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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 229 - Top 100 Countdown 24-6 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Lynden Senior Brady Elsner and you're listening to the Top one hundred Countdown
• 0:04
  on the Walcome Preps Podcast with Tyler and Ryland. Go Lines, Greetings and
• 0:32
  welcome into the Wacome Preps Podcast. This is episode two hundred and twenty nine,
• 0:36
  the fifth of ten podcasts in the Top one hundred Countdown. I'm Ryland
• 0:40
  Spencer. Along with me as always is Tyler Anderson. What Come Prep?
• 0:45
  Tyler? How we doing? Oo? Win great? It's it is so
• 0:49
  cool. We're getting down to the nitty gritty here. And these are the
• 0:52
  names. These are the no brainers. These are the big time guys here
• 0:55
  that we get to talk about. So hopefully I won't gush too much.
• 0:59
  But and it's a it's a fun group because it's a group of guys that,
• 1:02
  like you expect, it's a group of guys that kind of came out
• 1:04
  of nowhere, guys that had just ginormous senior seasons when they stepped up to
• 1:11
  the plate. And it's a it's a fun group. I'm excited to talk
• 1:12
  about him. And you know, Tyler, I'm looking it over here.
• 1:15
  We might be talking about all ten schools I'm seeing the Linden's. I'm seeing
• 1:22
  a Bellingham, I'm seeing some Looksack Valleys. I'm seeing even nine Ferndales.
• 1:27
  Who we missing? I believe we oh Blaine, nobody from Blaine. Right,
• 1:34
  too bad Blaine. But we've got everybody else on board. I guess
• 1:37
  if you're a Blain fan, don't turn it off though, no, keep
• 1:40
  listening. Do us a favor, keep listening, or if you if you
• 1:42
  don't want to listen, just leave it on and walk away. At this
• 1:45
  point, just let us let us get the uh let us get the average
• 1:48
  listening time up if you can't. Yeah, Tyler, we do need to
• 1:53
  give a thank you to uh mister Brady Elsner for the intro, which you
• 1:57
  know, as I've said before, does kind of ruin it because that means
• 2:00
  we're going to talk about them, because yeah, yeah, why else would
• 2:02
  you do the intro? But yeah, anyway, Tyler, we are counting
• 2:07
  down today twenty four down to six. Yeah, we're getting out of the
• 2:13
  nitty gritty here, which means we have already talked about one hundred down to
• 2:17
  twenty five. That was four separate podcasts. They've they're already up. If
• 2:23
  you want to go listen to those. You know. I wish I would
• 2:27
  have kept it up because I could tell them exactly what numbers to listen to.
• 2:29
  Couldn't I even make it even easier on everybody here, Tyler, let's
• 2:31
  do this right here. If you want to listen to one hundred down to
• 2:36
  twenty five, that would be episodes to twenty one, two twenty three,
• 2:38
  two twenty five and two twenty seven. So all the odd numbers, the
• 2:43
  last four odd numbers right, all the even ones have been the winter weakaps
• 2:46
  we've been doing. Yeah, pretty which, by the way, go listen
• 2:49
  to those two because they're sponsors on there that you know, need to need
• 2:53
  to give them a little love. That being said, Tyler. Anytime Fitness
• 2:58
  is the proud sponsor of the Top one their countdown, visit any of their
• 3:00
  three locations Ferndale, Linden, Linden North. Those are the three locations specifically
• 3:07
  that are sponsoring the Top one hundred countdown. Tyler, when is your next
• 3:10
  visit to one of those three? I will I will walk by the Ferndale
• 3:15
  one soon to walk into edilin Derry. I would imagine, Oh there you
• 3:19
  go. Edelin Dry, proud sponsor of the Walkham Preps and Walkham Preps podcast.
• 3:23
  And what are the they're the scoreboards, right, Yeah, the girls
• 3:28
  and boys basketball scoreboards. They jumped right on that. They were they were
• 3:31
  eager and ready and exciting. And I think that they want to do more
• 3:35
  too. They're really excited to see walk Them Preps grow and be a big
• 3:38
  part of it. Yeah. And if you don't think they're getting their money's
• 3:40
  worth right now with the amount of scoreboards you're putting out, Tyler, I
• 3:45
  mean they are getting their money's worth. That being said, you don't know
• 3:46
  who's not getting their money's worth. Everybody else, well not everybody else anytime?
• 3:51
  Fitness is uh staff for insurance? Is that all the other ones we
• 3:54
  got right now? Right for the winter season? Yeah? Winter? Oh
• 3:59
  and uh the farm Mayberry Farm. Yes. Now that being said, the
• 4:04
  biggest one people are missing out on, Tyler, are these basketball girls and
• 4:09
  boys recaps going up? Because not only they're getting a ton of views like
• 4:14
  on the website, they're getting a ton of views on the social media as
• 4:16
  well. And if somebody wants to do that, Tyler, how do they
• 4:19
  get a hold of you? Yeah, the easiest way is to get a
• 4:21
  hold of me through social media. Just search for walk them preps. You
• 4:26
  can do that through Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and that's just it's
• 4:30
  just really really easy. Just do that, send a direct message and uh
• 4:33
  yeah, just go from there. That's by far the best way. Yeah.
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  And when I say the most views, legitimately right now, the thing
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  that gets the most views on walkom preps is not sponsored. Yeah, I
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  mean, it just is. It's just the you know, long and short
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  of it. I guess if you will, granted the top one hundred countdowns
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  getting some awesome views too, because I've seen some of the numbers there.
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  But those boys and girls basketball recaps, yeah, yeah, missing out there.
• 5:02
  And then what about wrestling? No sponsor for wrestling yet? Nothing yet?
• 5:06
  Somebody wants to hop in on wrestling. Now's a good time to do
• 5:09
  it because we're getting into league play here in a little bit, right,
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  And yeah, it's gonna be a lot of these dual matches going on,
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  and before you know, it's gonna be postseason and the Matt Classic and all
• 5:18
  that's fun. Yeah. And and look, if anybody wants to reach out
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  get a head start on Spring, are there any spring sponsors yet? Yes?
• 5:29
  Stoff for insurance, will be doing track and field, okay, which
• 5:31
  is really cool. And there's a few that have talked to me about baseball
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  and fast pitch. So but I don't know for sure yet what they're gonna
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  do, if they're gonna do recaps, if they're gonna do scoreboards. But
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  I have a few that are very excited about spring, so we'll see.
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  I don't want to spill any beans just yet, but but there'll be I
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  think some people are gonna be jumping on board with that, or they might
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  just jump on one thing and one other thing will open. I'm not quite
• 6:00
  sure yet. So uh, pretty excited about the future with that. Well,
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  hey, and with softball and baseball, Well, first off, isn't
• 6:08
  there also who plays soccer in the spring? Is it girls? Is boys?
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  Softboy? Spring? Yes? Maybe we can get some help with me.
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  Do we need help with boy soccer like some coaches get you know what,
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  do we need that would yes? That would that would be huge.
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  That's something that's been a struggle the last few years is getting info for soccer
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  girls and boys that you know. I've reached I reached out to coaches.
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  I hear back from a couple of them and it just kind of falls apart
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  after like a week, and it's just it's hard to keep that going.
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  You know who used to write articles for me for boy soccer was Addison Shruck
• 6:41
  at you dumb, Yeah, that you dove. Yeah. And so when
• 6:45
  he was a student and he was playing for Squalkum but he was injured and
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  so writing articles for me. And this was before he even played football,
• 6:55
  he ever ever played football. Wasn't even a kicker at the point. He
• 6:58
  was just he was a kicker, but round balls, not alom. Yeah,
• 7:00
  yeah, he was. Yeah. And so when he came out and
• 7:04
  kicked his senior year at Squalcomb, I knew I knew him really well at
• 7:08
  that point, so I was really excited for him and to see where he's
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  gone since since then is really really cooked. And then boys and girls golf
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  too, is just hanging out there. So I'd love to get some help
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  with that and all the information that I could get, the more all put
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  out, because I mean, I'm putting out a lot of stuff every single
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  day and and uh getting messages from people just saying, hey, man,
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  by the by the looks of what you're doing, you're you're working your butt
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  off, thank you very much. I'm getting messages like this all the time,
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  so I think people are noticing, they notice that this is what I'm
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  doing full time. It's not it's not you know a part of the time
• 7:43
  when I'm you know, making the chocolate for years too. Is that if
• 7:46
  yeah, if I make it, if we get it going, like,
• 7:49
  it's gonna go nuts and you are going nuts. That being said, Tyler,
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  there's also I would assume we're gonna have what like a pitch of the
• 8:00
  week, hitter of the week, or you know what i mean, field
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  all the week. I don't even know, you know what I mean.
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  Yeah, there'll there'll definitely be some stuff like that. I'm really really excited.
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  There might be a Game of the Week live broadcast that we were you
• 8:13
  know, maybe maybe talking about sometime. You know, there could be some
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  stuff that'll be really really cool. I love spring sports. I'd love because
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  the weather starts getting nicer. Yeah, you know, I'm doom and gloom.
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  Yeah, I go out to all these games. I'm so I'm super
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  excited about it. Yeah, And it's it's kind of like when Walking Preps
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  first first started. The very first thing I ever wrote about was the Matt
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  Classic from twenty eighteen. I remember Brian Pullman from SQUALKAM one State went and
• 8:46
  sit down with him and we talked about his whole senior season. Kind of
• 8:50
  did like a kind of like a retrospective of that. But I remember I
• 8:52
  got a picture from you at Matt Classic used that that was the first story
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  Walking Preps ever did. And then it was right on to Spring sports.
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  So I jumped right in and it was it was crazy. It was so
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  much stuff. I didn't realize how much goes on in the spring, but
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  it's a lot. Yeah, well and there's a lot to sponsor then,
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  so exactly anybody that wants to get on board. I mean even if you
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  know, even if you don't have a ton of money, reach out to
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  Tyler because he can come up with something, you know what I mean.
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  If oh, yeah, there's there's a way, there's a package, there's
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  something small that you can sponsor and get your name on all this stuff,
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  or you know, name on the website. You know somewhere there's something that
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  we can do. Just reach out to Tyler on any of the social media.
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  So'll get you taken care of that. Being said Tyler, we went
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  way longer on that than I expected, But I think it was good because
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  it was all stuff that you and I haven't even really talked about that much,
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  So that's true. We did get a conversation that you and I probably
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  needed to have out of the way. Yeah, that being said, Tyler,
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  what do you say, let's get into the top twenty or top Well,
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  I guess we're in the top twenty five now, but twenty four down
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  to six? What do you say? Yeah? I love it. Let's
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  do it. Let's see here in at number twenty four in the top one
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  hundre countdown. Six foot two, two hundred and five pounds, left guard
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  and defensive lineman. He's a senior from the Lennon Christian Lynx. It's number
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  fifty four, Malachi of vander May Here. Here's a kid that if you
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  would have asked me before the season started, where do you think he'll be
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  on the top one hundred list? I would have said, do you think
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  he's gonna make the top one hundred list? I mean I seriously, I
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  saw him play a little bit last year, some spot time and stuff like
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  that, and he was, you know, he made some plays here and
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  there, but he can't. I mean, he just shot like a rocket
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  all year. Like I kind of keep a you know, kind of like
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  a tally of certain guys, and I make little certain notes and as I'm
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  watching film, I'll put little stars next to guy almost like little you know,
• 10:41
  buck guys for your helmet, you know, like those were like player
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  rewards. Yeah, yeah, I and I just kind of keep doing it.
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  And he just kind of came out of nowhere and just every single game
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  was was doing great stuff on both sides of the ball and hardly ever came
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  out of the game. And super durable, but also multi talented. Like
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  you know, they play a three down line. He's playing, you know,
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  as a defensive end three technique. But then if they need to sit
• 11:09
  Jeremiah right for a little bit, you know, they could put they can
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  kick him out as an outside linebacker. He just did so many things.
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  He just never left the field and and he was to me, he was
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  their best lineman on both sides of the ball. He was an All Conference
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  first team selection both sides of the ball. I just I just loved what
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  he did. I just I mean, I keep saying it blew me away,
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  but it did. I was not expecting this, and you know,
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  if you go back to the preseason, you know, all all county teams
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  for a second third team, he's nowhere to be found. And it would
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  be completely different if I did a postseason one, because it just it was.
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  It was awesome. Forty six and a half tackles, eleven and a
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  half tackles for loss, one and a half sacks, three forced fumbles,
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  a pass deflection, a fumble recovery, and yeah, the three forced fumbles
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  too that I think that was tied for the lead in the county. And
• 12:05
  they were all like on plays where he would just shoot through and just and
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  hit the running back in the backfield and the ball would pop out, and
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  it just really really great player and from everything I've heard, unbelievable kid,
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  and haven't I haven't gotten to know him. I know, I haven't really
• 12:22
  talked to him that much. But but that's the kind of thing that you
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  love to hear, is when a kid is just a hard worker, a
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  nice kid, and then he goes out and performs the way he did.
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  He had an awesome season this year, number twenty three in the top one
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  hundred countdown six foot, one hundred and sixty five pounds wide receiver and corner.
