2023 REVIEW: It was a year of champions on the Olympic Peninsula

PORT ANGELES — In 2023, there were two championship teams from the Olympic Peninsula crowned, a huge growth in the local BMX scene, a historic Port Angeles football team and the return of fishing in the Elwha River.

The year began with a pair of powerhouse girls basketball teams sharing the spotlight.

Neah Bay basketball

The Neah Bay girls team was simply amazing all season. The Red Devils, coming off a second-place finish at the state tournament in 2022, actually blew a big lead in their opening game to an extremely good Sequim team, losing 60-52.

That was it. The Red Devils’ one loss all year. From that point on, the team went 23-0. They beat a very solid Mossyrock team 62-59 in overtime, beat Sequim in a rematch, then after winning league and district championships, faced Mossyrock again in the state championship game, coming from behind to win 56-54.

Neah Bay was led by sharpshooter Allie Greene, who killed team after team with her prowess from beyond the 3-point line, making 98 3-pointers on 44.3 percent shooting.

Greene graduated and is now playing for Peninsula College, but the Neah Bay girls haven’t lost a beat, starting the season 5-1 and beating 2A teams from Port Angeles and Sequim behind Amber Swan, Ryana Moss, Cerise Moss, Angel Halttunen and others. Back-to-back championships are a distinct possibility.

Sequim basketball

Speaking of the Sequim girls, it was the best year for the Wolves in decades. Sequim, behind Jelissa Julmist, Hannah Bates and Jolene Vaara, went 14-0 in the Olympic League. Sequim went on to win 19 straight games, finished second at the bidistrict tournament, won three games at the state tournament, getting a bucket with five seconds left from Bates to beat Othello to finish fourth at state.

It was the Wolves’ first outright league championship since 1987 and the first state trophy for the Sequim girls basketball program. Bates and Julmist are now playing for Peninsula College, teammates with Neah Bay’s Greene.

Millie Long

Shortly after Neah Bay and Sequim girls wrapped up their basketball seasons, Port Angeles’ Millie Long wrapped up her career playing for Olympic Peninsula teams.

Long’s stellar Peninsula College career came to a close in an NWAC semifinal loss in overtime against Lane College. She was later named the NWAC women’s soccer player of the year and the NWAC’s North Region defensive player of the year for the second straight year.

The year before, she led the Pirates to the NWAC championship game, and she won an NWAC championship as part of the 2022 women’s soccer team.

For Port Angeles High School, Long won multiple league championships and Olympic League MVPs in both soccer and basketball. She even won an individual state championship in the 300 hurdles in track and field.

Currently, Long is leading the nation in steals for Division II Cal Poly Humboldt women’s basketball. This was after she led Humboldt’s women’s soccer team in goals scored. She is almost assuredly a future member of both the Peninsula College and Port Angeles Roughrider halls of fame.

Forks wrestling

Forks had another stellar season that came to a close in the Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome. Forks finished second in the state, the Spartans’ highest finish at the Mat Classic since 2014.

The Spartans had six wrestlers place at state with Sloan Tumaua winning the state championship at 220 pounds. Tumaua is back leading the Spartans again this season looking for a second-straight state title.

East Jefferson uniforms

The Chimacum and Port Townsend sports programs have been competing as a co-op since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. While it has been popular with most of the coaches, one big complaint from coaches and fans were the mixed Port Townsend/Chimacum uniforms that the athletes were forced to wear. It was awkward and embarrassing for a couple of years.

Finally, for the 2022-23 school year, new East Jefferson uniforms were approved, and they were gorgeous, combining the old Chimacum Cowboys blue and the Port Townsend Redhawks red, with white trim and black trim on the home and road unis.

State track

There were no state champions from the Olympic Peninsula, but a number of outstanding performances as five athletes finished second at state in eight events.

The East Jefferson girls finished sixth as a team, led by Aaliyah Cassidy Yearian, who was second in the 1A state meet in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters. Her teammate Ellise Gardner was second in the javelin.

Sequim also had an incredible state meet as Jolene Vaara was second in both the long jump and the high jump. Her teammate Ivy Barrett was second in the 400. Mirek Skov from Sequim was second in the pole vault.

The great thing about these athletes is they all return for the 2024 track and field season. Don’t be surprised to see some state track and field champions from the Olympic Peninsula next year.

Growth of BMX

For the second straight year, the Lincoln Park BMX track in Port Angeles hosted a major regional event.

After hosting the Pacific Northwest championships in 2022, the Lincoln Park BMX hosted the state championships in 2023, welcoming hundreds of riders from all over Washington.

And the local kids did great, with Olympic Peninsula kids winning 55 plates as among the top riders in the state and six kids winning state championships in eight divisions. The Lincoln Park BMX track consistently wins accolades as one of the top BMX tracks in the nation.

Port Angeles football

The Port Angeles High School football team had its best season in more than a decade.

The senior-heavy team got off to a 1-2 start, losing to powerhouses such as North Kitsap and Anacortes, but then beat Sequim for the first time since 2014 and won a huge home game against a favored Olympic squad. It was amazingly the first time the Riders had beaten Olympic since 2011.

Port Angeles won its last three regular-season games by the combined score of 166-14 to qualify for the district playoffs. The Riders thoroughly dominated Franklin Pierce in the second half to qualify for the state playoffs for the first time since 2010. The Riders’ run eventually ended against Tumwater, but they finished the season 7-4. Seniors Parker Nickerson, Jason Hawes, Landyn Jones, Tanner Flores, Kason Albaugh and others set the tone for a new winning era for the Roughriders.

Peninsula College men

The Peninsula College men’s soccer team had a remarkable season. They started the regular season 3-2, finding themselves buried in fourth place in an incredibly competitive North Region.

With four games to go, the Pirates were legitimately in danger of not making the postseason at all as they were still mired in a four-team logjam at the top of the North. But they won three out of their last four to not only make the playoffs, but win the North Division.

The Pirates went on to win a pair of playoff games and then had one of the most incredible championship games in NWAC history. With the game against Highline tied at 2-2 after regulation and two overtimes, they went to penalty kicks.

In a record-shattering and nerve-wracking marathon penalty kick phase, the Pirates finally won 11-10. It was the men’s second championship in head coach Jake Hughes’ tenure and their sixth since 2010.

Elwha fishing

On the outdoors new front, for the first time in many years, fishing returned to the Elwha River.

The previous year saw the largest Coho return in years, 30 percent higher than the return of fish in 2020.

An overall moratorium on fishing on the Elwha River remains in place as the river continues to rebound after the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams in 2014. But the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe was given the go-ahead in October by Olympic National Park and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to catch 400 out of the 7,000 total returning Coho.

The return of fishing on the river and the improvement seen in Coho and steelhead in the river portends what can be accomplished on other Pacific Northwest rivers such as the Klamath and the Snake, where dam removals are either underway or proposed.