Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 432 - 2026 Sehome Mariners Football Preview

Transcript

Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 432 - 2026 Sehome Mariners Football Preview · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome into the Whatcom Preps podcast. This is
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: episode 432, the 2026 Sehome football preview, and I am
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps. I'm really excited about this one.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Sehome has had a good thing going for quite a
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: while now. It's going to be a lot of new faces,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: maybe more new faces than any other team in Whatcom County.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: So we're going to get to talking about all those
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: in a little bit. But first, the Seaholm football season
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: preview is brought to you by Bellingham Youth Football. So
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: many great players have come through that program and have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: played for multiple varsity football teams over the years. And
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: if you have a little one that is ready to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: start playing football at the youth level, go to BellinghamYouthFootball.com
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: today and get signed up. All right. So let's talk
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: about the Seaholm Mariners under coach Brian Young. This is
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: his fourth season with Seaholm. He has a career record
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of 21 wins and 13 losses. The home games will
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: be played at Civic Stadium. Last season, they went 7-5
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: before being ousted in the state tournament in the quarterfinal
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: round against Archbishop Murphy, the eventual state champions. A lot
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of big-time players to replace here, and we'll go over
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a few of these. obviously Nolan Wright, Hudson Neff, Cole Terrell,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Theo Quiggle, Sawyer Woods, Finn Seitz, Gregoire, uh, Tyson Goodman,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Al Miller, Carter Duckworth, Lockie Fagatua. So you start looking
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: at all those guys and a lot of them started
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: both ways. And so there's a lot of new spots
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to fill. They do have, uh, you know, a handful
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: of players that have good varsity experience coming back, but
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of brand new starters. And, um,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's talk
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: about last season's results. They started off the year with
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a bang, beating Marysville Pilchuck 64-3. Lost what was a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: close one for a while there to Anna Cordes on
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the road, 52-33. They turned around and took the frustration
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: out on Lakewood, beating them 81-0. Then they defeated Burlington
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Edison 42-7. Lost a close one to Linden 38-33. and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: then lost on the road in their non-league game to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Linden Christian 17-6, came back and beat Bellingham 56-7, beat
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Squalicum 42-22, and then lost the season finale to Archbishop
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Murphy 56-7. In their state play-in game, they defeated Sela 45-0,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and then they got into the state tournament where they
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: defeated Othello 24-21, and then eventually lost in the quarterfinal
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: round to the eventual state champions, Archbishop Murphy, 52-20. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you look at this in 2026 schedule, they're going to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: start off the season right away against a rival, the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Squalicum Storm. That'll be Friday night, the 4th at 7 p.m.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: at Civic Stadium. I'm kind of looking at that week
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: one game as the kind of the Whatcom County game
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of the week. So if you're just a fan of
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: high school football and not specifically a team, that might
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: be a good one to go out to. I think
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: it'll be packed. That'll be a fun one. Next week
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: after that, they will be on the road to take
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: on the defending state champion Wildcats of Archbishop Murphy. Then
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: they will go on the road to take on Sultan,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the new team in the conference, come back home to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: take on Lakewood and then Linden the following week. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: they'll play at Civic again as the visitors the next
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: week and play Bellingham and And then they're going to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: go on the road in their non-league game to take
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: on Meridian. I love that matchup. I don't think they've
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: played each other since probably like mid-2000s, like 06, 07,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I want to say. So that's really, really cool. I
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: love that when they can get a non-conference game in,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: but stay in the county. Makes it great for me.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: And then they will play at Anacortes. That'll be another
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: great game as far as The Seahawks feel like they
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: haven't dropped off very much, and then they finish off
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the regular season at home against Burlington Edison. That's scheduled
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: for a 4.30 start because there will be a doubleheader
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: out at Civic Stadium. So it'll be the first game,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Burlington Edison against Seahome out at Civic Stadium, 4.30 the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: kickoff time. So be ready for that. Well, let's take
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a look at the position groups and kind of see
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: maybe what they did last season. Of course, we've got
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to start off at quarterback. Gone is the four-year starter,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Nolan Wright, who holds all the passing records in Whatcom
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: County history for a career. In steps, Jad Geiger, very,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: very talented junior that has been in waiting the last
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: two years. Tremendous baseball player. I think going into the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: 2027 season, he'll probably, in my eyes, be ranked as,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the best baseball players in Whatcom County. Um,
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  Speaker 1: And so he's going to kind of take the reins there,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: but Caden Kirk is pushing him as well. So you
