The Evergreen Plainsmen put Southwest Washington big schools on the map with Vancouver’s first state championship in high school football

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

There is an illustration of the quarterback kissing the state championship trophy in the lobby outside of the school’s gymnasium.

There is a banner, with a photograph of the quarterback being carried off on the shoulders of his teammates, in the athletic hallway.

Those memories are forever at Evergreen High School … because state championships are forever.

It has been 20 years since Evergreen became Clark County’s first big school to win a state championship in football.

This past weekend, Nick Fleck and his family were in search of the perfect Christmas tree at a farm in Washougal when another person at the farm asked him about a perfect team.

“Are you Nick?” the man asked.

“Yeah.”

“Nick Fleck?” the man asked to confirm.

“Yes, sir.”

That person happened to be a freshman at Evergreen back in the fall of 2004. Now both in their 30s, they shared quite the memory.

“It happens kind of frequently,” said Fleck, who is married with two children and lives and works in Vancouver. ‘It’s kind of cool.”

He acknowledged that he is a bit sheepish, at times, when the subject comes up because he doesn’t want it to feel like a “glory days kind of thing,” but it sure is nice to be remembered.

Plus, this wasn’t just any state championship. It was the first of its kind for the city of Vancouver. “It was a blast. It was a super big deal to the school and the community,” said Cale Piland, then the head coach of the Plainsmen and now the athletic director for Evergreen Public Schools. “I think back to our assembly we had the following week. That was the old Fieldhouse in Evergreen. It was packed. Just the emotion. I remember old time Evergreen people were there and it meant a lot to them.”

Reader boards from businesses up and down Mill Plain Blvd. celebrated the Plainsmen.

Some 20 years later, the Camas Papermakers are preparing to play in the Class 4A state championship game at Husky Stadium. Among the coaches on Camas’ staff this year is Dan Kielty, who was on Evergreen’s staff 20 years ago.

“People had heard of Southwest Washington (football) but it was not taken seriously,” Kielty said. 

He noted that Evergreen had made the semifinals in 1995 and again in 2003. And Mountain View had made the final four in 2001 and 2002.

“Every league has a ‘once-in-a-while,’” Kielty said, noting that the Class 4A Greater St. Helens League had teams go on decent runs every now and then. 

But the league couldn’t win the big one.

Until 2004.

“That was an important game for this area,” Kielty said.

Since then, Union (3A) played in the 2008 championship game and then won the 4A state title in 2018. Camas (4A) played in the title game in 2013 then won it all in 2016 and 2019 and has a shot to add to their trophy case this year. Skyview played in the championship game in 2011. 

The smaller schools have had moments, too. Hockinson (2A) won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. Ridgefield was the first Clark County team to win it all, doing so in 1995. Seton Catholic is playing for the Class 1A state title this season.

The big schools had to overcome the idea that the state was owned by powerhouses in the Seattle area or the Tri-Cities. 

“Getting a program to believe it could do that when nobody had even played for the championship at that point, in a lot of folks’ minds, that was probably a pie-in-the-sky goal to have,” Piland said. “From that standpoint, there was a mental hurdle getting around that.”

“He did a good job of making that pie really nice and sweet,” Fleck said of Piland.

Greg Peach, who would go on to star at Eastern Washington University and play seven years in the Canadian Football League, agreed. The Evergreen coaching staff made believers of all the Plainsmen long before anyone else around the state believed. They knew they had a chance to make history for Vancouver.

“We had a real sense that we were doing this for the city. This had never been done. That matters to someone who was 17, 18 years old, to be the first ones in the city to accomplish a feat like that,” Peach said.

“They preached putting Southwest Washington on the map,” Fleck added. “We were successful in doing that.”

Peach lives with his wife and infant son in Spokane. He trains athletes, including youth, high school, and college football players. He asks his older athletes if they had ever won a state title in football. 

“Nobody raises their hand. It’s such a rare thing,” he said.