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  He's a senior from the Linden lines. Number two, the young man
• 12:45
  who gave us the intro, Brady Elson. Yeah, another kid that I
• 12:50
  would have guessed he'd make the top one hundred list, but I would not
• 12:52
  have guessed he would have been this high. They had to replace so many
• 12:56
  receivers and secondary players for Lindon, you know, from last year to this
• 13:01
  year, and I kept thinking of, Okay, who are the guys are
• 13:03
  gonna take that take take those spots? And every time I would talk to
• 13:07
  Linnen players or Lenden coaches about it, the first name they come up,
• 13:11
  they'd always say is Brady Elsner is looking awesome. And I always forget about
• 13:15
  him. I'm like, oh yeah, there's another Elser. I just I
• 13:18
  keep thinking, I keep going, oh yeah, oh yeah. And I
• 13:20
  remember seeing him on special teams last year. He'd come in every once in
• 13:22
  a while as a backup corner. But this year he was, I mean,
• 13:26
  he was the man in that secondary. All Conference first team pick as
• 13:31
  a as a defensive back, he was the second team pick as a wide
• 13:35
  as a wide wide wide receiver. His route running, you know up there
• 13:41
  probably him and Andre Watson the best route runners in Walkin County. Uh and
• 13:46
  he had the specific one against Sedro Wooley to get that two point conversion that
• 13:52
  to you know, basically won them the game. That was just amazing,
• 13:56
  you know, and that's when you you know, Elsner's not going to like
• 14:01
  streak past pe guys with this unbelievable speed, but if you can, if
• 14:05
  you can get open in that specific amount of time with just a move or
• 14:09
  something. And he's a phenomenal basketball player, and so you can kind of
• 14:13
  see that on the football field where he knows how to read a guy that's
• 14:16
  guarding him and get him and shake him a little bit, and it just
• 14:20
  it worked so well. Thirty seven catches on the year, five hundred and
• 14:24
  eight yards, nine touchdowns. Defensively, nineteen and a half tackles, two
• 14:28
  fumble recoveries that returned for fifty nine yards, three interceptions that returned for fifty
• 14:33
  eight yards. He had ten kickoff returns for two hundred yards, four punt
• 14:39
  returns for forty one yards. Rarely, rarely, rarely came off the field,
• 14:45
  kind of a coach on the field type of player. I could definitely
• 14:48
  see him becoming a coach someday and either football or basketball. And another great
• 14:54
  kid that I've recently got to talk to a little bit here and there through
• 14:58
  social media on the bast faketball court and yeah, just you know, it
• 15:03
  comes from a great family of just the sports driven family and an awesome player
• 15:07
  and an awesome kid. Now, Tyler, do you want to mention to
• 15:11
  me or do you want to mention to the people what you told me a
• 15:13
  little bit earlier? Yeah, well I did met I did notice on Facebook,
• 15:18
  and I've seen all these Elsner's come through the program. And you know,
• 15:24
  Dad Mike Elsner was an awesome player at Bellingham High School. He was
• 15:28
  a great basketball coach. I think he played basketball, Western basketball coach at
• 15:33
  Nook Sack. Now he's an assistant at at Lyndon. And Mom Chris Elsner
• 15:39
  longtime volleyball coach at Lindon. She's the main person responsible for me, you
• 15:45
  know, getting all the contacts and making sure that I was getting all the
• 15:48
  volleyball stats this year, which is amazing. Uh. And the three boys
• 15:52
  named Kobe, Jordan, and Brady, so definitely big time sports fans football
• 15:58
  and basketball. So uh, that's that's that's a pretty cool thing. And
• 16:03
  I just it never hit me until just a few days ago when I saw
• 16:06
  the Christmas card on Facebook and and uh, then it finally made all the
• 16:10
  sense in the world to me. Let's see here, number twenty two in
• 16:14
  the top one hundred countdown, six foot one eighty five wide receiver and corner.
• 16:18
  He has never excuse me, let's go back. He's a senior from
• 16:22
  lynnon Christian number eleven. Dawson Balma. Yeah, holy cow, uh workout
• 16:30
  wonder I mean watching him on the basketball court, he looks like a grown
• 16:34
  man, Like he looks like he could probably bench four hundred pounds. I
• 16:37
  don't think he can, but he has just ripped to shreds and he as
• 16:42
  as but he carries it really well. Like you remember, like David Boston,
• 16:47
  you know, the wide receiver that was like two hundred and fifty pounds.
• 16:48
  He was he got too muscular to play receiver. It just didn't happened
• 16:53
  to a few guys that got like too big and then became kind of like
• 16:56
  a split y in a way. Yeah right, And and Dawson Bauma,
• 17:02
  it did not hinder him at all. Still had great speed, great athleticism.
• 17:08
  You know, can can fly, can you know, jump out of
• 17:11
  the gym, and but used all that stuff in a great way on the
• 17:19
  on the football field, a guy that can get open, can out jump,
• 17:26
  a guy can run past the guy. Emergency quarterback type of player,
• 17:30
  uh, you know, lockdown corner, awesome return man, everything. Another
• 17:34
  guy that rarely left the field had I would say a breakout year. I
• 17:41
  mean he didn't play as much as a junior and was really counted upon to
• 17:45
  be a big time player this year on both sides of the ball. He
• 17:48
  was named All Conference first team both sides of the ball, which is a
• 17:52
  huge deal, and just made a ton of plays. Thirty five catches for
• 17:57
  five hundred and seventy seven yards and six touchdowns. He completed a thirty eight
• 18:02
  yard touchdown pass against Mount Baker on the first play from scrimmage. Defensively,
• 18:06
  forty five and a half tackles from a cornerback spot, which is a really
• 18:10
  high number, so very very physical tackler, very aggressive player on the corner.
• 18:15
  One and a half tackles for lost, seven passes, broken up two
• 18:18
  forced fumbles. He also intercepted four passes for forty three yards returned ten kickoffs
• 18:23
  for one hundred and ninety three yards, and he was the conference the county's
• 18:27
  leading punt returner eight punt returns for one hundred and fifty one yards and a
• 18:32
  touchdown. So he scored a touchdown three different ways, well, I mean
• 18:36
  three different kind of phases. Threw one, caught one, and returned one.
• 18:41
  But just the physical change that went just in his body, just working
• 18:48
  out going to the gym from sophomore to senior year was one of the biggest
• 18:55
  night and day transformations I have ever seen. And it, like I said
• 19:00
  earlier, it worked out in the best way possible. And he's a kid
• 19:03
  that I mean if he if I think, if he wanted to, he
• 19:07
  could go play somewhere. I don't know. I think basketball might be where
• 19:11
  it takes him. But it's you know, just awesome, awesome athlete and
• 19:19
  a guy that you had to always be aware of on both sides of the
• 19:23
  field and in the kicking game, kicking to him was not a good idea,
• 19:26
  so you know, you always had to be aware of him every single
• 19:30
  play he was in. Yeah, and you mentioned the basketball side of things,
• 19:33
  Tyler, I know we don't normally want to do this because we are
• 19:36
  recording the day after Christmas. Is that Boxing day in Canada, Boxing Day.
• 19:41
  Yeah, we are recording then. But and this isn't coming out for
• 19:45
  another what like two weeks. But as of right now, he's number two
• 19:48
  in the counting scoring right, Yeah, and he's the leading three point shooter
• 19:53
  too, over fifty three percent I think from three lord. So, I
• 19:57
  mean, it's just the crazy thing is is I mean the fun I mean,
• 20:03
  it's it's crazy watching him play because he'll just he'll dribble into the lane
• 20:08
  and then he'll pull up from like fifteen feet and just jump where everybody's head
• 20:12
  is like at his waist. So he just he has got like a I
• 20:15
  don't know, I don't know what his vertical is, but it's got to
• 20:18
  be over three feet and he'll just hop he'll just jump way up in the
• 20:22
  air. And I could I have so many of these great pictures of him
• 20:25
  just way above everybody with perfect form, and he just he makes that shot
• 20:29
  every single time. And nobody takes those shots. Everyone's going for a land
• 20:33
  or a three pointer, and he takes those mid range shots and he makes
• 20:37
  them all the time, and and uh, it's just a real he's just
• 20:40
  a great He's just a great athlete. You know. He also won a
• 20:44
  you know, uh, the basketball boys Basketball Player of the Week in week
• 20:48
  three. It's just it's just awesome. He's just so fun to watch.
• 20:53
  Yeah, And I was looking at the other ones, Tyler, And by
• 20:56
  the way, if somebody wanted to sponsor the sponsor the scoring leaders, they
• 21:00
  could easily do it. Sure. But I was looking over that and I
• 21:03
  saw the assist leaders, Brady Elisner, Nolan Wright, Bishop Bootsie. I'm
• 21:07
  seeing all kinds of football names here. Kayden Stite on the rebounding, Cayden
• 21:12
  Site leading the rebounding, Braddock Duckworth, Brady Ackerman. I mean, I'm
• 21:17
  seeing all these names. I'm sitting there going this is like I'm looking at
• 21:18
  football stuff here, man. Oh, totally totally. Yeah, just tons
• 21:22
  of them all over the place. And they could use a sponsor. That
• 21:26
  being said, number twenty one in the top one hundred countdown, six foot
• 21:30
  one and eighty pounds wide receiver and corner. He is a senior from Bellingham.
• 21:34
  It's number fourteen, a guy who definitely wasn't on any of the preseason
• 21:40
  stuff. Whyattstefan. You got that right. He wasn't even he wasn't even
• 21:42
  at practice, and I was getting headshot. I was about to say it
• 21:45
  was even on the preseason roster. No, definitely not. He was on
• 21:51
  coach Leonard's radar, but that's about it. He was not at practice.
• 21:56
  I got his I saw his first ever game, and it was against South
• 22:00
  Widby. I was there and he went off and I first thing I did
• 22:07
  when I ran down to the field was I gotta find fourteen and get a
• 22:11
  picture of him. Yeah, because you're starting to think like me, it
• 22:15
  was. Yeah, it was. It was. It was so unbelievable to
• 22:18
  see and and his next six games there was no drop off. There was
• 22:25
  there was only it just got better and better. I mean he caught five
• 22:30
  touchdown passes in one game and that was I think in his third game ever
• 22:33
  played. And uh, and did it on the road, rainy, rainy
• 22:41
  conditions and uh and that tidle Walking County record just just absolutely phenomenal athletic ability.
• 22:53
  I heard one local athlete, I'm not gonna say who it is,
• 22:57
  but he's regarded as one of the best athletes in Walka County. He said
• 23:03
  when asked, you know who's the best athlete in Walka County, thinking he's
• 23:07
  gonna say him, he goes, oh, it's why it Stefan. It's
• 23:11
  it's just crazy. You know how he took to football and made it look
• 23:17
  easy, and it's you know, you and I both know it's not easy,
• 23:21
  but he he's just so athletic that it was. It was awesome and
• 23:26
  and yeah, you could look at these numbers and everything, and they're really
• 23:30
  gaudy. I mean, thirty two catches for eight hundred and twenty nine yards
• 23:33
  and twelve touchdowns, but his blocking was unbelievable, just physical and that stuff
• 23:41
  that you know, you and I have talked about. When you get a
• 23:44
  guy that comes out to football late, the one cool thing is that he
• 23:47
  hasn't developed any bad habits yet and you can teach him to block. You
• 23:51
  can say, hey, go down and block on a running play. Okay,
• 23:53
  I'll do it. But when you've got a guy that's been playing receiver
• 23:56
  since second grade, you know, you could say, okay, go down
• 24:00
  there and block, and he's like, yeah, that's when I take plays
• 24:02
  off. You know, it's a he And so you take a kid that's
• 24:06
  that physical and that strong and and wants to win and he'll go block.
• 24:11
  It's amazing and and it was huge. I mean you look at like you
• 24:15
  look at any running back that's averaging over nine yards of carry, and you
• 24:19
  will find some downfield blocking. And uh, you know, and with Holden
• 24:26
  Bates averaging nine yards of carry, a lot of it is due to the
• 24:29
  downfield blocking. Of why Stefan didn't play very much defense, I mean hardly
• 24:33
  at all. I would say he was in on less than five percent of
• 24:37
  the defensive plays on the season. But he did go out there and make
• 24:41
  an interception and return at twenty three yards. They had him return kicks just
• 24:45
  in the last two games of the year, just to kind of try something,
• 24:48
  and of course he only returned two kickoffs, but one of them went
• 24:52
  for a touchdown. And it just so much. I mean, he's just
• 24:56
  scratching the surface. You're talking about those leaders on the basketball leaders. Yeah,
• 25:00
  he's up there and assists, steals a free throw percentage. You know,
• 25:07
  he just scored twenty seven the other night. Again, I know we're
• 25:10
  you know, if you're listening to this now, it happened a couple weeks
• 25:11
  ago, but a lot of fun to watch on the basketball court, very
• 25:15
  similar to Dawson Bama, where he'll just pull up, you know, jump
• 25:19
  thirty eight forty inches in the air and hit a you know, just a
• 25:23
  straight up jumper from eighteen feet and a lot of a lot of fun to
• 25:27
  watch. And a really humble kid, like he's not bragadocious at all.
• 25:33
  Super cool and just glad, just glad that he turned out for football.
• 25:40
  It was it was a little late, but you know, with him,
• 25:44
  he only played seven games. They went six and one with them, and
• 25:48
  the only loss they had with him was a last second field goal on the
• 25:52
  road. So a big time difference maker and a lot of fun to watch.
• 25:57
  Number twenty in the top one of her countdowns, six foot two and
• 26:00
  ninety pounds guard, defensive lineman. He's a senior from the Linden Lions at
• 26:07
  number seventy. Bennett rorda Yeah, long time starter on the offensive line for
• 26:11
  Lindon, has been doing it since his sophomore year. Two state championships under
• 26:18
  his belt as a starter for that team at right guard. Got moved to
• 26:22
  left guard this year. You know, that's a position that Linden offensive line.
• 26:27
  You're asked to play left guard. They want a lot out of you,
• 26:33
  especially in the run game, and he delivered. A great kid,
• 26:38
  really thoughtful answers to questions when you ask him, You're when like when I've
• 26:44
  interviewed him, I'll ask him a question a question and he'll kind of breathe
• 26:48
  in exhale, kind of maybe close his eyes, maybe look up, and
• 26:52
  then he'll give a thoughtful answer. And you just don't see that very often.
