Catching Up With ...
        Basketball coach Mike Downs (June 14)

SEATTLE – Orange isn't Daunte Gouge's color of choice these days. The students he teaches and the athletes he coaches at King's High School in north Seattle typically don red and white.

But before King's, there was Seattle Pacific. Before Mr. Gouge or Coach Gouge of 2013, there was Daunte Gouge of 1990. Before red and white, there was …

… orange.

Orange jumpsuits. Orange body paint. Orange accessories.

Walk into an SPU sporting event, especially a basketball game in Brougham Pavilion, and you would find Gouge. You would find his buddies from the sixth floor of Ashton residence hall, along with several more from there and elsewhere.

And you would find orange.

Gouge was one of the originals of a group now so intrinsically linked with Falcon athletics – men's basketball, in particular – that it's difficult to conceive of a time when there was no such thing as the Orangemen.

"We went to everything," said Gouge, who ran track and majored in P.E. at Seattle Pacific, graduating with his bachelor's degree in education in 1993. "The first game I ever went to at SPU, it was almost like watching a tennis match – it was so quiet."

It was then.

But once Gouge and a few of his Ashton pals got together, it wouldn't be quiet for much longer.

TURNING UP THE VOLUME
The 1989-90 basketball season was in full swing, and the Seattle Pacific women, in the third year of what would become the highly successful 18-year tenure of head coach Gordy Presnell, were off to a solid start. They won 10 of their first 11 games.

But not many people were watching.

That's when Gouge and some fellow Ashton residents – Jim Hatloe, Ryan Schneidmiller, Eric Nolte, and Greg Wiebe – got into the act.

"What's funny is most people don't realize the Orangemen were originally started for women's basketball," Gouge said. "The girls floor (of Ashton) had three or four players on the team, and one of the guys on our floor was related to Gordy Presnell.

"We were trying to think of ways to get more people going to the games."

Gouge said it was Hatloe who gets credit for the orange concept – and it caught on fast.

"He came up with the idea of wearing these suits and where to get them – same place where the Seattle city jail gets them," Gouge said with a laugh. "We ordered them from the same company.

"That first women's home game, we had 20 guys who ended up signing up to buy (the suits)," Gouge said. "We walked through the campus making all kinds of noise, and went to the game."

"Tennis match" atmosphere?

Gone.

"It brought some excitement," said Presnell, now the head coach at Boise State University. "They weren't on their rear ends very much – they were standing up, and were very helpful down the stretch."

Gouge and his pals eventually started attending both men's and women's contests. To this day, one of his favorite photos is of Gouge and a player from Eastern Montana (now Montana State Billings) together after the game.

"He was a phenomenal player, and we picked on him all game long," Gouge said. "He said, 'I wish we had fans like you. It's so much more fun having fans like that.'

"We always went up to the other team, shook hands with them, and said, 'Good game,' " he added. "It was more about just being a fun, rowdy crowd and getting more people to the games."

CONTINUING THE TRADITION
Once an Orangeman, always an Orangeman. That's certainly true for Gouge.

At King's, a private Christian school where he has spent the entire two-plus decades of his teaching career – eight years in the elementary school, and the last 13 in the high school – his days in orange sometimes become part of the conversation.

Those conversations might take place in his P.E. classes. Or on the football field, where he serves as the quarterbacks coach and special teams coordinator. Or at the track, a program for which he has served as head coach the past 13 seasons. (Gouge raced all four years at SPU, running the 100, 200, 400, and both relays for the legendary Ken Foreman.)

Not surprisingly, an occasional Orangeman has emerged from King's.

"That part of it has been kind of fun. Most of the guys I have, we talk about it," Gouge said. (One of them, a football player, is the son of original Orangeman Jim Hatloe.) "It's kind of funny to have a bunch of Orangemen, and now, we're having kids who are members of the Orangemen."

Last October, Gouge had a suit on again – only this time, it wasn't an Orangeman jumpsuit.

This one was way more formal, befitting the occasion. At halftime of a King's football game against Cedarcrest, he and Kathryn Wissler got married in front of fans from both teams.

"It was her idea," Gouge said, adding that while Kathryn wasn't initially enthused about all the time demands football placed on her soon-to-be husband, she had a change of heart after hearing how much that pursuit made Gouge feel closer to his dad.

"Two days later, she said to me, 'I think we should get married at a football game.'" (King's won, 62-14.)

Next winter, Gouge and some of the other original Orangemen just might have to get together and celebrate. It will be group's silver anniversary season – 25 years of being notoriously noisy, regularly rowdy …

… and perpetually present.

"It's fun that it has still stuck around," Gouge said. "For me, it was so much fun supporting the basketball team.

"I've been to a couple (SPU) games, and I would say they've mellowed out quite a bit," he added.

If that silver reunion were to happen, would Gouge, now 43, wear orange again?

That's probably a safe bet.

"I still have my suit hung up in my closet. We always talk about it," he said.

"It was a fun time and a great group of guys."

And there was no question about their color of choice.