After Covid wiped out state last year, Life Christian eager to prove itself in 1A state tournament
If timing really is everything, then the pieces may have aligned perfectly for the Life Christian boys this February and March.
The Eagles thought they were ready to soar a year ago. Their opportunity was erased by the Covid-19 pandemic, with no WIAA playoffs taking place.
Still, LCA announced itself during the summer when Cedar Park Christian organized a “substitute” tournament.
“They came up with the idea to simulate state,” senior Chae Haynes said. “Teams chose to participate, but those that did were bracketed based on where they probably would have been if there had been a state.”
“It actually put a chip on our shoulders for this year,” fourth-year coach Charles Simmons said. “We beat King’s in the semifinals, Seattle Academy.”
Yet with virtually the entire team back – the Eagles lost only one starter to graduation in Omari Maulana – many of those same teams that Life beat in July remained ranked higher for this current season.
“Yes, Omari was a big part of what we did,” Simmons said. “But people are not giving the rest of the guys enough credit. How are we not the No. 1 team? These guys are hungry to prove that.”
All the current team has done is win 16 games in a row going into its regular-season finale at Annie Wright on Thursday. The Eagles only loss of the season came in its season-opener on Dec. 3, to Asjon Anderson and Class 3A Pierce County League champion Mount Tahoma.
The quest for a state title begins with a District 3 first-round game on Tuesday at Bellarmine Prep.
“It’s championship or bust,” senior Bradley Swillie said. “And the job doesn’t end until March 5.”
That would be in the Yakima Sun Dome on that Saturday, playing for the title at 7 p.m.
“It would be the first state championship for Life Christian in basketball, ever,” Haynes said. “And the first overall in a while, since like the golf team in 2006. They still talk about that golf team around here. It’s something we would remember forever.”
A state title would be the culmination of a nearly 10-year odyssey this group of seniors has enjoyed together. In addition to Swillie and Haynes, Marquis Trimble, Ian Coates-White and Daishaun Nichols have all played together since the fourth grade.
And they’ve been accompanied all along by Simmons, who first saw this group when they walked into a gym as fourth-graders to participate in a skills camp. It wasn’t long before a team formed.
“Bradley’s mother came to me,” Simmons said. “She asked if I’d coach a club team for the boys. I didn’t want anything to do with that AAU world. But these kids didn’t have anywhere else to play.”
So, the Top Scholar Elite team was born. And throughout elementary and middle school, they stayed together. When it came time for high school, it seemed inevitable that the group would split up and go to different schools around Tacoma.
Haynes already knew he was headed to Life Christian. But then fate intervened once again when longtime Eagles coach Mark Lovelady stepped down to take an opportunity in Arizona.
“Mark called me and told me he was stepping down,” Simmons said. “The year before, he had asked if I would join his staff, then whenever he left I would become the coach.”
That step didn’t happen. At the time, Simmons was in Boston working as a right-hand man on the team of former Curtis and UW star Isaiah Thomas. When Thomas was traded to Cleveland, Simmons went with him and spent time with the LaBron James-led Cavaliers.
But then Lovelady made that second call.
“It’s crazy how it all worked out,” Simmons said. “I wasn’t looking to get a job. But my heart was in my community, in Tacoma.”
Once Simmons was hired at LCA, the parents of Haynes’s teammates jumped into action.
“I knew that they would want to play with me,” Simmons said. “But I was surprised the lengths the parents went to. Some of them took second/third jobs to pay tuition. It speaks volumes. And, aside from my wife, they’ve been like my best friends.”
The gym rat coach that played at Foss and Renton High found kindred spirits in his players.
“I was originally going to LCA, no matter what,” Haynes said. “But then the position opened, and thankfully Chuck (Simmons) got the job.”
Four years later, the Eagles are poised to make the title run they felt they were robbed of as juniors. And they have gotten here by sticking together over the last decade.
“We wanted to start a new path,” Haynes said. “We wanted to build something up here and stay together. It definitely makes it easier because we just know each other, our strengths and weaknesses. Even in the tough moments, we know how to stay together, have each other’s backs to get the job done.”
It didn’t need to happen at a bigger school or a higher classification to be special, and important. With a talented group of underclassmen coming right behind them, the Eagles feel as though this is just the start.
“You don’t always have to follow the crowd,” Swillie said. “You can do your own thing. We’re starting our own brand.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.