• 26:56
  Just a really good, thoughtful kid. One of the few kids that's
• 27:02
  not on Instagram. You don't see that very often. So he's just he's
• 27:04
  kind of a throwback kind of player. Yeah, and it's it's you know,
• 27:11
  there's all there is a lot of these things that's really unique about him
• 27:14
  that I've really liked over the years. Uh, and just a great,
• 27:18
  great run blocker. They near the end of the year, especially in the
• 27:22
  playoffs, they they would start to put him in a little bit here and
• 27:26
  there at nose tackle on like you know, third and short type situations or
• 27:30
  maybe inside the five situations where they just needed some bulk inside. And he
• 27:34
  did get three tackles and very limited amount of action, but mostly an offensive
• 27:40
  lineman at left guard. Just was was was great quick on his feet,
• 27:44
  especially for his size. I mean I think he was like six two two
• 27:48
  ninety as a sophomore. I was hoping he'd get to be about six five
• 27:52
  three twenty by the time he was a senior, but he stayed the same
• 27:55
  size. But he just got better and better, and he got more physical,
• 27:57
  he got more athletic, and it was great to see his career blossom
• 28:03
  the way it did. Andy was named All Conference first team this year,
• 28:06
  which was really really cool to see because he worked hard all year for that
• 28:11
  and was a big part of these state championship teams where there was no All
• 28:14
  league honors for him, and but to be recognized this year as an All
• 28:18
  Conference first team offensive lineman, that says a lot about his play and he
• 28:22
  did a great job. Number nineteen and the top one hundred count down,
• 28:26
  five foot nine and seventy eight pounds, a running back and outside linebacker senior
• 28:32
  from Nuksack Valley. It's number five, Skyler Wittern. Yeah, I another
• 28:38
  kid where I would not have guessed he'd probably be in the top, you
• 28:42
  know, twenty, But I'm not surprised either. It's it's kind of a
• 28:48
  weird, kind of give and take. Like the reason why I would have
• 28:52
  said I don't think he would have been was because I just don't know if
• 28:55
  he would have got the reps to be recognized that high. But I'm not
• 28:59
  so prize because I'm thinking, I was like, if you give him one
• 29:02
  hundred carries, he's gonna go off. There were a handful of games where
• 29:07
  he would have less than ten carries, but he'd have the most rushing yards
• 29:11
  for the game, you know, on his team. And you know,
• 29:15
  and I'm looking at the Knooksack record book and what what I call it,
• 29:18
  like if you yards per rushing in a single game to break, you know,
• 29:25
  to to be to have an entry for that, you have to have
• 29:27
  at least ten carries in that game. You know. You can't have like
• 29:32
  two carries for ninety yards and average forty five, you know what I mean.
• 29:34
  So you have to have at least ten carries in a game. And
• 29:40
  there was there was I mean I think there was a game where he had
• 29:41
  like four carries and he had like one hundred and seventy yards, you know.
• 29:45
  So it's it's just crazy. And it wasn't like it wasn't like they,
• 29:49
  oh, we only plan to give it to him four times. He
• 29:52
  just played in four series where he just busted for a long run every time,
• 29:57
  and on like one carry a series. I think he had three touchdowns
• 30:00
  in that game. So it's just that was his series and he just did
• 30:06
  it all on one carry. I don't know if I've ever seen a player
• 30:10
  his size and his build that could break tackles the way he does. I
• 30:15
  don't know how he does it. It's like he's carrying the ball for the
• 30:19
  last time in his life and he's like, it's okay, here's a great
• 30:25
  analogy. I don't know if you'll remember this. You might, but I
• 30:27
  don't know if people other people will. But when people say the name mark
• 30:33
  Ingram, a lot of people think of, you know, the running back
• 30:34
  Alabama, right that should not have won the Heisman, As you say,
• 30:37
  yeah, yeah, so right. But when I think of mark Ingram,
• 30:42
  I think of his dad. That was a receiver for the Giants and in
• 30:45
  the in the twenty in the Super Bowl twenty five, the Giants builds Super
• 30:49
  Bowl, the Scott Norwood Super Bowl. There was a play where it was
• 30:56
  like third and seventeen or something like that, and Hostain hit ingram On like
• 31:02
  a ten yard slant or something like that, and that what he did after
• 31:06
  that play to make sure he got the first down was incredible. He just
• 31:10
  kept making moves, breaking tackles. He's like and he was one of the
• 31:12
  seas, like the smallest guy on the field. And what he did to
• 31:17
  actually end up getting the first down on that play, it's because he knew
• 31:21
  exactly where he needed to get to. That's how Skyler Wittern runs every time.
• 31:25
  It's almost like it is first and goal or second in goal or third
• 31:30
  and goal every time he carries the ball. I don't know how else to
• 31:33
  explain it. It's like to get a first down, he has to score
• 31:36
  a touchdown. And that's the way he ran. It was unbelievable to watch.
• 31:41
  Averaged over ten yards of carry on the season. I think it was
• 31:44
  ten and a half. He was flirting most of the year with breaking the
• 31:48
  all time record for yards per carry in a season in Walking County history.
• 31:52
  An incredible year as the backup one hundred and thirteen carries for one two hundred
• 32:00
  thirty two yards and sixteen touchdowns. He also caught two passes for nine yards,
• 32:04
  and then on defense he had thirty four tackle thirty four and a half
• 32:09
  tackles, five tackles for loss, two sacks, one pass deflection, and
• 32:15
  two fumble recoveries. Just glad that he got to play relatively injury free his
• 32:21
  senior year. That was kind of a little bit of a problem as a
• 32:23
  junior. I thought he was used extremely well as a great compliment to Colton
• 32:29
  Lentz going back and forth, they could spell each other a little bit.
• 32:34
  Oh man, what it was just so fun to just watch him run the
• 32:39
  ball and fight for every not every yard, but every inch. I mean
• 32:45
  it was you know, I just if every other running back ran like that,
• 32:50
  it would be a crazy game to watch. So what an unbelievable season.
• 32:54
  And how about this named All Conference First Team as a running back as
• 32:59
  a backup, So that says a lot. Great great year and great way
• 33:02
  to cap off his career. Yeah, that's a really hard thing to do.
• 33:07
  If you're not the starter and there isn't an injury or something that like
• 33:12
  turns you into the starter, then yeah. Wild number eighteen on the top
• 33:16
  one hundred countdown, six foot six, two hundred and twenty pounds. He's
• 33:21
  a quarterback, just a junior from the Linden Lions. It's number six Brant
• 33:24
  Heppner. Yeah, and if you're looking at projections, yeah, he's definitely
• 33:30
  not number eighteen. No, But but you know it's it was I you
• 33:36
  know, you could look at it and go, well, he kind of
• 33:37
  had a down year. Well, if you look at wins and losses,
• 33:42
  yeah, they lost a few and they didn't go as far as they they
• 33:45
  had gone. He still put up really good numbers and he had, you
• 33:49
  know, some adversity early on. It was there was a little bit of
• 33:52
  accuracy issues. He hurt his ankle midway through the season, and you know,
• 33:59
  it could he could run as much. But when you look at the
• 34:01
  overall, you know, if you look at it overall, after the season's
• 34:06
  over, you look at the numbers and go, he's still accounted for thirty
• 34:08
  four touchdowns. You know, it's just like holy cow. And he was
• 34:15
  I don't know if he was really I mean maybe there was a few weeks
• 34:16
  where he was kind of in the running for Offensive Player of the week.
• 34:19
  You know, there was a there was that one game where I think he
• 34:21
  threw for four touchdowns and ran for a couple or something like that. But
• 34:24
  but it was. It was almost like an under the radar year for him
• 34:29
  a little bit. And I think it's like a huge game. It was
• 34:31
  always just steady Eddy. Yeah, And I think and I think there I
• 34:36
  think other some people that that maybe don't know the style of play that Lindon
• 34:40
  has that or people that are looking from way out beyond or are kind of
• 34:45
  going where where's I don't where's his numbers at? I don't, you know,
• 34:49
  But he's he just wants to win. He just wants to put his
• 34:53
  team in the best position to win. You know, they were they were
• 34:58
  a game was removed from them, the Berlin in games, So that takes
• 35:00
  away some numbers there. And but man still one hundred and thirteen completions for
• 35:07
  one nine and eight yards and twenty two touchdowns. That's pretty darn good passing
• 35:12
  the ball, ninety eight carries for three hundred and eighty six yards and twelve
• 35:15
  touchdowns on the ground. All Conference second team selection as a quarterback. But
• 35:21
  boy, you know, that's who I want back there, you know,
• 35:25
  if I if I need to, if I need if it's third and eight,
• 35:30
  and that's he can see everything. He's got a great delivery. He's
• 35:36
  very accurate. He can smart breaks down. That's the yeah. And that's
• 35:39
  the other thing is that you know, three or four steps and he's got
• 35:44
  that first down, those long lunges. He's not breaking away from people,
• 35:49
  but he knows when to use his speeds. Very different than Josh Kraft obviously,
• 35:52
  and a lot of these his size though, don't move that well,
• 35:57
  you know what I mean, And like like Casey Bauman moved well, you
• 36:00
  know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, but like Jacob Eason, same
• 36:04
  same height and size. Really yeah, actually Jacob was probably even skinnier.
• 36:07
  But but yeah, I mean he didn't move like Brent Hepner. I mean
• 36:12
  Bran Hepner. You know, you don't want him to have to run,
• 36:16
  but if you need him to extend the play a little bit and keep his
• 36:20
  eyes down field and make a throw, or if you need him to to
• 36:23
  run a QB draw, you know what I mean, or or a QB
• 36:27
  power you know, something like, Yeah, he's absolutely more than capable of
• 36:30
  running the football. Yeah, inside the three yard line, it's the defense
• 36:35
  knows what's coming and it don't matter, and it does not it does absolutely
• 36:38
  does not matter. He has a way of extending all his whole frame and
• 36:44
  getting that getting that touchdown. And that's not from under center, right,
• 36:49
  No, No, that's from the shotguns. So it's not your it's not
• 36:52
  your brotherly shove or your tush push whatever they want to call it. Or
• 36:54
  I heard somebody now that Seattle's done it. A couple of times they called
• 36:58
  it the uh the what what they call it? It was something happened to
• 37:00
  do with grunge, the grunge plunge, that's what they were calling it.
• 37:07
  Oh man, that's that's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, you're right.
• 37:12
  I mean he'll he goes back in shotgun and he's got to like fullbacks
• 37:15
  almost on either side of him before he gets to the yeah, and it's
• 37:21
  and it's just three steps and there he goes, you know, and and
• 37:24
  uh and and but there's all these other intangibles about him, like as a
• 37:29
  leader, as a person, another great kid that will always come up to
• 37:32
  me, shake my hand. Did it at Eastern Camp? You know?
• 37:36
  Doesn't he goes out of his way to appreciate other people for what they do.
• 37:42
  And that's just that goes so far in my book. You know,
• 37:49
  He's just it's just those kinds of things and just to think, oh,
• 37:53
  he's only a junior, My goodness, it's uh, it's there's no you
• 38:00
  know, there's there's no surprise that you know, he's has four state championships
• 38:06
  already in different sports, you know, and he's aiming for more. So
• 38:10
  I think that I think that because of just who he is as a person
• 38:17
  and what he's been able to accomplish athletically, whatever he does after high school
• 38:22
  is going to be is going to be a positive for people, for other
• 38:27
  you know, everything involved. He's just one of those types of people that
• 38:30
  can can make everybody around him better, whether that's going to be sports at
• 38:36
  the next level or in business or whatever he does. Uh, he's that's
• 38:40
  that's a person that people are going to gravitate towards and and he's going to
• 38:44
  make them better. Number seventeen on the top one hundred countdown. Five foot
• 38:47
  nine and eighty pounds wide receiver, outside linebacker, a senior from the Bellingham
• 38:53
  BayHawks and probably the guy I picked most in our fantasy pick'ems. It's number
• 38:59
  five. Josh Tole. Yeah, another kid that if I would I would
• 39:04
  have probably predicted he'd be in the top one hundred, even though I'd never
• 39:07
  seen him ever put on a football helmet my life. Yeah, well you
• 39:10
  knew. I just they were going to try to get him the ball because
• 39:13
  he's absolute it. But there's no way you thought top twenty. No,
• 39:17
  definitely, not, definitely not. I just knew that he was going to
• 39:22
  be a main focal point of the offense. That's was about it. I
• 39:25
  knew he was very athletic. I remember Cody Tole, who I believe was
• 39:30
  his older brother, was, you know, a baseball player, football player,
• 39:34
  played quarterback. Remember him and Morgan Cavalier going back and forth at quarterback
• 39:37
  and receiver. Good player. Yeah, yeah, So I kind of knew
• 39:43
  there was some background there. But then when I saw him in person the
• 39:46
  first time, and I saw the build and I saw like the triceps and
• 39:52
  I saw everything, I was like, oh boy, he's not built like
• 39:54
  a normal high school wide receiver. And so I was really intrigued. I
• 40:00
  was super excited. I was there for week one and he got hurt like
• 40:07
  on the first series and he was out for the rest of the game,
• 40:08
  and I was and I didn't know with the seriousness, and I thought,
• 40:10
  oh man, I'm never gonna be able to see him play the stinks like.
• 40:15
  I was so excited and and then he but he toughs it out for
• 40:20
  Week two. I was there for that one as well, at least I
• 40:22
  was there for the think for the first half, and and he was making
• 40:28
  plays with you know, guys are covering him that were like six one six
• 40:31
  ' two, and he's out jumping them, he's out running them, he's
• 40:35
  out mood, he's out maneuvering them. And I was like, Okay,
• 40:37
  this kid is for real. And then it was just every week he just
• 40:40
  put up these big, big numbers and started breaking his own school records that
• 40:45
  he was breaking earlier in the year. And it's just unbelievable numbers wise,
• 40:52
  crazy year. Seventy five catches for one thousand and forty yards and twelve touchdowns,
• 41:00
  just crazy crazy. I can't it's been a while since someone's had that
• 41:05
  many catches in a season for walkin County. You'd have to go back to
• 41:08
  I think Jordan Wittenberg had he had eighty seven, I believe his senior year,
• 41:15
  and that's the Walking County record. It was either eighty four eighty seven,
• 41:20
  it's somewhere around there. But and I think that's the last time,
• 41:22
  so it's been close to ten years since a player has split up those kinds
• 41:28
  of numbers. I actually think Jordan did that as a junior because they went
• 41:31
  to the state championship his junior year. But yeah, just just numbers that
• 41:38
  his catches, his yards, his touchdowns, all of them broke school records
• 41:44
  for a single season. And then on defense, you know, playing outside
• 41:47
  linebacker, not a defensive back, not built like one, built like a
• 41:52
  linebacker. Nineteen tackles, two tackles for lost, three passes broken up,
• 41:55
  a forced fumble, a sack, a fumble recovery. He had two interceptions
• 41:59
  for twenty four four yards. And this is a guy that played less than
• 42:02
  half the snaps on defense. You know, he didn't he wasn't He wasn't
• 42:07
  like a main defensive player. He wasn't a starter. He'd be out there
• 42:10
  every once in a while, but he wasn't like, you know, out
• 42:14
  there constantly, and to put up those kinds of numbers. He had a
• 42:16
  pick six that was called back on a crazy play. He also returned to
• 42:20
  kickoff for a touchdown in his final game of his career. And this is
• 42:24
  a kid that is still working out like crazy. Really wants to play college
• 42:29
  football. I want to say Montana. Uh uh which Montana? I think
• 42:36
  Montana North? Is it northern or northern? Also it's up and hav for
• 42:39
  Montana, the one where Gabato went, that would be northern. Yeah,
• 42:44
  And I think, I hope I'm not getting this wrong, but I think
• 42:47
  they might want him to play running back. It makes sense. He's got
• 42:51
  more of a running back build. He definitely does. It's like a Bumgardner
• 42:54
  from Stanwood. Yes, he does. He absolutely And that's like and I
• 43:02
  would tell him, like if he has reservations about that, I would say,
• 43:06
  dude, every running back is catching passes now, I mean you have
• 43:08
  to be able to. And he's very good. He caught probably forty passes
• 43:15
  thirty but I'd say thirty at least thirty behind the line of scrimmage. So
• 43:21
  that's what running backs do. And then you just make moves after that,
• 43:23
  make guys miss great tackles, and he can do all those things. I
• 43:28
  think he'd be fantastic at it. He has the desire to do it.
