Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 380 - Gatorade Gameday Football Preview - Week 7

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 380 - Gatorade Gameday Football Preview - Week 7 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: This is Mal Baker senior Toga Tiggy Love and you're
0:03
Speaker 1: listening to Walcome Preps podcast with Tyler Anderson. Go Baker. Greetings,
0:17
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Gatorade Game Day preview on the
0:20
Speaker 1: Walcome Preps Podcast. This is episode three hundred and eighty
0:25
Speaker 1: and I am Tyler Anderson with Walkham Preps and we're
0:27
Speaker 1: gonna preview all eight games this weekend involving Walcome County teams.
0:32
Speaker 1: I want to give it thank you to Mount Baker's
0:34
Speaker 1: senior quarterback Toga Tigelau for the intro. H what a
0:39
Speaker 1: fun loving guy, always in a great mood, Always enjoy
0:42
Speaker 1: talking to him, huge smile on his face all the time,
0:45
Speaker 1: and he's having himself a great year and glad just
0:50
Speaker 1: to see that he'll be that he's on the mend
0:54
Speaker 1: and doing well. So yeah, thank you so much Toga
0:58
Speaker 1: for that. Congrats to Ferndale's Nolan Boliac and Chance Hatchet
1:03
Speaker 1: on winning the week six PEPSI Play of the Week
1:05
Speaker 1: with our game winning two point conversion over Snohomish. Because
1:09
Speaker 1: of that, they each win a case of Gatorade thanks
1:12
Speaker 1: to Walton Beverage. And I'm gonna step away for a
1:15
Speaker 1: short fifteen seconds so we can hear from our title sponsor, you.
1:20
Speaker 2: Hear that that's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar. The
1:24
Speaker 2: better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar Cola Pepsi zero sugar.
1:31
Speaker 2: Let your taste decide.
1:33
Speaker 1: And I can't tell all of you how blessed and
1:35
Speaker 1: thankful I am for a company like Walton Beverage, who's
1:38
Speaker 1: been a staple in our community for over ninety years,
1:41
Speaker 1: to take an interest in walk them Preps and allow
1:43
Speaker 1: me to keep doing what I love to do. It's
1:46
Speaker 1: a game changer for me and I will continue to
1:48
Speaker 1: work harder every day to make the fantastic people at
1:51
Speaker 1: Walton Beverage proud to sponsor youth sports and our community.
1:54
Speaker 1: They deliver superior quality and commitment, and I plan to
1:58
Speaker 1: do the same. Let's talk some football. We have eight
2:01
Speaker 1: games to talk about for this weekend. Seven of them
2:04
Speaker 1: are tonight one on Saturday night. We'll start with tonight's
2:08
Speaker 1: four thirty game. The Lemon Nation Blackhawks are hosting the
2:13
Speaker 1: Nia Bay Red Devils. Let me Nation is three and
2:16
Speaker 1: two and Nia Bay is also three and two on
2:19
Speaker 1: the season, but Max Preps rankings show Nia Bay with
2:22
Speaker 1: a slight advantage in this one. We are now joined
2:25
Speaker 1: on the Gatorade Game Day preview by Lemon Nation football
2:28
Speaker 1: coach what Tiko Layton coach, thank you for joining me today.
2:31
Speaker 1: How are you doing?
2:32
Speaker 3: Doing pretty good? Thanks for having me, Tyler.
2:34
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Uh take me back to the first time
2:37
Speaker 1: you ever played organized football? What grade were you in?
2:42
Speaker 1: What position were you playing, and what field was it on.
2:47
Speaker 4: So for the boys and girls cub back in the day,
2:50
Speaker 4: the cutoff was third grade.
2:52
Speaker 3: But I started playing in second grade out here in Lummy.
2:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
2:56
Speaker 4: We practice on a baseball field, but I played nose guarden.
3:01
Speaker 3: That's a second grader. Yeah right, yeah, how about that
3:06
Speaker 3: nose guard and left tackle.
3:07
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So you were you were like early
3:11
Speaker 1: on you were big for your grade, I'm guessing.
3:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but I was still playing against third and
3:16
Speaker 4: fifth graders and I was that third fourth string nose guard.
3:21
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. I love that. That's that's so cool
3:25
Speaker 1: because you just That's why I love asking these questions
3:27
Speaker 1: because you never know. My the first drift played was
3:30
Speaker 1: in seventh grade. I was so tiny. In seventh grade,
3:33
Speaker 1: I was four foot seven, weighed seventy two pounds and
3:36
Speaker 1: I played defensive end, so yeah, you just never know.
3:39
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm going against Linden and those kids are
3:42
Speaker 1: already six feet tall and junior high, and I'm like,
3:44
Speaker 1: oh my goodness. All I was trying to do was
3:46
Speaker 1: just punch the ball out because I knew I wasn't
3:48
Speaker 1: going to be able to make a tackle, so I
3:49
Speaker 1: was I was just throwing fists constantly and that's and
3:54
Speaker 1: I did it every once in a while. But yeah,
3:56
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of I love that kind
3:57
Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, before talking about your Week seven opponent,
4:01
Speaker 1: let's go over your game last week. You defeated Muckleshoot
4:04
Speaker 1: Tribal forty eight to zero. Your team is above five hundred,
4:07
Speaker 1: things are going well. What were some of your favorite
4:10
Speaker 1: moments from that win?
4:13
Speaker 3: I just say all of our kids executing our players.
4:15
Speaker 4: We had minimal mistakes and penalties throughout the game, which
4:19
Speaker 4: is good for our kids. And just the consistent growth
4:22
Speaker 4: of being physical throughout the season was great to see.
4:26
Speaker 1: What was the bus ride like back home?
4:29
Speaker 5: Oh?
4:29
Speaker 3: They we actually took vans.
4:31
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I have a bus driver, so we took
4:32
Speaker 4: two vans down and so it was nice and congested
4:37
Speaker 4: with all the kids.
4:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love those experiences, those long trips and celebrating
4:43
Speaker 1: a win is always huge, and so that's a really
4:46
Speaker 1: cool thing. And that's one thing. Taking a couple of
4:48
Speaker 1: buses down or a couple of vans down. There's not
4:51
Speaker 1: a lot of football teams around Walking County. They can say, oh, yeah,
4:54
Speaker 1: we'll just take a couple of vans. We'll be just fine.
4:57
Speaker 1: I love that kind of stuff. More than halfway through
5:01
Speaker 1: the season. What's been the biggest improvement your team has
5:04
Speaker 1: made since Week one?
5:06
Speaker 3: I'd say physicality.
5:07
Speaker 4: A lot of our kids are getting physical and aren't
5:10
Speaker 4: too timid when it comes to contact and hitting, and
5:13
Speaker 4: we'll be able to show teams that they can't just
5:16
Speaker 4: run through us anymore.
5:18
Speaker 3: So that's been really good.
5:19
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Let's talk about Friday night. You're hosting Nia Bay.
5:23
Speaker 1: It's a five o'clock start, so all you black Hawk
5:26
Speaker 1: fans be ready for the early kickoff. You're both three
5:29
Speaker 1: and two on the season. Would you say that this
5:31
Speaker 1: is your biggest rival?
5:34
Speaker 3: I would say so.
5:35
Speaker 6: Yeah.
5:35
Speaker 4: Nia Bay and let Me have been going at it
5:38
Speaker 4: since probably before Salmon, But yeah, they've always had a
5:42
Speaker 4: good rivalry game and both sides of the community comes
5:45
Speaker 4: out and it's just a nice, nice event.
5:48
Speaker 1: What can you expect from this year's Red Devil squad?
5:52
Speaker 4: You know, they've kind of been the same basic since
5:54
Speaker 4: they started their program, but they run Power Eye just
5:57
Speaker 4: basic league full back Die have tossed boots.
6:02
Speaker 3: They're another running, physical team, just hard nos.
6:05
Speaker 1: Hey, your team, though, has a lot of size, especially
6:08
Speaker 1: up front. So do you feel like you can match
6:14
Speaker 1: up pretty well with a team that's going to be
6:16
Speaker 1: physical as well?
6:17
Speaker 6: Yeah?
6:17
Speaker 4: I believe so with our style and schemes, I feel
6:21
Speaker 4: like it's going to be a big dog fight throughout
6:23
Speaker 4: the game with our two programs.
6:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. I mean, and you know, the last
6:27
Speaker 1: few years the scores have been a little lopsided with
6:30
Speaker 1: both teams being three and two. Now I'm expecting something
6:34
Speaker 1: a little bit closer. Is the five o'clock start, just
6:38
Speaker 1: do so they can get back home in a decent hour.
6:40
Speaker 3: For that, and then we also have homecoming.
6:44
Speaker 7: Oh nice.
6:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're gonna do a little bit early for them.
6:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool. I mean, and man,
6:53
Speaker 1: it's going to be electric. I mean, that's the thing, right,
6:56
Speaker 1: I mean, you were talking about there was a few
6:57
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I think we were talking about your game
7:00
Speaker 1: out at THEA Bay when the lights went out and
7:04
Speaker 1: everyone was putting on the putting on the headlights on
7:07
Speaker 1: the cars and stuff like that so you could finish
7:09
Speaker 1: the game. And yeah, of course with a five o'clock start,
7:12
Speaker 1: I think your lights will be okay at the end
7:14
Speaker 1: of the game, but I'm sure that you guys would
7:17
Speaker 1: do the same thing. That's awesome, man, good stuff. Good
7:19
Speaker 1: luck against Nia Bay on Friday, And thank you so
7:22
Speaker 1: much for joining me on the Gatorade game day preview.
7:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate thanks for having me.
7:26
Speaker 1: You bet we'll all be rooting for the Blackhawks in
7:29
Speaker 1: this one. And in the interview we talked about it
7:31
Speaker 1: being a five o'clock game, but it has been moved
7:33
Speaker 1: up thirty minutes and will now start at four thirty,
7:37
Speaker 1: So be ready for that one early start. The next
7:41
Speaker 1: game of the night, we'll be kicking off at six
7:43
Speaker 1: point thirty as the Blaine Border Rights are traveling to
7:45
Speaker 1: Friday Harbor to take on the Wolverines. Blaine is one
7:49
Speaker 1: and five on the season and Friday Harbor is two
7:51
Speaker 1: and four. Max Preps gives the edge to the border
7:55
Speaker 1: rights here and we are now joined on the Gatorade
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Speaker 1: Game Day preview by Blaine Football Code, which Andy Olsen coach,
8:01
Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. How are you doing.
8:03
Speaker 8: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me again, Tyler.
8:05
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Uh take me back to the first time
8:09
Speaker 1: you ever played organized football. What grade were you in?
8:14
Speaker 1: What position did you play on your very first play
8:17
Speaker 1: in what field? Was it?
8:18
Speaker 9: All?
8:19
Speaker 8: Right?
8:20
Speaker 6: So?
8:20
Speaker 10: I played flag football in I want to say second grade,
8:26
Speaker 10: and Lyndon didn't offer flag football, so I actually played
8:29
Speaker 10: on a Meridian flag team out of like Bellingham Boys
8:33
Speaker 10: and Girls Club, nice and naturally they put me at center.
8:39
Speaker 1: It was not shocking big enough hands to snap the ball, big.
8:43
Speaker 10: Enough hands to snap the ball, and I was slow.
8:46
Speaker 10: I'm consistent a lot of things and getting slow.
8:48
Speaker 8: As one of them.
8:50
Speaker 10: But I did get to run center eligible, which was
8:53
Speaker 10: just you know, it was a great time. I gotta
8:56
Speaker 10: go downfield, and we had one play for me where
8:58
Speaker 10: I could catch the ball occasionally, and I would catch
9:00
Speaker 10: the ball. It's just no yak, right, But yeah, So
9:05
Speaker 10: that was that Meridian. I remember my first practice was
9:08
Speaker 10: at the it still is the Meridian Middle School.
9:11
Speaker 8: So that was fun. And then immediately after that, I went.
9:15
Speaker 10: And played with the wynd And Youth Football for my
9:19
Speaker 10: dad and Jerry Cock for multiple years and that was
9:22
Speaker 10: a lot of fun too. I got to play a
9:24
Speaker 10: lot of linebacker as a little kid. I thought that
9:26
Speaker 10: was really really fun. Yeah, and uh yeah. One game
9:30
Speaker 10: we had a deal as our last game of the
9:32
Speaker 10: season sixth grade, and Jerry Cox said, if we got
9:34
Speaker 10: up by like three.
9:35
Speaker 8: Scores, we'd all flip roles.
9:38
Speaker 10: And so I got to play quarterback in the second
9:40
Speaker 10: half and I immediately proceeded to throw a pick six.
9:43
Speaker 8: He started to question what we were doing.
9:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot quarterbacks. It's it looks easy when
9:50
Speaker 1: you're watching the game and you're like, oh, just go
9:52
Speaker 1: to this guy or just go to that guy, and
9:54
Speaker 1: then you stepped into it and it's totally different. I'll
9:58
Speaker 1: never forget. I was like the third string quarterback in
10:01
Speaker 1: high school and we went to a passing thing out
10:05
Speaker 1: at Meridian High School and like, you know, a seven
10:08
Speaker 1: on seven or something.
10:09
Speaker 9: It was.
10:10
Speaker 1: This was in the mid nineties, so this was very
10:12
Speaker 1: infancy type stuff. But Meridian would hold these things and
10:16
Speaker 1: they let me play the last four plays and I
10:20
Speaker 1: was zero for four with two interceptions, and like, I
10:23
Speaker 1: didn't even see that. I'm just throwing like an out
10:25
Speaker 1: to the tight end and there's a linebacker right there.
10:28
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't even see them. I just thought,
10:30
Speaker 1: my goodness, this is tough.
10:32
Speaker 8: Somebody caught half your passes.
10:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. And the last one, the very last one,
10:36
Speaker 1: was just a deep throw at fifty yards into the
10:39
Speaker 1: end zone and everybody that jumps up there and that
10:41
Speaker 1: was the other interception. But oh my goodness, he.
10:44
Speaker 8: At least you deep. Yeah, it was more. I have
10:48
Speaker 8: to underhand it if I want to get it past twenty.
10:51
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, these days it's a little different. But all right, Well,
10:55
Speaker 1: before we talk about week seven, let's go over your
10:58
Speaker 1: game last week. Nuikxack Valley came out strong, did all
11:01
Speaker 1: the scoring in the first half, but I thought that
11:05
Speaker 1: you guys fought back extremely hard in the second half,
11:07
Speaker 1: particularly in the third quarter. What was your biggest tick
11:10
Speaker 1: away from that game?
11:12
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I just love coaching our kids. Our
11:15
Speaker 10: kids do a really good job in regards to playing
11:21
Speaker 10: within themselves and trying to achieve our standards. You know,
11:24
Speaker 10: I've coached one in five teams and I've coached five
11:26
Speaker 10: and one teams, and this is some of the most
11:27
Speaker 10: fun I've had coaching football. As this group they listen,
11:31
Speaker 10: they work hard, they want to get better, and they
11:34
Speaker 10: came out in the second half and to them it
11:36
Speaker 10: was zero zero.
11:37
Speaker 1: They didn't care.
11:38
Speaker 10: So we went out and we played to a new level.
11:40
Speaker 10: And that's always fun too, is when you can kind
11:42
Speaker 10: of unlock certain things mentally with our kids and they're like, oh, no,
11:45
Speaker 10: you know, we can play at this level now. And
11:47
Speaker 10: so we flew around and we hit and that was
11:49
Speaker 10: a lot of fun. I mean, I think one of
11:52
Speaker 10: the greatest things in high school sports is you're gonna
11:54
Speaker 10: fall into one of four categories.
11:56
Speaker 8: Styler.
11:57
Speaker 10: You're going to have winning habits on a winning team,
12:00
Speaker 10: and those are the teams that you see that go
12:01
Speaker 10: you know, they're just like, oh, they keep coming back
12:04
Speaker 10: and they keep making things happen in the postseason, right,
12:07
Speaker 10: and then you're going to have some losing teams with
12:09
Speaker 10: winning habits, And that's kind of the category we fit
12:11
Speaker 10: into right now. We haven't put into the work in
12:13
Speaker 10: the offseason yet with this group to really get to
12:15
Speaker 10: the point where we're going to go win a lot
12:16
Speaker 10: of football games. But the winning habits is very apparent
12:20
Speaker 10: with how we come out of the locker room and
12:21
Speaker 10: how we continue to go do things that's you up
12:25
Speaker 10: for success in the future.
12:26
Speaker 8: Like that's where it starts.
12:27
Speaker 10: So and honestly, to me, the winning habits is more
12:30
Speaker 10: important than anything because I've also had teams that have
12:33
Speaker 10: winning outcomes in losing habits. And those are the teams
12:36
Speaker 10: that you see if you're down by you know, three
12:39
Speaker 10: scores at halftime, they fold and you know it's over.
12:42
Speaker 10: At halftime. You can see their body language and they
12:44
Speaker 10: walk to the locker room like it's over. And you
12:46
Speaker 10: see that right like, and sometimes you don't know where
12:48
Speaker 10: you're at until November hits and you're in the you know,
12:52
Speaker 10: state first round or state quarterfinals, and also in your
12:54
Speaker 10: teams down for the first time, they have no idea
12:56
Speaker 10: how to respond to that adversity. Our kids are learning
12:58
Speaker 10: how to do that and they're becoming better in individuals
13:00
Speaker 10: through this process and it's just so fun to watch
13:03
Speaker 10: them grow.
13:04
Speaker 1: Man, I want to play for you right now, Coach.
