Lakeside Pride Lakeside High Wrestlers Have The Satisfaction Of Knowing They Gave Everything They Had In Bid To Repeat As State Champions

Lakeside High School’s wrestling team did not repeat as state champions this year. Toppenish stole the Eagles dreams of being two-time champs at the Tacoma Dome last weekend.

But what Toppenish couldn’t take from Lakeside was the spirit of hard work that exists in the school and throughout much of the Nine Mile School District.

Two weeks ago, wrestling coach Scott Jones got up the morning after his Eagles dominated the Great Northern League district tournament, looked out the living-room window of his Suncrest home and saw a pleasant sight.

All 15 Eagle wrestlers who had earned berths to the state tournament the night before were out jogging at 7 a.m.

Jones estimated that each of his wrestlers spent 1,015 hours to prepare for the state tournament.

“For at least six of our seniors, they have done this and more for the past four years,” Jones said.

“These boys and coaching staff put in two full years of full-time work weeks in addition to their four years of academic training, and not to mention their other sports and part-time jobs.”

Jones also gave credit to the community.

“This is our success,” Jones said. “Being next door to Mead (School District), people always tell me, ‘It must be nice being next to them to be able to draw on their talent.’ This isn’t about Mead, this is about us,” he said.

Despite registering 150-1/2 team points, Lakeside couldn’t overcome Toppenish’s 183-1/2 for first place.

“Toppenish wrestled tough,” said Eagles’ Matt Westenfelder, who won the state crown in the 168-pound weight division.

“You can’t take anything away from them.”

But you can’t take anything from Nine Mile, either. Jones - and anybody else in the school district, for that matter - has a right to beam with school and communal pride.

Lakeside used to be a single-A ranked school in athletic competition. It moved to the double-A ranks when the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association added another class of schools.

“As far as enrollment, we’re one of the smallest, if not the smallest, 2A school in the state,” said Don Baumberger, Nine Mile’s superintendent.

But Baumberger believes Nine Mile residents have created an environment for its kids to do big things in and out of the athletic arena.

“We’ve doubled the number of coaches we’ve had in recent years,” Baumberger said. “We started gymnastics this year and quite honestly, we didn’t think there would be any interest.

“But for our first team, we got 22 girls on the roster,” he said.

But in the category that matters most, students in the Nine Mile district have proven they can match wits against any other in the state.

Last year, fourth-graders in the district scored above their counterparts on the state’s tough new assessment tests.

Students scored 28.6 percent in math; 47.6 percent in reading; 58.9 percent in writing; and 74.1 percent in listening.

Statewide, students scored 22 percent in math; 48 percent in reading; 47.6 percent in writing; and 62 percent in listening.

The district has 1,472 students but has $11.1 million in outstanding, taxpayer school-bond debt, according to the Spokane County Assessor’s Office. That’s $7,607 being spent per student.

By comparison, Mead has $42.7 million in outstanding school-bond debt and 8,000 students. That’s $5,339 per student.

“I think people believe in what we’re doing here,” Baumberger said. “That’s the proof.”

Suncrest resident Karsten Mickelson agrees.

It was Nine Mile’s community support that made him decide to move his family there from Wisconsin in 1990. Though his last child graduated from Lakeside High School in 1994, Mickelson still attends Eagles athletic events.

“When someone out here does well, the whole community gets behind them,” said Mickelson, who went to Tacoma to watch the wrestling team compete.

That support was district-wide.

Before the wrestlers left for Tacoma, Lakeside High gave the team quite the send off.

Each wrestler was given his own hand-stitched pillow to rest his head on for the bus ride to the west side. Jones’ wife, Cheryl, made each pillow herself.

Sophomore Chad Charbonneau, a Lakeside wrestler who finished third at state in the heavyweight class, competed for the first time at state last weekend. This year was his first ever as a wrestler.

All year, Charbonneau said he was awestruck by the community’s support of the wrestling team.

“It’s amazing,” he said, “It’s absolutely overwhelming.”

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