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Jul. 30—Three Hall of Fame inductions in the span of a month would be an extraordinary accomplishment for most athletic departments.
At Colfax High School, it almost felt inevitable.
During an 11-day span in May, football coach Mike Morgan and girls basketball coach Corey Baerlocher entered their state coaches association Halls of Fame, while volleyball coach Sue Doering was inducted into the WIAA Hall of Fame.
Each built one of the state's premier programs in their respective sports. Together, they coached 23 state championship teams, hundreds of victories and generations of student-athletes.
Their names now sit alongside another pair of Colfax coaching legends who helped shape the school's athletic identity: longtime boys basketball coach Bob Bafus and former baseball coach Mike Parrish.
For decades, the small town of Colfax has produced championship football teams, dominant volleyball programs, state title-winning basketball squads and successful baseball teams. The school's status has endured through several generations of athletes and coaches, creating expectations that have become woven into the community.
Ask the coaches responsible why it has happened, and none begin by talking about trophies.
Instead, they talk about parents. They talk about kids who play three sports instead of one. They talk about coaches who stay for decades. They talk about community members filling the stands on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. They talk about a culture that existed before they arrived and one they hope will continue long after they are gone.
"I've always said it," Baerlocher said. "The sign of a good team is instant success. But the sign of a great program is sustained excellence."
History matters
Long before Morgan won a state football championship, before Doering built one of the greatest volleyball dynasties in Washington history and before Baerlocher guided the Bulldogs to eight girls basketball titles, Colfax had already established a standard.
Much of that foundation traces back to Bob Bafus.
The longtime boys basketball coach transformed Colfax into a perennial contender and helped create expectations that winning was not an occasional achievement but something the community believed should be pursued every season.
The standard continued to grow.
Parrish led the baseball program to three state championships during a 16-year tenure. Doering won 14 state volleyball titles and finished in the top four at state for 19 consecutive seasons. Morgan coached the Bulldogs to the 2001 Class 1A football championship while reaching the state playoffs 13 times. Baerlocher guided the girls basketball program to eight state championships, including four consecutive titles from 2004-07.
"They had success prior to me, too," Doering said. "They had good coaching. So it wasn't like I just came into nothing."
That history mattered. When Doering arrived in Colfax in 1988, she wasn't introducing athletes to the idea of competing for championships. Many already understood what it looked like.
"A lot of the girls I was coaching, their parents had been on Bob Bafus' state championship teams, so they knew what it took to win a state championship," Doering said. "Success breeds itself."
As an elementary physical education teacher, she found ways to make that tradition tangible. Whenever one of her volleyball teams returned home with another state trophy, she carried it into the elementary school gymnasium so the kids could hold the trophy.
The message was simple. Championships were not reserved for someone else. They belonged to Colfax. If Colfax's championship tradition has a beginning, the coaches point to the same place. It starts with the people.
All three recent Hall of Fame inductees described a community that embraces athletics as part of the town's identity.
"You have great parents," Morgan said. "They support you. They want their kids to be successful. They're willing to make sacrifices."
Morgan spent 32 years coaching football while serving the district in various roles, including band director, athletic director, vice principal and interim principal. Those positions gave him a unique view of the community beyond the sidelines.
"You know the families. You know the grandparents. You know the brothers and sisters," Morgan said. "When you stay in a place that long, you build relationships. I think that's one of the reasons people stay."
A consistent formula
Doering coached volleyball for 29 years at Colfax. Morgan spent 32 years with the football program. Baerlocher led the girls basketball team for 18 seasons. Bafus started it all, leading the basketball program for 23 seasons. Parrish coached baseball for 16 years.
The consistency mattered. Athletes did not have to adjust to a revolving door of philosophies or expectations. Younger players entered programs that looked much like they had a decade earlier, led by coaches who already knew the families, the community and the standards.
"I don't think people realize how fortunate Colfax has been with coaching continuity," Baerlocher said. "When you have people who stay, those expectations don't change."
The coaches also wanted athletes playing as many sports as possible. In larger schools, athletes often focus on one sport throughout the year. In Colfax, coaches viewed that approach differently.
"I never wanted a basketball player," Baerlocher said. "I wanted an athlete. I'm glad they want to win. Otherwise, I'd be in the wrong place."
