Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 217 - Senior Goodbye Bellingham Blaine Meridian

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 217 - Senior Goodbye Bellingham Blaine Meridian · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Bellingham Senior and Josh Leonard and you're listening to the walcom Preps Podcast
• 0:04
  with Tyler and Ryland Cobe Hawks. Greetings and welcome into the watcom Preps Podcast.
• 0:24
  This is episode of two hundred and seventeen, the third of four podcasts.
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  As we say goodbye to the class of twenty twenty four, I'm Ryland
• 0:31
  Spencer. Along with me as always is Tyler Anderson watcum Preps. Tyler,
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  how are we doing doing great? Knee deep into winter sports action and loving
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  every minute of it. It's been a lot of fun. Knee deep for
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  you, waist high for the rest of us. Tyler. We need to
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  give thanks to Josh Leonard for the intro. Obviously, that means that we're
• 0:53
  gonna be talking about Bellingham tonight. We've also got a couple of other schools.
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  We'll get into that here in a second. We also need to give
• 0:58
  thanks to Kurt Mayberry Far for their sponsorship. Kurt Mayberry farmers today fourth generation,
• 1:03
  family owned and operated berry farm, committed to growing the highest quality berries,
• 1:06
  strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. You can find out more information by
• 1:08
  visiting Kurt Maayberry Farm dot com. That's Kurt with the CMA B E R
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  R Y farm dot com. Let's see here, Tyler, tonight we are
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  talking about Bellingham, Blaine and Meridian. It is Wednesday, December sixth when
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  this is being posted. We've already talked about Mount Baker and Lynden that was
• 1:25
  released last Thursday, November thirtieth, to be exact. Lynden, Christian and
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  Squalcum was a couple of days ago on Monday the fourth. We also need
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  to talk about Ferndale, k Nooksack Valley and Seahome. That will be two
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  days from now, on December eighth. Friday, December eighth, let's see.
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  Following that we will be talking about the volleyball Top fifty podcast that'll be
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  posted Sunday the tenth. You'll be able to hear everything about the volleyball Top
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  fifty. Then the day after that, we will introduce a new podcast that
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  will basically be a weekly winter sports wrap up, if you will. Those
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  will begin posting every Monday at eight a m. Tyler, what are we
• 2:02
  We're going to talk what man basketball, both boys and girls basketball? Right
• 2:07
  yeah, yeah, and then we've got what boy swimming and boys boys boys
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  swimming and diving. Yeah, all sorts of things. I even have a
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  coach that I want to that is interested in coming on as a guest if
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  he goes if you're talking about any winter sports, let me know, I
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  want to come on. And I was like, hey, we'll make time
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  for that. So it was already a lot of interest wrestling. Oh all
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  right, all right, I like where that's headed exactly. So so yeah,
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  so there's all sorts of this cool stuff going on, and I'm excited.
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  It's gonna be a lot of podcast coming your way. Yeah, and
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  those are going to be well okay, so hold on a second here,
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  the volleyball Top fifty that's going to be December tenth at three pm is when
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  that's going to go live. Then less than twenty four hours later, the
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  first Winter Sports wrap up will go on Monday at eight AA and then those
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  are gonna happen every Monday eight am from there on out until the end of
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  Winter Sports. So gonna be pretty cool to do all of that. Let's
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  see here, Tyler. Then uh, oh yes, and actually kind of
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  in a way before that, the actual top one hundred is gonna start posting.
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  We won't have a podcast until let's see when will the first one be.
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  It'll be the fifteenth, Yes, December fifteenth at nine am will be
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  the first podcast that goes live. But by that point there will have already
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  been nineteen right, yeah, nineteen yeah, so one hundred down to eighty
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  two. That will be the first Top one hundred podcast that goes at nine
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  AM on the Friday the fifteenth, which means the actual football Top one hundred
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  will begin posting three times a day. What is it going to be,
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  Tyler, nine noon and three. Yeah, nine noon and three, nine
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  noon and three. So Saturday, December ninth. So if you're hearing this
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  like minutes after it posted on the sixth, we're talking three days from now.
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  Yeah, Saturday the ninth, nine AM, Number one hundred, and
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  then ninety nine goes at noon, ninety eight goes at three pm, and
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  then there's all kinds of scoreboards and I mean all kinds of stuff going up
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  later in the day. I mean, Tyler, I tried to find something
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  the other day. This is no joke. You had to scroll for a
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  while. I was just looking for like our last podcast that we had posted,
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  Oh right, good, and I was like, I was like it
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  should be just right here. And then I was like wait a minute.
