Can Bears turn state tournament into ‘Tahoma Dome?’ Hassmann leads title-hungry group

Peter Smith wasn’t about to wait on the celebration. At least, he wasn’t going to wait more than the few minutes it took reporters to briefly chat with his star guard and himself after Tahoma’s Class 4A girls basketball regional win over Davis on Saturday night.

The interviews complete, Smith strode into the Bears locker room and announced loud enough for everyone to hear, “That’s a state win.” The pronouncement was greeted by similarly loud cheers from the Bears, who weren’t going to let a little thing like venue stifle the mood.

Many teams won regional games across the state on Friday and Saturday of last week. All were wins within the state basketball brackets. But for Tahoma, there was added significance.

The victory over the Pirates was the program’s first state win in more than a quarter century – 1996 to be exact. Just being in the bracket? First time for the Bears since 1999.

Tahoma will play its first state game in the Tacoma Dome since that year when the Bears face off in a Thursday quarterfinal against the winner of Wednesday’s Round of 12 contest between Gonzaga Prep and Sumner. That quarterfinal is scheduled for a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.

“At halftime, we were like, guys this isn’t over,” that star guard, Hope Hassmann said. And she wasn’t talking about the game. “Let’s take care of the Dome. This is only the beginning. We have so much more, and we’ve got the team to do it.”

Having exorcised 25 years of demons, include a year ago when Tahoma began the postseason with expectations of a trip to Tacoma, the Bears plan to make the most of this experience. After all, it’s the final week of high school games for five seniors that have worked hard to get this team here.

“We have really built a legacy here,” Lauryn Frederickson said. “We want Tahoma to be known for girls basketball. We put in the work in the off-season, we have a really passionate group with a lot of chemistry. Making it this high up at state means a lot to us. It’s nice to hear ‘basketball’ and ‘Tahoma,’ to hear those words together.”

Two other words that seem made for each other, but haven’t been able to be used together for those same 25 seasons until now debuted on shirts seen at Auburn High School, where the regional game took place.

“Tahoma Dome” provided a ready-made slogan for the Bears.

“I think it was Abby Knutson’s mom,” Smith said of another of the five seniors. “In eighth grade, they go play their little state tournament and they won it, and they’re all in the hotel room after and she said, ‘Tahoma Dome’ instead of Tacoma Dome, and it kind of stuck. We’ve been waiting four years to print that on a T-shirt.”

Now these Bears are just three victories away from repeating the feat they accomplished in the eighth grade in this group’s last hurrah together before going off to college.

“That’s what’s really fueled us this year,” Angie Cavanaugh said. “I’ve been playing with these girls since like the third grade. We are like a family.”

“This is our family,” senior Amelie Sitterud said. “We’re with each other more than we’re with our own families. It’s just crazy.”

This is the season that has finally fulfilled expectations after the highly-regarded squad from a year ago, when all five were juniors. Thinking state, Tahoma instead lost bi-district games to Olympia and Bellarmine Prep to fall short of a regional berth and any chance at the Dome.

“I feel like this year, we came in with a chip on our shoulders,” Hassmann said. “Obviously what happened last season was unfortunate. This year is really showing what we’re like as a team. What we’ve been building up for all the years of our lives before this. We play every game like this could be our last and put it all out there.”

A trip to Tacoma for at least two more games now just feels like the natural conclusion for a group that has been dreaming of this week for the last six years.

“This group, we knew they were coming,” Smith said. “For the last six years, they’ve been going to the Dome just to watch games. There has been a shift, where basketball is a priority. Not to say it wasn’t a priority in the past, but these kids eat, breathe, sleep basketball. This is their love. This is what makes school fun for them.

“Everything is going to play right now. We thought it would happen a lot sooner. But everything is going to plan.”