13:07
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I mean, I've this is I love hearing
13:11
Speaker 1: that because you're absolutely correct about the winning habits. The
13:15
Speaker 1: losing habits, the winning cultures and all that stuff. It's
13:19
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm guess I've never had it put
13:21
Speaker 1: to me that way, but you're so right. Where I've
13:23
Speaker 1: seen teams that are very, very talented that will lose
13:27
Speaker 1: in a playing round or a first round, and and
13:30
Speaker 1: I can, I mean, I can think of teams specifically
13:32
Speaker 1: on the top of my head. I'm not going to
13:33
Speaker 1: bring them up because they're walking county teams, but man,
13:37
Speaker 1: it's you're You're so right. And to hear that the
13:39
Speaker 1: winning habits are there in Blaine is is that's awesome
13:45
Speaker 1: news because you know, you could totally see things starting
13:49
Speaker 1: to turn around. Let's talk a little bit about senior
13:52
Speaker 1: Malachi Morillo. You and I have talked a lot about
13:56
Speaker 1: him off the air, but a three year starter for
13:59
Speaker 1: you on the offensive line now starting at nose tackle
14:01
Speaker 1: as well. His impact goes beyond playing the game of football.
14:04
Speaker 1: Explain to our listeners how important he is to your team.
14:08
Speaker 10: Malachi will be on the Mount rushmore for one of
14:12
Speaker 10: my favorite kids I've ever been able to coach, and
14:15
Speaker 10: it's I've learned more from Malachi than I think Malachi
14:18
Speaker 10: has learned from me. About the game of football. He
14:21
Speaker 10: is wise beyond his years, the way that he can
14:23
Speaker 10: teach and lead the patients that he has. When we
14:27
Speaker 10: were running Blaine Monday Night Youth Football all summer for
14:31
Speaker 10: free on Monday nights, he was there every Monday night
14:34
Speaker 10: and he was hands down the fan favorite. From first
14:36
Speaker 10: graders to like sixth graders. They love this guy because
14:40
Speaker 10: he's just so patient, so kind. He has standards and
14:44
Speaker 10: he wants things done a certain way, but he's he's
14:47
Speaker 10: the perfect guy for this team. If you can have
14:50
Speaker 10: a team with only three or four seniors like we do,
14:52
Speaker 10: you want to have Malachi be one of those guys
14:55
Speaker 10: because he was the sophomore that had to learn with
14:58
Speaker 10: a group into Boulder guys next to him, whether it
15:00
Speaker 10: was Vic gerbel or Otto Shelton or Maloy Messenger.
15:03
Speaker 11: And.
15:05
Speaker 8: He's been there.
15:06
Speaker 10: And the way that he can his empathy towards others
15:11
Speaker 10: and when things go bad and picking them up like
15:14
Speaker 10: he's never got a negative thing to say to anyone.
15:17
Speaker 10: And our kids grow because of him, and we are
15:21
Speaker 10: in a better place today than we were a month
15:23
Speaker 10: ago because of him. And we're definitely in a better
15:25
Speaker 10: place today than we were three years ago because of
15:27
Speaker 10: guys like him.
15:29
Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. Could you could you see down the road,
15:33
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's a year or five years from
15:36
Speaker 1: now or whatever it is, if he came back and say, coach,
15:39
Speaker 1: I would really love to be an assistant in any
15:41
Speaker 1: way that possible. Could you see that happening?
15:44
Speaker 10: I mean, I would hire him in a heartbeat. I
15:47
Speaker 10: just he's got so many interests too. I mean I
15:51
Speaker 10: could see him being a youth pastor, Like I think
15:54
Speaker 10: that's the direction he's probably gonna go in his life.
15:56
Speaker 10: He's gonna go, you know, Weld and he's gonna be
15:59
Speaker 10: the like when he's thirty that he's gonna be married
16:01
Speaker 10: with three kids already and just being the happiest big
16:04
Speaker 10: fellow of all time. That's kind of my vision for him.
16:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
16:09
Speaker 10: But yeah, if he said he wanted to come help out, like,
16:12
Speaker 10: that's an immediate hire, no questions asked.
16:15
Speaker 1: That's awesome. All right, let's talk about Friday night. You're
16:18
Speaker 1: back on the road, headed over to the Islands for
16:20
Speaker 1: a six thirty kickoff at Freddy Harbor. Tell us about
16:24
Speaker 1: this year's Wolverine team.
16:26
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, they're very similar to every year's Wolverine team.
16:29
Speaker 10: They're really well coached and their kids know how to
16:31
Speaker 10: play football. Their youth program is is very strong. They
16:36
Speaker 10: come across the water often to go play in that
16:38
Speaker 10: Skadget County league, and so those kids, they've been playing
16:42
Speaker 10: it for a long time. They got athletes, they're gonna
16:44
Speaker 10: they're gonna go do it the right way. We love
16:47
Speaker 10: playing against those guys too, because when you talk about
16:48
Speaker 10: programs that do it the right way, like Friday Harbor
16:50
Speaker 10: is gonna do it the right way every time, regardless
16:52
Speaker 10: what side of the scoreboard they're on, they're gonna show
16:54
Speaker 10: up and we're gonna get better because we play them.
16:57
Speaker 10: So that's another team like we We intentionally go and
17:00
Speaker 10: try to schedule them each year.
17:04
Speaker 1: Schematically, are they still similar very there, They've been quite
17:09
Speaker 1: run heavy the past three or four years.
17:12
Speaker 10: Yeah, they they They will throw it a little bit
17:14
Speaker 10: more than they have in the past. They have a
17:17
Speaker 10: really talented receiver out there. I don't know his first name,
17:20
Speaker 10: I just know his number, but they do a really
17:23
Speaker 10: good job trying to utilize him in space, and he
17:25
Speaker 10: plays safety for them as well, and it's it's very
17:27
Speaker 10: clear that he is a talented young man who can
17:30
Speaker 10: do some things, and their quarterback doesn't mind chucking it downfield. Unfortunately,
17:35
Speaker 10: they graduated their kicker last year, Tyler, I know that
17:37
Speaker 10: we always have a soft spot on for kickers. Yeah,
17:40
Speaker 10: they lined up for a fifty four yarder against us
17:42
Speaker 10: and just a pouring down rainstorm last last year and
17:47
Speaker 10: he missed it wide right, he had with room spar Like,
17:49
Speaker 10: my goodness, what just happened. So yeah, now and then
17:52
Speaker 10: you'll have an experience like that too, where just this
17:54
Speaker 10: random kid pops up fro Briddy Harbor.
17:56
Speaker 8: You're like, wow, where did this come from?
17:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it is crazy. You're right, you know, back
18:02
Speaker 1: in the day they were they struggled in the nineties.
18:06
Speaker 1: They joined the Walking County League in nineteen ninety two
18:10
Speaker 1: and they they it was rough for them, but they
18:13
Speaker 1: had they had the state sprint champion on their team
18:16
Speaker 1: and Sean Sewan storts him and he's the kid that
18:18
Speaker 1: him and Scott Notaboom battled uh in track where one
18:22
Speaker 1: of them would win state, one would be second, and
18:24
Speaker 1: we'd be back and forth in league meets. And you're right,
18:26
Speaker 1: it's like every once in a while there's a kid
18:28
Speaker 1: that's like I remember one year they just had a
18:30
Speaker 1: six six free safety. They just picked everything off. It's like,
18:33
Speaker 1: where did that come from? Or yeah, so you're right.
18:37
Speaker 1: Every once in a while they just have that guy
18:39
Speaker 1: and uh and you're all right about them doing the
18:42
Speaker 1: doing it the right way and and uh so a
18:44
Speaker 1: six thirty kickoff and he worries about getting back in
18:48
Speaker 1: time to get the ferry and all that stuff.
18:50
Speaker 10: You know, I just put my faith in our athletic
18:53
Speaker 10: director or fearless of leader Chas Cock that he's got
18:56
Speaker 10: it dialed in, and uh we'll be on the bus
18:58
Speaker 10: and make it on time. And if not, what a
19:01
Speaker 10: great team bonding experience. Be stuck on the island, all right,
19:05
Speaker 10: there's worse places in the world to be stuck than
19:07
Speaker 10: Friday Harbor.
19:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great, great point. I love the positivity, coach,
19:12
Speaker 1: keep you coming. Awesome stuff. Good luck at Friday Harbor
19:15
Speaker 1: on Friday night. And thank you so much for joining
19:17
Speaker 1: me on the Gatorade Game day.
19:18
Speaker 8: Preview, and thank you as always, and go board rights.
19:22
Speaker 1: We now move on to the seven o'clock kickoffs for tonight,
19:25
Speaker 1: and we start with the Linden Lions going on the
19:27
Speaker 1: road to face the Archbishop Murphy Wildcats. Lindon is five
19:32
Speaker 1: and one and Archbishop Murphy is six and oh. Max
19:35
Speaker 1: Preps gives the edge to the top ranked Archbishop Murphy Wildcats.
19:41
Speaker 1: And we are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day
19:43
Speaker 1: preview by Linden football coach Blake Van Dalen. Coach, thank
19:46
Speaker 1: you for joining me today. How are you doing good?
19:49
Speaker 12: Thanks for having me on, appreciate your time.
19:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're welcome. Take me back to the first time
19:54
Speaker 1: you ever played organized football. What grade were you in,
19:59
Speaker 1: what position did you first play, and what field was
20:02
Speaker 1: your first game on?
20:05
Speaker 13: It was seventh grade football for London Middle School. One
20:12
Speaker 13: of my coaches was Mark Mayberry, that was Mayberry's son,
20:17
Speaker 13: and I played defensive back and receiver and actually no,
20:25
Speaker 13: actually I started out at linebacker because I remember that
20:28
Speaker 13: first coaching point something about something.
20:32
Speaker 6: In the woods.
20:33
Speaker 12: But anyway, it made.
20:34
Speaker 13: Sense and I did it, so there we go. And yeah,
20:37
Speaker 13: for my first game was at home, so that would
20:39
Speaker 13: have been the old London High School, which now is
20:43
Speaker 13: considered the old Linden Middle School, which where the district offices.
20:46
Speaker 13: There's a big water tower used to be there, and
20:50
Speaker 13: that was where my very first ever memories of football happened.
20:55
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I think I may have played a football
20:58
Speaker 1: game there in junior high as well. Was that also
21:01
Speaker 1: the place where the baseball junior high baseball stadium, Like,
21:05
Speaker 1: if you hit one deep to centerfield, it went to
21:07
Speaker 1: the football stadium there?
21:08
Speaker 13: Yeah, the football state that was always the goal was, Yeah,
21:12
Speaker 13: you know, out of the park and into the football bleachers.
21:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, right right, Okay, I did play there. That's awesome.
21:19
Speaker 1: I love I love learning about the history of Walking
21:22
Speaker 1: County and just the landmarks and stuff like that. So
21:25
Speaker 1: so cool. Yeah, before talking about your Week seven opponent,
21:29
Speaker 1: let's talk about last week. And I have to apologize
21:32
Speaker 1: for last week. During the during our interview, I gave
21:35
Speaker 1: you the whammy. I started out by saying that Lucas
21:37
Speaker 1: Lolgy was the only quarterback that hadn't thrown an interception
21:40
Speaker 1: all season, and then on the second play from scrimmage,
21:45
Speaker 1: Sorry about that one, but it was a battle against Squalwcum.
21:48
Speaker 1: You were down fourteen to zero very quickly. But I
21:51
Speaker 1: thought that that forty eight yard touchdown run by Dawson
21:54
Speaker 1: Van Dalen really helped in stopping that momentum. They did
21:58
Speaker 1: come back and kick a field goal. But then and
22:00
Speaker 1: I think Malachi came and scored every single point after
22:03
Speaker 1: that in the entire game. What was your biggest takeaway
22:06
Speaker 1: in that game?
22:09
Speaker 13: Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing was we
22:10
Speaker 13: just at the very beginning, if you watched the Anacordus
22:15
Speaker 13: Squalicum game, that's exactly how their game. Anachordus did everything
22:19
Speaker 13: they could to help Squalicum, and then Squalicum took advantage
22:23
Speaker 13: of all those opportunities, whether it be turnovers or penalties.
22:27
Speaker 13: So right away I was so bummed because I felt
22:31
Speaker 13: like we could run the ball on them, which I
22:33
Speaker 13: think we ended up with three hundred and sixty some
22:35
Speaker 13: yards rushing. And so, but you always as a coach
22:38
Speaker 13: want to be balanced, and you always want to you know,
22:41
Speaker 13: keep everybody you know on their toes and whatnot, and
22:44
Speaker 13: and so unfortunately that that first throw, which ended up
22:48
Speaker 13: being an interception, was not I don't want to say unnecessary.
22:51
Speaker 13: It was just a bad situation all the way around.
22:54
Speaker 13: And so I think the biggest thing was for myself,
22:57
Speaker 13: first of all, staying calm and then making sure the
23:00
Speaker 13: rest of the team stayed calm and understanding that we
23:02
Speaker 13: got a long game ahead of us, and the plan
23:05
Speaker 13: all along was to you know, make it a fourth
23:08
Speaker 13: quarter game, make teams play all four quarters against us,
23:11
Speaker 13: and we feel like if they do, we have a
23:14
Speaker 13: chance to win every game.
23:15
Speaker 12: And so that didn't change. And so I was really
23:18
Speaker 12: proud of our kids.
23:19
Speaker 13: For, you know, handling the adversity of back to back
23:23
Speaker 13: touchdowns less than what four minutes into the game, And
23:26
Speaker 13: You're right, once we popped that run loose and Dawson scored,
23:31
Speaker 13: now it's literally just a one score game with three
23:34
Speaker 13: quarters of football to go, And I felt like we
23:38
Speaker 13: looked like ourselves from that point on.
23:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talked about wanting to being able to run
23:44
Speaker 1: the ball. You felt like during you know, watching maybe
23:47
Speaker 1: film or something, you could you could run on them
23:49
Speaker 1: a little bit. Whether it may have been an issue,
23:52
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure. I wasn't out there for that one,
23:54
Speaker 1: missing key guys on the outside. Was running the football
23:57
Speaker 1: a main priority during the week leading up to the game,
23:59
Speaker 1: or did did the game just kind of dictate that?
24:02
Speaker 6: No?
24:02
Speaker 12: I think two things.
24:04
Speaker 13: Obviously the rough start and then yeah, it rained harder
24:08
Speaker 13: than I think anybody was expecting.
24:10
Speaker 12: Even the forecast.
24:11
Speaker 13: Didn't have it got to the point where you know,
24:15
Speaker 13: when you're down a score or two, you start to realize,
24:19
Speaker 13: you know, we can't afford mistakes. And when you throw
24:22
Speaker 13: the ball, two bad things can happen and one good
24:24
Speaker 13: thing can happen.
24:25
Speaker 12: When you run the ball, usually two good things can
24:28
Speaker 12: happen and one bad thing.
24:29
Speaker 13: And so once it got to a situation based on weather,
24:33
Speaker 13: based on score where it made sense to run the ball,
24:37
Speaker 13: we were going to do that until they stopped it.
24:40
Speaker 12: And so really proud of our O line. They were
24:44
Speaker 12: so excited.
24:45
Speaker 14: They've been waiting for a game like this all year.
24:48
Speaker 14: You know, they don't want to hear about balance. They
24:50
Speaker 14: don't want to hear about getting people touches. They don't
24:53
Speaker 14: want to hear about rhythm. They want to hear about
24:57
Speaker 14: we're running the ball every snap until we score.
25:00
Speaker 12: Or that makes them happy.
25:01
Speaker 13: So anytime you're making the line happy, you're doing a
25:03
Speaker 13: good job as a coach.
25:04
Speaker 1: Right absolutely, I know that. I know that Coach Lepez
25:08
Speaker 1: talked about this where maybe on a third and short,
25:11
Speaker 1: fourth and short anytime in the game, he'll call a
25:14
Speaker 1: time out and he'll walk out there and he'll ask
25:16
Speaker 1: the line what play do you guys want to run? Yeah,
25:19
Speaker 1: and and and it gives them such a great feel
25:22
Speaker 1: because they're out there, they know maybe if a guy
25:25
Speaker 1: on the other side something's going on, they they they
25:28
Speaker 1: might see something and it gives them the you know,
25:31
Speaker 1: the feeling of like, wow, yeah, we want to do this,
25:36
Speaker 1: and then they'll do it. And so it is cool
25:39
Speaker 1: when you can when you can feed the big guys
25:41
Speaker 1: some of that feeling and and you can ride with
25:45
Speaker 1: it after that. We're a little more than halfway through
25:47
Speaker 1: the season at this point. What's the biggest improvement you've
25:51
Speaker 1: made as a team since Week one?
25:54
Speaker 12: Well, just then, I think you've seen it.
25:57
Speaker 13: We've had such an injury plague season that getting the
26:02
Speaker 13: young guys caught up to where the seniors were at,
26:06
Speaker 13: and so I would say that to me has been
26:09
Speaker 13: you know, handling that adversity that we faced early and
26:12
Speaker 13: yet at the same time not stubbing our toe, you know,
26:16
Speaker 13: I mean, we still think it would have been, you know,
26:19
Speaker 13: nice to beat Anna Chordus, but yet you know it
26:22
Speaker 13: was it was.
26:24
Speaker 1: A learning game.
26:25
Speaker 12: We learned a lot from it.
26:26
Speaker 13: You know, it wasn't a wasted opportunity from that perspective.
26:30
Speaker 13: And you can call it a respectful loss or however
26:32
Speaker 13: you want to look at that. But we've been able
26:34
Speaker 13: to mature as a team without stubbing our toe, if
26:38
Speaker 13: you will.
26:39
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's talk about it. Friday night. You're
26:42
Speaker 1: traveling to Everett take on Archbishop Murphy. Two great battles
26:46
Speaker 1: against them last year, a couple of low scoring affairs.
26:50
Speaker 1: What makes the Wildcats so great?
26:53
Speaker 13: I think you know right now if you look at
26:55
Speaker 13: them on film, they're complete, meaning, you know, let's go offensively.
27:00
Speaker 12: First.
27:00
Speaker 13: They line up in very few formations and they run
27:05
Speaker 13: basically their entire offense out of one or two formations,
27:08
Speaker 13: which is usually a sign of a good team. That
27:10
Speaker 13: means they don't have to try to distract you with
27:14
Speaker 13: motions and a bunch of formations and try and out
27:17
Speaker 13: smart you.
27:18
Speaker 12: They want to out physical you, and then you.
27:20
Speaker 3: Flip it over.
27:22
Speaker 6: You know.