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  I was like, good lord, he's been posting all kinds of stuff.
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  Yeah, it's way busier than fall. Yeah, way busier. I bid
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  off a little. I bet off a lot. I'm not gonna say it's
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  more than I could chew, but I bid off a lot. Yeah.
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  But you know what, that's why people need to get on board. And
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  so there's some of these sponsorships here people. It helps. But Tyler,
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  that being said, yeah, the top one hundred for football. You told
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  me there's a sponsor now for this, yes, yeah, so super excited.
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  Anytime Fitness they sponsored the football scoreboards this past year and they sponsored all
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  the top five leader stat leaders all year. And so it's the Anytime Fitness
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  in London, Linden North and then Ferndale. So there's three different ones to
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  go to. Uh and that's awesome because the one in Ferndale right next to
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  Edilne Derry. So it's perfect. Man, it's like sponsor city over there
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  for wait wait wait wait, so they can go they can go get their
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  workout in and then go next door and get the chocolate recovery milk right like
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  perfect, exactly and now you're talking yes, I mean yes, or an
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  ice cream cone and just waste everything that you did I mean right, well,
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  yeah, I mean if you have to. But but yeah, so
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  it's a really cool deal. They jumped on board. They're super excited about
• 5:56
  everything Walking Preps does. And it was really neat to be because when I
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  met the owners, I've seen them a few times, but then I saw
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  them again at a basketball game over the past week, and and it's a
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  married couple and the guy was wearing a Walk and Preps hat, which kind
• 6:15
  of took me by surprise. He ordered one and got it, and it
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  was just cool to see it on somebody else, you know. So big
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  time supporters love what we do, and and yeah, it just makes life
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  easier, you know. And it puts I'm not not gonna say it puts
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  the pressure on me, but it makes me want to do better than I
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  can ever, do you know what I mean? Like, I really really
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  want to do everything extremely well. And I just I don't like, I
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  don't like, you know, go halfway on anything. I always want to
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  go full bore on everything. So this kind of pushes me to do that.
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  And and man, the days go fast. I tell you what,
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  it's crazy. Like every day when I wake up and I when I take
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  my vitamin, Like, that's the first thing I think. If it was
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  like I just took this, right, I was like, oh, that
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  was twenty four hours ago. So it's crazy, it's awesome. It's what
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  I've always wanted to do and and it's happening. It's great. Yeah.
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  You into watkom perhaps is like me into dinner all the way, yes,
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  all in, all the time, full board. Now, Tyler, that
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  being said, I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Okay, okay,
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  I know you love it when I do this. Yep, give me
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  three things right now? Bang for their buck? What should somebody sponsor?
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  Wow? You know the roundups is not a bad idea. They get a
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  ton of clicks. Well, hold on, what's a roundup? So?
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  Okay, okay, like a date, there's a daily roundup for boys basketball.
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  Okay. So for instance, if however, many games of the world
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  last night, the next day, I ride a round up about each game,
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  I give updated standings, you know all that stuff. Okay, boys
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  basketball, right gets their own, and then does girls basketball get their own?
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  Girls basketball gets their own as well? Now, both boys, right,
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  boys swimming and diving. Is that there is a daily rennit for that,
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  but that but that's been taken care of. Stoffer Insurance has covered that
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  for that. By the way, Tyler, tremendous work on that video on
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  the commercial commercial. I mean, you've never looked better. I'm just saying
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  that, and I'm not trying to I'm not trying to sound rude, even
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  though it might be. I mean, and there may be intentions. I
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  just want to try to clear it up and make it sound like I'm not
• 8:26
  trying to be rude. That being said, though, Tyler, I mean
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  the swimming gear at the end, my goodness, I mean like, not
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  only are you gonna float like yeah, I mean you could drop like an
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  anvil on top of you and you're not even going under. No. No,
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  I got I'm all I got crazy amount of stuff. It was so
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  funny because the night before shooting that I I did I don't. I don't
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  own any of that stuff. Yeah, And I contacted a friend of mine
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  where I know for sure that her daughter is really into swimming. Oh,
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  it's like she's got a lot of stuff, and so she's like, yeah,
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  come on over, and I said great, So, and you know,
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  I'm shooting it the next day, like eleven thirty in the morning.
