Entering the 1999-2000 basketball season, no Seattle Prep basketball team had ever won a state championship. With a loaded roster coming off a promising playoff run the 2000 boys’ team was poised to change that.
On March 5th, 2000, Prep battled powerhouse Mount Vernon in front of a packed Key Arena, prevailing 52-50. The win capped off an impressive 26-5 season and cemented the team in Prep history.
Prep was led by head coach Chris Miller ’77 and his assistants Brian Meza ’92 and Mark Emily. Even before the season, the coaches knew they had something special brewing: “I knew from the first day of practice we had a chance to win Metro and state,” said Miller. “Our guys [had] spent a bunch of time playing and working on their games.”
Members of the team – both players and coaches – provided their thoughts and memories from this historic Prep season. Those who contributed include three of the team’s seniors – Shea Robinson ’00, Michael McCutcheon ’00, Erik Schmella ’00, two juniors – Erik Bond ’01 and Jeff Quinn-Cane ’01, and all three coaches.
Coach Emily remembers a major shift in perspective before that season: “During the off-season, we picked up some new faces for the program…with [those] additions we were a real target from everyone all of a sudden. Excitement and pressure to win it all became very real.”
With a roster stacked with talent and experience, the team got off to a 9-0 start. Their first key win came up north, against Blaine HS and future NBA player Luke Ridnour. “Blaine had won 50 straight home games,” Schmella said. To make the win even more impressive, Blaine heated the Prep’s locker room to mess with them. “It felt like a sauna,” Schmella recalled. Didn’t matter, the team got it done. At this point, they had already etched themselves in Prep history as they reached #1 in the state rankings for the first time in school history. It wasn’t until they faced #2-ranked Rainier Beach that they dropped their first game. But that didn’t matter. The boys then went 10-0 to finish the regular season 19-1, including a huge win at O’Dea and a revenge win vs. Rainier Beach.
In Metros and districts, the team stumbled, facing elimination multiple times. “After losing only one game in the entire regular season, we lost four games in the playoffs,” Quinn-Cane explained. “That could have been a backbreaker, but it turned out to be the wake-up call we needed.”
Bond agreed. “Sometimes you have to taste defeat to win,” he said. “Those losses really helped sharpen our resolve.”
After a close call with Renton HS and a blowout of Kennedy HS, Prep was both back in the win column and a guaranteed spot at State. But after back-to-back losses to close out districts, once again, their chances seemed to dwindle. “We had limited momentum heading to Key Arena…[we] weren’t feeling really awesome about our chances to win it all,” Emily said.
With the Tacoma Dome under repair, the 2000 tournament was relocated to Key Arena, a notably larger venue. “The fact that we were able to play in Key Arena was such a bonus, [the] total icing on the cake of an incredible journey,” Meza said.
At 22-5, the Panthers began State with a first-round matchup against Columbia River, crushing them by 22. That set them up for their fourth game of the season against O’Dea, where they edged out the Irish 51-48. In what Emily called “the best win of the season”, the boys battled and knocked out a rolling Rainier Beach to punch their ticket to the state championship.
The State Championship: Seattle Prep vs. Mt. Vernon. The atmosphere was unlike anything this team had experienced: “The game was so loud with nearly the entire lower bowl filled with fans,” said Meza. Robinson recalls there being around 8-10 thousand fans in attendance: “It was heaven,” he said.
Down big early, Prep rallied, and the schools played even all game with 11 lead changes. With 5 seconds to go, McCutcheon stepped to the line and sealed the deal with two clutch free throws. 52-50, final. That was it. Prep had done it. The State title was theirs for the first time in school history. “I remember running around like crazy all over the court,” Schmella said. “We were all dancing and hugging. It was an incredible experience with an unparalleled sense of elation.”
Yes, this team was as talented as it gets. But what exactly made them so great? Miller insists it was the practices: “[We] put in more work than most teams. We shot more shots in practice in two days than other teams did in a week,” he said. Both Schmella and Robinson recall an uber-competitive practice environment: “Each practice was a battle, no one wanted to lose,” said Schmella. “One of the reasons we were so good was the scrimmages in practice. Those were harder than a lot of the games,” said Robinson.
But it was more than talent and practice that made this team great. Most importantly “[they] had an exceptional team chemistry. Every person on that team had a role…and they played it really well,” said McCutcheon. That was a group of “exceptional players who knew they were part of a team.”
With excellent chemistry on the court came an even stronger off-court connection: “We were very close…that starting five was all close as friends,” said McCutcheon. To the team, basketball wasn’t always at the forefront of everyone’s minds: “What was important was the team, the friendships,” McCutcheon said. “We had fun and kept things loose off the court, Schmella said. He recalls always looking forward to “pregame and postgame meals at Bond’s house, pregame acupuncture, and [listening to] warm up tapes.”
McCutcheon also harped on the importance of the school’s support that year: “What sticks out to me more than the games themselves was the vibe …the gym would be packed every game…the whole school [was] involved,” he said. Schmella agreed, remembering a regular season home game vs. Rainier Beach: “The walls of the gym were sweating during warmups. The place was absolutely packed and rocking. The excitement and energy were unreal for a high school game.”
With the whole school behind them this team delivered game in and game out, doing nothing but exceed their already lofty expectations. But without the chemistry they had, none of that would have been possible: “A team that becomes a family can achieve greatness,” Robinson said. He is right. Their talent and dedication took them a long way, but it was their inseparable bond that made them truly special.
