School to honor this long-time coach as week two of Whatcom County prep football begins
It’s typical of the respect Bob Ames has always had for sheer effort that he would think of a winless team he guided early in his 56-season football coaching career.
“Our 1975 team (his second at Meridian High School) went winless but those were wonderful kids who always worked so hard,” he said of the 0-10 squad. “I remember we had a multiple overtime game that we lost to Lynden.”
The next year Ames’ Trojans upended the Lions (when Lynden was a Class 1A team in the old Whatcom County League) and he was on his way to a 46-season Hall of Fame career as Meridian’s head coach, complete with three 1A state championships, 19 league titles and a 332-168 record in an even 500 games through 2019.
Ames, however, is still coaching as an assistant to son Patrick. Meridian will honor Bob Friday, Sept. 9, beginning at 4 p.m. in the Meridian Commons. Athletic director Bryant Michaelson says the public is welcome — especially the many local residents Bob coached.
It won’t be a long affair, but visitors are encouraged to stay for the Trojans’ home opener, a non-league game against Chelan with a 6 p.m. kickoff. Meridian got off to a big start last week with a 56-6 win at Granite Falls.
“It’s going to have to be a mighty big room to hold all those people,” said Dan Kaemingk, who served as head coach at rival Lynden Christian for 27 seasons through 2021.
‘Oh, I’d just like to see some old friends,” Ames said with a grin, when told of his longtime rival’s quip.
Ames, who turns 77 on Sept. 30, is in his third season an assistant.
“What I really want to do is thank all my assistants over the years,” he said, thinking of loyal guys like Mike Protzeller. “I’ve had so much great help. Patrick really has been head coach (as offensive coordinator) for 10 years.”
Ames says he is fine with his role now.
“I don’t want to make any more decisions,” he said with a laugh.
Ames was always known for the wittiest quotes in the area, not to mention not listing the full weights and heights of his multitude of talented players.
“I just hope our fans will be able to see us in the tall grass,” he said some years ago, talking about how small his team was.
Ames, of course, has many, many more memories of dramatic wins than overtime losses when asked to recall some of his favorite big plays.
“I’ll always remember the play Andre Lintz made to end the state title game in 2006,” Ames said. “Before the last play, Andre suggested that he move back to play what amounted to a deep, deep safety. Connell took the snap at about their 40-yard line and Andre took an angle to knock the ball-carrier out of bounds at about the 3-yard line.”
Lintz, one of the Trojans’ all-time greats, went on to play at Washington State.
Ames also vividly recalls Sean Hurlbut running the ball four consecutive times on the game’s final plays against Royal and scoring on his last carry to win the 2006 semifinals.
“I’ll also always remember when Brady Emmons stole the ball and scored a touchdown in the semifinals against La Center to (eventually) help us win the 2003 championship,” Ames said of the all-state linebacker, who also played at WSU. “In the title game against Pullman, I’ll always remember how (the late) Steven Auld hit the quarterback and Cody Bowden snatched the ball and scored.”
“What I’ll never forget is how close that 2003 team was,” said Ames, recalling the leadership of quarterback Jordan Slesk, one of several athletes from the related Slesk and Bennum families to help produce state titles in 1999 and 2006 as well as 2003, along with many wins in other seasons. “And I’ll always remember how happy all the old-timers were when we won Meridian’s first state title.”
Ames has special emotional memories.
“I’ll never forget Tad Parker, a player we had in the 1980s. He was very seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. I remember how the whole team came to see him. Some people thought he would never play again, but he came back for his senior year and got into some games. It was amazing.”
Anyone who has ever seen Ames take joy in holding one of his 10 grand-children after a game — win or lose — knows that family has always been No. 1 for the coach.
“I met my wife, Pam, on a blind date that friends got for us during the time in (July) 1969 when our men first walked on the moon. We watched that.” Ames said. “I remember thinking she was the nicest person I had ever met.”
They were married in 1972 and they have five children — Christopher, Patrick, Michael, Elizabeth and Kathryn. The three boys all played football for their dad and the two girls played soccer for the Trojans.
Coming out of Western Washington University in 1967 after playing football, rugby and track, Ames applied for jobs at Ferndale and Nooksack, but wasn’t hired. Instead, he accepted an opportunity to teach and coach at Mount Si in Snoqualmie, where he was a football assistant for seven seasons.
“I was in summer school (finishing work on a teaching credential) at Western in 1974 when friends told me about a head coaching opening at Meridian,” said Ames, who was voted into Western’s Hall of Fame in 2005. “Pam said ‘Take it!’ when the job was offered to me. I remember I interviewed in shorts and a tank top. Pat Alexander (his mentor as head coach at Mount Si) gave me a great recommendation. ”
Bob and Pam took a recent 50th anniversary trip to Italy and a cruise in the Greek islands. Soon after that this past summer, they visited Alaska with their five children and five of the grandchildren.
Ames taught history and physical education, along with driver’s education, plus coaching at Meridian. He also worked 26 years part time as a customs inspector at the Canadian border.
“I just loved the history classes at Western,“ Ames said. “I remember having the second highest grade (among about 1,200 freshmen) in the humanities final.”
Ames still recalls “how scared I was” as a 17-year-old freshman at Western in the fall of 1963, having grown up in Oahu, Hawaii. “I took a bus to Bellingham after flying into SeaTac. I checked into the dorm at Highland Hall. I remember being impressed with how kind everyone was. I soon had friends.”
Since that day he arrived in Bellingham 59 years ago, he has made untold thousands of local friends. He would love to see some of them Friday.
WEEK TWO GAMES
Friday, Sept. 9
Bellingham vs. Meadowdale at Edmonds-Woodway High School, 5 p.m.
Chelan at Meridian, 6 p.m.
Wenatchee at Mount Baker, 6 p.m.
Sehome at Blaine, 7 p.m.
Archbishop Murphy at Lynden Christian, 7 p.m.
Fife vs. Squalicum at Civic Field, 7 p.m.
Lynden at W.F. West (Chehalis), 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 10
Nooksack Valley at Connell, 1 p.m.
Liberty Bell (Winthrop) at Lummi 3 p.m.
Ferndale vs. Oak Harbor at Blaine High School, 6 p.m.