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  I go out there eight o'clock at night and she's like, oh all that
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  stuff' said her dad's house, which is on you know, in a different
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  spot of town. I'm like, oh, my goodness, so I so
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  who I've never met. So she had to call her dad and say,
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  all my swimming stuff, it's in a bag, it's in a blue sports
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  bay. Can you just put it out in the breezeway and someone's gonna come
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  and get it? And so yeah, Luckily I didn't have to talk to
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  any strangers. I just went got the bag, left. Wasn't shady looking
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  at all? Oh yeah, I bet yeah. And then and then I
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  just left it my car. And then when I showed up to the thing,
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  I went to the bathroom to change. I had no clue what was
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  in there. And there was everything skull cap, goggles, snorkel, thing
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  to hold under my arm I had. I had to flip the flips like
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  on my feet, the fins, the whole thing. I wore my beach
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  can you know Halloween costume? It was great for like for two seconds,
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  basically two or three seconds. Basically only need to walk from the back to
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  the front is basically all right, and then just go wait for me.
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  And I only did two takes of that and that was it. That's good.
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  It was awesome. Yeah, that was really funny. And obviously thank
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  you to Stoff for insurance. Yeah, and uh yeah, I mean that
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  commercials great anyway, that being said, Tyler, so you said the boys
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  and girls round up, Yeah, those those get those that's a really big,
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  big thing. And there's a ton of them too. So not only
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  are they getting good numbers, is what you're telling me, but you're also
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  saying that there's every day there's a new poem. Yeah, I mean it's
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  essentially every day week Monday, Monday, Monday yeaheah, because there's games on
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  Saturday, so on Sunday you're getting those round ups, right and then yeah,
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  so I mean there's you know what, we don't even need a third
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  one. That's the two best right there. So somebody are yeah yeah,
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  and then you told me that the walk them perhaps numbers overall are huge right
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  now, right, oh my goodness. Yeah. So yeah, basically the
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  website clicks during the fall during football season. My biggest days are Saturday and
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  Sunday obviously because they're reading the stories from the football stuff, and and during
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  those times, if I can get over three thousand clicks in a day,
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  thirty five hundred clicks in a day, that's that's pretty good. And then
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  during the week it's like, you know, around fifteen hundred clicks a day.
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  And ever since I've been starting the Winter Sports, it's been over four
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  thousand every day, seven days a week. My goodness. So it's it's
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  you know, but there's a lot of things going. There's just so many
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  things happening. Plus the with the top fifty for volleyball, this top one
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  happen, yeah, and that's about to happen exactly. So it's just I
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  don't think it's going to die down. I think I think it's easily going
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  to get a million clicks a year. I think that's no because I think
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  that's with my fast math, I think that's like around twenty seven hundred and
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  something a day, And I have no problem I think hitting that number.
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  They're all local clicks. I think it's just a it's just going to get
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  bigger and better. Yeah, Oh, it's awesome. Yeah, And I
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  mean, if you have four thousand clicks, there's gonna be some from from
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  out of the county because Grandma grandpays some you know, maybe sure, you
• 12:05
  know other family members out there. But for the I mean, the majority
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  of it really is right there. So anybody that's advertising, I mean,
• 12:13
  they're right in it. So yeah, if you're looking to advertise the hit
• 12:16
  up, Tyler, you can find them on all social medias, just search,
• 12:20
  walk them, preps, direct message him, he'll he'll get you taken
• 12:24
  care of. There's all kinds of stuff, and there's I mean there's more.
• 12:26
  There's more than that too. I mean there's there's so many different things
• 12:28
  that are going on. Yeah, so let's see here, Tyler, we
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  are what are we doing here? Blaine, Bellingham, Well, Bellingham,
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  Blaine, Meridian. That's what we're talking about today, Seniors class of twenty
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  twenty four, saying goodbye to these guys. We're gonna start with uh,
• 12:45
  We're gonna start with Bellingham. Yeah, and Bellingham's got what three, six,
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  nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, what was that?
• 12:52
  Sixteen? Yeah, sixteen seniors get sixteen seniors. Blaine's got about a couple
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  less and Meridians got six. Yeah, which kind of knew. Yep.
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  This is what makes them kind of exciting going forward. But Tyler, we
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  are here right now to talk about the Bellingham BayHawks and their seniors. We
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  are going to start off with a five foot seven, one and fifty five
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  pound quarterback corner back. Did I say quarter corner corner quarter? It sounded
• 13:24
  kind of like quarter a quarter cornerback. He's only one fourth of a cornerback.