27:22
Speaker 13: Their defense is I don't want to say perfectly built,
27:26
Speaker 13: but it's balanced. There are not weaknesses or chinks in
27:31
Speaker 13: the armor. Their d line is elite, and their linebackers
27:35
Speaker 13: are elite, and their defensive backs and safeties are coming downhill.
27:40
Speaker 12: And doing what they do. So the the goal or
27:44
Speaker 12: the not the goal.
27:45
Speaker 13: The holes in the defense are small, and they're very
27:49
Speaker 13: consistent of what they do offensively and defensively. So you
27:53
Speaker 13: really do have to have a good game plan, get
27:55
Speaker 13: all the kids on board, buy in, and then go
27:58
Speaker 13: out there and execute.
27:59
Speaker 12: You know, I don't want to say two perfection because
28:01
Speaker 12: no one ever does that, but you do need.
28:03
Speaker 13: To have to execute at a very high level to
28:07
Speaker 13: be successful.
28:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's interesting because a couple
28:13
Speaker 1: of coaches reached out to me and said, Wow, they
28:15
Speaker 1: got in a QUARTUS forty three to seven. I didn't
28:17
Speaker 1: see that coming, and I kind of thought, well, they
28:19
Speaker 1: hadn't really been challenged. They had probably hadn't played all
28:22
Speaker 1: their guys as their starters more than you know, a
28:26
Speaker 1: half or even a quarter and a half, and so,
28:31
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if I don't know how
28:34
Speaker 1: to put this. It's like, and you've had teams like this,
28:37
Speaker 1: they're early twenty tens where your guys didn't play a
28:40
Speaker 1: lot of full games because you didn't have to, and
28:44
Speaker 1: once you had a game where you had to, was
28:47
Speaker 1: it was it difficult at all? Or whether they were
28:50
Speaker 1: there players like eager as far as man, we're finally
28:53
Speaker 1: playing a full four quarters this is great? Or sometimes
28:56
Speaker 1: is it kind of like, Wow, we're not used to
28:57
Speaker 1: this situation. It can be difficult.
29:00
Speaker 13: I think it's a careful what you wish for, because
29:03
Speaker 13: when we were doing that to people, I remember, yeah,
29:07
Speaker 13: some of the players saying, oh.
29:08
Speaker 12: I'd love to play a four quarter game.
29:11
Speaker 13: And then when you end up in a four quarter game,
29:13
Speaker 13: and and and you realize how much harder that is
29:17
Speaker 13: than just showing up for a half and blowing someone out.
29:20
Speaker 12: You know, you know, that's where.
29:23
Speaker 13: Fatigue starts to play a factor. Mental mistakes that you
29:26
Speaker 13: don't have when you're not tired start to come into play.
29:30
Speaker 13: And and so yeah, you know.
29:33
Speaker 12: So careful what you I think.
29:35
Speaker 13: You know, if you ask archs Bishop, they want to
29:37
Speaker 13: be tested. They they know that our conference is the
29:40
Speaker 13: conference to get you ready for the playoffs, and so
29:43
Speaker 13: I think they want to find out what they're not
29:47
Speaker 13: doing great so that they can be ready for the
29:49
Speaker 13: playoff run. That's what every good program wants. Now, you'd
29:53
Speaker 13: love to learn those lessons and get the win. So no,
29:57
Speaker 13: you know, not that you're you're happy to lose, but
30:00
Speaker 13: sometimes you know, some lessons only are learned in a
30:04
Speaker 13: tough loss.
30:05
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, absolutely, it's gonna be a crazy one.
30:09
Speaker 1: Awesome stuff. Coach, good luck at Archbishop Murphy on Friday,
30:12
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for joining me today on
30:14
Speaker 1: the Gatorade Game Day preview.
30:16
Speaker 12: All right, I'll talk to you next week. Have a
30:18
Speaker 12: good day.
30:19
Speaker 1: Thank you. There you have it from coachman Dalen. Now
30:22
Speaker 1: let's get a word from our premier sponsor.
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30:39
Speaker 1: Next up are the Seahome Mariners taking on the Belly
30:42
Speaker 1: and BayHawks tonight at Civic Stadium at seven o'clock. Both
30:45
Speaker 1: teams are three and three on the season, but Max
30:47
Speaker 1: Preps gives a big advantage to see Home in this one.
30:51
Speaker 1: And we are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day
30:53
Speaker 1: Preview by Seaholme football coach Brian Young. Coach, thank you
30:57
Speaker 1: so much for joining me today. How are you doing.
31:00
Speaker 8: I'm doing fine.
31:01
Speaker 11: Just getting off the field.
31:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, last kind of nice day of the year. It's
31:06
Speaker 1: from what I've been here, and so to take advantage
31:09
Speaker 1: of football. Absolutely. Take me back to the first time
31:14
Speaker 1: you ever played organized football. What grade were you in
31:18
Speaker 1: and what position did you play?
31:20
Speaker 5: Well, I was a running back and I was actually
31:23
Speaker 5: seven years old. Yeah right, and so I didn't really
31:29
Speaker 5: know a lot about it. I watched it on TV.
31:32
Speaker 5: But I do know, and I can remember my coach's name.
31:34
Speaker 5: His name was Frank googli Ama. And he gave me
31:38
Speaker 5: the ball, and damn it, I was not getting tackle, Tyler,
31:41
Speaker 5: so I took off on a baby. You know, it
31:44
Speaker 5: was a love affair with football after that, you know,
31:47
Speaker 5: ever since.
31:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Before talking about your Week seven opponent, let's
31:52
Speaker 1: talk about last week. Elsie jumped out to a fourteen
31:55
Speaker 1: zero lead, but the rest of the game was pretty even.
31:59
Speaker 1: It was go to sloppy in moments, lots of turnovers.
32:02
Speaker 1: First game on grass. I'm not too sure how much
32:04
Speaker 1: the weather played into it. What was your biggest takeaway
32:07
Speaker 1: from that game?
32:09
Speaker 5: Well, for us, the weather played into it a lot.
32:12
Speaker 6: We like for.
32:14
Speaker 5: Ockers, like playing on a slipping slide, right, We're we're
32:17
Speaker 5: not used.
32:18
Speaker 7: To, you know, being outside.
32:19
Speaker 5: But what we did like about it, Tyler, was it
32:23
Speaker 5: prepares you for playoff weather football right, So guys got
32:27
Speaker 5: a chance to go, hey, man, if we're playing a
32:29
Speaker 5: service like this, you know, what are some of the takeaways?
32:31
Speaker 5: Right as far as like shortening our stride up. We
32:34
Speaker 5: got to protect the ball a little bit better, so
32:36
Speaker 5: that was awesome, and a couple of the other takeaways
32:39
Speaker 5: where we wanted to work a little bit more on
32:42
Speaker 5: running the football, we were able to successfully do that.
32:45
Speaker 5: We had a couple of miscues guys who didn't quite
32:49
Speaker 5: have everything, you know, down in the play system, so
32:52
Speaker 5: we kind of backfired a couple of times on that.
32:54
Speaker 7: But that's great to come to practice this.
32:56
Speaker 5: Week because we're able to see this stuff on film
32:59
Speaker 5: and go, hey, you know what all it is is
33:01
Speaker 5: this tweek or that tweak and we're in good shape.
33:05
Speaker 7: And they were a good opponent.
33:07
Speaker 5: To play as a non league team. You know, they
33:12
Speaker 5: were fairly physical, which was good for us.
33:16
Speaker 7: They ran the ball a lot, which we were really
33:18
Speaker 7: stout you know.
33:19
Speaker 5: Against Aron, and a couple of miscues, you know, guys
33:22
Speaker 5: fell down, some other things that happened. But you know,
33:25
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, Tyler, no harm, no foul.
33:28
Speaker 5: It wasn't a league game, so we're still able to
33:31
Speaker 5: do everything we want to do. Our goals are right
33:33
Speaker 5: in front of us. We just have to win our games.
33:35
Speaker 6: Yeah.
33:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely, We're a little more than halfway through the regular season.
33:40
Speaker 1: What's the biggest improvement you've made as a team since
33:42
Speaker 1: Week one?
33:44
Speaker 5: Well, I think what has happened is our collective focus
33:49
Speaker 5: on being successful together.
33:51
Speaker 7: This group, especially the seniors, has been through.
33:54
Speaker 5: A lot of adversity, some of it football related, some
33:58
Speaker 5: of it you know, unfortunately systematically, things that you know,
34:02
Speaker 5: these guys didn't necessarily do this.
34:04
Speaker 7: The guy's predecessors kind of put him in that spot.
34:08
Speaker 5: So all this adversity has built into a lot of
34:11
Speaker 5: character and these guys. So we lose a couple of games,
34:14
Speaker 5: you know, some people on the outside might go, oh
34:16
Speaker 5: my god, we'll travel seahim. That was never the focus
34:18
Speaker 5: for our team. We were always like, Okay, you know what,
34:21
Speaker 5: what can we.
34:21
Speaker 7: Learn from this? And then when we learn that.
34:24
Speaker 5: How do we apply it to be successful when we
34:26
Speaker 5: get back on the field this Friday night.
34:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about Friday night. You're playing Bellingham
34:32
Speaker 1: at Civic Stadium. You know, rivalry game long before the
34:36
Speaker 1: Lyndon Ferndale game and long before Squalikum was even a
34:40
Speaker 1: team or a school. This was the big game. The
34:45
Speaker 1: rivalryes kind of feels like it's starting to come back
34:47
Speaker 1: a little bit. Tell us about this year's Bayhawk team.
34:50
Speaker 5: Well, we look at them on film. They have some
34:54
Speaker 5: talent in some positions, for sure. They like to throw
34:58
Speaker 5: the football there, a little bit chaotic on defense, which
35:02
Speaker 5: can create problems. Offensively, they like the blitz, and you know,
35:06
Speaker 5: they'll stunt a lot inside up front. So that's kind
35:10
Speaker 5: of a great test for us to kind of be
35:12
Speaker 5: prepared for pretty much anything. But we're looking at it
35:15
Speaker 5: more from the perspective of it's week seven. We need
35:19
Speaker 5: to get right, you know, going into the backstretch of
35:22
Speaker 5: our season. So we're gonna play fast, and we're gonna
35:25
Speaker 5: play fearless, and we're gonna put our best effort out
35:27
Speaker 5: there on Friday night.
35:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean last year's game that was that was
35:31
Speaker 1: the worst weather game probably last year. I mean that
35:34
Speaker 1: was some rain going sideways and all sorts of crazy
35:38
Speaker 1: things when you played against them at Civic last year.
35:40
Speaker 1: You know what's a fun thing about this too, is
35:42
Speaker 1: so many of these kids on both teams they grew
35:45
Speaker 1: up together playing football. So that does that does do
35:48
Speaker 1: you do you feel it at practice where they kind
35:51
Speaker 1: of have an added incentive or is it more just
35:54
Speaker 1: about what you were just saying, it's week seven, we
35:56
Speaker 1: got to get right.
35:57
Speaker 5: Well, you know it starts off being week seven, but hey,
36:00
Speaker 5: come on, these guys know each other. You know, they're
36:03
Speaker 5: trash talking each other outside of school when they see each.
36:07
Speaker 7: Other just kind of hanging out.
36:08
Speaker 5: So yeah, that adds an extra incentive it And I
36:11
Speaker 5: think the challenge that you have to remember as a
36:14
Speaker 5: coach is to keep it where it's friendly, where it's
36:17
Speaker 5: not personal, where nobody's attacking anybody. So you know, we
36:22
Speaker 5: monitor our guys really well with that, remind them that
36:25
Speaker 5: this isn't about them personally versus somebody and the other
36:29
Speaker 5: team personally. This about our football team, you know, playing
36:32
Speaker 5: the seventh game on our schedule and trying to get
36:35
Speaker 5: past that to the eighth game with a win.
36:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely awesome stuff. Coach. Good luck against belling him on Friday,
36:41
Speaker 1: And thank you for joining me on the Gatorade Game
36:43
Speaker 1: Day preview.
36:44
Speaker 7: Absolutely thank you, Tyler.
36:45
Speaker 1: Have a good night you too, And we are now
36:48
Speaker 1: joined on the Gatorade Game Day Preview by Belling in
36:51
Speaker 1: football coach Adam Leonard, coach, thank you for joining me today.
36:54
Speaker 1: How are you doing good?
36:55
Speaker 15: Okay, thanks for having me today.
36:57
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Take me back to the first time you
37:00
Speaker 1: ever played organized football. What grade were you in? What
37:04
Speaker 1: position was the first position you ever played on the field,
37:08
Speaker 1: and what field was it?
37:10
Speaker 9: Oh, my gosh, first time organized football would have to
37:13
Speaker 9: be a junior high school seventh grade.
37:17
Speaker 15: It was called Cannon Junior High School in Las Vegas.
37:21
Speaker 9: After school football program starts inner reals and he gets
37:24
Speaker 9: into an inter schoolastic play. But yeah, I was. I
37:30
Speaker 9: know everybody sees me at the size of the m
37:32
Speaker 9: right now, but I was a little little guy when
37:34
Speaker 9: I was in the junior high school.
37:35
Speaker 15: I was probably like at that.
37:37
Speaker 9: Time, like five four five five, And yeah, I played
37:43
Speaker 9: some receiver for some tight end. I was a baseball player.
37:47
Speaker 6: Back then.
37:47
Speaker 9: I played four sports. I played baseball, basketball, football, tennis.
37:52
Speaker 9: I did it all and so I had a pretty
37:55
Speaker 9: good arm. So sometimes I remember the first time I
37:57
Speaker 9: played a quarterback in the game in the junior high school.
38:00
Speaker 9: It was it was pretty electric. But yeah, mostly receiver,
38:05
Speaker 9: and it was it was definitely middle school or junior
38:07
Speaker 9: high school back then.
38:09
Speaker 1: So funny you say I was so small in middle school.
38:11
Speaker 1: I was five four five five, and I'm like, yeah,
38:13
Speaker 1: that's me now. Oh well no, but no, right, yeah,
38:18
Speaker 1: it's totally different, right, because you're much taller now. But yeah,
38:22
Speaker 1: I just because I recall exactly, like what field it was,
38:27
Speaker 1: what position I played when I walked out for the
38:29
Speaker 1: for the first time, and so I'm always curious, So
38:31
Speaker 1: I'm asking all the coaches that this week. So before
38:36
Speaker 1: talking about your Week seven appoint let's go over your
38:38
Speaker 1: game last week. Berlins and Edison looked very strong, but
38:42
Speaker 1: I thought you stayed with them relatively well early on.
38:45
Speaker 1: But they returned the second half kickoff for a touchdown.
38:47
Speaker 1: They recover the fumble in the end zone on a
38:49
Speaker 1: kind of a weird freak play. You never really got
38:52
Speaker 1: the momentum back. Looking back in hindsight, is there anything
38:55
Speaker 1: you would have changed going into that game?
38:58
Speaker 15: Oh, there's a lot of things. I mean, that was
38:59
Speaker 15: a very frustrating game, probably the.
39:01
Speaker 9: Most frustrating game we've had all season. Maybe going back
39:04
Speaker 9: to our Week one win over Lynn would just just
39:07
Speaker 9: too many mistakes, too many, you know, just stepping on
39:10
Speaker 9: our toes too many times, too many penalties and personal fouls.
39:15
Speaker 15: And just you know, getting in our own way momentum.
39:18
Speaker 9: You know, we get a drive going, we had a
39:20
Speaker 9: first down, we get called back, another first down to
39:22
Speaker 9: get you know, you get called back. If we just
39:24
Speaker 9: you know, maintain more control, move the ball more steady,
39:27
Speaker 9: keep the defense off the field, I think it's a
39:29
Speaker 9: much more competitive game. We had special teams miss as
39:32
Speaker 9: you mentioned the ninety four yard kickoff in the second half,
39:35
Speaker 9: We had a punt punt fumble and in the end zone
39:37
Speaker 9: recovered for a touchdown. Just so many mistakes and you're
39:40
Speaker 9: not going to be a Northwest Conference opponent any of them.
39:43
Speaker 15: We make those type of mistakes. So there's so much
39:44
Speaker 15: we need to clean up.
39:45
Speaker 7: I know that.
39:46
Speaker 9: I know our players are frustrated, our coaches are frustrated.
39:50
Speaker 9: But it's a great thing is you know, we need
39:51
Speaker 9: to bounce back this week.
39:52
Speaker 6: We have a.
39:52
Speaker 9: Rivalry game, and we just have so much to clean up.
39:56
Speaker 9: But still believe what we can do, and you know,
39:58
Speaker 9: we have a great opportunity ahead of a and we
40:00
Speaker 9: just kind of have to flush that game and move on.
40:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Uh, let's talk a little bit about your senior
40:05
Speaker 1: linebacker Caden Jamidian. Am I saying that? Am I saying
40:08
Speaker 1: that name right? Humidian?
40:09
Speaker 15: Caden Humidian? But Nixon calls him Comedian. That's a nickname
40:14
Speaker 15: on the team.
40:15
Speaker 1: That works.
40:16
Speaker 15: Uh.
40:16
Speaker 1: There's a kid that I really didn't know that much
40:19
Speaker 1: about coming into the season. He gets himself into the
40:21
Speaker 1: rotation at linebacker and now he's playing regularly.
40:23
Speaker 16: There.
40:24
Speaker 1: Tell me about his progression this season.
40:27
Speaker 15: Caden's a tremendous athlete.
40:29
Speaker 9: You know, he's not the biggest of players, but he
40:31
Speaker 9: moves quickly to the ball, he closes out well, he
40:34
Speaker 9: can tackle. Like I say, he's pretty He's slightly built,
40:37
Speaker 9: but he's an aggressive kid. He plays linebacker's side to
40:40
Speaker 9: side very very quick, very well. And he's kind of
40:42
Speaker 9: you know, been you know, kind of been in the
40:44
Speaker 9: background a little bit. And it's really he's really emerging
40:47
Speaker 9: and this year and it's been really pleasant to see
40:50
Speaker 9: his senior really coming out, kind of coming out of
40:52
Speaker 9: the shell and him having one.
