3A | Union, only two years old, thinking big

Cale Piland can point to countless causes.

He can explain, explore and expound on multiple factors.

But he won't try to tell you he saw this kind of success coming so quickly for his second-year Union High School football team.

A 13-0 record and berth in Saturday's Class 3A state-championship game against storied Bellevue? Even Piland is pleasantly surprised.

"We were excited to have the opportunity to build what we thought could be a state-level program," he said. "But to tell you that I thought we'd be playing for the state championship in year two, that would be a little bit of a lie."

Truth is, the Titans from suburban Vancouver have a chance to become the first high school in Washington history to win a state football title in its second year.

Foss of Tacoma won the big-school title in its third year, 1975. The late Terry Ennis guided Archbishop Murphy of Everett to the 1A championship in the program's third year of football, 2002, but the school was actually founded in 1988 as Holy Cross. Steve Gervais needed only four years to lead Skyline of Sammamish to a 4A title as the Spartans beat Lakes in the 2000 final.

Piland, 34, deserves his share of credit. He proved himself at nearby Evergreen of Vancouver, going 54-13 in six seasons as head coach with a 14-0 campaign in 2004 capped by the 4A state championship. But Piland, who played for Frosty Westering at Pacific Lutheran and was part of the 1993 NAIA championship team, prefers to deflect praise. Keeping five assistant coaches from Evergreen, including defensive coordinator Ken Frisch (a former PLU teammate), was key.

"As far as having a philosophy and having a way of doing things, it would have been much more difficult to do if I not only had to teach a bunch of new kids how to do things, but if I had to teach my coaches," said Piland, a Mountain View (Vancouver) High School grad who was head coach at Juanita of Kirkland in 2000 before getting the opportunity at Evergreen in his hometown.

He said leaving Evergreen was a very difficult decision made easier by knowing Union would be drawing students from Evergreen as well as Heritage and Mountain View. Plus, Piland was named full-time athletic director. The football team was able to hold full spring practices before the school actually opened in the fall of 2007. The Titans got a taste of success by going 6-3 in their inaugural campaign, falling one win short of a playoff berth. This, with no seniors and no players with previous varsity experience elsewhere.

"Last year the coaches set the bar really high and wouldn't let us make any excuses that we were a new school," junior linebacker Taylor Nelson said.

Players began to dream big.

"We realized last year we could be great if we really worked at it," said junior running back Blake Russell. "We wanted to prove something this year. We knew we had to gain respect, not just for our school but for our league down here. It's become a community thing."

But this? A state-championship game?

"I don't think anybody was thinking about playing in the state-championship game," said Derek Adams, a senior tight end and linebacker.

But now they are thinking about winning it. Union players don't want this unexpected ride to end short of a championship.

"It's another time to prove ourselves and put our school on the map for football," Adams said. "We've won 13 games. It wouldn't feel complete if we didn't win the last one."

Sandy Ringer: 206-718-1512 or sringer@seattletimes.com