Football players wrestled. They ran track. They played basketball. Some of the best athletes moved from one season to the next without taking a break. Each sport made them better for the next one.
"They learned different things from different coaches," Morgan said. "That was always important."
The cooperation between coaches helped make it possible. Instead of competing for athletes, they encouraged participation across seasons. Success in one program often strengthened another.
"We all wanted kids involved," Doering said. "We wanted them playing everything."
Morgan laughed when asked about the toughness of many of his football players.
"Football was the easiest part of the day for some of those kids," he said. "They'd already been out working cattle."
The work ethic didn't stop on the farm. It carried into practices, weight rooms and classrooms.
"Kids around here know how to work," Morgan said. "That's just part of growing up."
Generational expectations
Success was never treated as something that belonged to a single generation. It was passed down. Championships became an expectation in Colfax. That didn't mean they were taken for granted. If anything, the expectations grew.
Baerlocher remembers one moment early in his tenure that showed him exactly what kind of program he had inherited.
His team had just won a regional game to qualify for the state tournament, a milestone that would have been celebrated at many schools. As the final buzzer sounded, he found himself caught up in the emotion of the moment. His players weren't.
"I was excited because we'd made it to state," Baerlocher said. "The girls kind of looked at me like, 'Coach, what are you doing?' "
For them, reaching Yakima was never the goal. Winning once they got there was.
"They expected to win a state championship," Baerlocher said.
That mindset had been built long before those players ever stepped onto a varsity court. Doering saw it every season.
The volleyball players who eventually won state championships had often spent years watching older Bulldogs compete deep into November. They weren't intimidated by the moment because they had grown up expecting to experience it themselves.
"I think the younger kids just wanted to be part of it," Doering said. "They watched those older girls and wanted to do the same thing."
Ingrained support
Volleyball became such an important part of the community that, on more than one occasion, the school's homecoming festivities were adjusted to accommodate the team's schedule.
That decision reflected the value the community placed on its athletic programs and its willingness to rally behind them.
"It was pretty special," Doering said. "The whole town got behind us."
Morgan saw that same support every Friday night during football season.
The crowds included parents, grandparents, former players and children who already dreamed of wearing a Bulldogs uniform.
In a town the size of Colfax, the relationships often lasted far longer than a season. Former players return to games years after graduating. Some became parents of the next generation of Bulldogs.
Doering said that continuity helped preserve the culture from one class to the next.
"You'd have older players come back and talk to the girls," she said. "The younger kids always had someone to look up to."
The same was true among the coaches. None of the three Hall of Famers described an athletic department divided by individual success. Instead, they recalled coaches who wanted every program to thrive.
If football was playing on Friday night, the volleyball team was in the stands. If basketball made a postseason run, coaches from other sports were there to support them. The victories belonged to more than one program.
"When one team was successful, everybody celebrated," Baerlocher said. "It wasn't about one sport."
That attitude became another piece of the culture. Winning mattered. Supporting one another mattered just as much.
This past winter, the Colfax boys basketball team completed an undefeated season and won the State 2B championship despite losing longtime head coach Reece Jenkin midway through the season after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Assistant coach Ben Aune guided the Bulldogs the rest of the way, while the community rallied around the program throughout its championship run. Senior Adrik Jenkin, Reece's son, said the support reached far beyond the basketball court.
"We're overlooked because we're just a smaller town, but smaller towns have much stronger communities," Jenkin said.
It's about the people
For all of the championships Colfax has celebrated, none of the three Hall of Fame coaches measured their careers by the number of trophies sitting in display cases. Ask each of them what they're proudest of, and the conversation quickly shifts away from wins and losses. It turns toward people.
Morgan spent 37 years in education. His responsibilities changed over the years, but his view of coaching never did.
"The relationships are what you remember," Morgan said. "The wins are great, but it's the kids you remember."
Doering reached a similar conclusion after nearly three decades leading one of the state's most successful volleyball programs.
Her players certainly remember the championships. She hopes they remember something else, too.
"I wanted them to become good people," Doering said. "Volleyball was important, but it wasn't the most important thing."
She often reminded her teams that the lessons learned during long practices, difficult losses and championship runs would matter long after their playing careers ended.
The same standards that helped them become successful athletes could help them become successful adults.