40:53
Speaker 6: Heck of the year.
40:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that one that happens. And a lot
40:57
Speaker 1: of people, you know, talk about that, especially coaches, you know,
41:00
Speaker 1: they they will always give seniors, you know, a chance,
41:04
Speaker 1: and when you when the certain seniors will grab a
41:07
Speaker 1: hold of it and use it to their best and
41:11
Speaker 1: then it comes out like this. And then the player
41:14
Speaker 1: you know, starts playing the way he does and he's
41:16
Speaker 1: a tackling machine and and it's been really awesome to
41:20
Speaker 1: see and and I love when that happens because it
41:22
Speaker 1: takes me aback because I pride myself on knowing these
41:25
Speaker 1: rosters inside and out. And then when it turns when
41:28
Speaker 1: I'm watching the film and I have to keep looking
41:30
Speaker 1: at the roster going who is that? Who is that?
41:31
Speaker 1: Who is that? And then it finally it just sticks
41:34
Speaker 1: with you, like, oh, I know who that is. Now
41:37
Speaker 1: that's a huge thing on my radar where it's like, oh,
41:40
Speaker 1: this is a kid sniffing the top one hundred now
41:42
Speaker 1: because of this. And that's what's fun is is UH
41:45
Speaker 1: is the kids emerge and you love to see them
41:48
Speaker 1: play to the best of their ability. And that's what
41:50
Speaker 1: he's doing right now. Let's talk about this Friday night
41:54
Speaker 1: you're taking on Sea home at Civic Stadium.
41:56
Speaker 9: UH.
41:56
Speaker 1: Before Lyndon played Ferndale every year, and before squal had
42:00
Speaker 1: a school, this was the premier matchup in Waukam County
42:03
Speaker 1: every single season. I have old game film of them
42:06
Speaker 1: playing each other and it's the loudest thing you'd ever heard.
42:10
Speaker 1: It feels like the rivalries coming back, you know, with
42:13
Speaker 1: the with the Belling Home series that they do in
42:15
Speaker 1: basketball and different sports and stuff like that. Does it
42:18
Speaker 1: feel that way to you, like the rivalries kind of
42:21
Speaker 1: getting there again.
42:22
Speaker 9: I think the rivalry is definitely back, whether it's in
42:25
Speaker 9: any especially in the other sports as well, but definitely
42:27
Speaker 9: in back of football. I have a lot of old
42:32
Speaker 9: Red Raider now about Beyhawk alumni who call me up
42:35
Speaker 9: and say, oh, it's Bellingham versus the quote other school
42:38
Speaker 9: used to call Sea Home back and I think the
42:40
Speaker 9: seventies the other school. So yeah, it's definitely back. And
42:45
Speaker 9: the other cool thing about you know, these matchups, whether
42:47
Speaker 9: it's Bellingham Seaholme or Bellingham Squalicum, is that these these
42:52
Speaker 9: kids all played together when they were a youth balling
42:55
Speaker 9: and so now they get a chance for bragging rights.
42:57
Speaker 15: And you know, as much as you know, I think
43:00
Speaker 15: we're all three and three right now.
43:01
Speaker 9: If you look at the total record, at the conference
43:03
Speaker 9: record you got for those records out of the book,
43:05
Speaker 9: when when any time two city teams played because it's
43:08
Speaker 9: you're playing for bragging rights and the intensity has definitely
43:12
Speaker 9: dialed up a few notches.
43:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell the listeners about Sea Home. I mean, you
43:17
Speaker 1: know this team very well as probably you know, as
43:19
Speaker 1: far as any coach would know. They're opposing kids. You've
43:23
Speaker 1: coached a lot of them when they were growing up.
43:25
Speaker 1: What makes them so explosive.
43:27
Speaker 9: Well, they're just you know, everybody wants to say that
43:30
Speaker 9: Seam has tremendous athletes, which they do, but they have
43:32
Speaker 9: tremendous football players.
43:33
Speaker 15: They're very, very smart players.
43:37
Speaker 9: I used to joke years ago that when Nolan Wright
43:40
Speaker 9: and Hudson ne f were in middle school and fair
43:43
Speaker 9: Haven was looking for a middle school coach in the spring,
43:46
Speaker 9: I told the school district said, I don't think you
43:48
Speaker 9: really need a coach. You need someone to monitor their
43:49
Speaker 9: practices and let Hudson and Nolan run practices because they
43:53
Speaker 9: know more than.
43:53
Speaker 15: Any coach you're going to bring in. They're just they're
43:56
Speaker 15: very smart football players.
43:57
Speaker 9: They know how to play the game, and they've been
43:58
Speaker 9: doing it such a long time and then doing it together.
44:01
Speaker 15: You know, that kind of advantage is huge for that man.
44:03
Speaker 9: Again, they have a deep, deep rosterre tremendous O and
44:06
Speaker 9: D line and one of the best, you know, one
44:09
Speaker 9: of the best quarterbacks ever to play a game in
44:11
Speaker 9: walk In County, especially statistically.
44:12
Speaker 15: So they're they're a tough matchup.
44:15
Speaker 9: We're looking forward to it, and they know us really
44:18
Speaker 9: well and we know them very well. So you know,
44:21
Speaker 9: I'm coming off of three and a half hour coaches
44:23
Speaker 9: meeting last night in which we're trying to throw something
44:25
Speaker 9: at Sea Home they haven't seen yet, so they can't
44:27
Speaker 9: prepare for it and keep them guessing.
44:29
Speaker 15: So we're really excited about this matchup this riady.
44:33
Speaker 1: As far as what the Mariners did last week too
44:35
Speaker 1: against Lennon Christian, they ran the ball a lot and
44:38
Speaker 1: they did it pretty effectionately efficiently. Sawyer Woods carry the
44:43
Speaker 1: ball twenty times in that game. You know, when you
44:45
Speaker 1: have Nolan right back there in that plethora of receivers,
44:49
Speaker 1: you might be urged to throw it a lot, but
44:51
Speaker 1: they they showed that. You know, maybe it was the rain,
44:54
Speaker 1: maybe it was the natural grass, maybe it was their opponent,
44:56
Speaker 1: maybe it was not having feel quiggle available that they
45:00
Speaker 1: he could run the ball quite a bit. So it
45:02
Speaker 1: kind of you know, as far as your team defensively,
45:06
Speaker 1: it's it's something that you kind of have to be. Well,
45:09
Speaker 1: now they can run the ball too, so how do
45:11
Speaker 1: you know, how do you attack that knowing that they
45:14
Speaker 1: could be very balanced.
45:16
Speaker 15: Well, you know, you try to take away their passing game.
45:19
Speaker 9: And you know last week they didn't have Theo Biggle
45:21
Speaker 9: out there, but with you know, with THEO out there
45:23
Speaker 9: and al Miller and Hudson Neff and Tyson Goodman, and
45:26
Speaker 9: then you add a running game of you have Nicki
45:29
Speaker 9: Smith and you have Sawyer Wood and we forget about Lockie.
45:33
Speaker 1: Too, sure, So you.
45:35
Speaker 9: Know, and when you have that kind of balance, I mean,
45:38
Speaker 9: it's you just you know, you got to you got
45:39
Speaker 9: to try to take something away. And we're trying to
45:41
Speaker 9: find out, you know what what can we take away?
45:43
Speaker 9: What can we gamble a little bit with? And that's
45:46
Speaker 9: what that long coaches meeting was about last night. It's like,
45:48
Speaker 9: how do we take away all these weapons?
45:50
Speaker 15: They have so much. They also have a fantastic offensive line.
45:53
Speaker 9: Find grig Water, they have Colt Turell and the player that's.
45:57
Speaker 15: Really emerging is is Junior.
46:01
Speaker 1: Logan Rodgers.
46:02
Speaker 9: Logan Rodgers, and it's just they're tough all around. I'm
46:06
Speaker 9: actually surprised by the game last week. You know, LC
46:09
Speaker 9: is one heck of a team. Probably want top teams
46:11
Speaker 9: in one A in the state to hold that offense
46:13
Speaker 9: down to six points. So try to take that as
46:16
Speaker 9: a blueprint of what we can use this week. But again,
46:20
Speaker 9: they're just they're tough to match up with all that talent.
46:22
Speaker 1: Absolutely awesome stuff. Coach. Good luck against the Mariners on Friday,
46:26
Speaker 1: and thank you for joining me on the Gatorade Game
46:28
Speaker 1: day preview.
46:29
Speaker 15: Thanks for having me, Kyle, I appreciate it.
46:31
Speaker 1: It's always great when the inner city rivals get to
46:33
Speaker 1: face off. And now a non conference game, the Ferndale
46:37
Speaker 1: Golden Eagles are hosting the Lake Stevens Vikings. Ferndale is
46:41
Speaker 1: three and three on the season and Lake Stevens is
46:44
Speaker 1: the top ranked four A team in the state. And
46:47
Speaker 1: we are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview
46:49
Speaker 1: by Ferndale football coach Jamie Plankovic. Coach, thank you for
46:53
Speaker 1: joining me today. How are you doing.
46:55
Speaker 17: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.
46:57
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Take me back to the first time you
47:00
Speaker 1: played organized football. What grade were you in, what position
47:04
Speaker 1: did you play, and what field was your first game
47:07
Speaker 1: on Oh boy.
47:09
Speaker 17: That's a long time ago. I'm not sure what grade
47:14
Speaker 17: I was in, to be honest, I played for the
47:18
Speaker 17: Royal and Raiders. I believe it was affiliated with Boys
47:22
Speaker 17: and Girls Club. We practiced at kind of the what
47:31
Speaker 17: is it the Downer Fields by Carl Koser there, yep.
47:37
Speaker 17: And then I'm trying to think of where our games were.
47:41
Speaker 17: But yeah, and I played my first year. I played
47:45
Speaker 17: quarterback and linebacker.
47:49
Speaker 6: Nice.
47:50
Speaker 1: Was it was it before junior high? Was it elementary school?
47:53
Speaker 3: Probably?
47:54
Speaker 5: Uh?
47:54
Speaker 17: No, I think it was, well, it might have been fifth.
47:58
Speaker 1: Grade, fourth or fifth Okay, yeah, yeah. Was it the
48:02
Speaker 1: field like like where Ernie Hannah Aquatic Center is now
48:07
Speaker 1: with the field that was there? Is that where the
48:09
Speaker 1: practice was?
48:10
Speaker 6: Yeah?
48:11
Speaker 7: In that area?
48:12
Speaker 1: Yeah right, that's awesome. I love hearing about historical things
48:16
Speaker 1: and seeing old pictures and how things were in Walkin County,
48:19
Speaker 1: and so I love kind of picturing that in my head.
48:23
Speaker 6: Ye.
48:24
Speaker 1: Before talking about your Week seven opponent, let's talk about
48:27
Speaker 1: last week. Snomus led fourteen zero with three point thirty
48:32
Speaker 1: five left in the third quarter. You came back to
48:35
Speaker 1: win fifteen to fourteen, and I got all sorts of
48:37
Speaker 1: questions here because it was pretty fun ending here. Elliot
48:41
Speaker 1: Lentson breaks loose on a counter run for a touchdown,
48:45
Speaker 1: blocked extremely well by a couple of sophomores, Trey Munson
48:49
Speaker 1: and Peace Windwalker. Tell me about how these two kids
48:51
Speaker 1: have developed on the offensive line.
48:54
Speaker 17: Yeah, we've got a lot of youth, yeah, playing in
48:57
Speaker 17: a lot of positions, and you know, you can see
49:00
Speaker 17: that they're making progress as the year goes on. Trade
49:06
Speaker 17: started all year at one of our guard spots, and
49:10
Speaker 17: he's a big, physical kid that moves really well for
49:15
Speaker 17: his size and is extremely coachable. Piece has gotten an
49:20
Speaker 17: opportunity here a little bit more the last couple of
49:22
Speaker 17: weeks and done a good job with that. He's a
49:25
Speaker 17: physical player, you know, again, another very coachable athlete, So
49:33
Speaker 17: you know, we like what we're seeing from our young guys.
49:36
Speaker 17: It's not typical to start several sophomores up front, but
49:40
Speaker 17: we're in that position, so we're definitely growing as the
49:43
Speaker 17: season goes on.
49:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a little over two minutes left in the
49:47
Speaker 1: game after the touchdown and you're down fourteen thirteen. At
49:51
Speaker 1: what point during the drive was it decided that you
49:54
Speaker 1: would go for two?
49:56
Speaker 17: I told Jake, our offensive coordinator, and Donnie both right
50:02
Speaker 17: as we got the ball, to be prepared to go
50:05
Speaker 17: for two if we score.
50:06
Speaker 1: Okay. So yeah, so it was so you just it
50:10
Speaker 1: was a decision to do it, but be prepared to
50:12
Speaker 1: do it. Come up with the play.
50:14
Speaker 17: Yeah, yeah, be thinking about and it's something we practice
50:18
Speaker 17: right practice or to some two point plays during the week.
50:22
Speaker 17: So I just told them to be ready. We had
50:28
Speaker 17: all three of our timeouts left. Felt like we you know,
50:32
Speaker 17: if we were going to score, that was going to
50:34
Speaker 17: give us some momentum and try to get us in
50:38
Speaker 17: the lead at that point, I felt like was worth
50:43
Speaker 17: the risk and that if we didn't get it, we
50:45
Speaker 17: still had three timeouts to try to get a stop
50:47
Speaker 17: on defense.
50:48
Speaker 1: So okay. So that kind of answers my next question
50:51
Speaker 1: a little bit, because as soon as the touchdown is
50:54
Speaker 1: scored on the film anyways, it looks like you guys
50:57
Speaker 1: are raising up two, like you knew at that point
51:00
Speaker 1: you were going for two. Yeah, and you line up
51:03
Speaker 1: and a timeout is called. So I'm assuming that was
51:06
Speaker 1: by snowmash correct, Okay, And and then when what's being
51:11
Speaker 1: discussed at that point, are you changing to play at
51:14
Speaker 1: that point, are you still going with maybe what you
51:16
Speaker 1: had decided.
51:17
Speaker 6: No, we had.
51:18
Speaker 17: We stayed with what we had decided for that play.
51:23
Speaker 17: And again, like I said, something, we practiced during the week.
51:26
Speaker 17: We have a couple of specific two point plays that
51:30
Speaker 17: were working on during the week, and that was one
51:32
Speaker 17: of them. And we felt like, you know, we're trying
51:36
Speaker 17: to get the ball in the hands of one of
51:37
Speaker 17: our best players who has shown through the season that
51:41
Speaker 17: does a great job of high pointing in the football
51:43
Speaker 17: and and going up and getting it.
51:46
Speaker 7: Yeah.
51:46
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, for those of you who
51:48
Speaker 1: don't know, uh, you know, it was kind of almost
51:51
Speaker 1: like an old school Tim Tebow. Uh, you know, not
51:55
Speaker 1: necessarily a jump past, but just just throw it up,
51:58
Speaker 1: go get it. He had three or four guys on him,
52:00
Speaker 1: Chance Chance Hatchet comes down with the ball, another sophomore
52:04
Speaker 1: and uh boy, the place goes crazy. It made me
52:07
Speaker 1: think because it was the same end zone you guys
52:09
Speaker 1: went for two. I try to remember a few years ago.
52:11
Speaker 1: It might have been.
52:12
Speaker 17: Arlington, Arlington.
52:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, same same n zone. Isaiah Carlson scores that
52:17
Speaker 1: two point conversion and and that was a little later
52:19
Speaker 1: in the game. I don't think there was any time left. Yeah,
52:22
Speaker 1: I think that one you had to go for two
52:24
Speaker 1: and uh, well yeah, dude, And so it was. It
52:28
Speaker 1: was just such a cool thing to see and and
52:30
Speaker 1: so many parents were texting me and holy cow and
52:33
Speaker 1: all this, and it was it was fantastic. And then
52:37
Speaker 1: and then of course, I mean, we can't just we
52:39
Speaker 1: can't throw out that. At the end of the game,
52:41
Speaker 1: Chance Hatchet makes another big play on fourth down and
52:46
Speaker 1: to stop the momentum they had a they had a
52:49
Speaker 1: long run before that to make it I think fourth
52:52
Speaker 1: and one and and he makes the play, so really
52:55
Speaker 1: really fun moment you guys get the conference win. We're
52:59
Speaker 1: a little more than halfway through the season. What's the
53:01
Speaker 1: biggest improvement your team has made since week one?
53:05
Speaker 17: Well, except I think we just are playing with a
53:07
Speaker 17: lot of youth, and so the guys have hung in there.
53:12
Speaker 17: They keep working in practice every week to get better.
53:16
Speaker 17: We still have a lot of things to clean up,
53:18
Speaker 17: you know. Even in that game Friday night, we felt like,
53:23
Speaker 17: you know, we were not crisp to start that game.
53:26
Speaker 17: Felt like it was kind of a carryover our practice
53:32
Speaker 17: that week wasn't We had to do a couple of
53:35
Speaker 17: periods over again because we didn't like what what we
53:39
Speaker 17: were seeing and what we're getting done. So it's just
53:42
Speaker 17: part of maturing process as the young team. And when
53:46
Speaker 17: you don't play a ton of seniors, seniors have a
53:51
Speaker 17: little more sense of urgency because they know that, you know,
53:55
Speaker 17: they know this is it for them. You know, as
53:58
Speaker 17: far as playing high school football, they just practice and
54:03
Speaker 17: play with a little more sense of urgency. So when
54:05
Speaker 17: you're playing a lot of young kids, it's sometimes you
54:09
Speaker 17: don't have that same that same urgency that you would
54:13
Speaker 17: have with a very senior led group.
54:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And that's something
54:17
Speaker 1: that I didn't even think about, but that makes complete sense.
54:21
Speaker 1: And and you know, I'm so glad you guys got
54:24
Speaker 1: the job done in that one. Let's talk about Friday night,
54:28
Speaker 1: no easy task. You're hosting Lake Stevens at seven o'clock.
54:32
Speaker 1: Tell us about this year's Vikings team.