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: got Caden Kirk. I swear the last time I saw him,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I thought he was about five, seven, five, eight. I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: go out to practice. He's like six foot two now,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: totally different kid. So he's looks the part as well.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: So you got two guys that'll be ready to be
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: playing on Friday night's. And so that'll be nice. Both
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: underclassmen as well. Jad Geiger last year in limited time
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: completed four of 15 passes, but two of those four
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: went for touchdowns and threw for 58 yards. Running the ball, again,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: gone is Sawyer Woods. And it might be more of
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a running back by committee type thing. So you got
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: lots of different guys. Evan Hatzell, right now is one
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: of the main guys that might be running the ball.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Gunnar Andron is another one. He ran for 35 yards
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: last year on eight carries. Myatt Larson is another one.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I think he's from Australia, which is pretty cool. So
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: maybe he has a rugby background. And then there's Cash Barnes,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: who's a sophomore. Last year, very limited time, but he
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: had six carries for 60 yards and two touchdowns. And
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: everything I've heard about him has been lights out. So
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: he might be the guy that ends up being the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: main guy. Now you got four backs there. They're probably
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just gonna play one at a time for the most part.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You know, you kind of ride the hot hand and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: go from there and see what sticks and, and, um,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you know, you'll find out early, but a lot of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: different guys with experience. One guy that's had three years
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of varsity experience at running back is Nikki Smith, but
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I think he'll be split out wide this year. Last year,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: he scored a couple of touchdowns running the ball. This
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: year he might be one of the main targets as
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: a wide receiver. Also split out there will be Gunnar Andersen.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Gunnar Andersen caught 10 passes for 156 yards last year
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and two touchdowns. So he returns with the most receiving
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: stats from last season. And he's a big, strong kid too,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: about 6'3, 190 pounds, something like that. So he'll be
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a big, big target that defenses will have to account for,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: for sure. Callum LaPlante is another kid that comes back
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: with a lot of experience. He had two catches for
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: 29 yards last year. And then after that, split out
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: at the wide receiver, there could be a couple of
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: new varsity kids that people don't know about yet, but
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: they're going to learn pretty quickly. Ollie Johnson, a sophomore,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and Avery Flagg, a freshman. So these are two kids
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that are extremely talented that it's going to be hard
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to keep them off the field on Friday night. So
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: expect them to make some plays really excited. And again, that's,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons I love doing what I
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: do is because you just get to learn about these
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: new athletes and you get to hear things and, and you, you,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you know, you read things or whatever, and then I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: get to see them in person and it's just so
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: cool for them to write their own story and make
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: their own history on Friday nights. And that's kind of
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: what this is all about. And that's why I love it. Uh,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the tight end position is probably the most veteran position
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: that they have, uh, with Elias Lada and Devin Bankson, uh,
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  Speaker 1: A couple of seniors that have played quite a bit,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: mostly on defense, but a little bit on offense. Elias
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: last year had six catches for 62 yards and a touchdown.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Devin Bankson also caught a pair of passes for 13 yards.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: So the tight end position is pretty set with some
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: really good players, players that will most likely be on
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that top 100 list this upcoming season. On the offensive line,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: they returned the best player in the program. That is
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Logan Rodgers. He's got Allstate written all over him. Just
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a big, strong dude and can move. And he's an
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: awesome kid. He fits everything that you need. Now it's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: going to be about how will the four others around
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: him get up to speed. Some of them, they've all
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: played a little bit and they've all been kind of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: waiting their turn at the same time. And now all
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: these guys are going to come together And, and how
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: they gel as one will be telling. I mean, it's,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: it's going to be very, it has to be very,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: very quick because right out of the gates, you're playing
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: squalicum right in a conference game, Isaac Carmona, Mason Holmes,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Owen Reed, Theo Shonland. These are the guys that I'm
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: kind of looking at as the, as the other four
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and see where they, where they work in that program
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: with Logan Rogers and up, up, up front. And there
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: could be some young kids that, that make a difference too,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: but I think those will probably be the five that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: get the first look, shall we say. On the defensive
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: side of the ball, expect to see a lot of
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: those same guys from the offensive line play on the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: defensive line. Logan Rogers last year was a force. He
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had 32 tackles, seven tackles for loss, five sacks, a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Mason Holmes also had
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a sack last year. Isaac Carmona had one and a
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: half tackles for loss last year. So you could see
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: those guys getting some run in there. Plus you might