Baerlocher viewed coaching through that same lens. He never believed the banners hanging in the gym fully defined a program. Instead, he judged success by the people who left it.
"If they become good moms, good wives, good members of the community, then we've done our job," Baerlocher said.
Each coach inherited something valuable, added to it and eventually passed it to the next generation. That mindset has allowed Colfax to avoid the cycle many successful programs experience after a legendary coach retires. Instead of rebuilding from scratch, the Bulldogs have consistently built upon what already existed.
"I think every coach leaves something behind," Morgan said. "Hopefully you leave it a little better than you found it."
Doering expressed a similar sentiment. She never believed the expectations surrounding Colfax volleyball belonged to her. They belonged to the program.
"I was fortunate," she said. "I had great kids. I had great parents. I had great assistant coaches. You don't do it by yourself."
Baerlocher laughed when asked whether he ever expected to become a Hall of Fame coach. Like the others, he quickly aimed the focus toward the players.
"They're the ones who make coaches look good," he said.
Within 11 days, three coaches who spent decades building Bulldog athletics were welcomed into Halls of Fame. For those outside Whitman County, the timing may have seemed remarkable. For the people of Colfax, it simply reflected what they had watched unfold for years.
No one coach created it. No one coach sustained it alone. Instead, each generation inherited a responsibility to protect it.
Doering watched elementary students pass state championship trophies from one set of hands to another, imagining the day they might win one themselves.
Morgan watched boys who spent their mornings working on family farms become leaders on Friday nights beneath the lights.
Baerlocher watched basketball players celebrate state championships, then return years later with children of their own, eager to see another generation wear a Bulldogs uniform.
The trophies were never the finish line. They became reminders of what had already been built.
Looking back, none of the coaches pointed to a particular championship game when asked why Colfax has remained successful for so long.
They pointed to one another. They pointed to parents who volunteered countless hours without expecting recognition. They pointed to teachers who reinforced the same values in the classroom that coaches demanded in practice. They pointed to athletes willing to play multiple sports, accept coaching from different voices and place team success ahead of individual accolades.
Most of all, they pointed to a community that has never viewed athletics as separate from education.
Liam Bradford's reporting is part of the Teen Journalism Institute, funded by STCU with support from Comma.
Continue reading...
At Colfax High School, it almost felt inevitable.
During an 11-day span in May, football coach Mike Morgan and girls basketball coach Corey Baerlocher entered their state coaches association Halls of Fame, while volleyball coach Sue Doering was inducted into the WIAA Hall of Fame.
Each built one of the state's premier programs in their respective sports. Together, they coached 23 state championship teams, hundreds of victories and generations of student-athletes.
Their names now sit alongside another pair of Colfax coaching legends who helped shape the school's athletic identity: longtime boys basketball coach Bob Bafus and former baseball coach Mike Parrish.
For decades, the small town of Colfax has produced championship football teams, dominant volleyball programs, state title-winning basketball squads and successful baseball teams. The school's status has endured through several generations of athletes and coaches, creating expectations that have become woven into the community.
Ask the coaches responsible why it has happened, and none begin by talking about trophies.
Instead, they talk about parents. They talk about kids who play three sports instead of one. They talk about coaches who stay for decades. They talk about community members filling the stands on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. They talk about a culture that existed before they arrived and one they hope will continue long after they are gone.
"I've always said it," Baerlocher said. "The sign of a good team is instant success. But the sign of a great program is sustained excellence."
History matters
Long before Morgan won a state football championship, before Doering built one of the greatest volleyball dynasties in Washington history and before Baerlocher guided the Bulldogs to eight girls basketball titles, Colfax had already established a standard.
Much of that foundation traces back to Bob Bafus.
The longtime boys basketball coach transformed Colfax into a perennial contender and helped create expectations that winning was not an occasional achievement but something the community believed should be pursued every season.
The standard continued to grow.
Parrish led the baseball program to three state championships during a 16-year tenure. Doering won 14 state volleyball titles and finished in the top four at state for 19 consecutive seasons. Morgan coached the Bulldogs to the 2001 Class 1A football championship while reaching the state playoffs 13 times. Baerlocher guided the girls basketball program to eight state championships, including four consecutive titles from 2004-07.
"They had success prior to me, too," Doering said. "They had good coaching. So it wasn't like I just came into nothing."
