LYNNWOOD — Nolan Swanson was at home on Sunday when he received a text that Meadowdale football coach Antwoine Gamble shared with the rest of the team.
After defeating Evergreen (Vancouver) 28-14 in the 3A State Round of 32 on Nov. 6, the 10-0 Mavericks waited to see where the WIAA Seeding Committee would place them in the Round of 16.
When Swanson saw the text, the senior linebacker/receiver’s feeling matched that of his teammates: Meadowdale received the No. 15 seed. The undefeated Wesco 3A South champions will have to face perennial powerhouse Bellevue, the second seed, on Friday.
“We feel a little bit disrespected from the rankings, obviously,” Swanson told The Herald at practice on Wednesday. “But we’re just going to take it every day at a time. Watch film, big preparation week, for sure, and we just can’t back down. We got to keep going.”
The Mavericks were the unofficial 15th seed entering the Round of 32, but they believed their victory against then-No. 18 Evergreen would boost their stock in the eyes of the committee even though the 14 teams ahead of them each moved on as well. Evidently, that was not the case.
“They almost pick us as the last playoff team, right? As a 10-0, really, really good football team, so (there’s) frustration,” Gamble said. “We get a bunch of random people in a room — and I do mean that word: ‘random’ people — that get to just dictate the fate of a community, dictate the fate of young kids working hard to change their story and their legacy. And again, for a third time, random people in a room getting to choose who we are instead of letting the play on the field talk.
“So frustration is what it is. We as a coaching staff try and wear that and hold that, and again, at some point you got to play all these teams anyway. We get that, but very rarely, if ever, has an undefeated team worked their tails off to get where they’re at, and they’re like, ‘Here’s your reward. You get Bellevue.’ So it is what it is. We’re going to take this approach, and we’re going to continue working hard and try to upset the random people in the room.”
In recent years, undefeated teams typically earn the seeding committee’s respect. Last year, No. 8 Sedro-Woolley and No. 9 White River represented the lowest-ranked undefeated teams, and no undefeated team fell below a top four seed in 2022 or 2023. However, 2024 offers an extremely similar precedent.
Just two years ago, the committee ranked 10-0 Mercer Island at No. 15, and the Islanders got trounced 50-7 by No. 2 O’Dea in the Round of 16. Meadowdale is hoping to avoid that same fate.
Like the Mavericks, Mercer Island lacked the pedigree of the Class 3A heavyweights. The Islanders had finished 0-10 in 2022 under first-year head coach DJ Mims. Mercer Island stepped up to 6-4 in 2023 before surging to 10-0 in 2024. Meadowdale did not experience such a dramatic swing, but it still finished 3-7 two years ago before jumping up to 7-3 last season. Just like Mims at the time, Gamble is in his third season leading the program.
Meanwhile, Bellevue mirrors O’Dea, which was coming off back-to-back state semifinal exits in 2022 and 2023 before reasserting themselves at the top in 2024 with their first state title since 2017. In Bellevue’s case, the program won state championships in 2021 and 2023, but enters the 2026 state tournament hungry after a championship game loss in 2024 and a semifinal loss last year. Over the previous 25 seasons (2001-25), the Wolverines won 11 state titles.
Gamble acknowledges all of that, but he also reminded his players that Friday’s result will come down to the two teams on the field that night, not the history preceding each program.
“Last year’s team and all the 20-plus years of success doesn’t dictate what this year’s team is going to be,” Gamble said. “Yes, they’re very good, but (so) are we. Again, look at our history to who we are now. So I try to just look in the mirror that way and take that approach of stay true to who we are and come out and compete.”
Looking strictly at RPI Rankings, it is a tough break for the Mavericks, who rank sixth among 3A teams while Bellevue sits at the top of the list. At the same time, the committee does not strictly use RPI to formulate the seedings. It plays a role, but the WIAA lists considerations such as “feedback from knowledgeable sources” and “rankings in other mediums,” alongside other factors such as league standings, state-qualifying games and even injury/illness to key players.
One case against Meadowdale being seeded higher is strength of schedule. The Mavericks’ opponents’ winning percentage of 0.3922 is the second-lowest among the remaining 3A teams, according to the RPI calculations. Perhaps fittingly, No. 16 Lincoln is the only team whose opponents fared worse this season (0.3858). Additionally, Meadowdale lost leading rusher Cayden Rivera to an ACL tear three weeks ago, which falls in line with the WIAA’s injury/illness consideration.
That said, with the exception of a 21-20 overtime win against fellow Round of 32 qualifier Mountlake Terrace, Meadowdale defeated every opponent by at least two possessions, with its Week 1 win against Mount Vernon holding the second-smallest margin of victory (13 points). The three teams immediately ranked ahead — No. 14 Kelso, No. 13 Ferndale and No. 12 Snohomish — each have two losses and created similar margins of victory against common opponents.
In any case, no matter where the Mavericks felt they deserved to be ranked, the situation will not change. The frustration has turned to acceptance, but the self-belief has never wavered.
“Our coaching staff taught us very early on in the season that everyone’s in our way, and they have to play us at the end of the day,” senior lineman Jamier Perry said. “Seeding can only take you so far, and (they taught us) not to be afraid of the name on someone’s chest plate, and just go out there and play ball.”
Meadowdale’s confidence is even higher after last week’s winner-to-state victory against Evergreen. Playing with stakes that high for the first time in any of their careers, the players proved to themselves that they can get results. Bellevue will represent a much more difficult challenge, but the atmosphere will not feel completely foreign anymore.
Like many teams, the Mavericks’ success is built out of the trenches. With the offensive line holding up well for Rivera’s replacements in the backfield as well as quarterback Zekiah Gamble, and the defensive line’s ability to apply pressure against opposing quarterbacks, Meadowdale feels good about the standard it set heading into the next round.
“For the past few years, Meadowdale hasn’t been a big, winning program,” Swanson said. “We had our down years… But establishing that winning culture, especially helped last year with the 7-3 (record), and then moving this year, every week we’re just building on that culture and just being accustomed to that standard of winning.”
Against Bellevue, the key will be slowing down its vaunted Wing-T offense, which paired with a shutdown defense has propelled the Wolverines to three 40-plus point shutouts this season. The complexities of their offense makes it difficult for the scout team to replicate, but Gamble commended their role in helping prepare the defense for identifying different formations in their scheme.
“We’ve ran against a lot of Wing-T’s, but this one is pretty hard,” senior lineman Kanaloa Kamake’eaina said. “So I feel like it’s a lot of mental aspect of practices right now, trying to get the mental reps in, and the physical part will come with it, for sure.”
Even with all the right preparation, the Mavericks will enter Friday as heavy underdogs. That’s fine by them. It’s all they’ve known on the state tournament stage. For all the discussion surrounding the program’s standing among the 3A teams, Meadowdale hopes to make its statement on the field.
“Even going into the Evergreen game, there was people in our own community that were not thinking that we were going to do so well against them,” Perry said. “So to get that win and to keep the team alive and the guys happy and ready to go, it really just kind of showed everyone that we’re here and we’re meant to be here. We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing since the summer.”
