'That's all we knew': Brothers John, Nate Graham follow Hall of Fame father's footsteps to lead Cheney, G-Prep into playoffs

One replaced a future Hall of Famer at a traditional local powerhouse and perennial state playoff contender. The other is guiding a program from the brink of futility back to competing at the highest level of the game.

What ties them together is more than just the sport they coach.

John and Nate Graham are the oldest and youngest sons of longtime Reardan football coach and WIAA Hall of Famer Dan Graham. Both are in their second seasons at the helm of Cheney and Gonzaga Prep, respectively. They have accepted the challenges inherent in each program and helped their teams reach their potential and qualify for the state playoffs.

Gonzaga Prep (9-0), which finished ranked No. 3 in 4A by both the state media and the coach association polls, and No. 4 in the RPI, hosts Sunnyside (4-4) of the Columbia Basin Big 9, on Friday at 6 p.m. Cheney (8-1), ranked No. 8 in 3A by the media and RPI and No. 9 by the coaches, hosts Ferndale (4-5) of the Wesco North Division on Friday at 6 at Roos Field at Eastern Washington University, where John once coached.

Nate took over at G-Prep two years ago after the retirement of longtime coach Dave McKenna, while John succeeded Bobby Byrd who stepped down following an 0-10 season the Blackhawks.

They led their teams this season to the top 4A and 3A seeds from the Greater Spokane League to the state playoffs.

“(John) has had a huge influence on me,” Nate said. “He’s 10 years older than I am, so I remember watching him play at Walla Walla (Community College), watching him play at Central (Washington University). … There is that influence of wanting, you know, that experience with dad, (legendary) Coach (Gene) Smith, and then my experience with John had an influence on decisions I made and wanting to coach.”

John was an assistant coach on defense at Central Washington when Nate was first a backup quarterback for the Wildcats, then a graduate assistant and coach. Both were on staff in 2002 when CWU went undefeated before getting knocked out of the playoffs.

“That was probably even cooler for me, when he coached with us,” John said. “Being in the coach’s office on a daily basis with him … that was probably the funnest part of our years of Central.”

Dan Graham assisted at Reardan from 1975-92 and was head coach from 1993-2003, winning back-to-back state championships his final two seasons. He compiled a 102-22 record while there.

It might seem obvious that the brothers would want to follow in their successful father’s footsteps. But both said their original plans did not include education – or coaching for that matter.

Nate was initially enrolled in the dental program at Central. But when something was meant to be, it usually finds a way to sort itself out in the end.

“I really had no clue what I was doing (in college),” Nate said. “But I’ll always remember going back for Christmas break and (John) was coaching seventh or eighth grade basketball at the time. And he was like, ‘Hey, come over. I need another body.’ All of the sudden, I spent the entire break coaching with him and so that was my start.

“I went back to Central, and that quarter I changed my major to education because I realized I wanted to coach.”

John, who was a finance major until his junior year, tells a similar story. He helped another brother coach an AAU basketball team when he had a quarter off while transferring between Walla Walla CC and Central.

“It was one of the coolest things I’d ever done,” he said. “And got to Central that spring, and was in the business school, but I was sitting there thinking about coaching the whole time.”

By the end of the quarter he had switched his major to education as well.

“I was adamant I wasn’t going to be a teacher,” John said. “Both mom and dad were teachers, and we grew up around it our whole lives. But I just think, internally, being around dad, and then Coach Smith was my coach who’s a Hall of Famer – football, basketball, multiple state titles in both. And so those two were probably more of an influence that I ever thought, and it was always there.”

Many children gravitate toward their parents’ occupations. Sometimes it’s on purpose, sometimes it’s by osmosis.

“When you grew up in Reardan, that’s what you did. You did sports,” John said.

“We lived two blocks away from the school. Dad coached three sports this whole time. We’d get out of school – high school practices were daycare. It was where we went. We didn’t go home, we went to practice. And we hung out the whole time, and we’d come home with dad for dinner and do it all again the next day, the next season. We were ball boys by the time we were in the second grade. That’s all we knew.”

Further proving the point, John’s son Ty – a former player at Idaho and Eastern Washington – is on John’s staff with the Blackhawks.

Now the Graham brothers are imparting the knowledge gained through their mentors of the previous generation on to the new generation of athletes in Spokane and Cheney.

And they root for each other in the weeks they don’t play each other.

“We kind of followed (Cheney) through the schedule,” Nate said. “It would be the next game film we would watch. … It’s how hard they play. By far, they were the most physical team we played.”

“Defensively, they absolutely fly to the football,” John said of the Bullpups. “They’re tough to find ways to move the ball on them.”

It might be otherwise hard to keep up when both are playing Friday night. But with a quirk of the schedule this year G-Prep had a Thursday game, so Nate was able to catch some of Cheney’s win over Mead live, if not in person.

“Our long time offensive line coach Bob Cassano hads it on the radio, and he’s like, ‘They’re gonna beat ‘em,’ ” Nate said. “So we sat there and we listened to the rest of the game on the radio. We were all in the office rooting for Cheney.”

As close as the brothers are, when it comes time to share the field in competition, both rely on the axiom that it’s “like any other game.”

“Football games are so intense,” John said. “And it’s every play. You’ve got to make a call every play. So it doesn’t even come across my mind who’s on the other side of the field.”

“It’s always a little emotional for me before the game,” Nate admitted. It just hits different. But then once you get into that routine, and it’s a routine-based game, where it’s like, ‘All right, here’s our routine. This is what we’re doing.’ “

When the family gets together for holidays or celebrations, the brothers try to avoid “shop talk.”

“We talk about things here and there, but it’s not the main focus. We just love being around each other,” John said.

Both teams had Thursday games in Week 9 to finish the regular season. With a little rare time off in early November the pair were able to share a Saturday morning together.

“We’re in in the duck blind Saturday morning, just sitting there,” John said. “I kind of talked him into going. ‘Let’s just go, just get out there and get our minds clear.’ …We didn’t shoot a duck, but it was a great two or three hours just sitting there enjoying each other’s company.”