Jacks take on fifth-ranked White River in a 2A state regional at 8 p.m. Saturday on Ted M. Natt Court at MMHS, helping keep that gym company while its primary resident, Mark Morris, is playing a state regional elsewhere, having dispatched Black Hills with trademark sangfroid to re-ensconce itself in familiar hunting grounds.
This R.A. Long unit has fired up some of the program’s most legendary alumni, especially from the Fowler/Wallace era. From the program’s all-time leading scorer (for now), Adam Perry, to players who made brief but memorable contributions for state-making squads, such as Keoki Mawae, the exploits of Jamond Harris, Cavin Holden, Aaron Ofstun, Stephen Rooklidge, Jake Gabbard, Jaxon Cook, Lonnie Brown Jr., and Co. have become a source of pride, reminiscence and fascination.
(To be clear: no one bum-rushed my inbox, demanding to be heard or presuming to know better than the current Jacks -- who are clearly savvy and battle-wizened and dailed in -- about how to handle big games or state stakes.
I asked. Some good dudes who it was my honor to cover, back in the day, clearly enjoyed sharing brotherly advice with the current squad, whom they admire, and whose accomplishments they hold in great esteem.)
The timing of R.A. Long’s ascension has dovetailed uncannily for Perry with his induction into the school’s Hall of Fame looming this spring. Perry, who calls these Jacks “objectively the best team at R.A. Long, ever,” and Holden “objectively the best player, as well,” visited with Holden at the Lumberdome the day after witnessing the junior’s 37-point masterpiece in the first Civil War game of the season.
“Holden was putting up shots and tickling the twine from distances I haven’t seen since (Derek) Raivio played in the Lumberdome against us,” added Craig Marshall, a senior on the ’03 district champion Jacks. “My favorite moment this year.”
“He just completely took over the game,” Perry said. “It was the most impressive moment I’ve ever seen anyone have in the rivalry, and I just told Holden exactly that. And that I’ve been following them this year, because my dad (Dick Perry) had been, and because I know Jeray, and his grandpa (Larry “Pops” Petersen) from my childhood.
“Plus, it was cool to see the ties I had with (Stephen) Rooklidge playing, and his dad (Steve Rooklidge) being my (football) coach (at RAL) — and a big reason I moved on to play college football, and to see the son of Lonnie Brown, who played receiver with me (at RAL) as well. So it was just kind of full circle.
“I told (Holden) I would be following them the rest of the year.
“I intend to go this Saturday.”
Perry has mostly followed from afar. Thanks to the ongoing excellence of local radio, The Daily News sports staff’s energetic coverage, and the superlative live-stream work of N2 Media LLC, it has been an easy pleasure to do so.
Amrine played varsity from 2000-2003, and was a backcourt running mate of Perry’s as well as one of his go-to targets on the gridiron (along with Brown, Sr. and Marshall). He’s tracked the Jacks “pretty much all season via N2 and the paper.”
“I watched as many games as possible on N2 and went to the district championship game in person,” Amrine said.
He sees similarities between the last two RAL district champs.
“The whole team plays such great complementary basketball,” said Amrine. “Guys like Rooklidge, Harris, Gabbard, Cook and Brown, Jr. all look very comfortable in what they are asked to do, and execute so efficiently. It’s great to see how any of those guys can take over parts of the game. It keeps the opponent off balance; you can’t just focus on Holden and Ofstun. In turn, it lets Holden and Ofstun facilitate the offense better and get more opportunities because of defensive stops.
“It reminds me a lot of our ’02'-’03 team with Perry and (center Jamie) Rivenes being the “big 2,” but any of us could break out and be the difference in the game, whether as a starter or coming off the bench.”
“Jamond Harris would be the best player on a lot of teams in the league. It’s really impressive the role he plays, and how he is always ready, if needed, to carry the scoring load,” added Luke Fowler. “I love Rooklidge and how scrappy he is. And the emergence of Brown, Jr. in the district title game will be huge for his confidence.”
“I’m impressed with the Jacks’ rotation for several reasons,” said Pisapia, who is, by virtue of having played in five2 state playoff games, the most seasoned postseason participant in the postbellum history of R.A. Long basketball. “First, it looks like they have found their specific roles on the team and have completely bought into them — that is so dangerous for opponents! I love Jamond’s on-ball defense and the way he takes high-percentage shots at all times; he never forces a bad shot. Rooklidge has a mix of touch and skill but is also tough-nosed; he has a run-through-a-wall-for-you mentality. Cook adds some physicality down low to help alleviate some of Ofstun’s duties. Brown, Jr. is always read to hit a big shot when the defense collapses. And Gabbard is another kid that will give 100 percent effort, run the court, dive on the floor for loose balls. These types of players are what makes the engine run at its best ability.”
R.A. Long plays a pleasing style of basketball according to Keoki Mawae, known more to Lumberjack nation for his work in the football trenches. Mawae played just one season — his senior year in 2008 — when he was coaxed into the basketball fold as Wallace sought to enbeefen the froncourt.
“I’ve enjoyed watching this squad more than any others of years past,” Mawae said. “As a youngster, our group idolized Adam Perry, but this team is even more special. They have the presence in the inside paired with a plethora of scorers on the outside. Then, the clutch factor and ability to take over the game from Cavin is something else.”
“They’re really special,” he added. “They make me proud to be a Jack.”
R.A. Long is ranked third by both the state’s sportswriters and in the scorebooklive.com coaches’ poll, where it picked up a first-place vote in the final polling of the year. Tumwater’s Josh Wilson, Ridgefield’s Jason Buffum and Bill Bakamus of Mark Morris vote in the coaches’ poll.
In the 2006 state tournament, Pisapia played against Seattle Prep and Ellensburg. In the 2008 tourney, he played against Burlington-Edison, Prosser (an overtime win that remains RAL’s last state victory — and was its first since 1983) and Sehome.