54:35
Speaker 17: Well, there's a reason they're ranked where they are. They
54:40
Speaker 17: They are have great skill kids. Their quarterback is not
54:45
Speaker 17: only can throw it, he's a run threat. They're really
54:48
Speaker 17: good on the defensive side of the ball. Their kids
54:51
Speaker 17: play hard, they're well coached. They don't make very many
54:55
Speaker 17: mistakes and that's why they're perennially where they're at at
55:00
Speaker 17: the top of the four A. You know, we've got
55:03
Speaker 17: to look at it as a great challenge. They get
55:05
Speaker 17: to come to our house, and we felt like we
55:10
Speaker 17: didn't compete well last year against them, and that's something
55:14
Speaker 17: that's really important. It doesn't should not matter where we're
55:18
Speaker 17: at in the game or what the scoreboard says. We
55:22
Speaker 17: should be playing the same no matter what, with the
55:25
Speaker 17: same intensity and same effort. So the focus is on
55:31
Speaker 17: us again this week, and that's that's what we've tried
55:33
Speaker 17: to do the last couple of weeks and make sure
55:36
Speaker 17: that we're getting better and look forward and embrace the challenge.
55:39
Speaker 17: Embrace seeing a really good team come to our house
55:42
Speaker 17: and go out there and lay it out all out
55:45
Speaker 17: in the field and see what happens.
55:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely awesome stuff. Coach, Good luck against Lake Stevens on Friday,
55:50
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for joining me on the Gatorade.
55:53
Speaker 18: Game day preview anytime.
55:55
Speaker 6: Thank you.
55:56
Speaker 1: That's going to be a tall task for the Golden Eagles,
55:58
Speaker 1: but like coach said, it's about competing for four quarters.
56:02
Speaker 1: Dang all this talking is making me thirsty.
56:07
Speaker 2: You hear that that's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar.
56:11
Speaker 2: The better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar cola Pepsi zero sugar,
56:17
Speaker 2: let your taste decide.
56:20
Speaker 1: Time to look at the one A Conference matchups, So
56:22
Speaker 1: let's start with the Meridian Trojans hosting Nuksack Valley. Meridian
56:27
Speaker 1: is five and one on the season and Nuksack Valley
56:29
Speaker 1: is three and three. The Max Preps gives the edge
56:32
Speaker 1: here to the Pioneers and we are now joined on
56:35
Speaker 1: the Gatorade Game day preview by Nuzack Valley football coach
56:38
Speaker 1: Craig Bartle. Coach, thank you for joining me today. How
56:41
Speaker 1: are you doing?
56:42
Speaker 6: Thanks you bad?
56:43
Speaker 18: Thanks for having me.
56:44
Speaker 1: You bet take me back to the first time you
56:47
Speaker 1: ever played organized football. What grade were you in? What
56:51
Speaker 1: position was the first position you ever played? And what
56:55
Speaker 1: field was it on?
56:57
Speaker 19: Geez, that's that's a long time ago.
57:02
Speaker 18: I played youth football.
57:06
Speaker 19: I do not know what position I played that was.
57:10
Speaker 19: I know we had ah and I hate to say this,
57:14
Speaker 19: but we had baby blue jerseys. So tur Is probably
57:20
Speaker 19: gonna use that against me. But and we we uh
57:24
Speaker 19: we practiced at Carl Koser. I lived in Bellingham, practice
57:28
Speaker 19: Carl Koser on the little fields where erning Hannah the
57:33
Speaker 19: Aquatic Center is now.
57:36
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, you're not dating yourself at all with that.
57:41
Speaker 1: Uh what what grade do you think you would have
57:45
Speaker 1: been in?
57:46
Speaker 19: I was probably gosh, it must have been in second
57:50
Speaker 19: or probably third or third grade, third or fourth grade.
57:54
Speaker 18: Yeah, there wasn't such thing as you know, flag football.
57:57
Speaker 18: It's you strapped the.
57:58
Speaker 19: Hemmelet on early and yeah, you just wln't playing. There
58:02
Speaker 19: wasn't There wasn't touch or flag or anything like that.
58:05
Speaker 19: It was you put on that moment your knees were
58:08
Speaker 19: shaken and they said get out there and go block.
58:10
Speaker 6: Somebody or go run the ball.
58:12
Speaker 19: Right then it was probably true that you ran faster
58:16
Speaker 19: scared than you did with your ability.
58:19
Speaker 6: Yeah.
58:19
Speaker 1: Well for me, that continued into high school. Before talking
58:24
Speaker 1: about your Week seven opponents, let's talk about this past Friday. Yeah,
58:29
Speaker 1: really really strong start. Your team jumped out to a
58:31
Speaker 1: thirty three nothing lead at the half. What was your
58:34
Speaker 1: biggest takeaway from that game?
58:37
Speaker 19: Yeah, we came out defensively. I think we played pretty
58:40
Speaker 19: well offensively. You know, we had to try to kind
58:47
Speaker 19: of get back to basics after after three games. After
58:50
Speaker 19: three games skid there, and so we tried to get
58:53
Speaker 19: back with some new guys and new spots and just
58:56
Speaker 19: get back to, you know what, what was successful for
59:00
Speaker 19: us to start the year.
59:01
Speaker 7: And so.
59:03
Speaker 19: We spent a lot of time on just going back
59:05
Speaker 19: to basics and routes and and throwing the ball where
59:09
Speaker 19: it needed to go and reading coverages and so and
59:12
Speaker 19: we got our running game established a little bit. So
59:14
Speaker 19: it was good to kind of kind of go back
59:17
Speaker 19: to you know, week one, week two type stuff.
59:21
Speaker 6: Yeah.
59:21
Speaker 1: Coming into the season, you know that was one of
59:23
Speaker 1: the big question marks was who's going to replace Colton
59:27
Speaker 1: Leansert running back? And you kind of had three guys
59:29
Speaker 1: in mind. Your senior Matthew Blake kind of took that
59:33
Speaker 1: and kind of made it his for a few weeks.
59:36
Speaker 1: He gets banged up, he's out, he comes back, and
59:39
Speaker 1: now he's out for the year. But you have these
59:41
Speaker 1: two sophomores with Hugh tink and Skeenstra what I mean.
59:48
Speaker 1: And you started the game kind of with both of
59:50
Speaker 1: them in the backfield, if I if I remember correctly,
59:53
Speaker 1: what what how can you use them in different ways?
59:57
Speaker 1: You know what? Do they each have certain strengths that
1:00:00
Speaker 1: kind of lean towards certain play calling or what you
1:00:02
Speaker 1: what do you like about both of them and how
1:00:04
Speaker 1: do they you know, balance each other out?
1:00:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, good question.
1:00:10
Speaker 18: They're they're both pretty versatile.
1:00:12
Speaker 19: You know, we didn't know how Trey could catch the
1:00:15
Speaker 19: ball coming out of the backfield, but in the first
1:00:17
Speaker 19: couple of games of the year, he showed that he
1:00:19
Speaker 19: could do that. They both understand, you know, the running game,
1:00:26
Speaker 19: where to look for gaps, where to look back. I
1:00:29
Speaker 19: think uh Skein Straw is probably a little more of
1:00:32
Speaker 19: a he's kind of a combo of a of a
1:00:37
Speaker 19: power runner and in kind of a you know, elusive.
1:00:40
Speaker 18: I think he's faster than Trey.
1:00:42
Speaker 19: Trey's kind of you're, you know, I'm gonna run you
1:00:45
Speaker 19: over type guy. But both compliment each other really well.
1:00:49
Speaker 19: It kind of goes back to when we had Skyl
1:00:53
Speaker 19: and Colton in the backfield. They're each unique, but I
1:00:58
Speaker 19: think overall, you know, we're excited to see what they
1:01:02
Speaker 19: can grow into.
1:01:03
Speaker 18: I don't think they're there yet.
1:01:05
Speaker 19: They're still you know, they're sophomores and they're learning, and
1:01:08
Speaker 19: so you know, we're we're hoping the progression over this
1:01:12
Speaker 19: year and next next two years.
1:01:14
Speaker 18: You know, ripped some some pretty good benefits.
1:01:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean you've you've had, you know, some really
1:01:20
Speaker 1: great running backs in years past, and you mentioned both
1:01:23
Speaker 1: of them right right away. And and it's nice when
1:01:25
Speaker 1: you have guys that are underclassmen you're like, Okay, that's
1:01:28
Speaker 1: something you know, the coach ball can say, Yep, I've
1:01:32
Speaker 1: got it. We're good for a while right and now,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: and now you kind of have that again with some
1:01:37
Speaker 1: with some youth back there, and and who knows, with
1:01:39
Speaker 1: an influx of more guys coming in. But it's kind
1:01:42
Speaker 1: of nice to have. We're a little more than halfway
1:01:45
Speaker 1: through the season. What's the biggest improvement your team has
1:01:48
Speaker 1: made from since week one.
1:01:50
Speaker 19: That's a really hard question to answer because we have
1:01:54
Speaker 19: lost so many guys.
1:01:56
Speaker 18: And when we've lost four guys with season any injuries.
1:02:00
Speaker 19: And in one day football, that's that's a lot. They're
1:02:03
Speaker 19: there are four guys that are starters. So I mean,
1:02:07
Speaker 19: you can look at it as you know, you we
1:02:09
Speaker 19: just lost eight positions on both sides of the ball,
1:02:13
Speaker 19: and so we have I don't know that we've still
1:02:18
Speaker 19: you know, it's it's weird to say, but I don't
1:02:20
Speaker 19: know that we've figured out our identity because we haven't
1:02:22
Speaker 19: really played a full game with everybody going, you.
1:02:26
Speaker 18: Know, besides the first game.
1:02:28
Speaker 19: So what I'm really proud of is is is our
1:02:31
Speaker 19: kids just keep plugging away there. This has been a
1:02:35
Speaker 19: real this could have been a real easy year to
1:02:38
Speaker 19: you know, woe is me, and you know, worry about
1:02:42
Speaker 19: oh gosh, so and so is out, or this thing
1:02:45
Speaker 19: happened off you know, just a lot of things have
1:02:48
Speaker 19: happened with our team this year, and so the coaching
1:02:52
Speaker 19: staff and the players, I think what I'm really most
1:02:55
Speaker 19: proud of is is the life lessons that they've learned
1:02:58
Speaker 19: from this that you know, we face.
1:03:00
Speaker 18: This adversity every single week.
1:03:02
Speaker 19: To go back to the very start when we had
1:03:04
Speaker 19: that tragic accident where we lost one of our uh
1:03:07
Speaker 19: you know, members of our school. And so it just
1:03:10
Speaker 19: seems like every week we've had to deal with something.
1:03:13
Speaker 19: And our kids, they have a good positive attitude. They
1:03:16
Speaker 19: go out and they're gonna play hard. The coaches are
1:03:18
Speaker 19: gonna coach hard, and we've really rallied around each other.
1:03:23
Speaker 19: And then you know, we've got new guys and new
1:03:25
Speaker 19: spots every single week. But those guys are working really hard.
1:03:28
Speaker 19: Our scout team has been incredible. You know, our numbers
1:03:33
Speaker 19: are dwindling right now, we're we're we need them. And
1:03:36
Speaker 19: so just kind of a full team effort from top
1:03:40
Speaker 19: to bottom, from coaches down down.
1:03:42
Speaker 18: To the C team guys.
1:03:44
Speaker 19: And so that's what I'm most proud of, that that
1:03:46
Speaker 19: we've overcome and have adapted to the life lessons this year.
1:03:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really well put. And I think that, you know,
1:03:53
Speaker 1: there's there's schools around the state that you know, when
1:03:56
Speaker 1: the have if they've had to put up with all
1:03:59
Speaker 1: the not put up with that, to deal with all
1:04:02
Speaker 1: the you know stuff around you know, what's going going
1:04:05
Speaker 1: on with the injuries in the community, that a lot
1:04:08
Speaker 1: of them would just kind of fold up and be
1:04:10
Speaker 1: like that's it. I mean, I've been hearing about a
1:04:11
Speaker 1: lot of teams around the state that have just ended
1:04:13
Speaker 1: to just stopped their season.
1:04:14
Speaker 6: Yea.
1:04:15
Speaker 1: And and but I think that you guys are such
1:04:17
Speaker 1: a strong community with the coaches and you know, the
1:04:21
Speaker 1: personnel and just all that that I think that really helps.
1:04:25
Speaker 1: And you're right, you just say, okay, next step forward.
1:04:29
Speaker 1: And speaking of next step forward, let's talk about Friday night.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: You're traveling to Laurel to take on Meridian, who's suffered
1:04:35
Speaker 1: their first loss of the season last week. What kind
1:04:38
Speaker 1: of problems do the Trojans present.
1:04:41
Speaker 18: A lot there? You know, their skill guys are really
1:04:46
Speaker 18: really good.
1:04:48
Speaker 19: They're really fast, you know, Patrick and their staff that
1:04:52
Speaker 19: they do a great job. They've tried to motion and
1:04:56
Speaker 19: shift and do different things to get you out of position.
1:05:00
Speaker 19: And so we can't watch bodies, you know, we have
1:05:04
Speaker 19: to make our keys depending on which quarterback. I'm assuming
1:05:09
Speaker 19: that Alexander is going to be back. You know, he
1:05:12
Speaker 19: can run the ball, he can throw the ball. But
1:05:14
Speaker 19: the quarterback they had last week, Berazaski, like he's he's
1:05:17
Speaker 19: really good too. So they just they do a lot
1:05:21
Speaker 19: of things and they're they're pretty big upfront and there
1:05:27
Speaker 19: they play. Their passing game is good, their running game
1:05:30
Speaker 19: is good, and they play really good sound defense, and
1:05:34
Speaker 19: so yeah, they present a lot of challenges.
1:05:37
Speaker 1: Now that you both have a recent common opponent, or
1:05:41
Speaker 1: Meridian has a recent common opponent with Baker, Yeah, is
1:05:44
Speaker 1: there you know, do you is there a good thing?
1:05:48
Speaker 1: Is that a good thing for you guys? As far
1:05:50
Speaker 1: as we've played them and they just played them, Is
1:05:53
Speaker 1: there things that you can look at on film and say,
1:05:56
Speaker 1: you know, does that work at all? Or is there
1:05:58
Speaker 1: anything do you look at them and say, oh, this
1:06:00
Speaker 1: is what they did against the wing tea on this play,
1:06:03
Speaker 1: or and or I guess that's not really gonna work
1:06:06
Speaker 1: because you're not playing Baker again. But you know what
1:06:08
Speaker 1: I mean, like, yeah, it's you know, just that kind
1:06:11
Speaker 1: of the common opponent thing and having it be so recent,
1:06:14
Speaker 1: is that a positive thing for you guys?
1:06:17
Speaker 19: I you know, we don't look too much into that.
1:06:19
Speaker 19: I think if we both played, you know, a spread team,
1:06:24
Speaker 19: I think that would be you know, more indicative of
1:06:26
Speaker 19: what we might see. But you know, we have we
1:06:29
Speaker 19: have a different defense. They have a totally different defense
1:06:32
Speaker 19: when it comes to Baker. And so you know, Baker's
1:06:36
Speaker 19: you know, eighty percent run, although left the Storm a
1:06:38
Speaker 19: little more of this year, there's still primarily a run.
1:06:41
Speaker 6: Team, and so.
1:06:43
Speaker 18: You can get some things out of that.
1:06:45
Speaker 19: But the defense that Meridian plays against Baker, and how
1:06:49
Speaker 19: we played against Bakers and not how we're going to
1:06:51
Speaker 19: play against each other, so X's and those wise, you
1:06:55
Speaker 19: can't really look at it that way. So you look
1:06:57
Speaker 19: at personnel at that point. But then again, you know
1:07:00
Speaker 19: personnel is different just based on on you know, what
1:07:04
Speaker 19: Baker ran, So it's hard to it's hard to tell.
1:07:09
Speaker 19: You know, we try to go back through this this
1:07:11
Speaker 19: year's film and and they haven't really played a team
1:07:14
Speaker 19: that's that's similar to us. They played some teams that
1:07:18
Speaker 19: are close but not exactly similar, So you know, what
1:07:23
Speaker 19: are they going to do defensively? You know what we
1:07:25
Speaker 19: don't know Offensively. We can kind of see what they're
1:07:29
Speaker 19: what they're trying.
1:07:29
Speaker 18: To do, but but every.
1:07:31
Speaker 19: Year they do so many different things that you can't
1:07:34
Speaker 19: just count on one thing.
1:07:35
Speaker 18: So I know that's a long answer.
1:07:36
Speaker 19: But yeah, it's tough to kind of gauge against a
1:07:40
Speaker 19: running team like Baker because you know, we're two opposite
1:07:44
Speaker 19: teams at that right.
1:07:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, Meridians one of those teams where
1:07:49
Speaker 1: it wouldn't surprise me at all if they throw it
1:07:51
Speaker 1: fifty times. They they have the personnel to do that.
1:07:56
Speaker 1: You know, I joked with Patrick a few weeks ago
1:07:58
Speaker 1: about you have your five linemen, you have your quarterback,
1:08:02
Speaker 1: but those other five spots you've got like twelve different guys.
1:08:05
Speaker 1: And I'm not even being facetious about that. They legitimately
1:08:08
Speaker 1: have twelve guys that they could rotate in and out
1:08:10
Speaker 1: for those other five spots and feel one hundred percent
1:08:13
Speaker 1: comfortable with and they all give you something different. And
1:08:18
Speaker 1: you got guys that can play multiple positions where a
1:08:21
Speaker 1: Pierce Brazowski can line up at tight end or receiver
1:08:24
Speaker 1: and you know, we saw him at quarterback last week.
1:08:27
Speaker 1: And they can go five wide to double tight with
1:08:31
Speaker 1: two backs with the same personnel from play to play.
1:08:34
Speaker 1: So it is one of those things where you know,
1:08:38
Speaker 1: playing defense against it, you're so right where they're gonna
1:08:41
Speaker 1: try to trick you a little bit because it's high
1:08:44
Speaker 1: school eyes out there right see it things, and to
1:08:47
Speaker 1: prepare for that is really tough. So you got your
1:08:50
Speaker 1: work cut out for you. Good luck against Meridian on Friday.