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: also see some other guys that might be defense only
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: guys that just say, just get after the, whoever's carrying
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the ball. You expect to see like Colt Andron get
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in there, Javier Carmona, Anthony Wilkinson, those kinds of guys
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: come in there and, and do a job on defense
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: up front. The linebacking spot, He's pretty set again with
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: varsity experience. It's a lot like the tight ends. Same
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: kind of guys. Elias Lada last year at 34 tackles,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: three and a half tackles for loss, two sacks, three
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: passes broken up, a forced fumble. So he makes a
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: lot of plays. Devin Bankson, 30 and a half tackles,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: one tackle for loss, four passes broken up and a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: fumble recovery. So those guys were around the ball quite
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a bit. Evan Hatzell as well, 22 tackles, two tackles
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: for loss. And then Cash Barnes is another one that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I could see kind of be in that rotation at linebacker,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: depending on how many carries he's getting. Three tackles, one
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: tackle for loss, and a forced fumble last year as
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: a freshman. In the secondary, the guy with the most
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: experience is Nicky Smith. He had 25 tackles last year,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: three passes broken up, and he had an interception. Callum
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: LaPlante had 11.5 tackles last year. Gunnar Andersen, 9.5 tackles,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: two tackles for loss, two passes broken up. So those
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: are the three that kind of have the most, I guess,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: playing experience at the varsity level. But again, it's that
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: sophomore and freshman that you might see quite a bit of,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Ollie Johnson and Avery Flagg. So that'd be really cool
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to kind of see them step up and see what
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: they can do on Friday nights. They have the talent level.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: You know, I look at Ollie Johnson and I see
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: kind of the next Hudson Neff. I look at Avery
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Flagg and I see like the next Theo Quiggle. So
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that's kind of what you're looking at with these guys.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to put a lot on them, but
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that's the types of players they are. So if you're
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: listening to this and you've seen see-home football in the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: last few years, that's probably how they're going to end
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: up being is a lot like those kinds of players.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So very, very exciting there. Returning Bane Mitchell is a kicker,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: is a huge weapon. 49 extra points last year and
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: two field goals. Might see him punt a little bit too. Um,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: you know, as a goalie, there's lots of times when
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: he just holds the ball and launches it to midfield
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and it's very similar to punting. So you might see
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that as well. I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, Bane Mitchell, man, he's,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: he's six foot six, something like that. You put him
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: out there at wide receiver and a goal line situation,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: have him go get the ball. Um, he can really jump.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: He's got good hands as we've seen as a goalie,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: very athletic. So you might see that as well. But, um,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Going into his senior year, really, really glad that he
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: turned out for football last year, and I'm glad he's
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: sticking it out again this year. So just an awesome,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: awesome human being, which is really cool too. Nicky Smith
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: returns as a kick returner. He returned the ball for
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: 320 yards last year, averaging 20 yards of return. So
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: having him back is really, really nice. It's something that
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you kind of don't have to worry about. You can
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: put him back there, and you know he's done a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: job Sometimes with kick returners and punt returners, it's just
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: about getting the ball. Just go get it and run forward.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: It's as simple as that. But some guys, they don't
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: always catch it. Some guys want to run east and west,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and that's not always going to get the job done.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So you might see other guys back there, maybe Ollie
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Johnson or who knows, maybe Gunnar Andersen. He had a
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: kickoff return last year for 15 yards as well. So
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: guys that can do a lot of things. It's going
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of different names for the Mariners
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: this year. And getting back to the playoffs is going
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to be a lot tougher than it's been. Because I
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: think a lot of other teams are more on the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: upswing with experience. And so they'll have to knock off
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: a few teams to get that look to play in
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a state playing game. Yeah. Um, they have, like I said,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: they have some big time top dogs to do it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: It's just about how quickly I think the offensive line gels,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: how quickly does Jad Geiger take over that role at
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: quarterback and, uh, some of these young guys, if they
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: can live up to the billing, um, then they'll, they
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: will be just fine. So that's, that's about it. Um,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting year.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Like I said, um, a very, very tough conference. They,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: they know that. And, uh, yeah. Yeah. It's going to
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: be a lot of fun to see them on Friday
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: nights as well as Thursdays and Saturdays. So that has
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: been episode 432, the 2026 Seahome Football Preview. I am
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Tyler Anderson of Wacom Preps, and I will be talking
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to you later today about Mount Baker football. Talk to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you then.