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'We wanted to start a new path:' As Life Christian Academy readies for state tournament, a senior class reflects on its journey

Eagles seniors, their families chose LCA to win — and win together. Now, they're on the precipice: 'Some of them took second, third jobs to pay tuition'

TACOMA, Wash. — Life Christian Academy will carry a 20-game winning streak into the Class 1A state basketball tournament that begins for them on Thursday at the Yakima SunDome.

Nine months ago, the Eagles beat virtually every other contender for this year’s title in a high-powered tournament put on by another school during the summer training season.

The team’s only loss this season came on opening night, on the road, to a 3A team in Mount Tahoma that played in the Regionals last weekend.

Still, the Eagles feel undervalued, and thus motivated to prove their doubters wrong this week in Yakima.

LCA was seeded No. 3 by the WIAA seeding committee leading into Regionals. They took care of No. 6 Zillah in a thriller, 82-81, last Saturday to earn one of the four first-round byes at state and will get the winner of King’s Way Christian and Freeman in a 12:15 p.m. quarterfinal on Thursday.

That game will be the first of what the Eagles hope will be a three-game run to a title, which would be the first state championship for Life Christian since the 2006 boys golf team pulled off the feat.

“It’s championship or bust,” senior Bradley Swillie said. “And the job doesn’t end until March 5.”

The two squads seeded ahead of Life Christian, No. 1 King’s and No. 2 Lynden Christian, both were LCA opponents at the July tournament last summer put on by Cedar Park Christian, a get-together meant to simulate what the 2021 state tournament may have looked like had that playoff not been erased by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Eagles beat them both in winning that tourney.

“It actually put a chip on our shoulders for this year,” fourth-year coach Charles Simmons said. “We beat King’s in the semifinals, and Seattle Academy.”

Life Christian has used that chip as motivation all season. Though ranked most of the year by the RPI and other statewide rankings somewhere in the middle of the Top 10, LCA simply has continued to win.

They’ve ridden a talented group of senior starters, the five of which have played together most of their lives, to this point. When it came to choosing a high school four years ago, they all chose the private Life Christian over the various higher-classification Tacoma-area public schools and even 4A Bellarmine Prep.

Haynes, the first of the bunch to decide on LCA (over Bellarmine), said it was just a matter of things feeling right for the lifelong friends that include Swillie, Marquis Trimble, Ian Coates-White and Daishaun Nichols.

“We wanted to start a new path,” Haynes said. “We wanted to build something up here and stay together. It definitely makes it easier because we just know each other, our strengths and weaknesses. Even in the tough moments, we know how to stay together, have each other’s backs to get the job done.”

“You don’t always have to follow the crowd,” Swillie said. “You can do your own thing. We’re starting our own brand.”

Simmons has been a continuing influence on and off the court for them all. The former Foss and Renton player first started coaching the group when they were in the fourth grade.

When they had no AAU team to play for, parents asked Simmons to coach one.

“Bradley’s mother came to me,” Simmons said. “She asked if I’d coach a club team for the boys. I didn’t want anything to do with that AAU world. But these kids didn’t have anywhere else to play.”

Top Scholar Elite was born, which kept players and coach together. As it came time for the now-seniors to start high school, longtime LCA coach Mark Lovelady announced he was stepping down as coach.

“Mark called me and told me he was stepping down,” Simmons said. “The year before, he had asked if I would join his staff, then whenever he left, I would become the coach.”

But Simmons was in Boston at the time, working for then-Celtics guard and former Curtis star Isaiah Thomas. Then Simmons followed Thomas when he was traded to the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers.

A year later, Simmons got another call. And this time, he felt pulled home. The coach applied for the job and got it. His players followed shortly thereafter.

“It’s crazy how it all worked out,” Simmons said. “I wasn’t looking to get a job. But my heart was in my community, in Tacoma. I knew that they would want to play with me. But I was surprised the lengths the parents went to. Some of them took second, third jobs to pay tuition. It speaks volumes. And, aside from my wife, they’ve been like my best friends.”

There was a reason.

“We wanted to start a new path,” Haynes said. “We wanted to build something up here and stay together. It definitely makes it easier because we just know each other, our strengths and weaknesses. Even in the tough moments, we know how to stay together, have each other’s backs to get the job done.”

--- Doug Drowley; @STPWriteNow.