1:08:53
Speaker 1: And thank you so much for joining me on the
1:08:54
Speaker 1: Gatorade Game Day preview.
1:08:56
Speaker 18: Appreciate it. Thanks hell.
1:08:59
Speaker 1: And we are now joined the Gatorade Game Day Preview
1:09:01
Speaker 1: by I Meridian football coach Patrick Games coach. Thank you
1:09:04
Speaker 1: so much for joining me today. How are you doing.
1:09:06
Speaker 20: Doing well, Tyler? Always a pleasure, Thanks for having me.
1:09:09
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Take me back to the first time you
1:09:11
Speaker 1: ever played organized football. What grade were you win. What
1:09:16
Speaker 1: position did you play in your first game and what
1:09:19
Speaker 1: field did you play that game on?
1:09:21
Speaker 18: Oh, that's easy.
1:09:22
Speaker 20: Seventh grade Mount Baker Junior High. We were running an
1:09:26
Speaker 20: I formation and I.
1:09:28
Speaker 3: Was the fullback and I played free safety.
1:09:30
Speaker 21: On defense at the old Linden Middle School field and
1:09:35
Speaker 21: we tied that game twenty six to twenty six.
1:09:38
Speaker 1: Look you even know the score. I love it. I
1:09:41
Speaker 1: love it. Oh man, Yeah, that's that's crazy. And then
1:09:46
Speaker 1: you know, by the time you're a senior, those Linden
1:09:48
Speaker 1: kids are playing in the neck in the upper classifications.
1:09:51
Speaker 1: So yep, yeah I didn't. I mean, you got to
1:09:54
Speaker 1: play them in sophomore junior year. But yeah, that's crazy.
1:09:58
Speaker 1: That's I I always love. And I've heard Blake Van
1:10:03
Speaker 1: Dalen talked about that his first game was at that
1:10:05
Speaker 1: same field, and I can picture it my head where
1:10:08
Speaker 1: it's deep center field, right where the football is, and yeah,
1:10:12
Speaker 1: it's so crazy if the big water tower and everything. Yeah,
1:10:16
Speaker 1: before talking about your Week seven opponent, let's talk about
1:10:19
Speaker 1: last week. You were a little short ended, missing a
1:10:21
Speaker 1: few of your big time playmakers against Mount Baker. You
1:10:24
Speaker 1: still played them extremely tough, but suffered your first loss
1:10:27
Speaker 1: of the year. Twenty one to thirteen. What was your
1:10:29
Speaker 1: biggest takeaway from that game?
1:10:31
Speaker 20: Well, Mount Baker's a good football team and they were.
1:10:37
Speaker 21: A more physical team than we had played to this point,
1:10:41
Speaker 21: and we knew that they were going to be.
1:10:42
Speaker 15: That was not a shock.
1:10:44
Speaker 21: They did such a good job getting their kids ready
1:10:46
Speaker 21: to play each and every week, and it was a
1:10:50
Speaker 21: really good indicator as far as for us where we
1:10:54
Speaker 21: were able to match up at least last.
1:10:56
Speaker 20: Week with another good team in our league.
1:11:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was. It was a classic Mount
1:11:04
Speaker 1: Baker Meridin game, right. I mean it was close all
1:11:07
Speaker 1: the way through and and you know, it was tough
1:11:10
Speaker 1: football being played. We're a little more than halfway through
1:11:13
Speaker 1: the season. What's the biggest improvement your team has made
1:11:16
Speaker 1: since Week one?
1:11:20
Speaker 21: I think it's in just the overall confidence and comfort
1:11:24
Speaker 21: for so many of our guys in positions not just
1:11:28
Speaker 21: on the field, but positions of leadership. And we've had
1:11:33
Speaker 21: a lot of growth in that way, which is as
1:11:36
Speaker 21: gratifying as anything else that you could be involved with
1:11:40
Speaker 21: in sports, right when you have when you have guys
1:11:44
Speaker 21: grow up literally within the process of you know, of
1:11:48
Speaker 21: trying to lead a team in in in I guess
1:11:51
Speaker 21: where you said it more than halfway in in a
1:11:53
Speaker 21: couple of months time, and seeing the growth in that
1:11:56
Speaker 21: way that that players have made, that's what's most gratifying anyway,
1:12:01
Speaker 21: and that's what you're always looking for in your teams
1:12:06
Speaker 21: as much as play and preparation that goes into playing
1:12:10
Speaker 21: on the field. You spend way more time together in
1:12:13
Speaker 21: practice and in classrooms and in the hallways in school
1:12:15
Speaker 21: than you do in an actual Friday night game. So
1:12:18
Speaker 21: it's all the other interactions that matter just as much,
1:12:21
Speaker 21: if not more, in preparing a team to play, and
1:12:24
Speaker 21: that's where we've seen a lot of growth this year
1:12:26
Speaker 21: in our guys.
1:12:27
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Let's talk about Friday night. You're hosting Nuksack
1:12:31
Speaker 1: Valley at seven o'clock. What kind of problems do the
1:12:34
Speaker 1: Pioneers present?
1:12:37
Speaker 21: Well, Number one, a lot of problems, and too, you
1:12:42
Speaker 21: have to really be impressed by what their quarterback is
1:12:45
Speaker 21: able to do in getting the ball out so quick.
1:12:47
Speaker 21: And to have a team right now in high school
1:12:53
Speaker 21: football where your quarterback is going to be in shotgun
1:12:56
Speaker 21: one hundred percent of the time and have a really
1:12:58
Speaker 21: successful offense when the quarterback doesn't always have to factor
1:13:02
Speaker 21: in as a ball carrier, and that's where they're at
1:13:05
Speaker 21: right now. Is really impressive, and he obviously can run,
1:13:08
Speaker 21: and we've seen him do that in a couple of
1:13:10
Speaker 21: games this year already. But that's, uh, that's that's a
1:13:15
Speaker 21: pretty impressive thing for a high school quarterback. I think
1:13:18
Speaker 21: to be able to do is is manage the game
1:13:19
Speaker 21: back there and not just have to rely purely on
1:13:22
Speaker 21: athleticism to be able to have a really successful offensive attack.
1:13:28
Speaker 21: They've got enough skill position players obviously to make it
1:13:31
Speaker 21: tough on anybody to try to defend. And I know
1:13:36
Speaker 21: their offensive line is not the.
1:13:39
Speaker 22: Same group that seemingly had been there since COVID till now,
1:13:43
Speaker 22: but the guys that they've got playing for them now
1:13:46
Speaker 22: are pretty good football players as well, and they're doing
1:13:49
Speaker 22: a really good job on defense every week, try to
1:13:52
Speaker 22: match up schematically with what teams are trying to do
1:13:56
Speaker 22: and and defending it.
1:13:58
Speaker 6: Really really well.
1:13:59
Speaker 21: So they're they're a really good team, and we we
1:14:01
Speaker 21: respect the heck out of them, just like we did
1:14:03
Speaker 21: our Week one league opponent in Mount Baker, you.
1:14:06
Speaker 1: Know, defending that quick screen pass offense, getting the kids
1:14:11
Speaker 1: to understand what you're looking for and stuff like that,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: because you could be a corner out there or a
1:14:16
Speaker 1: nickel back and you could be saying, this ball is
1:14:20
Speaker 1: going right to me, and then all of a sudden
1:14:21
Speaker 1: you can get blocked out of nowhere because it's just
1:14:24
Speaker 1: it's not what you're used to. How do you do
1:14:27
Speaker 1: you rep that at practice? How do you get them
1:14:29
Speaker 1: to be ready to play against kind of a different
1:14:32
Speaker 1: offense than you've seen.
1:14:33
Speaker 11: Yeah, you do.
1:14:34
Speaker 21: You have to try to rep it as as much
1:14:36
Speaker 21: as you are are able to. Obviously, your interior guys
1:14:40
Speaker 21: are are are repping the against the things that they
1:14:42
Speaker 21: do in the run game, and your guys on the
1:14:44
Speaker 21: perimeter are trying to get ready to defend, uh that
1:14:48
Speaker 21: that quick passing game where the ball is out of
1:14:51
Speaker 21: the hands of the quarterback as you can, you know,
1:14:53
Speaker 21: as fast as you can possibly imagine, and then the
1:14:55
Speaker 21: stuff that comes.
1:14:55
Speaker 20: Off of that with the with with the pump and.
1:14:58
Speaker 21: Goes and and defending the screen game that they have
1:15:02
Speaker 21: coming back off some of the play action that will
1:15:06
Speaker 21: go to one side of the field and then come
1:15:07
Speaker 21: back and screen you to the other one. Like it's
1:15:09
Speaker 21: a it's a really complicated attack to try to get
1:15:12
Speaker 21: your DBS ready to defend because they drop that game
1:15:15
Speaker 21: is really good too.
1:15:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't I'm sure you saw the game
1:15:18
Speaker 1: film from last week when they played Blaine, but they
1:15:21
Speaker 1: they dug into the Meridian bag and pulled out the
1:15:25
Speaker 1: hook and ladder, and I was thinking, oh, my goodness,
1:15:29
Speaker 1: that's a that's a Meridian player right there. You know,
1:15:32
Speaker 1: you see it maybe at the end of a half,
1:15:35
Speaker 1: but usually not in the middle of a drive. And
1:15:38
Speaker 1: I've seen you guys do that in the middle of
1:15:40
Speaker 1: a drive. They they will do some stuff maybe that
1:15:44
Speaker 1: some wrinkles, And that's what makes it so fun with
1:15:47
Speaker 1: these teams and that have played each other and coaching
1:15:49
Speaker 1: against you, so there's so much that every week you
1:15:51
Speaker 1: kind of have to throw in some wrinkles in there.
1:15:54
Speaker 1: And do I mean, I would say I would assume
1:15:56
Speaker 1: that you would expect some interesting things again this week.
1:16:00
Speaker 21: Yeah, you just got to try to do the best
1:16:01
Speaker 21: you can to prepare you know, everybody who's going to
1:16:04
Speaker 21: be on the field or or could find themselves on
1:16:08
Speaker 21: the field, and just stays as sound as you possibly can.
1:16:12
Speaker 21: And once you find the ball, like just emphasize, well,
1:16:15
Speaker 21: you got to get to it because there you know,
1:16:17
Speaker 21: a team can do something, like you said, in the
1:16:19
Speaker 21: middle of a drive that might not be something that
1:16:21
Speaker 21: you know we've seen them do, and you've got to
1:16:23
Speaker 21: do the best you can to just play football after
1:16:25
Speaker 21: the ball snapped and respond the best you can.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. Awesome stuff, coach. Good luck against the Pioneers on Friday.
1:16:32
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me on the Gatorade
1:16:34
Speaker 1: Game Day preview.
1:16:35
Speaker 20: Absolutely, Tyler, we'll talk to you next week.
1:16:38
Speaker 11: Yeah.
1:16:38
Speaker 1: I can't stress enough how important that game is. With
1:16:41
Speaker 1: the way that the season is going, that game will
1:16:44
Speaker 1: likely decide which team will be playing a postseason game.
1:16:48
Speaker 1: In week ten. We also have the Linden Christian Links
1:16:51
Speaker 1: going on the road to take on the Mount Baker Mountaineers.
1:16:55
Speaker 1: Linden Christian is six and oh on the season of
1:16:57
Speaker 1: Mount Baker is five and one, and as it appears
1:17:00
Speaker 1: right now, this game will likely be for the one
1:17:03
Speaker 1: A Conference championship. And we are now joined on the
1:17:06
Speaker 1: Gatorade Game Day Preview by Lynden Christian football coach Greg Turpstra. Coach,
1:17:11
Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. How are you doing.
1:17:13
Speaker 11: Hey, It's a beautiful day.
1:17:14
Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning. Take me back to the first
1:17:18
Speaker 1: time you ever played organized football. What grade were you in?
1:17:22
Speaker 1: What position was the first position you played, whether it
1:17:25
Speaker 1: was the kick return on the opening kickoff of that
1:17:29
Speaker 1: game or whatever it was, and what field was it?
1:17:33
Speaker 23: Okay, it was seventh grade junior high no Pee wee
1:17:36
Speaker 23: league for me, and I had my heart set on
1:17:40
Speaker 23: running back since I probably came out of the womb
1:17:44
Speaker 23: and I got to play running back. But it was
1:17:46
Speaker 23: a seventh and eighth grade team combined together. And there
1:17:53
Speaker 23: was a little field back behind the old elementary school
1:17:57
Speaker 23: which is now where basically where the new knew where
1:18:01
Speaker 23: the current els In Middle school is today. Yeah, and
1:18:05
Speaker 23: our coach was Fred Ima. And I think we've played
1:18:10
Speaker 23: Radiant our first game. I think we might have lost
1:18:14
Speaker 23: like about every game. And I will tell you though
1:18:18
Speaker 23: if I haven't told you before that first year playing Nooksack.
1:18:24
Speaker 23: So if you think of eighth grader's there, Tom Ackerman.
1:18:27
Speaker 11: Was one of them, right.
1:18:29
Speaker 23: And our quarterback was Roger Anderson, and I was behind
1:18:35
Speaker 23: Darren Dykstra, and both Roger and Darren got hurt in
1:18:39
Speaker 23: that game, and Kent Bauma, my DC, comes in at
1:18:42
Speaker 23: quarterback and I come.
1:18:43
Speaker 11: In at running back.
1:18:46
Speaker 23: And Tom Ackerman comes flying through the line, throws our
1:18:49
Speaker 23: center aside Kent's ises's biggest saucers. I'm supposed to pick
1:18:54
Speaker 23: up the blitz. He pushes me down to the ground.
1:18:57
Speaker 23: Kent tries to throw a ball over top of him
1:18:59
Speaker 23: to Mark Zalas. Tom knocks it out of the air
1:19:02
Speaker 23: with one hand, catches it with the other, and runs
1:19:05
Speaker 23: the other way for a touchdown. And I'm on the
1:19:07
Speaker 23: ground looking at it, going wow, you know, And just
1:19:11
Speaker 23: to this day, that's burned in my memory.
1:19:14
Speaker 11: But we bounced back and did pretty well.
1:19:16
Speaker 1: Oh that's I love. I love hearing stuff like that.
1:19:19
Speaker 1: And for those of you don't know, Tom Ackman played
1:19:22
Speaker 1: I think ten years in the NFL or something like that,
1:19:24
Speaker 1: and I think the very next year as a freshman,
1:19:26
Speaker 1: he's the starting center on the varsity basketball team and
1:19:29
Speaker 1: averaging fifteen points a game. And and I'm sure he
1:19:32
Speaker 1: was a man in eighth grade as well, but.
1:19:34
Speaker 23: Oh yeah, he I think he was shaving and dropping
1:19:38
Speaker 23: his kids off on the way to practice.
1:19:40
Speaker 11: But yeah, he was and the nicest guy ever.
1:19:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I finally got to meet him at
1:19:46
Speaker 1: a graduation party this past summer, for I'd never met
1:19:51
Speaker 1: him before, so that was pretty cool and obviously heard
1:19:55
Speaker 1: a ton about him, and and I love I love it.
1:19:58
Speaker 1: I love hearing those kind of stories. Before talking about
1:20:02
Speaker 1: your Week seven opponent, let's go over your game last week.
1:20:05
Speaker 1: You got off to a hot start against Seahome, scoring
1:20:08
Speaker 1: two quick touchdowns, but it was pretty even the rest
1:20:11
Speaker 1: of the way, no scoring in the second or third quarters,
1:20:14
Speaker 1: some turnovers going both ways, kind of you know, a
1:20:17
Speaker 1: little sloppy here and there. It was your kind of
1:20:19
Speaker 1: your first weather game. You score, even though I don't
1:20:24
Speaker 1: know if the weather really played a huge factor. You
1:20:26
Speaker 1: score a late field goal, they score a late touchdown.
1:20:29
Speaker 1: What was your biggest takeaway from that game?
1:20:32
Speaker 23: That we were offensively terrible and defensively awesome. You know,
1:20:38
Speaker 23: we got those early scores, but it was not you know,
1:20:42
Speaker 23: by design with a lot of it. We figured on,
1:20:45
Speaker 23: you know, grounding and pounding and looking forward to it.
1:20:48
Speaker 23: But what we were given as far as opportunities go is,
1:20:51
Speaker 23: you know a little bit through the air, but you know,
1:20:54
Speaker 23: Eli made some great scrambles and just making plays in
1:20:59
Speaker 23: the backyard kind of thing kind of saved or bacon.
1:21:03
Speaker 11: And then the defense just.
1:21:04
Speaker 23: Really stepped up what was at four picks and just
1:21:07
Speaker 23: a lot of great stops against a really talented offense there,
1:21:13
Speaker 23: and Nolan, you know, maybe I think it was his
1:21:16
Speaker 23: first time on grass, and.
1:21:18
Speaker 11: I think it all showed with all of us.
1:21:20
Speaker 23: So those early two touchdowns, it almost felt like if
1:21:24
Speaker 23: you're up fourteen zero, you're almost up twenty eight zero,
1:21:27
Speaker 23: just with the given conditions.
1:21:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And you're right. I mean, you know, you
1:21:32
Speaker 1: guys came into the game averaging I don't know, forty
1:21:34
Speaker 1: six something like that a game. Definitely in the forties.
1:21:38
Speaker 1: I know they were averaging over fifty points a game,
1:21:40
Speaker 1: and so you know a lot of people were talking, oh,
1:21:43
Speaker 1: this is going to be a shootout, this is going
1:21:44
Speaker 1: to be a shootout, and it kind of looked like
1:21:47
Speaker 1: it early when you score those two early touchdowns. But
1:21:51
Speaker 1: like you said, your defense really took control the four interceptions.
1:21:56
Speaker 1: It was just you know, I even talked to Jim Bring,
1:21:59
Speaker 1: who called the play by way after the game, and
1:22:03
Speaker 1: and he just kind of said, that was a weird game.
1:22:06
Speaker 1: I could never get into a rhythm calling that game.
