Colfax girls begin quest for 4th straight

Jordan Harazin remembers the day she first got a Colfax varsity girls basketball uniform.

“I brought it home and I was just so happy to have it,” the junior point guard said. “My parents took pictures of me wearing it and I think I even slept in it that first night.”

Such is the fervor surrounding girls basketball at Colfax. The golden basketball that is the State 1A tournament trophy has resided for the past three consecutive years and many consider it the school’s property, either through manifest destiny or divine right.

They have a strong case.

Since the 1998-99 season, the Bulldogs have played in the state’s title game six times and been crowned champion four times.

Today at Yakima’s SunDome, Colfax (23-2) goes for four in a row, opening the tournament against Seattle Christian (18-5) in a first-round game at 5:30 p.m. No team has won four consecutive 1A girls titles. Just Colfax, Cle Elum and Lynden Christian have won three straight.

Colfax has a 14-game state winning streak on the line in its first-round game – its last loss was to eventual state champion Brewster in the quarterfinal round in 2003. Brewster’s Bears, who had their quest for three consecutive titles quashed by the Bulldogs the year before, needed two overtimes to get past Colfax 48-46 in what many consider the championship game of that year’s tournament and a rematch of the 2001 state title game.

“There’s more pressure on us to win this year, sure,” Harazin said. “But at the same time, we have tremendous community support. It’s a great feeling to have the whole town behind you.”

The town traditionally sees the team off for Yakima at 9 a.m. the Tuesday before the tournament. There are pictures to be taken and best wishes to impart, but it’s not really a bon voyage ceremony. Much of the town moves into the SunDome right along with the team.

“There may be a few people left to keep Rosauers open, but other than that …” Harazin said. “In a lot of ways, it’s almost like playing a home game.”

It comes in handy to have so many friends and family travel, coach Corey Baerlocher said.

“Two years ago when we left for state, we forgot to take the state trophy with us,” he said. “It hitched a ride with the family of one of the girls on our junior varsity. It was good luck for them to do it, so they took it again for us last year.

“I just got a call from my assistant principal, who said he was going to grab the trophy and take it for us and I told him no way – and immediately called the family to ask them if they’d take it again.”

The nucleus of this year’s team has been together for three seasons on the varsity, but goes back further.

“The thing is, most of us have been playing together since we were in the third grade, between school and our AAU teams,” Harazin said. “We’ve played hundreds of games together.”

The team’s ties to previous state title teams are tight.

“I remember going to state and watching those teams play,” Meagan Teade said. “My sister was on those teams. She didn’t play very much, but she was there. Jordan and I were managers for the team when we were in the seventh and eighth grade, so we were around those players a lot.

“And it helps that we have sisters of some of those players on the team.”

Senior Lauren Mellor is the sister of Eastern Washington University volleyball standout Lizzy Mellor, who helped lead the Bulldogs to the 2001 title. Kylie Shaw is the younger sister of tourney standout Natalie Shaw.

Harazin and Teade, starters their entire freshman season, led the Bulldogs to a surprising title in 2005. The team, dominated by freshmen and sophomores, upset top-ranked Freeman in the championship game.

“They were really great to us,” Teade said. “We got to watch them every night and see how hard they worked.”

This year the Bulldogs are the only Northeast A League team going to Yakima. The Caribou Trail League captured the remaining two state girls tournament berths and swept all three tickets to the boys tournament.

“It’s going to seem strange not having Freeman or Lakeside here because those are both very good teams, too,” Harazin said. “Having to play them night in and night out during the league season – and having to go play them on their home courts – is what prepared us for the state tournament. Chewelah and Lakeside both are tough places to have to go play, and Freeman always has been a tough place to play.”