• 43:31
  And again, another guy so thankful. He turned out for football his senior
• 43:36
  year and was a big, big part of how far they went, Tyler,
• 43:39
  you mentioned the receptions in a season, so I was just curious,
• 43:44
  I want to see what the state record is. Oh jeez, well,
• 43:47
  there's been five guys get over one hundred in a season or one hundred or
• 43:52
  more. Right, Sawyer Rakinelli, who we all remember in twenty eighteen,
• 43:59
  he had exactly one hundred and fourteen games. Kramer Ferrell of Ellensburg in two
• 44:04
  thousand and nine had one hundred and two and thirteen games. Cody Bruns from
• 44:08
  Prossers in twenty and six had one hundred and nine in thirteen games, and
• 44:15
  then it just goes nuts, all right. So first off, the all
• 44:20
  time the number one is Kirby Moore, which probably surprises nobody. From Prosser
• 44:23
  two thousand and eight. He had one hundred and thirty one receptions in fourteen
• 44:28
  games. But Tyler, he doesn't have the most receptions like average, because
• 44:34
  the guy that's second to him has one hundred and twenty six receptions in twelve
• 44:39
  games. Ten and a half. Yeah, Jeff Frichman from Lake Washington,
• 44:45
  who I remember, he was a couple of years behind me, But Jeff
• 44:47
  Frichman from Lake Washington, and so then I was like, all right,
• 44:51
  Well, let's see what it is for a game, all right? Yeah,
• 44:54
  Kirby Moore in two thousand and eight had had eighteen. Mike Riguel from
• 45:00
  Lakes who I believe was the last head coach at Simon Fraser before they got
• 45:02
  rid of football, he had eighteen and nineteen ninety five. Jeff Frichman had
• 45:07
  nineteen in two thousand and three. Jason Butler from Eastside Catholic who was tremendous
• 45:12
  athlete, he had twenty in two thousand and five. And then see if
• 45:15
  you remember this name, Tyler Keyante Bankhead, Yes, from Ballard. Yes,
• 45:22
  he had twenty two in two thousand and three. And I could be
• 45:23
  wrong. No, I'm pretty sure I'm right. Do you happen to know
• 45:29
  who his head coach would have been at Ballard? Yes, the name that
• 45:36
  I think only coached maybe a couple of years at Bellingham. Oh. Oh,
• 45:44
  and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was him.
• 45:46
  Oh. Man, I can see his face. He was an assistant the
• 45:52
  last few years out at Squalcum too. Oh. If it's the same person
• 45:58
  I'm thinking of, why can't I think of his name? Man? Doug
• 46:02
  Truit, Doug Trainer, Thank you. Yeah, he was at Pelly h
• 46:06
  for probably seven years. He was there for quite a while. That's pretty
• 46:09
  cool. Yeah, he's the back of a coach. Everywhere he went.
• 46:13
  He ended up winning games like found one games. It was crazy. Yeah.
• 46:16
  Yeah. And just to give you us a little bit more perspective here,
• 46:20
  Kirby Moore his his two thousand and eight season. Yeah, he also
• 46:23
  had in fourteen games twenty and twenty six yards just stupid, you know what
• 46:30
  I mean. Just but the crazy thing is all those yards and he's not
• 46:34
  even in the top five of receiving in one game. Yeah, it was
• 46:38
  just constant that Robert George all the way back to nineteen eighty six, three
• 46:44
  hundred and fifty eight yards from tom Owens of Peninsula. Yeah, which no
• 46:49
  idea who that guy is. But how how up to date are those records?
• 46:53
  Because I thought a Mecca Abuka caught a ton against Tumwater in the state
• 47:00
  championship. I don't think he had that many. I thought he had like
• 47:04
  eighteen, did he I thought he did, but maybe yeah, I thought
• 47:09
  he had a ton but they lost, right, yeah, they did lose.
• 47:13
  Yeah, but he he completely went off and I because I remember he
• 47:16
  had that just ridiculous one handed catch. Yeah, like ridiculous, ridiculous one
• 47:22
  handed catch, one of those ones where you just go that's not normal.
• 47:24
  You know. By the way, I've seen a bunch of NFL Draft you
• 47:29
  know, oh, sure draft, he's in. He's in the first round,
• 47:31
  and like all of them. Yeah, I noticed him, and him
• 47:36
  and J T. Twoey Moloau from East Side Catholic, who both are at
• 47:38
  Ohio State by the way, right not saying they wouldn't look good at you
• 47:43
  dub right now. Man. And then there's another young man and I can't
• 47:46
  think of his name off the top of my head, but he played at
• 47:49
  Mount Tahoma and he's projected to be a first rounder from Oregon State offensive lineman.
• 47:54
  I cannot think of his name, but he was like an Alaskan kid
• 47:58
  or something, if I remember correctly. Anyway, let's talk about number sixteen
• 48:00
  on the top one hundred countdown, six foot two, fifteen running back linebacker.
• 48:06
  He's a junior from Ferndale, number thirty one at talon bunt guard.
• 48:09
  Yeah. I think the most surprising of all that is he's a junior.
• 48:14
  It's crazy to think he's going to be back for another year was the workhorse
• 48:19
  of the Walkham County workhorse this year. I almost want to get that sponsored.
• 48:22
  The guy who carries the ball the most one hundred and eighty four carries
• 48:24
  on the year, one thousand and seventy three yards and thirteen touchdowns. You
• 48:30
  could almost stamp it every year that Ferndale is going to have a thousand yard
• 48:34
  rusher. I just I was concerned this year that I didn't know either who
• 48:38
  it was going to be or if it was going to happen. And Talon
• 48:42
  bunng Guard just kind of took over that full back role and made it his
• 48:47
  and was huge right right off the bat. I mean that for Game one
• 48:52
  against Linden, I mean I think he was. I think he was either
• 48:58
  he was I think he might have been Offensive Player of the Week in Week
• 49:00
  one where he's like twenty eight carries for one hundred and thirty seven yards and
• 49:05
  just a just a big time workhorse in that game. And he just did
• 49:07
  that the rest of the season. Nothing really special about him running the ball
• 49:13
  as far as you know, he's not gonna make you make make comparisons to
• 49:17
  Barry Sanders or anything like that, but he always always always has that forward
• 49:22
  lean, which you love in a power back and of running back with no
• 49:27
  nonsense on dives and traps and stuff like that. Uh, he's you know,
• 49:32
  he's very good at he can move. He can make that one shift,
• 49:37
  you know, to get the extra couple of yards, maybe even five
• 49:40
  yards to a guy who's uh, you know, just kind of making that
• 49:45
  diagonal shift a little bit. He's not gonna bounce it way outside, but
• 49:47
  he can shift diagonally a little bit to get those extra yards. Very very
• 49:52
  strong, good receiver out of the backfield. And you mentioned him as a
• 49:57
  linebacker too. He was All Conference first team line his second team running back,
• 50:01
  first team linebacker. So as a nose for the ball. Had five
• 50:06
  fumble recoveries last year to lead walkin County. This year, forty one and
• 50:09
  a half tackles, six tackles for lost, two sacks, a pass deflected,
• 50:14
  and an interception. Also caught seven passes for seventy nine yards and two
• 50:19
  touchdowns. He will be the guy next year on that offense. They're gonna
• 50:24
  really the offenses are gonna our defenses are gonna really key on him quite a
• 50:29
  bit, especially if zach Nielsen keeps opting to play tennis. He's gonna be
• 50:35
  the main guy, no doubt about it. I know that the freshman class
• 50:39
  this year at Ferndale has a couple of fast backs that you know, as
• 50:43
  sophomores might be able to get some some playing time. But you're looking around
• 50:46
  at the Connor Walkers and Phoenix Fink Bonners and Cleveland Atwoods and Dylan Mooores,
• 50:51
  they're all gonna be graduated. So tallon bung guard is gonna you know,
• 50:54
  he's gonna need some guys around him to kind of help him out in that
• 50:57
  backfield. And but he can do it as that as that workhorse. Whether
• 51:01
  it could be Jacob Gandy that'll that'll be one of those guys or whoever.
• 51:07
  But it's gonna be interesting to see what Ferndeal does next year. But I
• 51:10
  tell you what, they're gonna be riding him a lot, and he's got
• 51:14
  that brute force to do it. I mean, he is just a big,
• 51:16
  strong kid, two hundred and fifteen pounds as a running back said six
• 51:22
  feet tall. I think he's taller than that, and he does. I
• 51:28
  mean I don't. He doesn't have maybe the moves like I would like I
• 51:30
  was saying earlier, but his speed is very much underrated. He's faster than
• 51:36
  you think, and and that you know, it can be a huge,
• 51:38
  huge thing. I think he led walking county and stolen bases in baseball last
• 51:43
  year. Wo, so he had he has speed, but I don't think
• 51:46
  it's it's known as much, and it's by the time you notice it,
• 51:52
  he's pasted just so when he breaks, especially like you know on dives and
• 51:55
  traps, like if you've got a full back that's fast, all of a
• 51:59
  sudden, he just breaks through that line. You you know, you mentioned
• 52:01
  bum guard. You know, I mean those plays, he would just shoot
• 52:04
  through that line and there's nothing you can do about it. And and bum
• 52:07
  bumguard bun guard can do those kinds of plays on those on those dives and
• 52:13
  traps. So big, big things for his future. And uh, you
• 52:17
  know high ranking this year. Is one of the highest ranked juniors on this
• 52:22
  list. I looked it up, Tyler. He was the offensive player of
• 52:24
  the Week Week one, thirty carries one forty two, three receptions, twenty
• 52:30
  five and two touchdowns. Yeah, and they won seventeen fourteen. So those
• 52:35
  two touchdowns were huge. It was you know, on the road at Linden.
• 52:37
  I mean that was just I mean, thirty carries in week one.
• 52:42
  That doesn't happen very often. Now you know, you better, you better
• 52:45
  be ready. And boy, he had a he had a heck of a
• 52:47
  game. Heck of a season. By the way, sponsored by zazand Salon
• 52:51
  Spa. If you want a sponsor, you know how to do it.
• 52:52
  Number fifteen on the top one hundred countdown Tyler six foot four, two hundred
• 52:57
  and fifteen pounds. He is a quarterback senior from the Bellingham at BayHawks.
• 53:00
  It's number one, Josh Leonard. This is one of the most interesting seasons
• 53:06
  I've seen in a while. And there's a there's so many dynamics to this
• 53:09
  because again it's another one of those where you say, where do you think
• 53:14
  he lands in the top one hundred this upcoming year? He was on it
• 53:16
  last year, but I would have I could have said anywhere from here to
• 53:21
  here, because at going into the season, I didn't know he was gonna
• 53:24
  who he's gonna throw the ball to. You know, like we talked earlier
• 53:29
  about we knew about Josh Toll but never seen him play, and we knew
• 53:34
  about why Stefan kind of but we didn't know as an athlete played football.
• 53:37
  Yeah, we didn't even know if he's gonna play football. I knew Gave
• 53:39
  van Hofwagen was a great player, but you put him at tight end,
• 53:43
  I've never seen him catch pass and I would have known they were gonna have
• 53:45
  the running game they had right in the blocking and so I just I it
• 53:51
  was one of those where I know he has the ability to be up in
• 53:55
  the top twenty, but I didn't know if he had this you know,
• 53:59
  surrounding port to be able to put the season together that he did. And
• 54:02
  then when you look at the numbers, these are the best passing numbers Walkin
• 54:07
  County players had since the Simon Burquette. Casey Bauman days just a huge,
• 54:14
  huge season one hundred and seventy six out of two hundred and eighty two passing
• 54:17
  for two thousand, six hundred and eighty four yards and twenty eight touchdowns.
• 54:22
  He also ran in two touchdowns. He was the most important piece for that
• 54:29
  Bellingham offense this year. As just as far as what chang what what turned
• 54:34
  them around? What made them from a three win team to a six win
• 54:37
  team? And you know a lot of people could look at the numbers.
• 54:39
  Go, oh, they didn't they didn't really play at the talent level.
• 54:43
  Blah blah blah blahlah. Okay, I get I get all that, and
• 54:45
  I to an extent I agree with that. But there were so many games
• 54:50
  where I would say, like, let's say they played against this team,
• 54:54
  would you think that which team would you think would win? And I said,
• 54:58
  I would go, I still think Bellingham would win. And then and
• 55:01
  then I would think to myself, but if Josh Leonard was playing quarterback for
• 55:07
  the other team, I think the other team would win. And it started
• 55:09
  making me feel like, holy cow, he's the real he's the main reason,
• 55:15
  Like you know what, you know what, you know what I mean.
• 55:16
  So it's like if he played on some of these teams that were on
• 55:20
  playoff teams that were like playoff teams, I think that he could have still
• 55:22
  led them to the playoffs. Like it's not like you know, you know
• 55:25
  what I mean. So it's hard to really compare against who you're playing against.
• 55:30
  And he's still put up great numbers. Yeah, and he had great
• 55:32
  guys he was throwing to, But there was so much more than that.
