Former Anacortes High School varsity basketball coach Loren Anderson will be honored by his players, close friends and the Bank of the Pacific for his 11-year coaching successes from 1968 to 1979.

The gathering is at 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 2 at the Seafarers’ Memorial Building.

Former players from all over the nation and Washington state have been contacting each other to make the trip to Anacortes during the Anacortes Arts Festival as a part of the all-alumni gathering scheduled for Anacortes High School on the same day.

They will honor Anderson with a presentation of a special placard that morning, which will be hung in the entry way of the Williams Gym next to the present player recognition of Bill Taylor from the 1950-1960 seasons. The special poster banner was made possible by the Bank of the Pacific and manager Mike Trafton to celebrate Anderson’s career in Anacortes.

Anderson’s coaching heyday included eight consecutive Northwest League titles at the highest classification for all but four of those seasons. His teams won nine titles in 11 years. Those nine teams produced six district firsts in seven consecutive years and a second-place finish that began the string in 1972.

Anderson’s teams placed four times at state and six times in regional tourney play. His best placement at state was in 1978 when the team took fourth.

In all, Anderson’s teams won 209 games while losing 78. In the Northwest League the record was 145 wins and 45 loses. This included only one losing season.

Anderson’s teams set many Northwest League and district records during his coaching run: most points in a quarter (39), most points in a half (62), state field goal percentage for a single game (68.9, 31-45), best state tourney field goal percentage (56.0, 51-91), the highest scoring average for a team (73 in the 1973 season). The teams had a history of tough defense that set a standard for the Northwest league in the 60s and 70s.

Anderson was an all star in high school at Auburn, where he was selected to play in New York City in 1954 in the High School All Star game.

Anderson passed up a chance to play major league baseball out of high school to enroll in Seattle Pacific where he started for four years.

Anderson was inducted into the Seattle Pacific Hall of Fame in 2003. At one time he held every scoring record at Seattle Pacific and the school retired his jersey after he scored 55 points his senior year.

In baseball he never hit less than .400 in a season and he maintained that record with the Bellingham Bells at the end of his college career.

He was named high school coach of the year at Yelm where he turned a losing team into a 14-0 winner his first coaching year and by the Skagit Valley Herald at Anacortes in 1979. The Seattle PI named him one of the top 10 high school coaches in Washington state in 1979.

His record at Anacortes is the most wins ever recorded by a coach during the same period of time in the Northwest League.

Saturday’s event is open to the public. A small contribution can be made at the door to offset cost of rental and morning coffee and snacks.

Anyone interested in participating can contact Don Coughlin at 293-7767 or or Gary Nelson at .