That history mattered. When Doering arrived in Colfax in 1988, she wasn't introducing athletes to the idea of competing for championships. Many already understood what it looked like.
"A lot of the girls I was coaching, their parents had been on Bob Bafus' state championship teams, so they knew what it took to win a state championship," Doering said. "Success breeds itself."
As an elementary physical education teacher, she found ways to make that tradition tangible. Whenever one of her volleyball teams returned home with another state trophy, she carried it into the elementary school gymnasium so the kids could hold the trophy.
The message was simple. Championships were not reserved for someone else. They belonged to Colfax. If Colfax's championship tradition has a beginning, the coaches point to the same place. It starts with the people.
All three recent Hall of Fame inductees described a community that embraces athletics as part of the town's identity.
"You have great parents," Morgan said. "They support you. They want their kids to be successful. They're willing to make sacrifices."
Morgan spent 32 years coaching football while serving the district in various roles, including band director, athletic director, vice principal and interim principal. Those positions gave him a unique view of the community beyond the sidelines.
"You know the families. You know the grandparents. You know the brothers and sisters," Morgan said. "When you stay in a place that long, you build relationships. I think that's one of the reasons people stay."
A consistent formula
Doering coached volleyball for 29 years at Colfax. Morgan spent 32 years with the football program. Baerlocher led the girls basketball team for 18 seasons. Bafus started it all, leading the basketball program for 23 seasons. Parrish coached baseball for 16 years.
The consistency mattered. Athletes did not have to adjust to a revolving door of philosophies or expectations. Younger players entered programs that looked much like they had a decade earlier, led by coaches who already knew the families, the community and the standards.
"I don't think people realize how fortunate Colfax has been with coaching continuity," Baerlocher said. "When you have people who stay, those expectations don't change."
The coaches also wanted athletes playing as many sports as possible. In larger schools, athletes often focus on one sport throughout the year. In Colfax, coaches viewed that approach differently.
"I never wanted a basketball player," Baerlocher said. "I wanted an athlete. I'm glad they want to win. Otherwise, I'd be in the wrong place."
Football players wrestled. They ran track. They played basketball. Some of the best athletes moved from one season to the next without taking a break. Each sport made them better for the next one.
"They learned different things from different coaches," Morgan said. "That was always important."
The cooperation between coaches helped make it possible. Instead of competing for athletes, they encouraged participation across seasons. Success in one program often strengthened another.
"We all wanted kids involved," Doering said. "We wanted them playing everything."
Morgan laughed when asked about the toughness of many of his football players.
"Football was the easiest part of the day for some of those kids," he said. "They'd already been out working cattle."
The work ethic didn't stop on the farm. It carried into practices, weight rooms and classrooms.
"Kids around here know how to work," Morgan said. "That's just part of growing up."
Generational expectations
Success was never treated as something that belonged to a single generation. It was passed down. Championships became an expectation in Colfax. That didn't mean they were taken for granted. If anything, the expectations grew.
Baerlocher remembers one moment early in his tenure that showed him exactly what kind of program he had inherited.
His team had just won a regional game to qualify for the state tournament, a milestone that would have been celebrated at many schools. As the final buzzer sounded, he found himself caught up in the emotion of the moment. His players weren't.
"I was excited because we'd made it to state," Baerlocher said. "The girls kind of looked at me like, 'Coach, what are you doing?' "
For them, reaching Yakima was never the goal. Winning once they got there was.
"They expected to win a state championship," Baerlocher said.
That mindset had been built long before those players ever stepped onto a varsity court. Doering saw it every season.
The volleyball players who eventually won state championships had often spent years watching older Bulldogs compete deep into November. They weren't intimidated by the moment because they had grown up expecting to experience it themselves.
"I think the younger kids just wanted to be part of it," Doering said. "They watched those older girls and wanted to do the same thing."
Ingrained support
Volleyball became such an important part of the community that, on more than one occasion, the school's homecoming festivities were adjusted to accommodate the team's schedule.
That decision reflected the value the community placed on its athletic programs and its willingness to rally behind them.
"It was pretty special," Doering said. "The whole town got behind us."
Morgan saw that same support every Friday night during football season.
The crowds included parents, grandparents, former players and children who already dreamed of wearing a Bulldogs uniform.