• 55:36
  It's it's bringing the leadership in a winning attitude and and uh, you know,
• 55:40
  being a being a part of that team two years ago that got to
• 55:44
  the state semi finals with Squalakum and and no noticing what it takes to do
• 55:49
  that. I mean, there was a he had to play against Lindon as
• 55:52
  a sophomore because Layton Smithson was hurt Reed Richardson was still out. They needed
• 55:57
  a quarterback. He'd played in that sideway rain game that was just crazy and
• 56:01
  uh was thrown in there, you know. And then as a junior led
• 56:06
  the conference in touchdown passes last year. This year led the entire county and
• 56:09
  touchdown passes. Had just one of those just crazy careers to you know,
• 56:16
  did this so many different things every single year. And to top it off,
• 56:22
  to go and play for your dad, which is a really cool deal.
• 56:25
  Uh, And but all these guys around him where you needed that leadership
• 56:31
  to make it all work. You can have a ton of great athletes,
• 56:35
  but if you don't have that leadership and that kind of that command guy to
• 56:38
  bring it all together, it's going to fall apart fast. And even even
• 56:44
  by losing the first three games of the season, they didn't fold. They
• 56:47
  still knew what they had and it's and and they stayed the course, and
• 56:52
  you know, they won six out of their last seven, and that's you
• 56:55
  know, a lot of that is attributed to Josh Leonard and his ability to
• 57:00
  spread the ball around and stand tall in the pocket, and you know,
• 57:06
  his ability to throw the deep ball was It's it's rare that you see just
• 57:10
  a flick of the wrist with guys that just throw at fifty yards without a
• 57:15
  problem at the high school level, and he did it multiple times. They
• 57:19
  love throwing deep, and they had the quarterback that could do it, and
• 57:22
  you had the guys that can go up and get it. So all those
• 57:23
  things combined made for a great year for Josh Leonard. Number fourteen on the
• 57:29
  top one hundred countdown, six foot and eighty pounds, running back and linebacker.
• 57:32
  He's a senior from the Linden Alliance. At number four, Charlie Ayers
• 57:38
  talk about getting the most out of your abilities. He's another kid where I
• 57:44
  wouldn't have guessed he would have been this high, but then when this but
• 57:49
  then once you watch like two or three games, you go, oh,
• 57:52
  yeah, he's definitely going to be this high. A guy that's waited his
• 57:55
  turn and talk about someone that had to fill the shit shoes of a player
• 58:01
  like Laine Herringer on both sides of the ball. Basically, I mean,
• 58:05
  it's it's crazy to know what he had to do and then to do it
• 58:10
  how he did it, if that makes any sense. I mean, it
• 58:14
  was an unbelievable season. You know, there was that scare in the middle
• 58:20
  of the season medically, but it was he goes all out all the time.
• 58:28
  I hate the one hundred and ten percent saying, but he goes one
• 58:31
  hundred percent all the time and goes a little bit rogue at linebacker every once
• 58:37
  in a while, but he makes plays. And this is a kid that
• 58:44
  his whole life was a quarterback and a defensive back and for the betterment of
• 58:50
  the team plays running back and linebacker for the first time. And he's All
• 58:55
  Conference first team at both of them. Yeah, dominates, And it's just
• 59:00
  just I just I love everything about that. He is the epitome of team
• 59:07
  He is a team first guy, a class act human being, everything that
• 59:13
  you want in a as if you're a coach, like that's the guy you
• 59:16
  want. You want to start cloning those guys. Sixty carries for three hundred
• 59:21
  and four yards and five touchdowns. He completed a pass for twenty seven yards
• 59:24
  at two catches for eleven yards, seventy six and a half tackles, three
• 59:30
  and a half tackles for loss, two passes, broken up, a sack,
• 59:32
  an interception, and then he had a fumble recovery that he returned twenty
• 59:37
  one yards for a touchdown. Two time Defensive Player of the Week. He
• 59:39
  did it in Week one and then he did it in the final game of
• 59:44
  his career. Just an awesome, awesome season that you know, he did
• 59:54
  every single thing he could have done. He maxed out everything, and that's
• 59:59
  all you can ask out of your athletes. And and he's a kid that
• 1:00:04
  I'm really gonna miss watching play football and just having him around during practice to
• 1:00:10
  say hi to me stuff like that. It's just gonna miss him a lot.
• 1:00:14
  And uh, you know, it's always hard to say goodbye to those
• 1:00:17
  kinds of players. But man, just so thankful I got to watch him
• 1:00:21
  play. Number thirteen in the top one hundred countdown six foot one, three
• 1:00:27
  hundred and twelve pounds left guard defensive tackle. He is a senior from the
• 1:00:31
  Nuksack Valley Pioneers. It's number seventy one. Dude calla appy Appy. Yeah,
• 1:00:40
  another kid I'm really gonna miss, that's for sure. We've been talking
• 1:00:44
  about this guy forever. Yeah. Yeah, I think he's been starting on
• 1:00:46
  the line since before we were doing the podcast. I think he was like
• 1:00:50
  in seventh grade. Yeah, I mean, I I should go back and
• 1:00:55
  look. I know that he missed a little bit of time his sophomore year
• 1:01:00
  in the beginning of the season. I think I think he may have had
• 1:01:06
  COVID or something like that. But uh, for I believe that every game
• 1:01:09
  he suited it up for from his freshman year to the very last game he
• 1:01:15
  started both ways. I'm almost positive of that. I mean even I mean
• 1:01:21
  as a freshman he was starting both ways day one, unquestioned. And remember
• 1:01:25
  you were telling me like, hey, something about this guy. This kid
• 1:01:30
  is different. Man. Yeah, I don't know how to say his name,
• 1:01:31
  but something about this guy here. Yeah it I just the natural foot
• 1:01:38
  speed was crazy right off the bat. To see a kid that big that
• 1:01:44
  could move like that was a lot of fun just to watch, just to
• 1:01:49
  just to just to see it, and then seeing it live kind of took
• 1:01:52
  it into a whole new way. And then getting to know him and his
• 1:01:57
  just his easy way of talking to people. And I I, you know,
• 1:02:02
  the first time I really really talk to him was at a game and
• 1:02:09
  I'm standing there. This was moments after the Star Spangled banner and for you
• 1:02:15
  know, for Nook Sacks getting ready to kick off. He's not on kickoff
• 1:02:19
  team. And he puts his arm around me and he goes, he points
• 1:02:25
  out, points to Jackson Bennett and he goes, let me how let me
• 1:02:30
  tell you how good my man Jackson Bennett is like that's the first thing he
• 1:02:32
  says to me. And it's just like it was just the funniest thing because
• 1:02:37
  he makes you feel so comfortable, you know, he makes you just it's
• 1:02:42
  just hilarious. There was a coach that told me the story about how he
• 1:02:49
  he came up to Duke after a game and he said, Duke, I
• 1:02:52
  have one question for you, and not hearing the question, he goes head
• 1:02:55
  and shoulders and he just walks away. You know, when I asked him
• 1:03:00
  who has the best hair on his team, he said, Craig, you
• 1:03:04
  need coach coach Coach, coach Bartell. I mean, he's just he's just
• 1:03:07
  a hilarious person and just a always smiling. It's a he's an unbelievable story.
• 1:03:15
  And you know, we haven't even hardly talked about just him playing the
• 1:03:20
  game of football, which he dominated. I mean as a left guard,
• 1:03:22
  there were moments when when he would pull and hit guys like it's scary.
• 1:03:28
  It is scary. And then sometimes I think he's playing middle linebacker on defense,
• 1:03:34
  he'd dropped back in his own coverage and and knock. He knocked down
• 1:03:37
  four passes this year doing that, thirty two and a half tackles, five
• 1:03:40
  and a half tackles for lost, two and a half sacks, a forced
• 1:03:44
  fumble, fumber recovery. Again, named first team on both sides of the
• 1:03:47
  ball. I think this is his third year in a row on defense,
• 1:03:52
  second year in a row on offense, being an All Conference first team pick,
• 1:03:58
  just a fleet, joy to have around. Was voted to captain this
• 1:04:02
  year. He's going to be sorely missed for many reasons on that football team
• 1:04:09
  next year. And again another kid that I'm gonna miss too personally because he's
• 1:04:16
  just been a joy to be around, and you know, say what's up
• 1:04:21
  on the sidelines too, and and just getting to know him over the years
• 1:04:25
  has been a lot of fun. Number twelve on the top one hundred countdown,
• 1:04:30
  six foot, two hundred and eighteen pounds left tackle and defensive end.
• 1:04:34
  He is a senior from Mount Baker High School. Thanks coach number sixty four,
• 1:04:39
  Alex Molowley. What a stud. That's the first thing I think of.
• 1:04:43
  Is just one of those pure studs, Like, like there are there
• 1:04:47
  are dudes, and there are studs, and there are guys you know,
• 1:04:50
  you just kind of know, and he's a stud boy. I remember seeing
• 1:04:57
  him as a freshman get a quarterback sack late in the game at Blaine during
• 1:05:01
  the COVID season. I was calling that game and I was like, man,
• 1:05:04
  who's that? That kid's a freshman, Like he looks he's just freaky
• 1:05:08
  looking. He's gonna be huge, He's gonna be great. And then as
• 1:05:11
  a sophomore starting at tight end and defensive end and then having to get moved
• 1:05:15
  to left tackle from a glory position like tight end to get to move to
• 1:05:18
  left left tackle, no qualms about it. Dominates it All conference both ways
• 1:05:24
  the last two years. Also an all conference punter this year thirty four punts
• 1:05:29
  for over one thousand yards, thirty two point seven yard average and another really
• 1:05:34
  great kid too that it's been fun to get to know him. Tackling machine
• 1:05:42
  fifty eight and a half tackles, twenty and a half tackles for loss.
• 1:05:46
  These are not sacks either, These are just running plays where he gets he
• 1:05:50
  could because he's got so many moves on the edge. I mean, he's
• 1:05:54
  gonna he could use speed, he could use his hands. He could bull
• 1:05:57
  rush anything. He will. He'll out muscle you, who outthink you,
• 1:06:00
  who'll out quick you, h and just and once he gets his hands on
• 1:06:06
  you, it's over. He also did have five quarterback sacks, knocked down
• 1:06:11
  a pass at a fumble recovery. Uh. He's a kid that you could
• 1:06:15
  probably put at, you know, six or seven or eight different positions and
• 1:06:19
  he'd be an all conference guy at just one of those kinds of athletes.
• 1:06:24
  U was a really good baseball player. Catcher opted to do track last year.
• 1:06:29
  And then he goes and gets like, I know, he places the
• 1:06:31
  javelin and shot put and stuff like that, and he still has another year
• 1:06:35
  to go here. You know. If he if he's the kid that six's
• 1:06:41
  three, it's it's lookout for colleges, you know what I mean, he's
• 1:06:45
  just one of those kinds of kids. Uh, but workout wonder strong as
• 1:06:49
  an ox awesome kid. Uh And again first team All Conference at three different
• 1:06:56
  positions this year. I think he was the only Walking County kid to be
• 1:06:59
  able to do that and for this year anyways, and just an unbelievable season
• 1:07:04
  to I mean, it was a tough season as far as team's success,
• 1:07:09
  but boy did he stand out. What a great year for him. Really
• 1:07:14
  really just a strong leader too on a very young team that was it was
• 1:07:23
  really needed for what he was able to put towards his team. Number eleven
• 1:07:28
  in the top one hundred countdown six foot eighty five pounds quarterback, the highest
• 1:07:32
  rated no quarter back and corner back junior from squal Com. It's number eight
• 1:07:41
  Marcus Nixon. Yeah. Again, one of those guys when you start talking
• 1:07:45
  about the best overall athletes in Walkam County. This is another one of those
• 1:07:48
  guys where you'd say he's in that consideration when you look at all the things
• 1:07:53
  he can do. You know, Joey Brown's in that conversation there. There's
• 1:07:58
  different guys that you know, you just throw him out there to do a
• 1:08:01
  sport and you watch him excel at it. You know, not a natural
• 1:08:06
  quarterback and I think that's pretty obvious, but a natural leader and you know,
• 1:08:12
  played that role great all year. Ran when it was called upon,
• 1:08:17
  only had and this is this is pretty this is interesting. Only had seven
• 1:08:25
  more rushing yards than he had passing yards, So you know, you know,
• 1:08:31
  you would almost think that it'd be way ahead with rushing, but there
• 1:08:35
  were games when he needed to throw a lot, and I think there was
• 1:08:39
  a few games where he threw for two hundred yards and you know, ran
• 1:08:44
  for twelve touchdowns through for ten touchdowns. This was a second year in a
• 1:08:48
  row with over eight hundred yards rushing. When he takes off with the ball.
• 1:08:56
  He has the longest strides for a guy that fast. That's was kind
• 1:09:00
  of like that too. He was deceptively fast, Like it was amazing to
• 1:09:03
  see how like you didn't realize how fast he was until you're like on the
• 1:09:06
  field, but it was sometimes it's because they have long strides, and Marcus
• 1:09:12
  Nixon's a lot like that, very long strides, but he just covers so
• 1:09:15
  much ground doing that and can cut and veer and not lose speed. And
• 1:09:20
  that's so I mean that make that that really separates you at the high school
• 1:09:27
  level when you could do that, was counted on to be a big time
• 1:09:31
  fixture in this defensive backfield, which he was thirty five and a half tackles,
• 1:09:36
  five passes broken up, two tackles for loss, two sacks to fumble
• 1:09:42
  recovery, and an interception. Now you're wondering the two sacks. Well,
• 1:09:45
  near the end of the year, he ended up playing outside linebacker for a
• 1:09:48
  couple games because, uh he had you know, he he banged up his
• 1:09:53
  knee a little bit or something. It was some sort of leg injury.
