For questions or concerns regarding this website please contact our webmaster at: blazewebmaster@gmail.com

Marissa Trias-Ruiz

Marissa, the head coach of our Blaze high school teams, is the founder of and the driving force behind the Blaze Girls Basketball. She was a starting point guard for Meadowdale High School, where she was captain for two years and helped lead the team to three Wesco and Northwest District championships. She was recruited by Seattle University and enjoyed a stand-out college career. While at Seattle U, Marissa earned a degree in civil engineering, with an emphasis on structures and a minor in mathematics. Marissa's non-basketball career is as project engineer/manager for a general contractor, having 4 years of design experience as a structural engineer.
In her first year out of college, Marissa dedicated her evenings to being an assistant coach at North Seattle Community College. She was struck by how many of those members weren't complete knowledgable players. Most could do one or two things well, but clearly had not learned how to be students of the game. Their potential was limited. Remembering how important solid, fundamental coaching during her middle school and high school years was to her game and life skills, Marissa decided to focus on developing school-age girls as all-around top-performance basketball players. In the spring of 2004, she founded Blaze with one team of mixed 6th and 7th graders. The girls, and the organization have thrived under her direction. Marissa and her husband, Manny, live in Lynnwood.

Wes Williams

Wes is the head coach of the Blaze 8th grade team (class of 2014). He began his basketball career as a guard/forward at Banning High School, (Banning, CA) where he was a three sport letterman (football, basketball, & baseball). As starter his junior and senior year (in basketball), Wes was an influential part of the 1982 team which won the Division 2A California State Championship. After high school, he served four years in the Navy where they won the Pacific Coast Armed Forces Basketball Championship in 1986-1987. Wes has been coaching boys and, most recently, girls basketball since 2000. Wes is very dedicated to the fundamentals of basketball, as well as, the work ethic of his players. He is very passionate about coaching and his love for the game.To contact Wes, please call 206-795-2501.