Tacoma Titans: The Duke of the NWAACC

The winningest college basketball team in the Pacific Northwest the past four years plays in a matchbox of a gym sorely in need of renovating to accommodate all of those who line up to watch its games.

It's headed by a young, gym rat of a coach who almost annually turns down overtures to move to a bigger-name school.

And it has prospered mostly by developing local players who were largely overlooked in high school with the occasional transfer from a higher-profile program thrown in.

Gonzaga?

All true, if you're talking about four-year schools.

But also following that blueprint to near perfection is Tacoma Community College, whose 112 wins from 1999-2002 are three more than Gonzaga's.

That number includes 30-win seasons in 2000 and 2002 as well as the championship of the 36-team Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges last season.

And another of each is potentially on the way this year as TCC is again rated No. 1 in the NWAACC with a 13-1 record and has won 12 in a row since an early 69-61 loss to perennial national JC power College of Southern Idaho.

"We're the Duke of the NWAACC," a TCC player says before pleading that the quote not be used lest he get in trouble with Coach Carl Howell, a self-described "control freak" who is no fan of taunting and trash talking.

Later, a compromise is reached with Howell — the quote will be used, sans name, only because the reporter can think of no better analogy for the kind of power TCC has come to hold on the NWAACC since the 36-year-old Howell took over before the 1992 season.

At the time, TCC was a losing program living off a history of some good seasons in the '70s and mid-80s. Howell, then 25, had been an assistant at Central Washington University, where he played for a year before suffering a career-ending injury. Howell, a native of Morton, also played at Skagit Valley Community College.

"I've just always loved basketball and considered coaching as the next step when I was done playing," Howell said.

Howell brought in a pressing man-to-man defense (TCC allowed an NWAACC-low 67.8 points a game last season) and what peers say is a hard-to-match work ethic and began turning TCC into a winner.

TCC is 226-79 in Howell's tenure and finally won the NWAACC title last season after placing second in 2001 and fourth in 2000.

"Carl is incredibly intense and a hard worker, so he brought a different mentality right away to that program when he took it over," said Eastern Washington Coach Ray Giacoletti, who got a good look at Howell's program during four years as an assistant at Washington under Bob Bender. "He has a mentality of a guy that's a winner, bottom line, and is going to work at it and work with those kids to make them better. That's a mentality that's hard to find at any level."

During Howell's tenure, TCC has sent 14 players to the Division I level, seven in the past four seasons. Among TCC alumni playing elsewhere are Keith Browne and Brendon Merritt of Eastern Washington, Josh Barsh and Calvin Ento of Montana State and Josh Barnard, who played last year at Washington before transferring this year to Eastern. Lorenzo Rollins, who was a first-team All-West Coast Conference pick at Gonzaga in 1997, also played for Howell at TCC.

Another current TCC player, forward Justin Holt, will make the D-I leap next season, having already signed to play at Iowa State. Holt, the Washington state 4A player of the year last season at Tacoma's Lincoln High, had signed to play at Oregon State, then decided to leave after the departure of Coach Ritchie McKay.

Giacoletti said Howell has succeeded despite working at a school that doesn't have the facilities or resources of some others in the NWAACC, which is made up of community colleges in Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho and British Columbia.

"You look around the NWAACC and you can find a heck of a lot better jobs than the Tacoma job," Giacoletti said.

What Tacoma has given Howell, however, is a steady diet of talent the past few years. Tacoma high schools have won the past three 4A state titles and another finished second, and TCC currently has four players from those teams on its roster. Of TCC's 14 players, seven are from Tacoma, two from Puyallup and one each from Spanaway, Sumner and Steilacoom.

"Basketball is at an all-time high in Tacoma right now," Howell said. "Those things go in cycles, so you never really know why, but there are some good high-school coaches and some pretty good youth programs in Tacoma. For years Tacoma couldn't compete with Seattle at the high-school level but now it can."

That Tacoma pride is something the TCC players revel in.

"The best thing about this is having that 253 (Tacoma's area code) across your chest," said guard Rachi Wortham, a Foss graduate. "That means a lot."

Though few high-school players really dream of playing at a community college — most end up there because they weren't good enough or didn't have the grades to attract D-I attention — Wortham said TCC is regarded now as a cool alternative on Tacoma playgrounds.

"If you can't go Division I, there's no better place to be," Wortham said.

That's what Holt decided after leaving Oregon State, saying he could have redshirted but wanted to play for a year at TCC first. While Holt is TCC's star, he isn't all TCC has this year.

Guard Patrick Names of Bellarmine High redshirted last season at Gonzaga due to a knee injury before coming home to resume his career at TCC. He led the Titans with 22 points in a 103-71 win over Grays Harbor on Saturday. And sophomore forward R.J. Barsh of Puyallup and guards Patrick Hillis of Stadium, Andrew Gard of Rogers and Wortham were all key contributors to last year's title-winners.

TCC's success has resulted in a steady string of full houses for its home games. Howell said the team's gym, which has bleachers on only one side, seats about 500, a total boosted by rows of folding chairs brought in to squeeze in a few more fans on both end lines. It's not uncommon for late arrivals to be turned away.

Howell has earned attention as well. He has turned down a couple of D-I assistant-coaching positions because Tacoma suits his family — he's married with sons ages 9 and 5 — and he likes the challenge of the junior-college level.

"I think a CC job is the toughest coaching job there is because at the most you have kids for two years," said Howell, who draws the majority of his salary for also serving as the school's assistant athletic director and teaching a few PE classes. "There's a high turnover. It's like a new team every year."

Said Giacoletti: "The mark of a special situation at that level is being able to compete year in and year out. It's one thing to win it one year. It's another thing to be able to sustain it. He's found that mark."