• 1:09:56
  So it was ended up playing some linebacker to finish the year. But he
• 1:09:59
  did end up being named All Conference first team as a defensive back and also
• 1:10:05
  returned eight kickoffs for one hundred and five yards. I'm really curious to see
• 1:10:11
  where he'll play next year on offense. I don't know off the top of
• 1:10:15
  my head of quarterbacks coming up, so he could fill that same role again,
• 1:10:20
  but you know, without DeAndre Dunmore. Yes, Malachi Smith is coming
• 1:10:25
  back, but it all depends on you know, their offense and what they
• 1:10:29
  kind of have around him. So it'll be really interesting to see what they
• 1:10:32
  do but you can guarantee that he's gonna touch the ball a lot, and
• 1:10:40
  such a dynamic weapon to have. I mean, he is he is the
• 1:10:44
  quintessential offensive weapon, you know that we've talked about over the years. He's
• 1:10:47
  a he is a guy that you you pay. When you pay admission to
• 1:10:53
  go to a high school football game and he's playing in it, you get
• 1:10:55
  your money's worth. And that's that's a huge compliment, Tyler. I think
• 1:11:00
  if you want to know who Marcus Nixon is, just go watch the first
• 1:11:03
  play of his highlights. It is. It is a kickoff return against Archbishop
• 1:11:11
  Murphy that he ran back for a touchdown. Yes, And when I say
• 1:11:15
  it's the most ridiculous one I've seen, it's not because he makes moves.
• 1:11:17
  It's not because he does no. He catches the ball, starts to run,
• 1:11:23
  and by the time his blockers figure out what's going on, he runs
• 1:11:26
  right by four of them. I mean, I have a pause right now,
• 1:11:30
  Tyler. Yeah, he's he's on the twenty seven. Yeah, there's
• 1:11:34
  four blockers for Squalicum on the twenty five, and he's running right by all
• 1:11:41
  of them, you know, And and he just sees the hole and he's
• 1:11:45
  gone the kicker ye oh was it? Yeah? Yeah, And I mean
• 1:11:49
  it's just it is one of the most ridiculous ones I've ever seen. Yeah,
• 1:11:54
  because he just boom, he just flies right by him, and you're
• 1:11:57
  just like, just look at those strides. It's it's crazy. Yeah,
• 1:12:00
  Like he picks up so much ground on those strides. It's unbelievable, just
• 1:12:04
  that natural long stride. It's just so fun to watch. Yeah, And
• 1:12:10
  I you know, this year, there was a college coach that was in
• 1:12:12
  town and he said to me. He says, hey, are there any
• 1:12:15
  games on Thursday that I should go to? And I said, ah,
• 1:12:19
  there's not a whole lot going on. I said, if I was you,
• 1:12:23
  I said, I asked him where he was staying, and he told
• 1:12:25
  me, oh, I'm going to be, you know, close to my
• 1:12:27
  parents' house and so relatively around me. I'll say, and I said,
• 1:12:34
  well, you know, there is one game if you want to go get
• 1:12:36
  a look. I said, there's a couple of guys, but Marcus Nixon
• 1:12:40
  is playing. He plays for Squalicum. It'll be a Thursday night game up
• 1:12:44
  there at Lakewood at Lakewood. Yeah, yeah, and he goes, great,
• 1:12:47
  I got nothing going on, I'm actually going to be up that way
• 1:12:50
  during the day because I think he was going to Lake Steven's and a couple
• 1:12:54
  other schools. He goes, I'll just hang around, get dinner and then
• 1:12:56
  go to that game. I said, awesome. Later on that night,
• 1:12:58
  he sends me a tax and he goes, well, obviously he's playing out
• 1:13:00
  a position, but holy crap. It's like he's like, that kid can
• 1:13:04
  run. Man. He's like he can just yeah, He's like he can
• 1:13:08
  run. And I was like, yeah, he's got some wheels, man.
• 1:13:10
  He goes, Yeah, we're gonna keep an eye on him. He
• 1:13:12
  goes, we need to get him out to a camp. He says,
• 1:13:14
  we get him out to a camp this summer. He goes, he'll definitely
• 1:13:15
  get an offer. He's like, there's no doubt in my mind. I
• 1:13:18
  was like, yeah, well, and this is a school that when I
• 1:13:23
  think of running backs, there have been a few of them from our area
• 1:13:27
  that have gone there, and they're all right about the same size, same
• 1:13:30
  build as Marcus Nixon. Yeah you know what I mean, so very much
• 1:13:34
  fits the uh fits what they're looking for. But yeah, that kid is
• 1:13:38
  just he's fun to watch. He's one of those ones that you know as
• 1:13:42
  a from a scouting purposes, you watch it and you just go, all
• 1:13:45
  right, I don't care about him throwing the football, but I want to
• 1:13:48
  see does he have awareness? How does he see the field? Things like
• 1:13:51
  that, and you kind of watch the quarterback stuff. Then you go all
• 1:13:55
  right, now let's get the ball in his hands and see what he does.
• 1:13:57
  And then you're just going, yep, that's work. Just fine.
• 1:14:00
  Yeah, there's a ton of there's just and there's a ton of potential.
• 1:14:03
  And he's just a really cool kid too. I mean we've had we've shared
• 1:14:05
  some laughs, and you put all that stuff together and and I mean even
• 1:14:10
  on the basketball court, it's crazy because he'll jump he'll jump ball. You
• 1:14:14
  know, he's a guard. Yeah, but he's starting the game at center
• 1:14:16
  jumping the ball. And then if and then if the other yeah, if
• 1:14:19
  the other team gets it and they tip it back to their point guard,
• 1:14:24
  he just stays there and guards the point guard. It's just he just don't
• 1:14:27
  see that where a guy jumps ball and then guards the point guard. Yeah.
• 1:14:30
  Just unbelievable athlete, So much fun to watch. Number ten on the
• 1:14:36
  top one hundred count down, five foot seven, one hundred and fifty five
• 1:14:41
  pounds, the largest player on this list running back and linebacker. He is
• 1:14:45
  a senior from the Meridian Trojans. Another young man that I feel like I
• 1:14:48
  picked almost every single week. It's number thirty. Josh tin Elmer. I
• 1:14:55
  love his story. It's just as far as you know, we talked about
• 1:14:58
  it during the Seniors podcast when we say I had all the seniors, but
• 1:15:00
  uh, just from my first time meeting him to getting to know him so
• 1:15:06
  well over the years. You know, I have tons of stories about him,
• 1:15:13
  but you know, the numbers that he's put up over the years and
• 1:15:16
  just the overall production both sides of the ball, returning the ball. Talk
• 1:15:23
  about a guy that never leaves the field. Holy Conoley. Uh. There
• 1:15:27
  was one game where it was weird because they wore away jerseys at home.
• 1:15:32
  And I think it was against Kingsway Christian. It might have been because they
• 1:15:36
  didn't have white jerseys or something like that. I don't know. Yeah,
• 1:15:41
  us this year we had to play our first three games in blue. Yeah,
• 1:15:44
  so it was two away games. Yeah, so it was kind of
• 1:15:47
  weird. Like and he he must have, you know, not had his
• 1:15:53
  number thirty because he was wearing like number thirty four or something like that,
• 1:15:56
  and and it made me, it kind of made me laugh because that was
• 1:16:00
  Hunter Jones's jersey. And I remember him getting his first start at running back
• 1:16:04
  because Hunter Jones was at like a family wedding or something in the non league
• 1:16:10
  game against Bellingham and so Elmer comes in and plays running back and goes off
• 1:16:15
  and it just started from there. And how it's all tied together with him,
• 1:16:19
  you know, telling me, you know, you know, I'm going
• 1:16:24
  to be top ten on your you know, top one hundred lists, and
• 1:16:27
  I'm like, I have no clue who this kid is at all. He's
• 1:16:30
  just some mouthy sophomore, you know, That's all I know. And for
• 1:16:34
  him to prove it to me and now be number ten, I think it's
• 1:16:38
  just just the way that it landed. But it just makes me smile because
• 1:16:45
  man, the stuff that he was asked to do is just crazy. His
• 1:16:49
  rushing numbers were down. He ran for a thousand yards last year. This
• 1:16:54
  year he ran for six hundred and seventy eight yards and seven touchdowns, but
• 1:16:57
  he caught thirty eight passes for five hundred and six yards and four touchdowns.
• 1:17:01
  I mean, he was. I think he led the team in catches and
• 1:17:05
  you know as well as rushing, so I mean everything they could find a
• 1:17:10
  way to gain him the ball, they definitely tried. He completed an eight
• 1:17:14
  yard pass. Defensively, had sixty six and a half tackles, six and
• 1:17:17
  a half tackles for lost, four passes, broken up, two forced fumbles,
• 1:17:21
  a sack. He intercepted two passes that he returned for fifty yards.
• 1:17:26
  He returned sixteen kickoffs for three hundred and eighty yards and a touchdown. He
• 1:17:30
  returned four punts for ninety seven yards. He was the guy that every single
• 1:17:34
  team when they went up against him, they were like, that's the kid
• 1:17:38
  that we have to contain every single time. I mean, he was the
• 1:17:41
  focal point every single game. He was an All Conference first team pick at
• 1:17:45
  running back. Just you know, another kid that think got the most out
• 1:17:57
  of all of his ability that he had. He left it all out on
• 1:18:00
  the field. There were so many times when like he's stopped after like picking
• 1:18:04
  up two yards and then he just drives like three guys forward for the extra
• 1:18:09
  yard or two, and it's like, how is he doing. There's no
• 1:18:12
  way a guy his size should be able to do what he's doing, and
• 1:18:15
  he just keeps doing it. Play after play. There were times where I
• 1:18:17
  see him coming off the field and just in pain and just almost screaming in
• 1:18:23
  pain because you know, something's wrong and he can't and he you know,
• 1:18:28
  and he sets out a couple of plays and he goes right back in because
• 1:18:30
  they depended on him so much. There was not a ton of depth with
• 1:18:33
  the Trojans, and he just you know, just never whind about it,
• 1:18:40
  would go back out there and play, and holy cow, just one of
• 1:18:44
  my personal favorites. And and you know, it's fun to talk to a
• 1:18:48
  guy that I could look at eye to eye, you know, and and
• 1:18:51
  go, man, this kid is doing it like he is not that big,
• 1:18:57
  and he's out there dominating, and you know, a great role model
• 1:19:01
  for a guy like Kelly Gray who's built the exact same way, and to
• 1:19:04
  show him how to use your size, your limited size, in a positive
• 1:19:11
  way and how to play defense that way. And and man, it was
• 1:19:15
  so fun to watch him. And and I hope, you know, I
• 1:19:20
  hope he goes on and does some awesome stuff because he's a real fun loving
• 1:19:25
  kid and and just beend a joy to watch him play. When I think
• 1:19:30
  of, like, what makes high school football great, it's guys like Josh
• 1:19:32
  Tenellmer, yes, five and fifty five pounds that just it doesn't translate at
• 1:19:40
  any level of college football, you know what I mean. It just it
• 1:19:43
  just doesn't like it's unfortunate, but it just doesn't. I mean maybe nai
• 1:19:46
  A, you know what I mean, some D three kind of you know
• 1:19:49
  what I mean. But even at D three, those guys typically get just
• 1:19:53
  you know, they get beat up, you know what I mean. And
• 1:19:55
  when I think of when I think of high school football, it's it really
• 1:19:58
  is, it's guys like Josh and All. I mean, you know,
• 1:20:00
  I love the well the next three guys we're going to talk about our three
• 1:20:03
  of my favorite linemen that we've ever talked about. But yeah, guys like
• 1:20:08
  joshin Elmer. I mean, that's what makes high school football so great.
• 1:20:10
  It just is. Yeah, we are into the top ten. Tyler.
• 1:20:14
  We've that was number ten right there. We've got number nine now in the
• 1:20:16
  top one hundred countdown six to four, two fifty five left tackle, defensive
• 1:20:21
  end. He's just a junior at Knuksack Valley Pioneers number sixty four. It's
• 1:20:27
  Brady Ackerman. Yeah, freaky athlete for a big, strong lineman. I
• 1:20:32
  mean that combination, you know, you just think of you know, I've
• 1:20:36
  brought up Anthony Munoz before, who at six six and eighty pounds was you
• 1:20:42
  know, started at third base for USC on the baseball team. Just one
• 1:20:45
  of those just holy crap athletes. Brady Akerman is like that, you know,
• 1:20:51
  starting at center since he was a freshman. You know, you see
• 1:20:56
  him with the reverse dunk on you know, I posted that Instagram or whatever
• 1:21:00
  it was, and it's like it's like it doesn't take much. Like he
• 1:21:02
  can get up, he can move. He's at you know, very quick
• 1:21:05
  athletic. He's just like he's like the you know, he's a big cat,
• 1:21:12
  you know, and if he keeps getting taller and keeps filling out,
• 1:21:16
  who knows, you might see a six five, two hundred and seventy pounder
• 1:21:20
  next year. You just and if that's the case, I mean, I
• 1:21:25
  know he's already been offered I believe by Eastern Yes, and and and who
• 1:21:30
  knows what other kind of offers he's he's gonna get. But as a left
• 1:21:34
  tackle, what what I love about him is that he goes all out,
• 1:21:42
  no matter what the circumstance is or who he's going against. I mean,
• 1:21:45
  I've seen him like I see him pull on like a trap play and then
• 1:21:50
  shoot through the middle and then take a Conell kid and just shove him like
• 1:21:55
  ten yards, like like decleting him and it. And he doesn't take it
• 1:22:01
  easy on the less fortunate. I'm trying to think of the best way to
• 1:22:05
  say that. Oh, good film shows it, Like, if he knows
• 1:22:09
  he can dominate you, he's going to run you fifteen yards downfield, throw
• 1:22:13
  you into the ground, and yeah, there's not a whole lot you're gonna
• 1:22:15
  be able to do about it. Yeah, And I just I love that
• 1:22:17
  attitude. I love that dominance. I love that ability to just take over
• 1:22:23
  games at the left tackle position and as a strong side defensive end, you
• 1:22:30
  know, get you're not going to get outside of him. He's really smart
• 1:22:34
  in strong I mean twenty eight tackles, but ten tackles for loss and seven
• 1:22:39
  and a half sacks, so seventeen and a half of his twenty eight stops
• 1:22:45
  were behind the line, two passes knocked down, two fumble recoveries, one
• 1:22:48
  of them are recovered for a touchdown in the quarterfinals against Lennon. Christian super
• 1:22:53
  excited to see him score touchdown. To see you know, when you see
• 1:22:56
  one of the best linemen in the county score touchdown, that's pretty cool because
• 1:23:00
  you know, you hope for them to get that notoriety that they don't normally
• 1:23:04
  get just being alignman. And and boy, that was that was really cool.
