Longtime Mark Morris basketball coach Bill Bakamus calling it a career following 2023-24 season

One of Washington state's all-time winningest coaches stepping down from lead role once current season concludes

A Washington high school boys basketball coaching legend is on his way out.

Mark Morris coach Bill Bakamus announced his intent to retire Monday at the end of the Monarchs' season.

Elected to the Washington State Coaches Hall of Fame in 2010, and fourth on the state's all-time wins list (682 wins ... and counting), Bakamus is closing the book on a 41-year coaching career - with 32 of those spent leading the Mark Morris program.

With his coaching career now coming to an end, Bakamus said he's looking forward to the next chapter of his life.

"This is my 41st year, and at age 63, I think that's a pretty good run," he said. "The major problem is I could see myself doing it 10 more years without hesitation."

Now a grandfather to three boys, Bakamus cited a desire to be more present in some of the peoples' lives closest to him.

"I'm a family-first guy and I've had a lot of families in this thing through 41 seasons," Bakamus said. "My wife and I have had great conversations about what our next chapter is going to be."

After starting his coaching career at Coulee-Hartline and Tenino, Bakamus has been a courtside mainstay at Mark Morris in Longview for more than three decades now.

As a young coach, Bakamus said he wanted to climb the ladder beyond high school basketball.

"I pictured myself being a college coach, being on television and all the glory of being an upper-level coach," he said. "As I took over for Dave Denny in (19)92-93, I knew I was inheriting a great program that had some great success and the city of Longview just basically grew on my family to where I had a professional change of plans. We decided we wanted to be in a community that was supportive, wanted to raise our three children in one place and not move all over job hunting. We just made Longview our home and there's not one bit of regret with that."

With more than 680 wins, 26 league championships, 26 state tournament appearances and 13 state trophies, there isn't much left for Bakamus to accomplish.

Except maybe the biggest goal of them all: a state championship.

Under Bakamus' guidance, Mark Morris has appeared in three state championship games, but walked off the court as runners-up in all of them with the most recent coming last season to Lynden.

Photo by Todd Milles

The Lions are a familiar foe for the Monarchs, having played each other five times in the state tournament and plenty of other times in the regular season. Lynden coach Brian Roper said he models many of the things he does today after Bakamus.

"We have had many great games over the years," Roper said. "It is hard to imagine high school basketball in Washington without Bill Bakamus."

Roper also gave credit to Bakamus' career achievements, which included maintaining his youth. 

"The consistency of Bill's success is remarkable, but what's more impressive might be his ability to hold onto all that black hair into his 60s," Roper said.

Even if this season doesn't end with the gold-ball trophy, Bakamus said he'll think back on his coaching career as a complete success with or without a state championship when he sees the men his former players have turned into.

"A wise coach shared a philosophy with me about looking back on your coaching career, and he shared the fact you should be able to coach your kids and figure out if you were successful 20 years later when they become married with kids, productive citizens of society, businessmen, great fathers and all the things that are real life," Bakamus said. "I hope to have had a positive impact on my players and taught them some great life lessons through basketball that have carried with them in their daily lives."

Bakamus said the success he's seen at Mark Morris is a direct reflection of the players and coaching staffs he's had around him.

"They make the same kind of sacrifices I have as a coach and they're as dedicated and committed in season and out of season," he said. "It's just more of a culmination of a group effort of people striving for a common goal."

While 41 years of coaching are soon to be behind him, the reality of it hasn't quite set in, but Bakamus expects it to once he's not preparing for games still.

Getting the opportunity to be at Mark Morris, and in his position for more than 30 years has been nothing but pure joy and nothing less than an honor, Bakamus said.

And through those 41 years of coaching, Bakamus said he's often asked who his favorite player or favorite team to coach was - and has never answered.

With a legendary coaching career ending soon, Bakamus was finally ready to answer that question.

"I consider them all equal, but I would say my favorite player that I ever coached is my son, Rem Bakamus," he said.