“That state championship and being able to say, ‘We have this forever,’ it’s a very special feeling,” Peach said. “It was so special that that group of guys were together, at that time, willing to work, willing to sacrifice for the team.”

A year earlier, Evergreen lost in the semifinals. Peach said he recalled crying after that game, thinking the Plainsmen had missed their shot. That team, he recalled, was loaded. 

Personally, Peach said he got manhandled in that game, pushed around by a Division-I recruit.

“That was a big motivator for me. Going into my senior year, I was never going to let that happen again,” Peach said.

He hit the weight room. His teammates followed his lead. The Plainsmen were on a mission.

Evergreen went undefeated in the 2004 regular season. Piland said he cannot recall where Evergreen was ranked, but it was not No. 1. The playoffs were not seeded back then.

“I don’t know where we would have been seeded. There just wasn’t the same level of respect for football in Southwest Washington at the time,” Piland said. “We felt we were pretty good. We definitely had to go out and prove it.”

Evergreen was not pushed in its first 11 games, all victories by at least three touchdowns. The last three wins were a testament to the team mentality. The Plainsmen found a new way to win. 

In the quarterfinals, Curtis stuffed the great Evergreen running attack, so Nick Fleck had to throw deep with long touchdown passes for a 28-14 win in the quarterfinals.

The next week, in Spokane against Gonzaga Prep, Lonnie Hosley Jr. changed the game with a punt return for a touchdown just before halftime. This was a game where Evergreen needed all phases of the game, including a trick play, to survive 31-30.

In the championship game against Skyline, Evergreen trailed by 14 at the half, but virtually celebrated the state title at halftime.

Wait, what?

Yes, the Plainsmen figured out what they were going to do in the second half, and they knew they were going to win.

“I don’t know if you ever feel good being down 14-nothing, but we did,” Piland said.

Give the ball to Taylor Rank and get behind the impressive offensive line. Then crush it. 

That was the game plan. Evergreen executed. Evergreen called one pass play in the second half, and there was a penalty on that play. So, officially, no pass attempts in the second half, and Evergreen won 28-14. Rank, by the way, would play in the Southeastern Conference at South Carolina.

Peach, known for his defense in college and in pro football, was a two-way player for Evergreen as a senior. He said he did not have a good day on defense in the championship game.

“I turned into an O-lineman that day. If I can’t do anything on defense, I might as well block somebody,” Peach said.

Find a way. Find the E-Way.

Evergreen appreciates its history. The illustration. The banner. Still there. 

Oh, and Kielty? An assistant coach at Camas now, but he remains on staff as a teacher at Evergreen.

“Part of it is being at the right place at the right time. Gotta have all the ingredients to be successful. I’ve been around two great programs,” Kielty said.

Piland said he has regular contact with a number of the players from that championship team. Social media messages. A text now and then. An occasional get-together at a coffee shop.

“They are grown men with wives and family,” Piland said. “Life has a way of moving on, doesn’t it?”

Two decades later, Peach said he hopes that people remember everyone on the team, not just the stars or even the starters. In fact, he wishes he appreciated the younger players more back in the day. He said the scout team players from 2004 “were a huge reason we were able to do what we did.”

The 2004 champions are rooting for the Clark County teams this week in the state championship games. 

Fleck has friends on the Camas staff. He also loves the similar path to the finals. Evergreen beat Curtis and Gonzaga Prep in the 2004 playoffs. Camas beat Curtis and Gonzaga Prep in this playoff run.

“It’s movie-like,” Fleck said. “Absolutely I’m rooting for the local guys.”

For the big schools in Clark County, all this winning started 20 years ago.

“It was the first one around here,” Fleck said. “I think that’s why people are so attached to it. … That’s wild to think about.”

Peach thinks about all the good teams out there that do not finish with a win in December.

“A team will go 11-1 and make it to the quarters. Damn, that’s a really good team, but not a championship team.”

The 2004 Evergreen team became great.

Legendary, in fact.

“To finish that, you have that forever,” Peach said. “It can never be taken away. It’s a special, special thing.”