Colfax is back to try for a third-straight title,
but there are plenty of obstacles in the way

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The fact that Colfax Bulldogs are back as one of the top contenders to add the 2006 Class 1A girls championship to the ones they captured in 2002, 2004 and 2005 surprises no one.

They brought an entirely underdog team -- including five freshmen -- to the SunDome last March. Those freshmen, led by Jordan Harazin and Megan Teade are experienced sophomores now, and well accustomed to combating every opponent's "A" game.

"This past summer, a couple of the girls were saying, 'Gosh, it's going to be scary, now everybody's going to be gunning for us, we're going to have a target on our backs,'" recalls Bulldogs coach Corey Baerlocher.

"I said, 'Don't you think you had a target on your backs last year? Everybody was thinking this was their chance to get us back for beating them.'"

Well, nobody got the Bulldogs back, obviously. But this year, there's such a lineup of talented teams queuing up to take their shot. The tournament is as loaded as it's been since 2002.

Burbank's Lauren Rada, a 5-9 junior, is scoring at a 17.0 clip this season.   KRIS HOLLAND/Yakima Herald-Republic file

Besides Colfax, which won 20 of 24 games in an exceedingly difficult schedule, the field features unbeaten White Swan (23-0); a White Pass squad (22-1) that has lost only to Class B power Mossyrock, a team it had earlier beaten; and Freeman (19-3), the 2005 runner-up which still has the state's most explosive offensive player in Jessie DePell (17.8 ppg), the 2005 1A state player of the year.

And others are capable of crashing this party, too.

Bellevue Christian (20-1) has the tournament's top post player in 6-foot-2 Seattle Pacific University signee Melissa Reich (16.1) and has lost only to an out-of-state school. Lake Roosevelt (19-3) so dominated the always competitive Caribou Trail League that three Raiders were named to the all-CTL first team. And Burbank (18-6) features junior star Lauren Rada, who has been one of the state tourney's best players since her freshman year.

"(The tournament field) is the most balanced it's been for a long time, definitely," says White Swan coach Joe Blodgett. "Half of the field are legitimate contenders for the title.

"I like Zillah -- they're athletic and still a scary team. White Pass, they're definitely athletic, aggressive, can put the pressure on anybody. They're definitely one of the favorites. Those Northeast teams (Colfax and Freeman), they beat up on each other all year long and it's like state-type pressure the whole season and really prepares them for the tournament."

Blodgett's girls are in the lower half-bracket, by far the tougher of the two. To reach the title game, they would likely have to beat the reigning champions (Colfax) and the No.1-ranked team (White Pass).

"There's no days off now," says Blodgett, whose first job is to get past Seattle Academy (17-6), a first-time qualifier for the state tournament.

In the upper half-bracket, the team to beat looks like Freeman, though the Scotties could face an difficult second-round showdown with the survivor of the today's most intriguing matchup -- Bellevue Christian or Napavine (19-4).

Those same two teams met in the second round last year, and Napavine routed the Vikings 43-21. But Bellevue Christian is much improved, while Napavine lost seven seniors off last year's third-place finishers.