SPOKANE, Wash. - To rise is to understand the feeling of falling.
When it comes to Rogers High School, respect is not something that is given easily, you need results, you need proof.
And that is exactly what this year's basketball team is doing.
The Pirates have captivated the Hillyard community. The team won 13 games, which is more than their last two seasons combined and the most victories this program has seen in 37 years.
"Yeah, these guys are out to prove people wrong," Rogers head coach Joel said. "I don't care what happened in the past. That means nothing to us right now."
Though the second-year head coach is coming in with a clean slate, others are not.
"We know what people think of Rogers, I've taught at other places. I know the perception Rogers has," Soter said.
Senior guard Isaiah Wynecoop said, "I've heard people saying that, we're doing good so far, but we're just going to tumble down the road."
The players are not only fighting for wins, but they are fighting to break down a deep-rooted perception. This notion that the team - and quite frankly, this school as a whole - is just not good enough.
"I will tell you this, and this is where it bothers me the most, they hear those things and they say, that's what people think of me," Rogers principal Lori Wyborney said.
Wynecoop said, "I know personally not to judge a book by its cover because I know people see me and they see a bad person, but I'm really not that guy and I know every person on this team comes from Rogers, the bad school, but we're really great."
Isaiah, along with his teammates, share a commonality. A certain blue-collar camaraderie that has brought this team together.
"Exactly, it has been us against the world, me against the world individually, but now that I'm a part of a team, we're a team now," Wynecoop said.
Soter quickly realized that this team was not losing because of its talent. This went way beyond X's and O's.
"The first thing I noticed when I took over was trust," Soter said. "A story comes back when I first took in the summer and a player telling me 'Coach I've never trusted anyone, I can't trust my teammates. I haven't even trusted my own family my whole life.' That was an eye opener for me."
For players on this team, lunches have gone uneaten, power and water turned off in their houses and in Isaiah's case, a father's death at a very young age.
"The team has impacted me because basketball to me is the only thing I have sometimes," Isaiah said.
Isaiah's mother Arwen said, "(Isaiah is) very tough. He's a very strong willed and very independent."
Arwen recognizes the world Isaiah has grown up in. She hears the chatter surrounding her kid who is bathed in tattoos. She is also aware of the problems that come with attending Rogers, or so others say.
"If I talk to people who I just meet and they ask me where my kids go to school, I say 'Rogers,' and they're like eww," Arwen said. "I do think it affects the kids' perception of themselves. I think it weighs on the kids a lot of ways."
By all accounts, Isaiah is supposed to be a troubled kid. A high school flunk who got caught up with the wrong crowd.
"Talking to other teachers and principals, they thought they were going to lose Isaiah," Soter said. "They said he would probably dropout. Just do his own thing. But, every time they thought, he would turn another corner and turn another corner and really go above and beyond what anyone expected. I mean, using what he's done and what he's been through is kind of the story of our basketball team."
For a school like Rogers, you cannot say you want to win; you have to learn how to win first.
"I individually care for every single player. Like I care for their future. I know I'll be best friends with every single one of them after I graduate high school," Isaiah said.
Soter said, "One thing they're realizing is that individually, we're not very good. As a team, we could be very good."
For a group of kids who have constantly been discounted, they will enter the Greater Spokane League district playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed in 3A play.
And with the recent success comes a much bigger picture for the future.
"I don't want this to be the only year, I want us to keep on progressing even after us," Isaiah said.
Soter said, "Let it start with us. Let us be the change."
A lot of these students have and will continue to face adversity, which is why they will just have to grow and fight together. And if that catches on, there's no saying how far Rogers will rise.
