(Mark Carrithers photos)

WASHINGTON LOGGERS

The word they kept using was the same - family. It was a concept instilled by the coaches and the leading players and bought into by everyone else. The Washington Loggers program is a family. If you are the sub on the JV team logging the fewest minutes, you're still a Logger; you're still one of us. It's an honor you have and one you defend each year.

With that mindset, the Washington state select side program has won six straight Great Northwest Challenge JV competitions. They won the GNC varsity competition, beating heralded Northern California and Southern California in the process. They won the Serevi Cup select-side 7s competition in August. They don't have the most players on the HS All American team - only two, Derise Fuga and Brian Nault - made the HSAA trip to South America, and eight made the 2014 HSAA Winter Camp. Not bad, but it's not as if they are dominating the selections.

That's because, more than anything, the Loggers is a program, a team. Observers who saw tournaments around the country agreed - other teams might have more players who project to international status, but if everyone played everyone, the Loggers would win.

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