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  That's number three, Aaron Illigan. Yeah. Amazing speed. You know,
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  coming into the season, I didn't know much about him, didn't know
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  where he would play, but he was kind of getting that nod starting at
• 13:43
  corner and I thought, okay, well, you know sometimes quarterbacks will see
• 13:46
  a shorter corner and they'll try to pick on them a little bit, but
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  boy, that always seems to just that's what that corner wants to happen,
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  and then they'll have big games. And he had some huge games. I
• 13:58
  mean, he broke up nine passes this year to I pretty much lead the
• 14:01
  team. So he had his chances. He did great with it. He
• 14:07
  did catch a ball for five yards, but he wasn't in on offense that
• 14:09
  much at all. Eighteen and a half tackles, nine passes broken up,
• 14:13
  had an interception that had returned twenty three yards, and in a big moment
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  in that Friday Harbor game, which was one of their toughest games on the
• 14:20
  road, it was just kind of a you know, they had to come
• 14:22
  back in that one. Returned some kicks, three kick kick returns for thirty
• 14:26
  eight yards, two punt returns for thirty four yards. But the one thing
• 14:30
  that I'll remember the most was earlier on in the year. It might have
• 14:33
  been the third game of the year. Somewhere in their fourth game of the
• 14:35
  year, there was a punt and he's the he was one of the gunners,
• 14:41
  and it was a long punt hit that you know, hit that turf
• 14:46
  at Civic and bounced and just took off and you know, he's probably at
• 14:50
  like the thirty. It bounced it like the you know, the twelve or
• 14:54
  something like that, and it's going and he's speeding down there, and you
• 14:58
  see it all the time, and when you're watching you know, high level
• 15:01
  football, where a guy's just going down there and then he dives and he
• 15:05
  tries to you know, make a sore. It doesn't go into the end
• 15:07
  zone and he did one of those plays and I was like, man,
• 15:09
  that is all out hustle right there. That was an amazing play. And
• 15:13
  I'll never forget that play. And ever since then, I've been even a
• 15:16
  bigger fan of Aaron Illigan. And and he he took that corner job and
• 15:20
  held it down the whole year. I thought he played great and a guy
• 15:24
  that, like I said, I didn't know much about and he's been he's
• 15:28
  played over the years, and but I didn't know that much about him.
• 15:33
  He earned that starting spot, held on it to it the whole year and
• 15:35
  played great. Six foot one and eighty pounds wide receiver corner number fourteen Wyatt
• 15:41
  Stephan Tyler, this is a kid. I'm gonna throw something at you here
• 15:45
  real quickly. Yeah. He tagged me in his film like what was it
• 15:50
  a week ago? I think on Twitter, and I was like, all
• 15:54
  right, I need to watch this one. Tyler keeps juicing him up here.
• 15:56
  I need to watch this one. I was instantly impressed. Yeah,
• 16:00
  I went, Okay, this is the time of the year, Tyler where
• 16:03
  college coaches start hitting me up, going, hey, give me an under
• 16:07
  the radar guy that nobody knows about. Boom why it's Stephan. Yeah.
• 16:11
  I've sent that around to four or five college coaches now, and every single
• 16:14
  one of them goes, who the heck is this guy? Where did he
• 16:17
  come from? Ryland? What is going on right now? Yeah? How
• 16:19
  does Noby know this guy? And I tell him a little bit about the
• 16:22
  story and they go, whoa, whoa? So Tyler, why it's Stephan?
• 16:27
  I mean, my goodness, this guy just burst onto the scene and
• 16:30
  goes absolutely bonkers this year. Yeah, seven football games and is played in
• 16:34
  his career. Yeah, and unbelievable and put up crazy numbers in those seven
• 16:40
  games. And in those seven games, Bellyam was six and one. So
• 16:45
  it's you know, there is part of it is due to him, but
• 16:48
  there's other parts too. He is special, he's unique. He's just a
• 16:55
  crazy athlete. I got to see him at track last year where he's just
• 17:00
  you know sprinter. You know, runs like ran I think like a ten
• 17:04
  to eight hundred, which is very fast. You know, there's a lot
• 17:11
  of there's a lot of school records up here that do not have anything broken
• 17:15
  under eleven seconds and he's running a ten eight, so you know, you
• 17:19
  know that goes a long way A humble kid too, like, not not
• 17:26
  cocky, not arrogant at all. Got I'm now I'm watching him play basketball,
• 17:30
  and it's no doubt that he's the guy on the court. You know,
• 17:34
  he's his jump shot looks like an NBA jump shot because of his vert
• 17:38
  you know, he's got like a thirty seven inch vertical leap. He just
• 17:41
  has just has these talents that you just don't see up in this area very
• 17:47
  often. So glad he came out for football. It was a little bit
• 17:49
  late. Finished the year with thirty two catches for eight hundred and twenty nine
• 17:55
  yards and twelve touchdowns. That's almost twenty six yards per catch. Yeah,
• 18:00
  just crazy. You know. Played they put him at corner a little bit
• 18:03
  here and there, like if they just needed someone for a play or to
• 18:07
  and he ended up getting an interception against Blaine, returned at twenty three yards.
