The Spaghetti Bowl is back. Crosstown rivals Olympia and Capital playing for first time since 2015

Olympia residents can get their forks ready because — at least for this season — the Spaghetti Bowl is back on the schedule.

There may not be fans in the stands for this meeting of crosstown rivals Olympia and Capital due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Bears and Cougars will play for the 40th time Friday night at Ingersoll Stadium.

League scheduling conflicts put this game, which was held annually for decades, on hiatus the past four seasons.

Olympia won the most recent meeting in 2015 in a 41-7 rout, but Capital still leads the all-time series between the two high schools, 21-18.

Nick Mullen, who formerly coached at Timberline and is in his first season coaching the Bears, knows this game means a little bit more.

“It’s always been a really competitive game,” he said. “I’ve lived in the area for 12 years, so I always know that it’s going to be a competitive, hard-fought game, no matter what. The score could be a blowout, but it’s still a hard-fought game. There’s never any easy yards.

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be a great atmosphere, even without fans.”

The Bears are 2-1 this season, losing their opener to Yelm before bouncing back with two straight wins against Timberline and North Thurston.

“I think that we’re learning how to compete at the level I’m wanting them to compete at, getting better each week,” Mullen said. “I think we’ve done a good job at being explosive with big plays, but we want to be consistent and be able to stay ahead of the chains and not have to rely on the big play all the time. We want to be a consistent team.”

The program has had young players step up, including sophomore quarterback Gabe Downing, who threw a 97-yard touchdown pass against the Blazers in a 21-14 overtime win, and has thrown for 832 yards and five touchdowns this season.

His go-to receiver has been senior Alfredo Ramirez, who has collected 372 yards and three touchdowns.

“As a sophomore, that kid has no ceiling,” Mullen said of Downing. “He’s a competitor, he’s tough and he wants to win. I think he’s kind of like me, I think he hates to lose more than he likes to win. That’s good in a quarterback, he wants to win at everything he does.”

Olympia’s defense is anchored by senior outside linebacker Jack Olsen, who has 32 tackles this season, including five for losses. Sophomore defensive back Kenyatta McNeese leads the Bears with 35 tackles and four tackles for losses.

Meanwhile, the Cougars are off to a 1-2 start, with losses to River Ridge and Yelm, and a win over North Thurston, but eager to reclaim the Spaghetti Bowl trophy.

“The kids have talked about it a lot,” Capital coach Terry Rose said. “They’ve talked about the bowl, they’ve talked about ‘Let’s get it back.’

“We always talk about legacy at Capital High School. We always talk about leaving a legacy and living up to the legacy.”

This is Rose’s third year coaching Capital and while he hasn’t coached in this rivalry game yet, he sees the anticipation from the community.

“You hear a buzz,” he said. “You go place to place and people are like, ‘Oh, the Spaghetti Bowl!’ I have coaches that have talked, they’ve gone into stores, they’ve gone into places to get their haircuts or whatnot and people are like, ‘The Spaghetti Bowl is this week.’ They’ve got their Capital gear, so I think it’s kind of exciting.”

This has not been a normal year for any high school program, but even more so for the Cougars because they haven’t played at home this season. Even with the circumstances, Rose believes this season has brought his team closer together.

“I think our kids have done a really good job of dealing with the situation,” he said. “It’s weird not going into the locker rooms. We don’t have a home field. We’ve never played at our high school. We always have to feel like we’re traveling and so that’s a little weird since we don’t have locker rooms. We’re outside on the grass and hanging out together and the kids have really bonded together.”

The Cougars are led by senior quarterback Elijah Hoffman and junior running back Jake Kennedy.

Despite the season each team has had to endure, both are excited to revitalize this rivalry game and see which team will take home the Spaghetti Bowl trophy.

“I know my players have looked forward to it all year,” Rose said. “They’ve been excited to be able to play Olympia. I know the families are in it, all of Cougar nation is in it. I’m sure Olympia is on the same boat.

“They’re excited to have some sense of, this is something really cool that we’re able to do that we haven’t been able to do for some time.”