TACOMA — First, the appetizers.
Then, the dinner.
Served, of course, with so many smiles and lots of laughs.
The state basketball tournament is more than the final destination for the best of the best. It is also a reward for the entire season. The games themselves are just part of that adventure. The rest of the days belong to team meals, meetings, and memories.
The Prairie girls basketball team dined at The Ram Restaurant and Brewery in Tacoma on Thursday, just a few hours after beating Kennedy of Burien in the Class 3A state quarterfinals a few miles away at the Tacoma Dome.
It was not a celebration dinner for the that particular game. It was a celebration dinner for the journey that has led them to this point.
“We do everything together. We hang out in the same room. We have team meetings with the coaches, then we have team meetings without the coaches,” said senior Angela Gelhar, who has been part of four trips to state. “Everyone’s so happy. This year is a way better year than any of the others because we are all so close.”
“We love each other so much,” sophomore Megan Lindsley added. “This is really special, how close we are.”
The Falcons will remember more than their hard-fought victory Thursday. They will recall the traffic jam the team vans got stuck in on the way to the dome, and the hustle the Falcons displayed to get from the parking lot into the locker room prior to their first game.
(No worries, the game before theirs went into overtime.)
Later, it was a trip to the restaurant, a meal provided by their host this season, the Tacoma Athletic Commission.
“Our goal is for the kids to have the best state tournament experience that they can,” said Colleen Hall Barta, one of the directors of the TAC. “Yes, it’s about winning, but it’s more than the wins and losses. It’s the experience.”
The TAC hosts two teams per year. This is the second year in a row that Prairie has been one of the commission’s teams, and sixth time in the past dozen years or so,
“Being involved in sports my whole life, I always like to see a program that focuses on discipline,” Hall Barta said. “These girls are very disciplined, and it’s all about team.”
Prairie assistant coach Pat Trent coached in Oregon for years. He said having team hosts is new to him. Prairie coach Al Aldridge, who has led the program to 28 state appearances, is accustomed to hosts helping out every season but does not take them for granted.
“We’re grateful Washington does this,” Aldridge said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have really good sponsors for many, many, many years. They buy the kids gifts, take them out to dinners, make them feel special.”
Junior Andrea Smith enjoyed herself. She also showed some of her athletic skills, avoiding some runaway lemonade that had spilled on the table and was streaming her way.
She got out of the way, just in time, and nobody minded that she did not take the charge.
“Team,” she said of what this whole day, what this whole week, is about. “I love being around these girls. Family. We’re like sisters.”
