Coaching Lynden to the 2A state football title was the sundae, this was the cherry on top
If leading the Lynden High School football team to its first Class 2A state title during his five-year tenure was the ice cream sundae, coach Blake Van Dalen said getting to raise the 12th Man flag Sunday before the Seattle Seahawks’ game against the Chicago Bears at Lumen Field was the cherry on top.
“It turned out to be a really big cherry,” Van Dalen told The Bellingham Herald on Monday, Dec. 27. “It was better than even I thought it was going to be.”
Van Dalen, who was selected the Seahawks High School Football Coach of the Week for Week 9, found out he had been chosen Coach of the Year by the Seahawks shortly after the Lions beat Tumwater 21-7 Dec. 4 to claim the program’s ninth state title.
Along with the Coach of the Year honors, Van Dalen was invited to raise the 12th Man flag before Sunday’s game.
“It was such a special team this year,” Van Dalen said. “They were such a selfless team. They just bought into the team process so well. I kept telling people we didn’t have an MVP — one week it would be our quarterback, and the next it would be somebody in our secondary and the next it would be somebody else.
“It was so special to be a part of that team and to be able to represent that group of players and our assistant coaches and our community yesterday.”
Van Dalen, who says he is proud to be “as Lynden as they come” after never leaving the community for more than 11 days at a time, made sure the Christmas snow and freezing temperatures didn’t interfere with his opportunity to represent the community Sunday. He and his extended family of about 30 drove down before the weather turned bad and spent the night in a hotel near the stadium and made the short walk on game day.
After receiving his award before the game, he and the other five coaches to win state titles this year were shown to the top deck above the south end zone at Lumen Field.
“We had a police escort to the top deck, and when they saw me waving to my family before the game, they said, ‘Get them up here,’” Van Dalen said. “So we got the whole extended family to come up and take pictures. I think I see a Christmas card in the future.”
After the rest of the family except for his wife, Melissa, had returned to their seats, it was time for Van Dalen to raise the flag before kickoff.
“It was surreal,” Van Dalen said of the experience. “Even describing it ... I get goosebumps. That familiar music started playing and I knew they were showing the display on the scoreboard of all the Hall of Famers and Paul Allen and the rock stars that had raised the flag before. And I was thinking about all those people I was representing — I had all these emotions running through me.
“And then they called my name. I felt like I was outside my body. It really was surreal, and that’s when you run up the stairs and wave to the crowd. I’ve gotten a lot of texts from people saying they’ve never seen anybody raise the flag so fast.”
But Van Dalen said he didn’t miss the opportunity to soak up every second of the experience with his family during the special weekend.
“We absorbed everything we possibly could — the whole journey to get there,” Van Dalen said. “It was so amazing to represent our community.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 12:46 PM.
