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Roger
Underwood
Yakima Herald-Republic

E-mail Roger Underwood about this column

It might seem surprising, Goldendale’s run from a No. 4 district seed to the trophy round of the Class 1A boys basketball tournament.

But it’s nothing new. Not for this picturesque little community high above the Columbia River gorge.

Basketball has been a Timberwolf tradition since — well, since before the 1A tournament started in 1958.

Ted Wilkins, a Goldendale roundballer in the late 1960s, is an assistant to Timberwolf head coach Mike Carlquist. He is also the father of Goldendale sophomore Callan Wilkins, who along with senior Keegan Cook is having a standout tournament.

A math and science teacher at the high school, Wilkins has been compiling a history of Goldendale basketball.

“I’ve gone all the way back to 1916,” he said. “Since then, if I recall correctly, we’ve had fewer than 20 losing seasons.”

Wilkins didn’t have his books with him, but such success isn’t hard to imagine. Goldendale, it seems, has always been a basketball town.

In the early Class 1A days the Timberwolves trotted out such standouts as Fred McClaskey, Jim Lee, Len Wilber and Lyle Wilber.

Other area schools such as Selah, which won the 1963 1A title behind Dave Hovde, and Marquette, the 1965 champion behind Scott McDonald, were no doubt toughened by some very good Goldendale teams.

The ‘65 Marquette squad, in fact, had to survive a tense district meeting with the Lee-led Timberwolves at Sunnyside High School. The Squires won narrowly, securing the tournament’s No. 1 state berth.

Goldendale, coached by Dick Ballard, then had to face East Valley for the second and final berth. And the Red Devils of Jim Hilliard, Mike Dahl, Larry Huber and Bill Fieldstead prevailed, ending the Timberwolves’ season.

It’s likely — probable, even — that Goldendale was the best high school team not to play in a state tournament that year. The Timberwolves might even have been the state’s second-best 1A squad that season.

It’s also possible that Goldendale is the most prominent Class 1A program never to have won a championship. Especially considering the school’s history.

When the 2003 Timberwolves beat Granger for the Yakima Valley’s fourth and final state berth, it marked Goldendale’s 14th qualification for the 1A tournament.

And remember, the T-Wolves played at the Class 2A level for five years, a run which concluded last season. And during that span they made two state 2A tournaments and placed sixth in 2001.

One of that team’s stars was Andy Jaekel, whose father Denny had excelled with Lee and others during the 1960s. Andy Jaekel is presently competing in the NWAACC Tournament as a Wenatchee Valley College sophomore.

This season, despite an off-and-on performances that produced a 12-8 record, the Timberwolves are back at their old 1A tournament tricks. Thursday night’s 58-48 victory over Winlock, which put Goldendale into the semifinals, was the school’s 28th Class 1A tournament victory. Only eight other schools have won more.

Also, the Timberwolves have placed in 11 of their 14 Class 1A tournaments.

They reached the championship game in 1980, under coach Ron Rowe — himself a former T-Wolf standout — and lost 54-51 to Cashmere. They also have finished third twice, fourth, fifth and sixth once each and seventh and eighth twice each.

“We’re really happy with the way things have gone,” Wilkins said. “The kids seem to be playing their best basketball of the season, and this is the right time to be doing that.”

Another Goldendale assistant, Pace Amidon, agreed. And if that name sounds familiar to Timberwolf observers, it’s because his father, Karl Amidon, was a Goldendale teammate of Wilkins’.

“I started playing the game as soon as I was big enough to dribble a basketball,” said Pace Amidon, class of 1994, who raises wheat, hay and cattle with his father. “People in our community just plain love basketball.”

Said Wilkins, “It’s really a conservative place. There was mostly farming for awhile, then it was primarily a logging area and then the aluminum plant came in. Now it’s gone back to a lot of faming.

“But it’s a wonderful place to live. The isolation is one aspect to deal with, and the kids hate it. They can’t wait to get out. But I love it. And a lot of the ones who leave end up coming back.”

And watching their children carry on an exceptional basketball tradition.

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