• 18:11
  I mean, he probably played I don't know, ten to fifteen plays
• 18:15
  total at corner all year and he ended up getting an interception. Same thing
• 18:18
  at the end of the year. They just put him back there the last
• 18:22
  couple of games to return kickoffs. He only returned two, one of them
• 18:25
  went for a touchdown. You know, you saw that reverse that he ran
• 18:30
  in for a touchdown. It was it was really cool to see, especially
• 18:36
  up close. If you're standing on the sideline and just see him whiz by,
• 18:38
  it's you know. I mean I saw a Mecca Abuka run by me
• 18:44
  once on the sideline and I was like, that's fast, you know.
• 18:48
  And he's fast and he's up there too. He broke some school records.
• 18:53
  He tied a Wakham County record. He had five receiving touchdowns in one game
• 18:59
  against that against Blaine, which tied a Walkin county record. It broke the
• 19:03
  school record. His twenty five point nine yards per catch for the season broke
• 19:07
  a school record. His twelve receiving touchdowns in a season tied a school record.
• 19:14
  And yeah, it's just so many numbers you could talk about. But
• 19:18
  what I've what I've gotten to know too, is that he's a great kid.
• 19:22
  You know, three point nine to five gpa. I mean, these
• 19:25
  are all the things you're looking for. So really really cool that he came
• 19:30
  out for football, and I'm excited to see him continue to play some more
• 19:33
  high school sports. Five foot nine one and forty pound wide receiver and safety.
• 19:37
  It's number fifteen William Tucker. Yeah, only really saw him on special
• 19:42
  teams, but he was in on you know, he was in a I
• 19:47
  logged him for three and a half tackles, and I recall a few of
• 19:48
  them being where he just throws his body out there on kickoff coverage, you
• 19:52
  know, which is all you can ask for, you know, and that's
• 19:56
  that's a job that not a lot of people take. And I, you
• 19:59
  know, I recall a lot of the time, like when I'd be even
• 20:00
  when I was kicking off in high school. Yeah, I kind of looked
• 20:03
  down the line and it was kind of a hodgepodge of the guys that you
• 20:07
  know, there's some sophomores and there's few seniors, and there's you kind of
• 20:11
  look down at the guys that are on kickoff and then you realize, oh,
• 20:15
  there's one common thing with all these people. It's like these are like
• 20:18
  the These are like the people that are like the first line of the army.
• 20:22
  You know, it's like it's like they're afraid, but they go anyways.
• 20:25
  You know, these are the these are these guys are crazy and usually
• 20:27
  it's like, you know, like seven of them are like midweight wrestlers and
• 20:32
  you know, you just kind of you're like, man, these are the
• 20:33
  these are the dudes I want to walk down the apple, you know,
• 20:37
  the dark gallery with And I feel totally fine. And he was. He
• 20:41
  was one of those guys. And and you know, everybody fills a role,
• 20:45
  and that was his role to Phil. Let's see here, five foot
• 20:49
  nine and ninety pounds full back, inside linebacker at number sixteen, Hunter Bryant
• 20:56
  Hunter Bryant Pearson. That's the harder to say than I thought. Yeah,
• 21:00
  he's another guy that was on that kickoff coverage team, and and there was
• 21:04
  sometimes I'd be like, wrap up, and I'd yell because he just throw
• 21:07
  his body in there and if it worked once, they sometimes they keep doing
• 21:11
  it. But he ended up doing a little better at wrapping up as the
• 21:15
  season war on six and a half tackles. He did have a pass broken
• 21:18
  up to playing linebacker every once. It's tough being a fullback in that offense.