1:22:08
Speaker 1: You know.
1:22:09
Speaker 23: Yeah, man, I think offensively we couldn't and offensively they couldn't. Yeah,
1:22:15
Speaker 23: He's his feeling was right. It was just a real
1:22:18
Speaker 23: tough Now. You know, a decordinator loves a game like
1:22:21
Speaker 23: that in the mud. I'm sure if you ask, can't
1:22:24
Speaker 23: he'd like the game to end six to three, you know,
1:22:27
Speaker 23: And anyway, yeah, it The one takeaway is, you know,
1:22:31
Speaker 23: it's like, guy, it's kind of nice to know that
1:22:33
Speaker 23: we could win ugly. Is you know, you want style
1:22:37
Speaker 23: points and things like that just selfishly, but.
1:22:41
Speaker 11: Man, winning other can be kind of gratifying as well.
1:22:44
Speaker 1: And like you said, it's nice to be able to
1:22:46
Speaker 1: know you can do that because there will be there
1:22:48
Speaker 1: will be times later in the season and when it's
1:22:52
Speaker 1: it's going to be called upon and you can call
1:22:54
Speaker 1: back to that game and said, we took on one
1:22:55
Speaker 1: of the best two way teams in the state and
1:22:57
Speaker 1: played a game just like this, and we know we
1:22:59
Speaker 1: can do it. So absolutely. Let's talk a little bit
1:23:02
Speaker 1: about your senior safety, Gunnar DaCosta. I feel like he
1:23:05
Speaker 1: doesn't get talked about enough that darn media, I tell you,
1:23:10
Speaker 1: but he's been playing himself into an all conference type
1:23:13
Speaker 1: of season. Whether it's coming up, playing the run, dropping back,
1:23:16
Speaker 1: playing the pass, he's always around the ball. What has
1:23:19
Speaker 1: it been like to coach him?
1:23:21
Speaker 11: He is the consummate football player. Now.
1:23:25
Speaker 23: He's also he loves FFA and he loves hunting, and
1:23:29
Speaker 23: you know, he just I don't think he ever watches
1:23:32
Speaker 23: any film, and I don't think he knows a stat
1:23:35
Speaker 23: in his head.
1:23:35
Speaker 11: He just out is out.
1:23:37
Speaker 23: There ironically hunting all the time.
1:23:39
Speaker 11: On the field. He's not a big guy.
1:23:44
Speaker 23: You know, he probably wouldn't even be offended that his
1:23:47
Speaker 23: arms look like pipe cleaners, but he just he's always
1:23:51
Speaker 23: in the right spot at the right time, and just
1:23:54
Speaker 23: tough as a three dollars stake.
1:23:56
Speaker 11: He just flies up.
1:23:57
Speaker 23: He always does the right thing and he's in the
1:24:00
Speaker 23: right spot. And I know he's got a whole bunch
1:24:02
Speaker 23: of stuff that I think you really can't coach. I
1:24:06
Speaker 23: think he kind of come out of the womb like that,
1:24:09
Speaker 23: and he just makes all the right plays at all
1:24:13
Speaker 23: the right time. And guy, some of his picks and
1:24:16
Speaker 23: his breaks and his intuition I think is really good.
1:24:21
Speaker 23: So I mean, he wouldn't he wouldn't say, boy, he's
1:24:23
Speaker 23: put in all the time to be a lockdown defender
1:24:26
Speaker 23: and he lives and breathes, you know, playing defensive back
1:24:30
Speaker 23: and strong safety.
1:24:32
Speaker 11: He just is that.
1:24:33
Speaker 23: I think it's just his nature, and boy, it's really
1:24:37
Speaker 23: paid off well for our defense.
1:24:39
Speaker 6: Yeah.
1:24:39
Speaker 1: You know, he comes up in the box a lot
1:24:41
Speaker 1: and he's right there, and it always seems like I
1:24:44
Speaker 1: don't know if he's and you know, you don't have
1:24:47
Speaker 1: to give away the farm or anything. But is he
1:24:50
Speaker 1: kind of got a little free range or is there
1:24:52
Speaker 1: called things when it is time for him to come up,
1:24:54
Speaker 1: or if there's a call he does that, or is
1:24:57
Speaker 1: he just kind of roving out there.
1:25:00
Speaker 23: Oh, he's got specific assignments and he does them well.
1:25:03
Speaker 11: And you know where he's called upon to do a
1:25:06
Speaker 11: lot of different.
1:25:06
Speaker 23: Things, and he communicates well too, so when he does
1:25:11
Speaker 23: what he needs to do, other people around know. So yeah,
1:25:16
Speaker 23: the defense, the whole staff has done a great job
1:25:19
Speaker 23: in assigning kids their particular roles and he's embraced those absolutely.
1:25:25
Speaker 1: And this is something I always I always forget about,
1:25:28
Speaker 1: but I'm glad I remember this time. Whenever I talked
1:25:30
Speaker 1: to a coach in their fourth year, I always want
1:25:32
Speaker 1: to bring that up because and you're in your fourth
1:25:35
Speaker 1: year now as the head coach at Lennon Christian. This
1:25:38
Speaker 1: group of seniors, this is the first group you've seen
1:25:41
Speaker 1: from freshmen to seniors now, so talk about that. What
1:25:45
Speaker 1: do you remember about this group when they were all freshmen?
1:25:50
Speaker 11: That they're well rounded.
1:25:54
Speaker 23: What I love to see is I love kids who
1:25:56
Speaker 23: love football, but I also love kids who love football
1:26:00
Speaker 23: and love other stuff, whether it's another sport, baseball or basketball.
1:26:07
Speaker 11: Or like I mentioned earlier, f f A.
1:26:10
Speaker 23: You know, real smart kids that are looking to go
1:26:13
Speaker 23: to a very highly academic, you know, college beyond.
1:26:17
Speaker 11: That's that's what I like about this group.
1:26:19
Speaker 23: And that's what I like about, you know, groups in general,
1:26:23
Speaker 23: kids that come through just that variety of I don't
1:26:28
Speaker 23: want to.
1:26:29
Speaker 11: Say I mean, you could say culture, but it's more.
1:26:33
Speaker 23: Just a bunch of different yeah, a bunch of different interests,
1:26:36
Speaker 23: a bunch of different loves.
1:26:37
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, I'll be honest.
1:26:40
Speaker 23: We we had the Mariners game on my phone standing
1:26:45
Speaker 23: in the back during a defensive meeting yesterday, and Coach
1:26:50
Speaker 23: Bauma said I could announce something as long as it
1:26:53
Speaker 23: was a score, and I just I love it that
1:26:55
Speaker 23: the kids all cheer than when we're up ten three. So,
1:26:59
Speaker 23: you know, you can make things all about your own sport,
1:27:02
Speaker 23: but I think it gets selfish and then it gets mundane,
1:27:05
Speaker 23: and then you start getting resentment. So what I love
1:27:09
Speaker 23: about this group again is their overall interest in a
1:27:12
Speaker 23: lot of different things.
1:27:13
Speaker 1: Absolutely, all right, let's talk about Friday night. You're headed
1:27:16
Speaker 1: over to Deming to take on the Mountaineers. What kind
1:27:19
Speaker 1: of challenges do they present for your team?
1:27:23
Speaker 23: They are very well coached up front with blocking assignments.
1:27:29
Speaker 11: That's been a staple. I think.
1:27:31
Speaker 23: Defensively, they are gritty, they'll come up and play in
1:27:36
Speaker 23: your face. They always know what they're supposed to do.
1:27:42
Speaker 23: Horsemen on the defensive side does an excellent job of
1:27:45
Speaker 23: getting his kids to buy in.
1:27:49
Speaker 11: I'm on a.
1:27:52
Speaker 23: Pretty sturdy limb thinking that they won't change their offense
1:27:55
Speaker 23: and go five wide.
1:27:57
Speaker 11: But I'll tell you what, that.
1:27:58
Speaker 23: Wing tea even if you know it's coming, you got
1:28:01
Speaker 23: to stop it. And that is a difficult task for
1:28:04
Speaker 23: any team, and we look forward to it being a
1:28:07
Speaker 23: great challenge.
1:28:09
Speaker 1: You know, there are certain plays obviously that you know
1:28:11
Speaker 1: and I've asked I asked this with you know, coach
1:28:14
Speaker 1: James and a coach Bartell who has played them recently,
1:28:17
Speaker 1: and there's certain plays that they run that are that
1:28:19
Speaker 1: you know are coming a couple times a game or
1:28:21
Speaker 1: at least maybe five times a game. Do you try
1:28:24
Speaker 1: to run those as a scout team with the double
1:28:26
Speaker 1: handoffs and the countertrait and the just those kind of
1:28:29
Speaker 1: like the double the double, fake handoff, throw it deep,
1:28:32
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, just to get your kids
1:28:34
Speaker 1: used to seeing that kind of stuff.
1:28:35
Speaker 23: Oh, we try, and I own the I'll be running
1:28:39
Speaker 23: scout offense on.
1:28:41
Speaker 11: The defensive days.
1:28:43
Speaker 23: And I'll tell you what it for some reason doesn't
1:28:46
Speaker 23: look like Baker's product on the field. Guy, we try too,
1:28:52
Speaker 23: but you know that just takes hours and hours of work,
1:28:56
Speaker 23: and uh, it's pretty difficult to replicate, I will be honest.
1:29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy. It's it's gonna be a great game.
1:29:02
Speaker 1: I mean you kind of look at how with this
1:29:05
Speaker 1: only you know, five teams in the conference, three of
1:29:08
Speaker 1: them are getting bids. You know, these two teams, you know,
1:29:13
Speaker 1: you yourself and Mount Baker are the ones when you
1:29:16
Speaker 1: kind of look ahead, going, okay, they're not that you
1:29:20
Speaker 1: guys are locks already, but this game could really mean
1:29:24
Speaker 1: a lot as far as you know, seeding and that
1:29:28
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So yeah, I just I'm really excited
1:29:32
Speaker 1: for it. There's been some classics over the years between
1:29:35
Speaker 1: the two teams and so really really excited for that.
1:29:38
Speaker 1: Best of luck out at Mount Baker on Friday. And
1:29:40
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me on the Gatorade
1:29:42
Speaker 1: Game Day preview.
1:29:43
Speaker 11: Thanks for having me again, Tyler, you bet and.
1:29:46
Speaker 1: We're now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview by
1:29:49
Speaker 1: Mount Baker football coach Ron Lepper coach. Thank you for
1:29:52
Speaker 1: joining me today.
1:29:53
Speaker 16: How are you doing, I'm doing I'm doing well today.
1:29:55
Speaker 16: And again, thank you for having me on.
1:29:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're welcome. Take me back to the first time
1:30:01
Speaker 1: you ever played organized football? What grade were you in?
1:30:05
Speaker 1: What position did you play your first and the first
1:30:08
Speaker 1: time you stepped on the field and what field was it?
1:30:12
Speaker 3: Oh?
1:30:12
Speaker 16: And then the seventh grade playing flag football for Levenmoth
1:30:18
Speaker 16: Middle School. And remember the night before our first game,
1:30:24
Speaker 16: they gave us our jerseys and of course I went
1:30:28
Speaker 16: home and had to show my parents put it on.
1:30:30
Speaker 16: I don't think I probably slept in it that night too.
1:30:33
Speaker 16: And I want to say that we played on Lovemoreth
1:30:37
Speaker 16: High School field, which is no longer a football field
1:30:41
Speaker 16: at a soccer field for Cascade Lovemoth High School at
1:30:43
Speaker 16: this time, but pretty cool setting. It's right a mountain
1:30:47
Speaker 16: right behind the stands and you know looking up towards
1:30:50
Speaker 16: the Cascades when you looked to the west, and now
1:30:54
Speaker 16: that was the first one flag football. My brother was
1:30:57
Speaker 16: more fortunate than myself. You got to play with his
1:31:00
Speaker 16: nowaday youth football like tackle football.
1:31:02
Speaker 6: But I don't want to actually, but I was I.
1:31:06
Speaker 6: I did not start till seventh grade.
1:31:09
Speaker 1: And then position wise, were you snapping the ball because
1:31:13
Speaker 1: you had big enough hands to do it?
1:31:15
Speaker 16: I was probably I was a line somewhere because I
1:31:18
Speaker 16: was a chunk.
1:31:21
Speaker 6: I was not.
1:31:23
Speaker 16: My body transformed a little bit between my freshman and
1:31:26
Speaker 16: senior year in high school. I grew eight inches and
1:31:29
Speaker 16: gained sixty five seventy pounds in my high school career.
1:31:32
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I'm still waiting for my Growthburt Coach.
1:31:37
Speaker 1: I gained the weight. I just hadn't gotten taller. But
1:31:40
Speaker 1: it'll happen.
1:31:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, was crazy.
1:31:45
Speaker 1: Before talking about your Week seven opponent, let's talk about
1:31:48
Speaker 1: last week. You were without your starting quarterback, Sophomore Tyson
1:31:52
Speaker 1: Barksdale makes his varsity day, or Farsty's first Farsty start,
1:31:56
Speaker 1: I should say behind center. Was this a spur of
1:31:59
Speaker 1: the moment thing or was able to get some reps
1:32:01
Speaker 1: during the week.
1:32:02
Speaker 16: He was able to get some reps during the week, uh,
1:32:06
Speaker 16: you know, and it was a game time decision, and
1:32:09
Speaker 16: it ended up that Togo was not able to go,
1:32:12
Speaker 16: and so we went with my or with my guess
1:32:14
Speaker 16: his dad, sorry, with Tyson, and uh, you know, you know,
1:32:18
Speaker 16: I thought Tysle handled it really well.
1:32:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it's a lot put on a kid,
1:32:24
Speaker 1: but when it has to happen, it has to happen.
1:32:26
Speaker 1: And he's a kid that's played varsity, you know, the
1:32:28
Speaker 1: varsity baseball player last year. So uh and you know,
1:32:32
Speaker 1: running back and forth that you you know, to get
1:32:34
Speaker 1: the plays from you. And did he feel like I
1:32:37
Speaker 1: mean I didn't see you know, there was no fumbles
1:32:40
Speaker 1: or anything like that. He looked pretty calm.
1:32:42
Speaker 16: Yeah, I thought you did a good job. I did
1:32:45
Speaker 16: not do a very good job in the first half
1:32:47
Speaker 16: call him plays. I probably was a little.
1:32:50
Speaker 6: A little constricted because.
1:32:53
Speaker 16: Of Tyson, which I just should you know, and I
1:32:54
Speaker 16: know better I probably said no, just you know, there
1:32:56
Speaker 16: may be a couple of things he can't do yet,
1:33:00
Speaker 16: you know, it's always uh you know, coach, I don't
1:33:02
Speaker 16: know that play, you know, okay, but you know there's
1:33:05
Speaker 16: other things we should have done. And then I was
1:33:07
Speaker 16: reminded at halftime about that by my assistant coaches, and
1:33:11
Speaker 16: so that.
1:33:12
Speaker 6: Changed a little bit. But you know, I own a lot.
1:33:14
Speaker 16: But at the same time, Meridian did a lot of
1:33:17
Speaker 16: good things, and they had a good game plan to
1:33:19
Speaker 16: try to shorten that game, you know, using the using
1:33:22
Speaker 16: the play clock, trying to get some you know, steal
1:33:25
Speaker 16: some possession with some with some you know, on site
1:33:27
Speaker 16: kicks and so forth. You know, so give them a
1:33:30
Speaker 16: lot of credit, you know. And uh, but it's a
1:33:32
Speaker 16: you know, bottom line, when it's all said and done,
1:33:34
Speaker 16: we were able to get out of there.
1:33:35
Speaker 6: With the w and and in our conference now it's
1:33:37
Speaker 6: always a big deal.
1:33:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I mean now with two conference wins, I
1:33:43
Speaker 1: mean that that's a huge deal right now against against
1:33:46
Speaker 1: two quality teams, and and uh, you know, going forward,
1:33:51
Speaker 1: we're a little more than halfway through the season. What's
1:33:53
Speaker 1: the biggest improvement your team has made since Week one?
1:33:57
Speaker 16: Well, I'm you know, I don't know, I think it
1:34:00
Speaker 16: just maybe on some of the little things, but you know,
1:34:02
Speaker 16: we still haven't got through where we want to go.
1:34:04
Speaker 16: And and we kind of talked about that this week
1:34:06
Speaker 16: a little bit too, you know, that we just want
1:34:08
Speaker 16: to make sure that you know, again, I just wanted
1:34:13
Speaker 16: to make sure that the reason we came out the
1:34:15
Speaker 16: practs every day is is to get better. And we're
1:34:18
Speaker 16: seeing in some places, but not in enough places. So
1:34:20
Speaker 16: we're still reminding guys of that. You know, Like I said,
1:34:24
Speaker 16: I thought we took a huge step from you know,
1:34:26
Speaker 16: after the you know, after the BELvue or into the
1:34:28
Speaker 16: Bellevue game after that one, and then we just haven't
1:34:30
Speaker 16: got maybe on that same trajectory. So we're trying to
1:34:32
Speaker 16: get back to that.
1:34:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about this Friday night. You're hosting six
1:34:37
Speaker 1: and oh Lennen Christian this week. What kind of challenges
1:34:40
Speaker 1: do the Links present?
1:34:43
Speaker 6: You know, first of.
1:34:43
Speaker 16: All, there they've got some really really good athletes. They
1:34:46
Speaker 16: got a good coaching staff. You know, they're probably depending
1:34:50
Speaker 16: what poll you look at, the you know, the number
1:34:52
Speaker 16: one ranked team, and they've played a tough schedule. You know,
1:34:56
Speaker 16: they and they can throw the ball. They've got you know,
1:34:58
Speaker 16: and they can run the ball. I mean, they try
1:35:01
Speaker 16: to be balanced. You know, they if you go back
1:35:03
Speaker 16: and probably look at stats that they probably have more
1:35:05
Speaker 16: yards passing than running. But there it's not like they
1:35:07
Speaker 16: don't run because they did. You know, that really got
1:35:10
Speaker 16: them back in the game against Lakeside a couple of
1:35:12
Speaker 16: weeks ago. So yeah, there, you know, you got to
1:35:16
Speaker 16: be disciplined, you know, with what your keys are. You
1:35:19
Speaker 16: got to be disciplined on what your responsibilities are. Especially defensively.
