Sports - High Schools

POSTED: Sunday, Jul. 06, 2008

ALL-WHATCOM COUNTY'S TOP PROGRAM: Mariners were unmatched

Six team state championships sends Sehome to another top program finish

How do you improve upon winning five state championships in a school year? How about adding a sixth?

That’s exactly what the Sehome Mariners did during the 2007-08 school year, winning team state championships in girls’ cross country and girls’ swimming in the fall and girls’ golf, baseball, boys’ track and boys’ soccer in the spring one year after the school grabbed five state championship trophies.

“We joked a little bit about it in the spring coaches’ meeting,” Sehome athletic director Colin Cushman said in a phone interview. “I met with the coaches and told them they needed to have year like they did last year, and everybody kind of laughed about it. It turned out they outdid themselves.”

And the scary thing is Sehome just missed adding state titles in three other sports, scoring runner-up finishes in boys’ cross country, boys’ tennis and girls’ track.

Not surprisingly, Sehome once again claimed The Bellingham Herald’s All-Whatcom County All-Sports Program of the Year award.

“It was just amazing that every team did as well as they did,” Cushman said.

It is the third straight year the Mariners have won the award, which weighs each sport equally and factors in how teams finish in conference, district and state competition as well as awarding bonus points for standout athletes.

Sehome averaged scoring 127.2 points per team in 19 sports on a 200-point scale, more than twice as many as second-place Bellingham’s 61.9 points per team.

Lynden finished third with 59.5 points per team.

Sehome had very few teams that were not competitive during the past year, as it sent teams to state tournaments in six of eight traditional team sports (football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer) and finished among the top eight at state in 12 of the 19 sports overall.

“That’s what I’m most proud of, is how every team was competitive and that’s what makes me so proud of this group of coaches,” Cushman said. “Everyone focuses on firstplace state champions, but every team did well for us this year. It was just a phenomenal year allaround.”

The Mariners also had the top three scoring teams in Whatcom County this season — girls’ swimming (240.0), boys’ track (232.0) and baseball (220.0) — and eight of the county’s top 15 scoring teams.

Surprisingly, Bellingham did not have any teams finish in the top 15 despite its strong finish overall, but Lynden had two with its state champion girls’ tennis team and runner-up boys’ golf team.

All 10 teams that won state championships during the school year appeared in the top 15, with the Lynden Christian girls’ basketball team finishing fourth, the Meridian girls’ soccer team finishing 10th and the Mount Baker girls’ wrestling team finishing 11th.