What was the landscape of high school football in Whatcom County like 30 years ago? There were nine teams, and six of them made up the Class “A” Whatcom County League. They were Blaine, Lynden, Lynden Christian, Meridian, Mount Baker and Nooksack Valley. It was always a dog fight as they all faced each other twice, except for one match-up for each team in week five. Bellingham, Sehome and Ferndale were all a part of the Class “AA” Northwest League. Squalicum was not around yet, the Ferndale/Lynden rivalry hasn’t begun yet and the biggest game of the year was usually Bellingham vs. Sehome in front of a packed Civic Stadium.
1990 was also a season of new coaches.
Long-time Ferndale coach Vic Randall stepped down before the 1990 season, and the Golden Eagles brought in Spencer Welch. Welch brought with him a completely new offense, much different than the Wing-T that had long been used.
Lynden Christian’s Gary Van Hulzen had also retired from coaching just before the 1990 season, and he brought his 1986 LC team to the state championship game. The Lyncs hired a fresh-faced youngster named Dan Kaemingk to run the show, and he inherited a very good team that had made the state playoffs the year before.
After Stu Gorski coached Mount Baker throughout the entire decade of the 1980’s, the Mountaineers also had a new coach. Larry Sterbick had coached the Bennington Badgers to a Class “C” Nebraska State Championship the year before, and he hoped to bring success to the Mounties.
Blaine’s Rob Dahl, Nooksack Valley’s Mark Venn and Lynden’s Ross Boice all entered 1990 as second-year head coaches with their respective schools, and that’s usually when you see a lot of improvements.
The longest tenured coaches in the county belonged to Sehome’s Birger Solberg (4th year), Bellingham’s John Craig (5th year), and of course Meridian’s Bob Ames, who was in his 17th year as head coach.
This video below shows how Week 1 unfolded in Whatcom County!
