Terrace Says Goodbye To Its Hawk Dome -- An Unusual Arena For 31 Years

The future and the past stand side by side on the Mountlake Terrace High School campus. The old school, built with a crushed-rock facade, and the new one, fashioned from perfectly placed red brick.

It's temporary.

As the new school takes shape, the old one counts down its existence, the sound of hammers and heavy equipment pounding out the seconds like a gigantic, eccentric metronome.

Tonight the Hawk Dome, the area's most unusual gymnasium, houses its final basketball game.

The reader board near the entrance to the campus tells the story: final game in the Hawk Dome, February 12. The opponent, Lake Stevens, takes a back seat to the moment.

``There are a lot of memories in this old place,'' Terrace Coach Roger Ottmar said. ``This one feels like home to me. I don't know what the new one is going to feel like.''

There is little riding on tonight's game. Mountlake Terrace (6-5 in conference, 9-9 overall) clinched a fourth-place finish in the Western Conference AA and will play Northwest League champion Sehome one week from tonight in Bellingham in the first round of the Northwest District tournament. Lake Stevens (1-10, 4-15) has long been out of the race.

Ottmar has invited anyone who ever played for Mountlake Terrace to come back for the last game. At halftime every former player is invited to take one last shot.

The Hawk Dome was born 31 years ago, its shape a testament to

California-chic. Its chartreuse green shadings, along with its open windows from floor to ceiling, made one wonder if the place was for growing basketball players or geraniums.

``We started out playing with the Seattle schools in the Metro League,'' said Merle Blevins, who coached the school's first varsity boys team in 1961-62. ``They used to really complain because we played our games in the afternoon and they always had to play with the sun in their eyes. They finally made us put covers on.''

In its final days, only 11 glass panels remain open to sunlight along the northern curve of the building.

Reminiscing yesterday, Blevins walked to a spot near a door at the south end of the gym, now covered by white, wooden panels. ``Right here is where we had a player go right through the glass panels,'' he said. ``He cut his hands up pretty bad. It was right after that that we put the covers on.''

Blevins and Ottmar are the only two varsity coaches the school has had. Blevins coached 16 seasons, Ottmar is completing his 14th. John Fox was the school's first coach in 1960, when Terrace fielded only junior varsity and sophomore squads.

Blevins guided Terrace to the state Class AAA championship in 1977, the only school in the Edmonds School District to win a state boys basketball title. After that season he stepped down as coach and went full-time with his home-building business. Ottmar, an assistant for 11 seasons at Meadowdale, moved in.

Kim Wilson, an assistant under Blevins for one season, 1963-64 and now district athletic director, said a round gym inspired its share of one-liners.

``We had a bunch of them - like you can't corner someone in a round house,'' he said. ``The great thing about that place is that it's given Mountlake Terrace a real identity over the years. . . . I think the kids that have come through there have taken a certain amount of pride in that.''

The new high school has been built on what were the athletic fields for the old school. It is scheduled to be ready for the beginning of the fall term. Once it's been opened, the old school will be razed. Where center court in the Hawk Dome sits now will soon become midfield for the football stadium.