Mount Tahoma’s rise meets a familiar test: Lincoln in 3A quarterfinals
The lights on the scoreboard at Mount Tahoma High School’s football stadium are burned into Andrew Asaeli’s memory. He was seven years old and was driving past the field on the way to his house, which is just blocks away from the high school.
“It was 90-0,” Asaeli said during a practice at Mount Tahoma on Thursday.
Even as a kid, he was dreading having to enroll at Mount Tahoma.
“When I first came here, I was like, ‘Bro, I’m going to Mount Tahoma,’” he said in a mock-defeated tone. “That’s how I felt, like, why am I going to Mount Tahoma? Now I just love it here. (The 90-0) will never happen again. It’s just amazing to see how much this school has changed. Now we’re on top.”
That game happened to come against Lincoln, a 91-0 loss in 2014. The T-Birds won just one game that season. What has happened in recent years has been well documented: T-Birds’ coach Keith Terry has orchestrated an impressive turnaround and made the program not only the best in Tacoma, but one of the state’s top programs this fall.
Mount Tahoma (11-0) is undefeated and one win away from playing in the Class 3A state tournament semifinals. But a familiar opponent stands in its way: Lincoln, the same program that nearly hung 100 points on the T-Birds just over a decade ago.
Mount Tahoma welcomes Lincoln in a 3A state tournament quarterfinal game, 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School. The T-Birds beat the Abes soundly in the regular season meeting in early October, 28-7.
“For us, we’re treating it like another game,” Terry said. “We know they’re a really good coached team, we know they’re gonna come play hard and try to come win a football game. We know we’re gonna have to compete at a high level.”
Perhaps a rising tide will lift all boats, catapulting a Tacoma Public School into state championship contention. The last Tacoma Public Schools program to reach the state tournament semifinals was Lincoln in 2018. Prior to that, the Marcus Trufant-led Wilson Rams were the last to reach the stage, in 1998.
During the 2000s and 2010s, Lincoln was more or less the only show in town, aside from private Bellarmine Prep, which advanced to the Class 4A state championship game in 2012 and to the semifinals a year later.
“It’s good for the city, good for the kids,” Lincoln coach Masaki Matsumoto said of Mount Tahoma’s resurgence under Terry. “It definitely keeps you from getting complacent. It definitely pushes you. I think it’s a good thing.”
It’s a source of pride for Terry.
“We’re showing a level of consistency, we’re earning our respect,” he said. “I think it’s really raising the bar for the city, showing how much talent is here, how competitive we can be. The city is elite and the talent that we have, we can compete at a high level.”
Since the loss to Mount Tahoma, Lincoln has ripped off six straight wins, including a 28-19 over 3A Metro opponent Rainier Beach in the state tournament opening round last week.
“I think we just learned a little bit about ourselves, our personnel, made some changes schematically and personnel wise,” Matsumoto said. “I think it’s helped us. Playing good teams reveals things you need to change. They did that for us. They’re a really good team.”
Mount Tahoma, meanwhile, hopes to make it 2-0 against the Abes and earn a trip to the semifinals.
“Just don’t get too cocky,” Asaeli said of the team’s mindset. “We beat them, but it’s not the same game. They’re gonna come with a whole different gameplan. They’re gonna change up everything. Don’t get too cocky. Know who we are.”
