Best team in state history? Sehome 1996 champs to reunite

Hall of Fame and former Sehome basketball coach Pat Fitterer, with a state championship trophy in his team’s clutch, heard a line from Mariners standout Ryan Kettman that still resonates with him today.

“He goes, ‘It’s a shame it’s over, because we were ready to go take on the rest of the world,” Fitterer recalled following Sehome’s 81-42 Class 3A State Championship win over Decatur nearly 20 years ago.

Before Squalicum’s back-to-back titles, before Lynden’s, Lynden Christian’s, Nooksack Valley’s and Blaine’s, during the 1996-96 season the Sehome Mariners engineered the most dominant basketball campaign in Whatcom County history and perhaps the best the state’s ever seen.

Constructed from a foundation of talent, unselfishness, coaching innovation and pure team basketball, Sehome became the only team in Washington state history to finish a season 30-0 and only the third team to win 30 games.

The Mariners finished No. 5 in the nation, and the season drew enough buzz among the community former Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen signed an official proclamation announcing March 12, 1996, be labeled “Sehome Mariners Day.”

This winter marks the 20th anniversary of that magical season, and for the first time since the group hoisted the gold ball March 9, 1996, on the Key Arena floor, they’re reuniting.

The team will be honored at halftime of Sehome’s game against Arlington at 7:15 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21. Fitterer, former players and even Arlington’s coach Nick Brown, who 20 years ago was a Sehome assistant, will be present.

“Some of the guys I haven’t seen since high school,” said standout guard Jared Stevenson. “A lot of guys I haven’t seen since college, and it’ll be fun to get back and see everybody again.”

Sehome’s state title was in the works long before many of the players reached high school. Of the Mariners’ starting five — seniors Stevenson (guard), Jeff Chapman (guard), Kettman (guard), Keith Koskela (forward) and Mark Spink (forward) — only Spink hadn’t played with the group since fourth grade.

They were talented. Stevenson, Chapman and Kettman played at Western Washington University and Spink would up at Gonzaga. But the team’s hallmark was its unselfish play.

They set single game, tournament and career assist records and garnered plenty of recognition for their ability to share the basketball.

“(Former Michigan State coach) Jud Heathcote came up to me and said, ‘You’re players are so fun to watch how they’ll come down and somebody will maybe make a mistake but nobody acknowledges it,’” Fitterer recalled of a short conversation he shared with Heathcote, “‘They are all totally positive at all times.’”

Sehome’s ball movement, combined with its immense talent, made the Mariners impossible to stop. Kettman (15.6 points per game), Chapman (14.8), who finished with a game-high 28 points on nine 3s during Sehome’s state championship game, Stevenson (13.2) and Spink (12.7) each averaged double figures.

“One of my favorite parts was having the community behind us,” Stevenson said. “Mostly games were sold out. They’d pull the upper bleachers out at Sehome, which doesn’t happen very often. The first game against Mount Vernon, they were ranked second in state and we were ranked first, and I believe they kind of were turning people away at the door.”

Sehome opened the state tournament with a 54-39 win over Lewis and Clark, followed with a 74-49 win over Redmond and beat Evergreen 82-63 to set up a title game with Decatur.

The Seattle Times wrote an advance story headlined “Quincy vs. The Quest” pitting arguably the best player in the state, Decatur’s Quincy Wilder, against Sehome’s quest to win a state championship.

Kettman always remembered that headline as fitting.

“I remember seeing that after the fact and thought that was a cool title,” Kettman said. “And it was a tell-tale sign of how it went. No one guy was ever able to be as good as we were able to be as a team.”

Head coach: Patt Fitterer

Varsity assistant: Monte Walton

Junior varsity: Mike Curl

J.V. assistant: Ski St. Martin

Freshman: Lloyd Aldrich

Freshman assistant: Mark Wright

Manager: Brandon Dura

*score not available

Sehome: Turrell 0, Ryan 2, Stevenson 4, Gustafson 3, Chapman 28, Felmley 5, Stratton 4, Kettman 19, Pendry 0, Anderson 2, Koskela 5, Spink 9.

Decatur: Bellessa 0, Dawson 2, Brilhante 3, Anderson 0, Stores 0, Wilder 13, Rankin 0, Meyers 2, Morris 6, Schilling 11, Lipscomb 5.

*Reflects current classifications

SOURCE: WIAA.com

*Reflects current classifications

#Won state title

SOURCE: WIAA.com

SOURCE: WIAA.com

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 7:31 PM with the headline "Best team in state history? Sehome 1996 champs to reunite."