Auburn Riverside girls basketball team looks to change tides

For a seven-year stretch in the mid-2000s (2004-2011), the Auburn Riverside Ravens girls basketball team was the team to look out for. Three state championships, a fourth and sixth place finish, paired with two other appearances would end up being the most dominant stretches in state history.

Since 2011, the Ravens have made the state tournament twice, and 14 years later, the Ravens are shaping to take a step forward — and turn the ship around with a new captain manning the wheel.

“We’ve been trying to reset the culture,” said new Head Coach Grady Lowe, who is bringing uniformity and professionalism to the Raven sideline.

He has a military background and a passion for basketball. He was born in Virginia and had lived on the East Coast most of his life, before coming over to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He then went and watched high school basketball at the Tacoma Dome and knew this was his calling.

Lowe was then sent back to the East Coast where in Pennsylvania with his two daughters, he started coaching an AAU program that both Cora and Aurora played in. Lowe played college football and believed that football coaching was his calling. But once his daughters started basketball, he thought his skills would translate, and they did.

“Coaching is coaching. I became obsessed with women’s basketball,” Lowe said.

Lowe is also bringing his two daughters and Chahatpreet Kandola, whom he is the legal guardian of, with him to Riverside.

At that point he fell in love with Washington state high school basketball, attending the state tournament, and with his daughters playing basketball, jumped at an opportunity to coach them at the high school level.

Since 2017, the Ravens have had one season with a record above .500. Success, or rather the lack thereof, is heavy on the minds of Lowe and his players.

“There aren’t many expectations for us, besides what we have put on ourselves internally,” Lowe said.

This year, there is a new light and new hope for the Ravens. However, a new league and even tougher non-league schedule awaits Riverside this season. That includes perennial state tournament favorites the Camas Papermakers, a daunting task for a team that hasn’t won more than 10 games since 2018.

“If you want to be good, you have to play against good programs. I want the girls to experience that. Can we compete one quarter, can we compete two quarters? I think it is going to be an awesome experience,” Lowe said.

“I’m looking forward to playing Camas because it is going to be a learning opportunity for this whole team. Even if we lose it is going to be together. I want to see how losing brings our team together and makes us stronger,” Kandola said.

Along with Camas on the schedule, the Ravens will also take on a new schedule in a league that has immense talent. Auburn, Tahoma, Kentwood and even Kentridge are programs that have proven success in league play.

“Every team is going to try to win. They don’t want a school that hasn’t been winning that many games to come out and beat them. Being the underdog is an advantage for us,” Kandola said.

Even though it is Lowe and the Ravens’ first season in the NPSL, they are well aware of the difficulty of the NPSL season ahead of them.

“That was one of the biggest appeals to the job… I think from top to bottom, this is the SEC of high school basketball. It’s the highest level, close to Seattle, and we are going to play great teams every night,” Lowe said.

The recent history of the Ravens girls basketball team is prevalent on the minds of players, coaches and fans. A program that has won a total of 12 games over the past two years is looking to rise. Coining a rallying phrase for Riverside this season: “Ravens Rise.”

“For seven years we have been the bottom of the conference,” Lowe said. There is some expectation to win right away, but understanding it is a marathon, not a sprint, is inherently important for Lowe’s squad.

“For me, success was getting girls out. Success looks like retaining girls and even starting a youth program, which at this moment is non-existent. We will start that through camps in the summer,” Lowe said.

“We want to have more than six wins. Really we want to be top four and make the playoffs,” he added.

Inside the Raven locker room, there is a poster with opponents on the face of Mount Rainier. It is the road map for the Ravens with the peak representing the playoffs and the steps they need to take to get there.

“If we get to the district tournament, we have achieved the ‘Ravens are on the rise,’” said Lowe.

For a senior like Ayeli Avelar, Lowe is her third coach.

“I feel like the program has gotten better. The intensity went up at practice and we have more energy. It is a different level of fast (with Lowe),” Avelar said.

Even as a senior, Avelar said is pushing her to be her best. Even by doing things that put of her comfort zone. Like talking to the media: “He’s taught me to step up and be more of a leader… He brings a lot of energy to the table and wants us to have a winning mentality,” she said.

The Ravens have even adopted a new strength program with assistance from new coaches brought in by Lowe. There might be some muscular gains from the program, but the mental aspect of additional training will help the Ravens in the immediate future.

“They’re going to get more confident going through that. What we are trying to build is a process of winning. You have to work hard and it is done in the gym long before you play Kentridge or Mount Rainier… They are starting to learn how to play basketball right in practice,” Lowe said.

Togetherness is also important for the Ravens, and bringing three new players along with an entirely new staff is daunting for players who have been in the program for four years like Avelar. But the Ravens have developed a bond in the short time they have been together.

“Since we have new transfers, we are more confident because they are good players… We are all together and we have that player sisterhood,” Avelar said.

Auburn Riverside beat Hanford in their first game of the season 69-37, winning their first season opening game 2018.