• 1:23:11
  And to think he's just a junior, it's just weird. I mean,
• 1:23:14
  he was starting at left tackle as a freshman, even played a little
• 1:23:17
  defensive end as a freshman, and then last year he was, you know,
• 1:23:21
  an All conference offensive lineman. Now All conference both ways offense and defensive
• 1:23:27
  lineman. Future is extremely bright for him, and he is another one of
• 1:23:32
  those kids that really has his head screwed on straight. Remember asking him,
• 1:23:38
  you know, and I've asked to holy cow, at least one hundred different
• 1:23:42
  kids, where do you think you'll land on the top one hundred? And
• 1:23:45
  they all have something to say about it. You know, I think I'll
• 1:23:49
  be in the top fifty at least, I think I'll be a top ten.
• 1:23:54
  All think i'll be number one. All think, you know, And
• 1:23:56
  he was kind of like, yeah, you just gotta put to his shoulders
• 1:24:00
  up. He's like, wherever you rate me is probably where I deserve to
• 1:24:02
  be, you know, like like that like that kind of like just humble
• 1:24:06
  attitude. And that's something that would be said from a player that's a fringe
• 1:24:12
  player. He is opposite of that. He is a star and and but
• 1:24:18
  so he just has that right attitude and is kind of quiet. But man
• 1:24:27
  will work hard and do all the right things. And again another one of
• 1:24:31
  those like does everything the way you wanted, like a coach wants, you
• 1:24:36
  know, like that's the kind of player your coach wants. And there's you
• 1:24:41
  know, super fortunate to be able to have him back as that piller.
• 1:24:44
  I mean, the rest of that offensive line, they're all seniors, you
• 1:24:46
  know, this this great offensive line that they had, but him, Adelaid
• 1:24:53
  Whitworth, Lance Van Berkham, these are going to be the main guys next
• 1:24:57
  year on that offensive line. Then they're gonna have to fill in some other
• 1:24:59
  spots, and uh but he will be the pillar, there's no doubt about
• 1:25:03
  that. And uh boy, awesome future for him. And he's doing everything
• 1:25:11
  the right way and he just got to keep doing it. There's a couple
• 1:25:14
  of plays Tyler on his highlights. I think it might be the first play
• 1:25:17
  where I wanted. Did they play Hoquiam at home this year? Yeah?
• 1:25:24
  I think it was Hoquam and I remember it was a red team. But
• 1:25:27
  he he knows what player talks about well. And the part that cracks me
• 1:25:30
  up is he polls. And first off, the play never should have happened
• 1:25:33
  because Duke fall started. But Duke Poles absolutely destroys a guy. Brady Poles
• 1:25:41
  gets kind of like bumped. I think maybe the center kind of got pushed
• 1:25:44
  back just a little bit, gets kind of bumped, and then turns and
• 1:25:46
  gets a full head of steam and by the time he hits like I think
• 1:25:49
  it's the safety. By the time he hits him, I mean, he's
• 1:25:51
  going like forty miles an hour and just absolutely just trucks a dude. But
• 1:25:58
  then there's another play, and this one, this one blew my mind.
• 1:26:01
  He okay, So the play starts and I realized, wait a minute,
• 1:26:06
  that was him in motion. I was like, oh my god, yeah,
• 1:26:10
  he's going in motion here. So so then I watched the play and
• 1:26:14
  then I go, who whoa, whoa. Wait wait, hold on a
• 1:26:15
  second, here, I gotta go back and I and I go back and
• 1:26:18
  I'm watching it and I'm going one, two, three. He was the
• 1:26:21
  fourth guy left of the center. Yeah. And then I'm like, hold
• 1:26:27
  now, hold on a second here, we got to hit play, and
• 1:26:29
  we gotta go nice and slow because I need to make sure that all of
• 1:26:31
  these are linemen. They had seven guys wearing numbers in the fifties, sixties
• 1:26:38
  and seventies. Tyler Dad eight went at full back. Oh, I didn't
• 1:26:42
  even look at the full back. Yeah right, But on that play,
• 1:26:45
  and it's against Lennon Christian in the quarterfinals at seven, yeah, yeah,
• 1:26:47
  on that play, I don't know who the I don't know who the linebacker
• 1:26:50
  is, and I want to call him out, but he comes up to
• 1:26:54
  make a play and Brady Ackerman grabs a hold of him after chipping off of
• 1:26:58
  another block, grabs a hold of him, runs him about seven or eight
• 1:27:01
  yards, and then just absolutely plants him. Yeah. And it's one of
• 1:27:06
  those ones that you know, as a fat guy that loves linemen. Oh,
• 1:27:13
  Tyler at worms my cockles. It just does. I mean I could
• 1:27:16
  watch that play over and over and over again, and he did it to
• 1:27:19
  somebody at from granted, falls. He did it to somebody from Blair.
• 1:27:23
  I mean he did it to somebody every single game. Yeah, I mean
• 1:27:28
  everything. There was like four of them in the Mount Baker game that he
• 1:27:30
  had and I'm just watching it, going good God man, Like, when
• 1:27:33
  he gets his hands on you, it's not good. I mean, I
• 1:27:38
  mean, that's a really really bad thing. It's it's like, you know,
• 1:27:41
  it's it's like showing up to uh, you know, to a bullfight
• 1:27:44
  not having one of the big wooded boards to stand behind if you need to,
• 1:27:47
  you know, I mean, it's a it's a really really bad thing
• 1:27:50
  if he gets his hands on you. And I'll tell you what, he
• 1:27:53
  does the right things hits, it hits a couple of the right camps.
• 1:27:56
  He is absolutely positively gonna have a lot more opportunities than just Eastern Washington.
• 1:28:01
  I'll tell you right now. There's no reason. I mean, I'll say
• 1:28:04
  this, Montana, Montana State, Weaver State, all those schools, I
• 1:28:09
  mean, they're all Idaho. They're all going to be all over him.
• 1:28:11
  And then from there you start talking the Mountain West, and you know,
• 1:28:14
  I normally i'd say Pac twelve, but you know, basically ub are as
• 1:28:17
  Wazoo and Oregon State now. But yeah, I mean it's it's gonna be
• 1:28:23
  truly impressive to watch because he's got i mean six four two fifty five and
• 1:28:29
  and you know, when you're a college coach and you look at that,
• 1:28:31
  you go that, right, there is a frame that we can work with.
• 1:28:35
  Yeah, you know, we can put another thirty five forty pounds on
• 1:28:40
  that kid and he is going to be just fine, you know, and
• 1:28:44
  still just mangling dudes. So I'm excited to watch him progress still again,
• 1:28:49
  we've been talking about him for a while, but another year under his belt.
• 1:28:54
  Man, I can't I truly can't wait. Let's see here, number
• 1:28:59
  eight on the top one hundred down Tyler sixty to eighty pounds tackle, defensive
• 1:29:02
  tackle, senior from the Ferndale Golden Eagles at number five seventy five. Definitely
• 1:29:08
  not number five seventy five. Camden Raymond. Yeah, another one of the
• 1:29:13
  guys that we've talked about a lot. Day one starter as a freshman on
• 1:29:17
  the defensive line, and that was a very impressive defensive line that he was
• 1:29:25
  a part of. That I remember talking about that line saying, this is
• 1:29:28
  a group that they're all going to be back next year. Three quarters.
• 1:29:30
  We're going to be back the year after that. And you know, they're
• 1:29:34
  all very they're all very close, grew up together. And another kid that
• 1:29:40
  is super athletic just as far as feet, hand, eye coordination, everything,
• 1:29:45
  but carries a big frame in a great, great way. Another guy
• 1:29:49
  that he transferred from or not transfer, but move, you know, moved
• 1:29:54
  from guard to tackle this year on the offensive line, and it was seamless.
• 1:30:00
  It was awesome. They ask a lot of their quick side tackles to
• 1:30:04
  do a lot of different polling and skiing type stuff where you are a main
• 1:30:11
  blocker out ahead and he has the ability he's fast enough to do that,
• 1:30:15
  but strong enough and just nasty enough, you know, to do to get
• 1:30:20
  out and do that kind of blocking. Was constantly double teamed on the defensive
• 1:30:26
  side of the ball, you know, in the trenches. The whole year
• 1:30:30
  had thirty tackles, three and a half tackles for lost, two sacks and
• 1:30:33
  a bumble recovery. But is going on to play baseball, has chosen baseball
• 1:30:40
  and is already Uh, I don't I don't know if I don't know if
• 1:30:43
  he actually signed or not, but he did announce that he's going to go
• 1:30:46
  play baseball. And and I know that a lot of football, you know,
• 1:30:50
  teams were, you know, schools were kind of curious about which way
• 1:30:55
  he was going to go. And we're very interested and and but I mean
• 1:31:00
  in the summer, I mean, he is just traveling around playing baseball constantly,
• 1:31:03
  and I keep seeing videos online of him hitting it out of this park
• 1:31:08
  and hitting out of that park, and it's it's a it's a beautiful natural
• 1:31:12
  swing and left handed player. But man, as a football player, I
• 1:31:15
  mean, I had a lot of coaches that do that, that see football
• 1:31:18
  and baseball, and they've come up to me and say, he's a better
• 1:31:23
  football player, believe it or not. And that's when I kind of really
• 1:31:26
  started keeping my eye on him as a football player. And and boy,
• 1:31:30
  he's really darn good and an awesome kid. Another one of those just great
• 1:31:35
  kids where I've really gotten to know him, talking to him at you know,
• 1:31:39
  volleyball games and different things like that. He presented me with his with
• 1:31:44
  his freshman year helmet, which was really really cool. He got a bunch
• 1:31:48
  of Ferndale players to sign it and he gave it to me at a basketball
• 1:31:51
  game that was. That was just a huge surprise and a really really fun
• 1:31:58
  just a cool thing to have. Now. I have three helmets from Walkin
• 1:32:01
  County teams, full size helmets, which I'm adding my collection, which is
• 1:32:05
  cool. You have one too, uh and yeah and uh yeah. I
• 1:32:13
  just you know, there are certain players that you just expect to see on
• 1:32:17
  film every week and I've been seeing it for four years now. And he's
• 1:32:23
  gonna be a big, big hole next year in that in that line on
• 1:32:27
  both sides. But you know, Ferndale always has good size where they can
• 1:32:30
  plug plug some guys in and the coaching is phenomenal, so they'll get them
• 1:32:34
  coached up. But it's gonna be a it's gonna be a while till you
• 1:32:36
  get a guy like a Camden Raymond on both sides of the ball that you
• 1:32:41
  can rely on. He's gonna do get get the job done, superior toughness.
• 1:32:45
  I didn't get into it, and I'm not gonna get into it about
• 1:32:48
  what he had to endure at the end of the year, but to play
• 1:32:51
  through the pain that he had, uh, is just crazy. And I
• 1:32:58
  mean I saw him out on the field old. I want to say it
• 1:33:00
  was his first game back, and he just had this stone wall face.
• 1:33:04
  Uh. In the pre game, you know, he was walking off the
• 1:33:08
  field the one last huttle before they came back out on the field. And
• 1:33:11
  you know, it's a it was a big game. It's that Week ten
• 1:33:14
  crossover game. And and you know we could week of thirty you know,
• 1:33:18
  thirty two year whatever you want, a round of thirty two, thank you.
• 1:33:20
  And so I I knew how important it was, but you know,
• 1:33:26
  just watching that and seeing him go out there and do his thing was was
• 1:33:30
  awesome. And and uh, I just you know, I can't respect him
• 1:33:33
  enough and and really excited to see him play another year of baseball and and
• 1:33:39
  uh and then beyond. So just wish him the best. And he's uh,
• 1:33:43
  he's one of the he's one of the great ones that Walking County has
• 1:33:45
  had in a long time. Seahawks comp Joe Nash. Yeah, Joe Nash
• 1:33:50
  baby. Yeah. And they're about the same size too. No, no,
• 1:33:56
  absolutely right. You know there's a guy, there's a there's a channel.
• 1:34:00
  Might you've probably already seen it on YouTube. I think it's called Fort
• 1:34:01
  Knox. Yeah, and they got tons of Seahawks stuff and they have all
• 1:34:06
  ten of Joe Nash's blocked field goals. Oh like it says like it's like
• 1:34:12
  Joe Nash field goal block number one, Joe Nash field goal block number two,
• 1:34:15
  and you can see all of them. I'm want to bring it up
• 1:34:15
  while you start talking about our next guy here. Let's see here number seven
• 1:34:20
  in the top one hundred countdown sixty three two sixty left tackle defensive lineman.
• 1:34:26
  Absolutely gorgeous. He is a senior from the Linden Lions, number seventy one,
• 1:34:30
  Walter Jones. Excuse me, kuiper osinc. Holy cow, scary dude
• 1:34:38
  on that offensive line as the left tackle and Linden. You know Linden.
• 1:34:43
  If you play offensive line at Linden and they plug you in at left tackle,
• 1:34:46
  that says a lot right off the bat. They expect a lot out
• 1:34:49
  of you. And and going into this year, I was not surprised when
• 1:34:54
  I had heard that he got moved to left tackle because it just kind of
• 1:34:58
  fit the bill perfectly. He'd been all over that line man starting since he
• 1:35:01
  was a sophomore, so much dominance, and then he goes around and starts
• 1:35:11
  playing defensive line like he's been there forever. He was an animal this year
• 1:35:15
  from the on the three technique to get seven sacks is just unreal. Was
• 1:35:20
  unblockable at times, which I you know, that's not what that defensive line
• 1:35:26
  is asked to do, and he just came through and blew blew me away.
