I believe 2022 will be looked back at as the Year Patience Paid Off.
It’s nice to see that patience rewarded this past weekend.
First and foremost, a powerhouse Forks wrestling team that was denied a chance to return to the Mat Classic last year finally got a chance to compete again in the Tacoma Dome after a 24-month hiatus.
The Spartans were rewarded with a fourth-place finish at state and one of their top wrestlers, Hayden Queen, getting a chance at an individual state championship his senior year. It was especially sweet because wrestling was hit especially hard in December with the COVID-19 omicron surge with countless tournaments having to be canceled. At one point, the state warned that the Mat Classic might have to be canceled or delayed if the outbreak became more serious.
So, those Forks kids, along with all the other wrestlers on the Olympic Peninsula, had to keep forging on, hoping they would get their chance for a postseason and a return to the Mat Classic. Thankfully, COVID has waned to the point at which the state tournament could be held.
Then we have both the Port Angeles boys and girls basketball teams.
This is a special year in particular for the boys. I asked head coach Kasey Ulin about this and he deferred to talking about it until after the season — The boys over the past several years have had a number of heartbreaking losses in the district tournament.
I mean really heartbreaking. A few years the Roughriders went into that tournament with absolutely powerhouse league-champion teams, but … simply …. could … not … make it out of Tacoma. They ran into hot teams, they had off nights, they had bad luck. You name it, it happened to them.
This year, no more heartbreak. The Riders qualified for regionals with their first win at the district, then they qualified for state by winning their third-place game. Finally, they got over that hump and will be enjoying the SunDome in Yakima.
The Port Angeles girls have likewise also qualified for the SunDome. This comes after their remarkable bittersweet 2021 season. They went 15-0 that season, won league, won every game in postseason such as it was, but never got the chance to go state. You still have to wonder how far that team would have gone at the state tournament had it been held.
This year’s team might not be as good as the 2021 squad — we’ll never know — with Eve Burke taking up much of the slack left by Millie Long moving on to star at Peninsula College. But they’re an absolute terror on defense and pretty much all of the players were a part of that 15-0 team.
And now they get their chance.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
