AUBURN, Wash. — Ryan Hansen has been coaching at Auburn High School for 23 years.
"I did my student teaching here at Auburn and this job opened up and I kind of threw my name in the hat," Hansen said. "I was pretty young. I was 24, and I was fortunate enough to get hired and it's been a great community for us."
Over the last six years, Hansen's Trojans have won six straight league titles, three straight district titles, and have won 90% of its games.
In 2022, Auburn won its first-ever boys basketball state championship. Hansen's oldest son, Kaden, played on the state title team. Now he's coaching his second son, Carter.
"I love that the game, it rewards you, so the amount of time you put into the game, it will reward you, so it always gives back and it's just fun to see the game give back," Carter Hansen said.
This season the boys are once again one of the top teams in the state, but they are not the only Trojans team finding success.
"We have a good group," Jessica Hansen said. "We have a young group we don't have any seniors on our team this year so just knowing that we had a group that was going buy into those things makes it a little easier, you know, to know that they're going set the standard and hopefully everyone else will keep following."
Jessica Hansen took over the girls' team last year. Two years ago, the Trojans were 2-14. Now they are state contenders. Avery Hansen is Jessica's daughter and the team's leading scorer.
"We have built chemistry throughout our team because we've been playing together for a long time, so I just feel like she stepped in, she knew how we play she knows the game of basketball really well," Avery Hansen said.
Jessica Hansen was a high school all-star in Idaho and played for Northwest Nazarene University. After college, she'd meet the love of her life on a basketball court at Hoopfest in Spokane.
"I just remember we connected obviously, my sister was dating his friend, it was just fun and I was like, 'Oh he's got game,'" Jessica Hansen said. "'He's pretty good.'"
Seven weeks later Ryan Hansen proposed. It was love and basketball, at first sight.
"I think God had a plan when he brought Jess and I together and obviously I knew right away there was a connection that was kind of meant to be," Ryan Hansen said.
Twenty-three years later, and basketball has become a family affair for the Hansens. The two teachers have four kids, two coaching jobs, over 400 combined wins, and one assistant coach, Dan Lisk, who works with them both.
"They get kids to play with a passion," Lisk said. "They get kids to buy in. They're both highly competitive. I used to think that Ryan was the most competitive person I've ever known until I started coaching with Jessica."
From fast breaks to free throws, Ryan and Jessica Hansen preach fundamentals, but it's family and faith that have helped this dynamic duo live out their hoop dreams.
"Keeping the first things first, like family, having fun, it's not all about winning, and we have a great support system with great friends and, you know, a great job, a great school, and a little bit of luck maybe," Jessica Hansen said. "We believe that competition breeds excellence and we try to pass that on to our kids to understand the importance of showing up every day and competing against each other and pushing each other to get better," says Ryan Hansen.
"They're building a good culture at Auburn High School and it's just like really cool to see like all of us kids growing up to them and they're coaching us and I just feel like it's really cool to see them do what they love to do too," Avery Hansen said.