Both Gig Harbor girls, boys basketball teams sitting atop 3A SSC standings

Events both recent and longer-lasting have coalesced to produce success within the Gig Harbor basketball programs this winter.

For starters, both the boys (11-1) and girls (8-0) entered games last weekend undefeated.

On the boys side, since last there was a state title to play for two years ago, the Tides core has continued to grow into the team that remained unbeaten with just about a month to go in the regular season, until they lost to Timberline Friday night. Gig Harbor is 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the Class 3A South Sound League in its first year since stepping back down from 4A.

“Everybody has had two years to improve their game,” said Luke Browne, the Tides junior who leads the team in scoring at 21 points a game.

Browne is part of a large group of Gig Harbor players who have grown up on the peninsula playing sports together, leading to this moment.

“We’ve known these kids since they were young,” Gig Harbor coach Billy Landram said. “It’s just fun, really. Every group, you want to put them in the best position to win. This group has been highly successful all the way along. There’s a lot of kids that have played together for a long time. We were always hopeful that they could put it together and get it done. We’re still hopeful.”

On the girls side of things, newer partnerships have grown on the court over those same pandemic-dominated years.

Tides point guard Taylor Schwab, for instance, wasn’t even in the school when the pandemic began. The sophomore and her family had moved across the Narrows fairly recently from University Place, where her dad Cory Schwab was a standout for the Curtis Vikings before playing collegiately at Northern Arizona.

Yet through the first five games of this season, Schwab has run the point for the Gig Harbor girls like she’s been there for years. As a distributor, Schwab averages four assists a game. And she’s currently leading the Tides in scoring at 16.5 points a game.

“I moved here in eighth grade,” said Schwab, who was an all-league selection as a freshman. “So last year, freshman year, was different. It was all online, so I didn’t come to the school, and didn’t know anyone. All I knew were the basketball girls. I didn’t know how it was going to be coming to a new school. I didn’t know how the girls were going to be.”

What Schwab has found is a back court mate in Baylee Young (11 points, three steals), a scoring threat on virtually any trip down the floor. Inside, the guards can always look for junior post Riley Peschek, who’s contributing 14 points and 9.6 rebounds every game.

“We struggled last year a little bit (during a pandemic truncated, no playoff spring season) last year, playing in 4A,” Tides girls coach Mike Guinasso said. “We’re starting to play well but I don’t think we’ve put together a full game yet, which is kind of cool, too. There is still room to improve.”

The Lady Tides will get to display that improvement over the final weeks of the regular season to an appreciative home crowd.

“We’re finally seeing the part of our season where we are playing some home games,” Guinasso said. “Seeing that atmosphere, and with both teams winning, it’s fun.”

The girls themselves see more success coming, as well.

“We have all the talent in the world,” Schwab said. “We’re the most athletic team out there.”

The pride and atmosphere surrounding Gig Harbor’s successes this season come home, as well.

“Especially with having a coach in the household,” Schwab said. “It’s like ‘Wow,’ our school’s pretty good.”

Her dad Cory is an assistant for the boys team, joining as a coach a guy he once guarded in college. During Cory Schwab’s junior season, Northern Arizona played a non-conference game against against San Jose State, and for at least part of that contest Schwab and Landram (a Spartans junior) covered each other.

“I didn’t really know him at the time, but knew of him,” Landram said.

Years later, though, a confluence of events has brought them back together to mentor one half of two so-far very successful teams. Meanwhile, the assistant’s daughter and her teammates are doing the same on the girls side.

This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.