If it is again green-clad Falcons climbing ladders to cut snippets from the nets on Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome, there will be plenty of visible reasons why Woodinville will have repeated as the Class 4A girls state champs.
What won’t be as evident are the trials and tribulations that this flock of Falcons endured to get there over the course of the 2022-23 season, but that forged them into an ironclad, connected unit.
“We’re trying to survive life,” Woodinville coach Scott Bullock said. “Sometimes you focus too much on the winning and you miss the boat.”
Winning is something the Falcons have done a lot of over the last four years. The Falcons enter the Tacoma Dome for the state tournament that begins Wednesday carrying a 24-2 record, the third time over those four seasons that Woodinville has sported one or no losses coming into the tournament.
One of those seasons was the pandemic-delayed and shortened season during the spring of 2021. Woodinville went 5-0. The Falcons have lost just four games since the 2019-20 season when their only loss came in the championship game to Central Valley.
Woodinville beat Sumner for the title a year ago. The Falcons are 83-4 during this stretch.
“I never talk about the past, really,” Bullock said. “For every team, you have your own experiences. For instance, we’ve won the KingCo championship. This year was the sixth in a row. These kids, they weren’t here six years ago.”
Many of these Woodinville players’ parents were around since older siblings of current players have come through the program over the last decade. And assistant coaches have been around for years.
The Falcons family lost one of those people to cancer in the middle of the season, affecting not just his senior daughter on the team but Bullock and everyone associated with Woodinville’s program.
“(Steve) Segadelli is someone I’ve coached with for years,” Bullock said. “They lived next door to me. And he passed away a month ago. He’s one of the guys that helped me learn how to coach.”
The team and community rallied around senior Adie Segadelli, her family and the team.
“With all of that, Adie was like, ‘Let’s do this,’” junior Jaecy Eggers said. “When we went to his celebration of life, everyone was just 100% all in. We all remember that.”
Bullock’s top assistant, Sam Muscatel, suffered a stroke around the same time. Even during his rehabilitation he continues to help coach, though in a reduced role.
“He’s just great with the girls,” Bullock said.
“It’s all for him, almost, now,” said senior Brooke Beresford, a four-year starter who is the steady force for the Falcons.
“Even now, when I have a question I always think ‘What would Sam do?’” Eggers said.
Segadelli, Beresford and Eggers have played together since the two seniors were sixth graders. Eggers, then in fifth grade, played up a year on a team that won the state championship — five years before they won the state championship a year ago.
“This really has been going on for the last 10 years,” Bullock said. “Not just the last four.”
This season, freshmen Jazlyn Wilkerson and Samantha Harris are learning how to continue the run.
“Wilkerson even has a 28-point game for us this season,” Bullock said. That came in Woodinville’s first loss of the year back on December 10 at Lynden Christian.
The Falcons won 22 in a row since to earn the top seed in the Class 4A girls tournament before they dropped their regional game against No. 8 Emerald Ridge.
“I believe confidence is really important,” Bullock said. “That’s not always easy to do, bringing them together as a team. We want these kids to have confidence even through the difficulties. It’s hard, but that’s our focus.”