In a town the size of Colfax, the relationships often lasted far longer than a season. Former players return to games years after graduating. Some became parents of the next generation of Bulldogs.
Doering said that continuity helped preserve the culture from one class to the next.
"You'd have older players come back and talk to the girls," she said. "The younger kids always had someone to look up to."
The same was true among the coaches. None of the three Hall of Famers described an athletic department divided by individual success. Instead, they recalled coaches who wanted every program to thrive.
If football was playing on Friday night, the volleyball team was in the stands. If basketball made a postseason run, coaches from other sports were there to support them. The victories belonged to more than one program.
"When one team was successful, everybody celebrated," Baerlocher said. "It wasn't about one sport."
That attitude became another piece of the culture. Winning mattered. Supporting one another mattered just as much.
This past winter, the Colfax boys basketball team completed an undefeated season and won the State 2B championship despite losing longtime head coach Reece Jenkin midway through the season after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Assistant coach Ben Aune guided the Bulldogs the rest of the way, while the community rallied around the program throughout its championship run. Senior Adrik Jenkin, Reece's son, said the support reached far beyond the basketball court.
"We're overlooked because we're just a smaller town, but smaller towns have much stronger communities," Jenkin said.
It's about the people
For all of the championships Colfax has celebrated, none of the three Hall of Fame coaches measured their careers by the number of trophies sitting in display cases. Ask each of them what they're proudest of, and the conversation quickly shifts away from wins and losses. It turns toward people.
Morgan spent 37 years in education. His responsibilities changed over the years, but his view of coaching never did.
"The relationships are what you remember," Morgan said. "The wins are great, but it's the kids you remember."
Doering reached a similar conclusion after nearly three decades leading one of the state's most successful volleyball programs.
Her players certainly remember the championships. She hopes they remember something else, too.
"I wanted them to become good people," Doering said. "Volleyball was important, but it wasn't the most important thing."
She often reminded her teams that the lessons learned during long practices, difficult losses and championship runs would matter long after their playing careers ended.
The same standards that helped them become successful athletes could help them become successful adults.
Baerlocher viewed coaching through that same lens. He never believed the banners hanging in the gym fully defined a program. Instead, he judged success by the people who left it.
"If they become good moms, good wives, good members of the community, then we've done our job," Baerlocher said.
Each coach inherited something valuable, added to it and eventually passed it to the next generation. That mindset has allowed Colfax to avoid the cycle many successful programs experience after a legendary coach retires. Instead of rebuilding from scratch, the Bulldogs have consistently built upon what already existed.
"I think every coach leaves something behind," Morgan said. "Hopefully you leave it a little better than you found it."
Doering expressed a similar sentiment. She never believed the expectations surrounding Colfax volleyball belonged to her. They belonged to the program.
"I was fortunate," she said. "I had great kids. I had great parents. I had great assistant coaches. You don't do it by yourself."
Baerlocher laughed when asked whether he ever expected to become a Hall of Fame coach. Like the others, he quickly aimed the focus toward the players.
"They're the ones who make coaches look good," he said.
Within 11 days, three coaches who spent decades building Bulldog athletics were welcomed into Halls of Fame. For those outside Whitman County, the timing may have seemed remarkable. For the people of Colfax, it simply reflected what they had watched unfold for years.
No one coach created it. No one coach sustained it alone. Instead, each generation inherited a responsibility to protect it.
Doering watched elementary students pass state championship trophies from one set of hands to another, imagining the day they might win one themselves.
Morgan watched boys who spent their mornings working on family farms become leaders on Friday nights beneath the lights.
Baerlocher watched basketball players celebrate state championships, then return years later with children of their own, eager to see another generation wear a Bulldogs uniform.
The trophies were never the finish line. They became reminders of what had already been built.
Looking back, none of the coaches pointed to a particular championship game when asked why Colfax has remained successful for so long.
They pointed to one another. They pointed to parents who volunteered countless hours without expecting recognition. They pointed to teachers who reinforced the same values in the classroom that coaches demanded in practice. They pointed to athletes willing to play multiple sports, accept coaching from different voices and place team success ahead of individual accolades.
Most of all, they pointed to a community that has never viewed athletics as separate from education.
Liam Bradford's reporting is part of the Teen Journalism Institute, funded by STCU with support from Comma.
Continue reading...
