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Alwert returns to Tacoma to coach Wilson

By Ben Miller

Two years ago, Dave Alwert accepted a job at Lakes High School to be the head basketball coach. It was a position he had already filled for four years from 2000-04 before two years at Sumner High School. But when the teaching position at Lakes that came along with the coaching job fell through, he decided to go back to Sumner.

However, when the opportunity to coach at Wilson High School became available this year, he decided that he was going to make a change, even without a teaching position at the school. “I kind of regret that I didn’t go back to Lakes two years ago,” he said.

Starting next season, Alwert will coach the Wilson Rams boys basketball team. He is hoping to improve a squad that has had 10 total league wins the last four seasons and hasn’t made it to even the Narrows League playoffs since 2002.

At Lakes, he found success with talented athletes and high-octane basketball. In his four years as the man in charge, the Lancers had three winning seasons and even earned a West Central District title and a berth to the state tournament in 2002 – the school’s first since 1981.

But when he moved to Sumner starting in the fall of 2004, things were different. While at Sumner he had a teaching position in the building, the kind of basketball he ran at Lakes wasn’t possible anymore.

“I took over a team that for many years really hasn’t been successful when it comes to wins and losses,” he said. “Typically I had to reinvent myself as a coach. I went from athletes at Lakes where we could transition and pick up the defense to Sumner, where I had to learn to play small ball.”

Sumner also has to play in the tough South Puget Sound League. But nonetheless, in Alwert’s second season at the school he was able to find some success. He guided the Spartans to an 11-9 season, a mark Alwert said was the second best in recent history at the school.

“We held our own,” he said. “At Sumner you have really good kids, really good families, just not a lot of athletes or kids who are committed to the common goal of winning and losing.”

At Wilson, Alwert is excited about the chance to go back to the style of play that he had success with at Lakes. Coming to a school known for its athletes, Alwert is looking to turn things up a notch at a program that has experienced some down years on the basketball court as of late.

“They have a lot of history, and I remember playing against them while at Lakes and we used to battle,” he said. “I look forward to getting over there and changing these last couple years and bringing back that tradition.”

Alwert has experience with basketball in the city of Tacoma. In high school, he was a diminutive guard at Mount Tahoma and a starter his senior season on the varsity team before graduating in 1992.

He planned on playing baseball at Olympic Community College after graduation, but his dad, also named Dave, had a heart attack and he had to stay closer to home to help out his family.

For his first few years of high school Alwert was a volunteer coach for the Lincoln Abes basketball team, helping with the freshman and C teams. After earning a degree at Tacoma Community College, he went to Central Washington University and coached basketball at Morgan Middle School.

But now he’s finally back in the City of Destiny.

“I’m getting back to my roots. I was born and raised in Tacoma, grew up there,” he said. “Getting back in the Narrows is almost like a dream to me – especially having athletes again and getting back to the same style that I used to run at Lakes High School and still incorporating what I learned over at Sumner.”

He’s ready to help make the Rams a winner on the hardwood again.

“I’m excited,” he said. “The red and blue is going be worn with pride.”

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