• 1:35:32
  I knew he was going to be a highly ranked player, but when
• 1:35:35
  I saw what he did on the defensive side of the ball, coupled with
• 1:35:40
  already what I knew what he could do on the offensive side, I just
• 1:35:44
  shook my head and I just said, as an overall, like pure downhand
• 1:35:49
  in the dirt lineman both ways, I don't know if there's a better one,
• 1:35:54
  and he just was unbelievable this year. All Conference first team both sides,
• 1:36:00
  I should say also with Camden Raymond all All Conference first team both sides,
• 1:36:04
  I didn't I didn't want to miss that, but holy cow, you
• 1:36:10
  know, I don't, Uh, there's no more like Associated Press All State
• 1:36:14
  team. There's a lot of other all state teams out there, but if
• 1:36:16
  they're you know, if they were doing the old old school all state Associated
• 1:36:20
  Press all state teams for each classification, he might be one of those top
• 1:36:24
  linemen in the two AA for both sides. Of the ball. You know,
• 1:36:28
  it's just you know, he jumps, he just jumps off. I
• 1:36:31
  mean almost kind of reminded me of like a Spencer Blackburn. Yeah, just
• 1:36:36
  you know, a rare talent that is that dominant on both sides of the
• 1:36:43
  ball. Love love watching him play. Tyler. I'm watching these The first
• 1:36:47
  thing I'm watching all these these blocked kicks. Yeah. The first thing that
• 1:36:51
  cracks me up is all is all the old school graphics that these broadcasts had.
• 1:36:56
  Oh yeah, my goodness, they were awful. I mean, just
• 1:36:59
  so bad. Anyway, let's talk about number six, Tyler, the last
• 1:37:02
  one for today. Uh I guess number six on the top one hundred countdown
• 1:37:06
  five to eleven, one eight pounds wide receiver and safety. He's just a
• 1:37:12
  junior from the Seahome Mariners. It's number seven. Andre Watson. Another guy
• 1:37:18
  worth the admission to go watch. He's a guy that if you know,
• 1:37:25
  we you and I have talked about you know, dabbing, you know,
• 1:37:29
  dabbling in broadcasting games and different things and multiple cameras and stuff like that.
• 1:37:33
  And it's like he's a guy that like if if if you're if you're an
• 1:37:38
  outfit that's doing that and you're going to a Sea home game. I would
• 1:37:42
  just keep an isolated camera on him all the time, just as one of
• 1:37:45
  your cameras. Just do me a favor and keep it on him. Watch
• 1:37:48
  what he does when he's coming off the line, when he's breaking through,
• 1:37:51
  you know, into the into the the seams and he's going across and he
• 1:37:56
  makes the catch, makes a guy miss does this, does that, and
• 1:38:00
  does it like it looks really easy when he's doing it. He just kind
• 1:38:03
  of makes everything look easy. But I'm telling you it's not route running.
• 1:38:09
  Immaculate hands. Could be the best hands I've ever seen at the Walkham County
• 1:38:14
  level. And I'm not as there's I'm not joking about that. He's getting
• 1:38:18
  faster all the time. I mean he always had above average speed, but
• 1:38:21
  doing track last year really helped kind of just learn about the techniques of running
• 1:38:28
  faster, and it showed on the field. Plays big against the biggest opponents.
• 1:38:33
  I mean, I think he had fourteen catches against Lindon. He had
• 1:38:38
  that crazy Odell Beckham like catch for a touchdown against Lindon, and it's,
• 1:38:45
  uh, you know, he's he's he's gonna get close. I mean,
• 1:38:49
  he's I think he's at one hundred and twenty catches right now in his career
• 1:38:53
  and he's got another year to go. He is very much on target to
• 1:39:00
  break all the receiving records in Walkin County history. But I can tell you
• 1:39:04
  this, he wants to win. He does not care about those records.
• 1:39:09
  He wants to win. And another thing I love about him is what he
• 1:39:15
  did on defense. I think that he played, oh boy, I'm gonna
• 1:39:23
  say one third of the snaps on defense this year a third and he led
• 1:39:28
  the team in interceptions. Wow. He did it last year too. He
• 1:39:30
  had seven interceptions last year, but he played a lot more last year.
• 1:39:33
  He started a corner, played it all year, had seven interceptions this year.
• 1:39:39
  He would kind of play sparingly as a safety, didn't play that much,
• 1:39:43
  but would come in here and there, and still finished with thirty one
• 1:39:47
  and a half tackles, four passes broken up, two forced fumbles, one
• 1:39:50
  and a half tackles for loss, a fumble recovery, four interceptions that it
• 1:39:55
  returned for twenty seven yards. This year, on offense, sixty five catches
• 1:39:59
  for eight fifty one yards, Walking County leading thirteen touchdown receptions. He also
• 1:40:03
  had five carries for fifty three yards, and then twelve kickoff returns for two
• 1:40:10
  hundred and thirty six yards and two punt returns for thirty yards. He's uh,
• 1:40:15
  he's he's a special special talent, All Conference first team wide receiver and
• 1:40:23
  he is working his butt off all the time to get better, go into
• 1:40:27
  a ton of different camps, you know, and then but as far as
• 1:40:31
  just highlight plays, it's crazy. My comparison with him is Chris Carter.
• 1:40:38
  You remember Chris Carter that was a longtime receiver with the Vikings. I met
• 1:40:42
  him in the airport Orlando. Nice. Yeah, bigger. He's bigger than
• 1:40:45
  you think. I was the only person that recognized him. He's standing.
• 1:40:47
  We were standing in the TSA line and I looked at him. I said
• 1:40:49
  to my brother in law, I go, I said, that's Chris Carter.
• 1:40:53
  And he goes, wait, Chris Carter. I go, yeah,
• 1:40:56
  from the Vikings. He goes yeah, yeah, yeah, he goes no
• 1:40:59
  way. So and then we happened to be like, you know, he
• 1:41:00
  came around the corner and then you know, walked, you know, he
• 1:41:03
  was right next to us. We were standing there and I said, hey,
• 1:41:06
  I said, I know who you are, I said, but I'm
• 1:41:09
  not gonna ask you for anything. He goes, oh, hey, thanks,
• 1:41:13
  and I said longtime Seahawks fan. I said, I always appreciated your
• 1:41:15
  game though, and he goes, oh, thank you. That's very nice,
• 1:41:18
  my brother. I'm about to lose my mind over here. I can't
• 1:41:23
  believe you only said that to him. And I was like, sorry,
• 1:41:26
  man, that's just how I operate. I don't go crazy for stuff like
• 1:41:29
  that. Yeah, he was. He was cool. I mean, if
• 1:41:31
  he had a weird beginning news Kirk because he was with the Eagles. Yeah.
• 1:41:34
  A lot of people forget he was with the Eagles. Yeah, and
• 1:41:36
  he was. He had a year where he had like ten touchdown catches with
• 1:41:39
  the Eagles and then Buddy Ryan cut him and you remember what he said,
• 1:41:44
  Uh he said, well all he does is catch touchdowns. Okay. It
• 1:41:49
  was just the weirdest thing. I mean there was some issues off the field
• 1:41:53
  too that he had, Yeah, that he had in ohiose Stay as well.
• 1:41:55
  But then when he went to the Vikings, he kind of resurrected his
• 1:41:58
  career. Was the second best Carter receiver with Anthony Carter there. Yeah,
• 1:42:01
  and then and then once kind of those guys started going, you know,
• 1:42:04
  going off, and it was him. And then they brought in Jake Reed
• 1:42:06
  and they drafted Randy Moss and it just kind of took over from there and
• 1:42:10
  went to the Hall of Fame and and but yeah, and then they did
• 1:42:14
  that thing where he went on the him and Peyton Manning did that thing on
• 1:42:16
  the Peyton's Places or whatever where Peyton Manning threw up he threw a pass from
• 1:42:21
  like I don't know, like a thousand feet in the air off this building
• 1:42:26
  to see if Chris Carter could catch it or something like that. Yeah.
• 1:42:29
  Crazy, but yeah, he had the hands, Yes he did. And
• 1:42:32
  that's that's just you know. Andre Watson, Yeah, a five to eleven
• 1:42:38
  guy who I does not matter how big that defensive back is, he will
• 1:42:43
  he will go up and get the ball period against that guy. And I
• 1:42:47
  was like, man, how does he do that every time? How does
• 1:42:48
  he do that every time? And then when I met I've met Andre a
• 1:42:51
  few times, I gave him, you know, he won sophomore the year
• 1:42:55
  last year he split that award. And when I presented him with his trophy
• 1:42:59
  and I shook his hand, I went immediately from there to the emergency room
• 1:43:02
  for hand surgery because he has crazy strong hands. And that does not surprise
• 1:43:09
  me at all. You know, Jerry Rice talks about his dad was a
• 1:43:12
  brick layer and his dad would throw bricks to him constantly, and he'd catch
• 1:43:15
  him and he'd throw, you know, and he'd have to put him in
• 1:43:17
  place, and his dad would throw no. And that's what he did.
• 1:43:19
  He caught bricks all day and that's how he got his hands strong. And
• 1:43:24
  so whatever Andre's doing, it's it's it's he's doing it right. And and
• 1:43:30
  he's got an extremely bright future as well. Tyler. I've watched all of
• 1:43:34
  the Joe Nash uh what do you call him? Block kicks? Yeah,
• 1:43:41
  block kicks. A couple things stand out, Yeah. One four of them
• 1:43:45
  were against the Raiders. Nice, so you got to like that. M
• 1:43:49
  hm. The other thing that that stood out is every single one of them
• 1:43:54
  is now illegal. Oh because he lined up over the center. He lined
• 1:43:58
  up over the center and what he did is so and actually something that was
• 1:44:01
  crazy too. And maybe you could tell me they weren't allowed to fake kicks
• 1:44:04
  back then, were they? I mean extra points any type of kick,
• 1:44:12
  Yeah, you know, because fake it. But if you ran it in.
• 1:44:14
  It was maybe extra point extra point. They wouldn't have been able to
• 1:44:15
  fake it, would they. Well, they can, but and I saw
• 1:44:18
  Steve Largent do it a few times as a holder. Yeah, he would
• 1:44:21
  run one in, but it was worth one point. So it's interesting because
• 1:44:26
  on extra points they line up everybody straight across the board. There's no like
• 1:44:30
  two guys standing back just in case there's a fake, right, there's not.
• 1:44:33
  Yeah, they're not going to fake it unless it's a bad snap or
• 1:44:38
  something. Yes, yeah, Well, so what they would do, though,
• 1:44:40
  is the guy that was to his left or to his right would they
• 1:44:43
  would go hard outside and cross the face of the guard and force the guard
• 1:44:47
  to step a little bit outside. And when they did that, he would
• 1:44:50
  swim the center and then just and then just go right through. I mean,
• 1:44:55
  it's brilliant, like and it was totally against the rules, so or
• 1:44:59
  totally the rules were okay with it back then. Nowadays you can't do it.
• 1:45:03
  But as a kid, I mean, I love Joe Nash obviously,
• 1:45:06
  and I know he's your favorite seahawk and he played in more games than any
• 1:45:11
  seahawk in history. But I always was enamored with the blocked kicks because I
• 1:45:15
  remember them keep saying and that's his seventh of his career. I'm like,
• 1:45:18
  seventh, that's a lot because because he's not tall, and usually it was
• 1:45:25
  those big you know, you see Ellen Winslow scene, you like Kalais Campbell
• 1:45:28
  with the six foot eight defensive line with long arms, like, yeah,
• 1:45:32
  those were the guys that always blocked the kicks. But he's Joe Nash is
• 1:45:35
  six to one, and it would block so many kicks, and it was
• 1:45:39
  He's just always found his way through. It was crazy. Yeah. One
• 1:45:41
  of the things that was funny too is I noticed there was one in New
• 1:45:45
  Orleans that he blocked, and I was like, but I was trying to
• 1:45:47
  figure out who the heck is this because it was it was black. They
• 1:45:53
  were wearing black, and so I was like, at first, I thought
• 1:45:55
  it was like the Raiders, but we were playing maybe in Seattle for some
• 1:45:58
  reason, we were wearing white at home. It's in a dome. Yeah,
• 1:46:00
  yeah, because it was in a dome. But then I looked at
• 1:46:02
  the uh they when they showed the kick or when they showed the ball bouncing,
• 1:46:08
  the end zones were bright blue and the helmet had a t on it
• 1:46:12
  oh two lane, Yeah, and I was like, what the heck,
• 1:46:14
  oh Tulane. That's right. I forgot they used to if Tulane played a
• 1:46:17
  Saturday game, they wouldn't flip the turf or whatever for Sunday. Exactly.
• 1:46:20
  No, they wouldn't, which is funny to think about now if if there
• 1:46:24
  was anything like that, one they would just replace the turf. But anything
• 1:46:28
  like that nowadays, Tulane would have been playing with New Orleans Saints end zones,
• 1:46:31
  not the other way around, you know. Oh yeah, absolutely,
• 1:46:34
  Yeah, it's just crazy to think about. But Tyler, that's it.
• 1:46:38
  That's all twenty four down to six. The top five are left, and
• 1:46:43
  those five will come over the next five days, all five are going to
• 1:46:46
  get their own podcast. Yeah, and it's just gonna be one right after
• 1:46:51
  another. Yeah, I mean furious two days ago or yesterday was the Weekly
• 1:47:00
  Sports our Winter Sports Weekly wrap Up or whatever the heck we're calling it.
• 1:47:04
  Today is twenty four down to six. Then we've got five in a row,
• 1:47:08
  and then another Winter Sports Weekly wrap Up. Yeah, so you're set
• 1:47:12
  for a while, guys. Yeah, yeah, you're you're good, You're
• 1:47:15
  good. Yeah, And then there's a day off and then I think we're
• 1:47:18
  gonna do the awards right after that. Yes, so yeah, there's a
• 1:47:23
  lot of podcasts coming out over the next couple of days, so be sure
• 1:47:27
  to subscribe to the podcast. Again. Thank you to Anytime Fitness in Ferndale,
• 1:47:30
  Linden and Linden North for their continued sponsorship of Watcombe County High School Athletics.
• 1:47:38
  I mean that's really what it is. They're they're helping out doing doing
• 1:47:41
  a lot of stuff and they're gonna do even more. So thank you to
• 1:47:45
  them. And if you would like to sponsor anything having to do with watcom
• 1:47:48
  Preps, be sure to reach out to Tyler. He'll get you taken care
• 1:47:50
  of. That being said, He's Tyler Anderson of Watcompreps walkompreps dot com.
• 1:47:56
  I'm Royland Spencer. You've been listening to episode two twenty nine as we count
• 1:48:00
  down the top one hundred here on the Welcome Preps podcast. We will talk
• 1:48:04
  to you literally tomorrow and for the next five days in a row after that
• 1:48:08
  later like that,