1:35:24
Speaker 16: You know, you cannot get out of a position trying
1:35:26
Speaker 16: to help somebody else because you see something.
1:35:28
Speaker 6: You gotta stay with your guy. And so I say,
1:35:30
Speaker 6: as the coaching staff, we see someone.
1:35:31
Speaker 16: Else, then we did that. We don't have to We
1:35:33
Speaker 16: don't want have to make two changes. And then you know, offensively,
1:35:37
Speaker 16: they you know, they looked at, you know, to create turnovers.
1:35:41
Speaker 16: So if we can avoid turnovers which kind of hurt
1:35:44
Speaker 16: us last year, you know in that game. Uh, you know,
1:35:48
Speaker 16: and we're able to keep the keep the stakes, you know,
1:35:51
Speaker 16: the chains moving a little bit, then you know, then
1:35:54
Speaker 16: we should hopefully give ourselves a chance.
1:35:56
Speaker 6: Yeah.
1:35:57
Speaker 1: I mean it's uh, they are probably the more balance
1:36:00
Speaker 1: that they've been in a while, and so that says
1:36:03
Speaker 1: a lot to them. And they've done very well against
1:36:05
Speaker 1: some very good opponents and playing them as the third
1:36:09
Speaker 1: conference game, is that a benefit? Do you like that
1:36:12
Speaker 1: after playing two already, or would you rather play a
1:36:15
Speaker 1: team that's you know that you know, kind of looked
1:36:18
Speaker 1: at as the top ranked team right out of the
1:36:19
Speaker 1: gate in the first week of conference play.
1:36:22
Speaker 16: It doesn't matter to us. I mean, that's just what
1:36:25
Speaker 16: the schedule is. We don't have control over that or
1:36:27
Speaker 16: or what or what team you have that year, right
1:36:29
Speaker 16: because you know, maybe something you lose a lot of guys.
1:36:32
Speaker 16: Next thing, you know, a team that wasn't great year before,
1:36:34
Speaker 16: all of a sudden, wow, they got there and got
1:36:36
Speaker 16: played them right away. So you know, again, we I
1:36:38
Speaker 16: think we do a good job of focusing on the
1:36:40
Speaker 16: week that we're involved with. This is the biggest week
1:36:43
Speaker 16: of the year for US, just like last week was
1:36:44
Speaker 16: the biggest week of the year for US and next
1:36:46
Speaker 16: week will be that way. But we definitely know too
1:36:49
Speaker 16: that we have a you know, we have a quality
1:36:51
Speaker 16: opponent here that you know, like.
1:36:54
Speaker 6: I said a couple of years ago, they got after us.
1:36:56
Speaker 16: Last year was a game that you know, our kids
1:36:59
Speaker 16: I thought played very inspired, We played you know, ridiculously hard.
1:37:04
Speaker 6: We just that you know, the weather conditions weren't great.
1:37:06
Speaker 16: But at the same time it's for both teams, so there,
1:37:09
Speaker 16: but we put the ball the ground four times, and
1:37:10
Speaker 16: we can't do that. So you know, we're expecting another
1:37:14
Speaker 16: battle here and again you know they've got weapons and
1:37:18
Speaker 16: so we've got to make sure we're doing our job
1:37:19
Speaker 16: and if we give a chance.
1:37:21
Speaker 6: To put it in the azo, we got to make sure
1:37:22
Speaker 6: we do that.
1:37:23
Speaker 1: Awesome stuff. Coach, good luck against Lennon Christian on Friday,
1:37:26
Speaker 1: and thank you for joining me on the Gatorade Game
1:37:28
Speaker 1: day preview.
1:37:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, no problem, Tyler. I appreciate it, and thank you
1:37:32
Speaker 6: for all your work with the kids.
1:37:34
Speaker 1: You're welcome onto the Saturday night game. It's a non
1:37:37
Speaker 1: conference affair as the Squalicum Storm. Welcome in the Poor
1:37:40
Speaker 1: Angels Rough Riders. Squalicum is three and three on the
1:37:44
Speaker 1: season and Poor Angelas is two and four. Max Preps
1:37:48
Speaker 1: shows the Storm with the advantage here and we are
1:37:51
Speaker 1: now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview by Squalicum
1:37:53
Speaker 1: football coach Nick Lucy. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
1:37:57
Speaker 1: How are you doing. I'm doing good.
1:37:59
Speaker 7: Thanks.
1:38:00
Speaker 1: Take me back to the first time you ever played
1:38:03
Speaker 1: organized football. What grade were you in, what position did
1:38:07
Speaker 1: you play and what field was it on?
1:38:11
Speaker 24: Well, boy, it would have been eighth grade. Curtis Junior
1:38:14
Speaker 24: High would have been on the Junior High field there,
1:38:19
Speaker 24: which still is now a turf field. And then I
1:38:22
Speaker 24: was a quarterback and I was a linebacker for all
1:38:26
Speaker 24: of up to one play in a jamboree where we
1:38:27
Speaker 24: gave up a fifty yards sweep and that was the end.
1:38:33
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy how you can recall those certain things,
1:38:36
Speaker 1: you know, Oh yeah, those very first times and and
1:38:40
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's just it's crazy how that is. And
1:38:43
Speaker 1: I'm assuming you played for your dad in high school.
1:38:48
Speaker 1: I did. I did play for my dad.
1:38:50
Speaker 8: Yeah.
1:38:50
Speaker 1: Yeah. What was that experience like? Because you hear a
1:38:53
Speaker 1: lot of coaches talking about what it's like to coach
1:38:55
Speaker 1: their son, but not a lot of coaches played for
1:38:59
Speaker 1: their dad. What was that like?
1:39:02
Speaker 7: Uh, you know, I was.
1:39:03
Speaker 24: Pretty neat experience because I obviously grew up around football.
1:39:07
Speaker 24: It was unique in that he was a defensive coach,
1:39:10
Speaker 24: so I kind of it was fun because he was
1:39:13
Speaker 24: out there, probably didn't have some of the dynamic where
1:39:17
Speaker 24: and like we had a really good offensive coordinator.
1:39:19
Speaker 8: Named Don Lichtie.
1:39:20
Speaker 24: And it's fun getting me with my dad every day,
1:39:23
Speaker 24: and he worked with me, you know, all the time
1:39:25
Speaker 24: on quarterback play. Of course, being young and dumb, you know,
1:39:27
Speaker 24: you always think you know it all, but looking back,
1:39:29
Speaker 24: you realized I probably should have listened to my dad and.
1:39:31
Speaker 3: What he's talking about.
1:39:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't that crazy? How that is? And now now
1:39:36
Speaker 1: being a coach, you know, you see you might see
1:39:38
Speaker 1: yourself and some of these young kids that you're coaching,
1:39:41
Speaker 1: and and you think, man, someday you will, you will
1:39:45
Speaker 1: learn so much more about football. Right before talking about
1:39:49
Speaker 1: your Week seven opponent, let's stuck about this past week
1:39:53
Speaker 1: a really strong start. I mean, your team jumped out
1:39:55
Speaker 1: to a fourteen zero lead and you only had ran
1:39:57
Speaker 1: one offensive play. You competed with Linden for four quarters.
1:40:02
Speaker 1: What was your biggest takeaway from that game?
1:40:05
Speaker 24: You know, we're really proud of how our guys competed.
1:40:08
Speaker 24: I think we did a lot of really good things.
1:40:12
Speaker 24: We kind of frustrated. I'm frustrated with myself calling plays
1:40:15
Speaker 24: down in the red zone. Wish I could have that back,
1:40:17
Speaker 24: because you know, our guys just went and competed, especially
1:40:20
Speaker 24: physically all night. You know, when you're going up to
1:40:23
Speaker 24: lynd and it's going to be a physical, fistfight for
1:40:25
Speaker 24: four quarters, and our guys answered the bell. I mean
1:40:28
Speaker 24: they stepped up and took advantage of some place early on,
1:40:32
Speaker 24: which is you know what you need on the road,
1:40:34
Speaker 24: And again comes down to you.
1:40:36
Speaker 3: Know, that's a good team we played.
1:40:38
Speaker 24: They made some plays at the end. I didn't do
1:40:41
Speaker 24: a very good job of calling plays there in the
1:40:42
Speaker 24: red zone, and credit to them for doing a good
1:40:44
Speaker 24: job there. But I was really happy with how our
1:40:46
Speaker 24: guys competed and how physical they were.
1:40:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're a little more than halfway through the season,
1:40:52
Speaker 1: and what would you say is the biggest improvement your
1:40:55
Speaker 1: team has made since Week one?
1:41:00
Speaker 3: Question? Good question.
1:41:05
Speaker 24: You know it's a team that it's a team that
1:41:07
Speaker 24: plays hard. I think our level of execution has just
1:41:10
Speaker 24: gotten higher and higher. You know, Cole's done such a
1:41:14
Speaker 24: good job getting the ball out on time from an
1:41:16
Speaker 24: offensive standpoint, and uh, you know, we got we got
1:41:19
Speaker 24: a really good crew on the perimeter, so I think
1:41:22
Speaker 24: that's made us a lot more explosive. Our O line's
1:41:25
Speaker 24: grown a whole lot, you know, and then defensively we've
1:41:28
Speaker 24: grown too from a detail standpoint. So you know, it's
1:41:31
Speaker 24: always cool to see when you're watching. You know, you're
1:41:33
Speaker 24: better in week seven than you are in week one.
1:41:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, you know, I mean obviously the biggest jump
1:41:39
Speaker 1: is usually is week one to week two. But definitely,
1:41:42
Speaker 1: you know, you've put on the film back from week one. Now,
1:41:44
Speaker 1: I think every coach would be wow, like, this is
1:41:47
Speaker 1: not the same team that we have right now. And
1:41:50
Speaker 1: and usually it's a good thing.
1:41:53
Speaker 8: You know.
1:41:53
Speaker 1: One of the one of the things that you and
1:41:54
Speaker 1: I talked about back in August, uh, you know, off
1:41:57
Speaker 1: the air and I came out to practice and and
1:42:00
Speaker 1: I had asked about, you know, every year you seem
1:42:04
Speaker 1: to find these smaller guys I should say not small
1:42:08
Speaker 1: because I'm small, but these you know, football players that
1:42:11
Speaker 1: are usually traditionally maybe linebackers or even dbs that you
1:42:14
Speaker 1: put in at the defensive line just to cause havoc.
1:42:18
Speaker 1: And it seems like you found some of these guys
1:42:20
Speaker 1: now that have been doing a good job the last
1:42:22
Speaker 1: few weeks. What is it about, you know, these kinds
1:42:26
Speaker 1: of players that can you know, cause holding penalties and
1:42:29
Speaker 1: just you know, just get in there and muck stuff up.
1:42:31
Speaker 1: You seem to find these guys every year. Who are
1:42:34
Speaker 1: some of those guys? And how has that helped your
1:42:37
Speaker 1: you know team and into your advantage.
1:42:40
Speaker 24: Yeah, that's kind of the fun part of the of
1:42:41
Speaker 24: the puzzles, putting it all together and getting guys into
1:42:44
Speaker 24: positions that they might not be starting out in or
1:42:46
Speaker 24: might not be obvious. One of those guys is Brendan Garcia,
1:42:49
Speaker 24: who is a heck of a wrestler who probably weighs
1:42:52
Speaker 24: a hundred and I don't know right now, maybe one
1:42:55
Speaker 24: hundred and sixty pounds, and he has just been causing
1:42:58
Speaker 24: havoc at the nose tack spot. Really guy, I think
1:43:02
Speaker 24: I think through a number of holding calls in the
1:43:04
Speaker 24: last week's game against Anacorta's and he just goes and
1:43:07
Speaker 24: competes and he's so physically tough, and it kind of
1:43:11
Speaker 24: got a committee uh doing the rest of it with
1:43:13
Speaker 24: Joseph Boyd, River Thompson, Uh, Suprise. Ranhawa has been been
1:43:19
Speaker 24: huge as well there.
1:43:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's just so fun to watch because, uh boy,
1:43:24
Speaker 1: you get you get guys in there, and that's the
1:43:26
Speaker 1: beauty of high school football. You're not going to see
1:43:28
Speaker 1: that college level or the pro level where you know
1:43:31
Speaker 1: you're gonna throw a smaller guy in their nose tackle
1:43:33
Speaker 1: and but at the high school level, you can get
1:43:36
Speaker 1: away with that, and that's what makes it just such
1:43:38
Speaker 1: a fun for me. Anyways, That's that's what I love
1:43:40
Speaker 1: about it is you know they're all in there and
1:43:43
Speaker 1: and uh, the talent level is all over the place,
1:43:47
Speaker 1: and you can find pockets for things to really work out. Uh,
1:43:50
Speaker 1: let's talk about this upcoming Saturday night. You're hosting Port Angelus,
1:43:53
Speaker 1: a team that we saw in Week one against Mount Baker,
1:43:56
Speaker 1: but again that was a week one game. They probably
1:43:59
Speaker 1: changed a lot. And then tell us about this rough
1:44:01
Speaker 1: Rider team.
1:44:03
Speaker 24: Uh, you know, from what I've seen their team that's
1:44:05
Speaker 24: gotten better all season as well. They are a shotgun
1:44:09
Speaker 24: wing ta team they have.
1:44:11
Speaker 3: They got some speed on the outside.
1:44:13
Speaker 24: They got a quarterback that we got to make sure
1:44:15
Speaker 24: we account for, and they do some creative things offensively. Defensively,
1:44:19
Speaker 24: they're pretty hard on those teams. And see their guys
1:44:21
Speaker 24: tackle well and they're running get after the ball.
1:44:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know you played them last year. I know
1:44:26
Speaker 1: they went winless last year. They are much improved this year.
1:44:29
Speaker 1: I saw it, Like I said, I saw them against
1:44:31
Speaker 1: Baker as well, and I've seen them against Blaine recently
1:44:35
Speaker 1: last couple of years. So they always seem to have
1:44:38
Speaker 1: some fun wrinkles with some insight handoff stuff, stuff that
1:44:41
Speaker 1: you just don't see a whole lot. Are they still
1:44:42
Speaker 1: kind of doing a little bit of that? Yeah they are, Yeah, yeah,
1:44:46
Speaker 1: And that's just you know, for a if you're a
1:44:49
Speaker 1: defense and you're not used to seeing stuff like that,
1:44:51
Speaker 1: those can break. So, you know, it's it can be
1:44:55
Speaker 1: a challenge, you know, to just stay at home and
1:44:57
Speaker 1: do you do your job? Playing on his Saturday night.
1:45:01
Speaker 1: You've played on Thursday nights, You've played on Saturday nights.
1:45:04
Speaker 1: Do you prefer I mean, obviously Friday night is king,
1:45:06
Speaker 1: but do you do you prefer to? If you had,
1:45:09
Speaker 1: you know your choice and they said, hey, you can't
1:45:10
Speaker 1: play Friday night, Thursday or Saturday, which one would you choose?
1:45:16
Speaker 12: Uh?
1:45:16
Speaker 1: You know, I I like to keep it during the week.
1:45:19
Speaker 24: But from a prep standpoint as a coach, having the
1:45:21
Speaker 24: whole week to get ready, I feel like I'm a
1:45:24
Speaker 24: lot more ready on a Saturday. That being said, it
1:45:28
Speaker 24: is nice to get I'm sure probably little bit like
1:45:29
Speaker 24: the NFL, it's a rush, but it's nice to get
1:45:31
Speaker 24: a Thursday night game in and then have you know
1:45:33
Speaker 24: a couple of days to catch your breath before you
1:45:35
Speaker 24: get going on the next week. So they both have
1:45:38
Speaker 24: their positives, they both have their negatives.
1:45:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean if you play on a Saturday too,
1:45:43
Speaker 1: that kind of throws a wrench into the following week,
1:45:46
Speaker 1: you know, because you have one less day to prep maybe,
1:45:49
Speaker 1: or you might be used to doing stuff on Saturday
1:45:51
Speaker 1: already watching game film and you know, so, I guess
1:45:54
Speaker 1: it can go either way. I'm always just curious about
1:45:57
Speaker 1: that because you're you know, which are that there's a
1:46:02
Speaker 1: habit there. You're used to Friday nights and so when
1:46:05
Speaker 1: this when something like that gets thrown in there, you know,
1:46:08
Speaker 1: a three teams share a field, that's going to happen, right,
1:46:10
Speaker 1: So you've been kind of used to that for the
1:46:12
Speaker 1: last dozen years or so. Awesome stuff, coach, Thank you
1:46:15
Speaker 1: so much. Good luck against Port Angeles on Saturday, and
1:46:17
Speaker 1: thank you for joining me on the Gatorade game day preview.
1:46:20
Speaker 1: Hey appreciate it.
1:46:21
Speaker 3: Tyler.
1:46:24
Speaker 2: You hear that that's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar.
1:46:28
Speaker 2: The better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar Cola Pepsi zero sugar,
1:46:34
Speaker 2: Let your taste decide.
1:46:37
Speaker 1: And that wraps it up. I hope you've enjoyed the
1:46:39
Speaker 1: Gatorade Game Day Football Preview for Week seven, and I
1:46:42
Speaker 1: just want to thank all the coaches that made time
1:46:44
Speaker 1: out of their busy day to join me here and
1:46:47
Speaker 1: I can't wait to do it again next week. Also
1:46:49
Speaker 1: a huge thank you to Walton Beverage for their sponsorship.
1:46:52
Speaker 1: And you've been listening to episode three hundred and eighty
1:46:55
Speaker 1: of the Welcome Preps podcast, it's the Gatorade Game Day
1:46:59
Speaker 1: Football Preview. Don't forget to vote on Monday with the
1:47:02
Speaker 1: PEPSI Player of the Week and we'll talk to you
1:47:04
Speaker 1: again next week.