• 21:22
  You know, it's a single back, shotgun offense. You know,
• 21:27
  it's not there is no fullback. But every once in a while, they
• 21:30
  would they would they would go into kind of like a power look with kind
• 21:34
  of like a double tight full back tailback, quarterback under center and you know,
• 21:41
  third and one type stuff, and he'd be the full back in that
• 21:45
  spot. And every time you saw sixteen run on the field, you're like,
• 21:47
  okay, it's jumbo time. And he got the ball every once in
• 21:49
  a while. He had four carries for nine yards. Good baseball player.
• 21:53
  So I'm excited to see that coming up and saw him last the last couple
• 21:57
  of years playing baseball. So but again, that's a that's a weird spot.
• 22:02
  You know, the fullback is a dying breeze, especially in the NFL
• 22:06
  and even in high school now it's kind of starting to fade out a little
• 22:10
  bit. And he's he's one of those guys that's a true fullback and glad
• 22:15
  to see that still sprinkled in every once in a while. Tyler, we
• 22:18
  got a this is like a five foot nine crew right here. Yeah,
• 22:22
  we've got four row number three on that one is a young man and actually
• 22:26
  not even the smallest of the bunch, uh five nine though it's wide receiver.
• 22:32
  It's a cornerback number seventeen. Noah Richardson. Yeah, another special teams
• 22:37
  guy, scout team guy. Uh and man, it's just again you talk
• 22:42
  to the bigger especially the you know, the Linden's and the stuff like that,
• 22:47
  and they talk about how important Scout team is and if you want,
• 22:51
  you know, Belliam took a huge step forward, you know, doubling their
• 22:53
  wins from last year. And you can bet that as the program starts to
• 23:00
  you know, understand what it takes and all those types of things, it's
• 23:03
  the little things like that Scout team guys that's going to make a difference.
• 23:07
  And he was a part of that five pounds running back, linebacker and punter
• 23:15
  number thirty four holding baits. Yeah, really glad he came out for football
• 23:21
  this year. You you you'd really like this guy hockey player. I do
• 23:26
  like him. Yeah, I don't even know. Yeah, and boy he
• 23:33
  cause you know, I asked, you know, coach about, well you
• 23:36
  got Frost coming back, and you know last year he had Frost and Steve's
• 23:40
  in the backfield kind of that you know, that power guy, speed guy.
• 23:42
  I go, do you have a guy that's kind of that speed guy?
• 23:45
  A kid? And he goes and he's like, he's like, well,
• 23:49
  do you remember Isaac Bates? And I said, yeah, but he
• 23:52
  graduated and he goes, no, he goes he's actually coaching with us.
• 23:56
  But his younger brother, Holding Baits is turning out and he's a and I
• 24:00
  go, I'm thinking about Isaac Bates. Isaac Bates was small. He's a
• 24:04
  very fast, very smart receiver, but not built like a running back.
• 24:07
  And he goes, no, No, Holden is different. He's a different
• 24:11
  breed. He's different, you know, he's built differently, very stocky,
• 24:15
  very fast. And I remember Isaac Bates being fast. Holden Bates might even
• 24:19
  be faster. And right off the bat, they were finding ways to get
• 24:23
  him the ball on the outside and he would just you know, I remember
• 24:26
  the first play from scrimmage against Granted falls eighty yard touchdown. You know,
• 24:29
  I'm like, holy cow. And he's one of those guys that is fast.
• 24:33
  But it looks like he's gaining speed. You know, it's just like
• 24:34
  that that appearance of that as as he's gone about fifty yards. But I
• 24:40
  think he's just breaking away from guys, you know, super fast and an
• 24:47
  amazing punter averaged forty three yards of punt this year. I mean that's high
• 24:51
  school level forty three yards of punt. That's crazy. One of them was
• 24:56
  that one that I was telling you about with Aaron Illigan going down there and
• 24:57
  downing it. There was a there was a big pocket in the middle of
• 25:00
  the year where he didn't punt for a while. I think he had like
• 25:03
  an injured hit, an injury that didn't allow him to punt. He did
• 25:07
  miss some time, missed a game, missed maybe a game and a half,
• 25:10
  but he didn't punt for a while. Owen Hanstead was punting. He
• 25:12
  came back and punted at the end again because and it's funny because he kind
• 25:17
  of needed a certain amount of punts as far as I'm concerned for like,
• 25:19
  you know, walking county record type stuff, because forty three yards of punt,
• 25:22
  I mean, that's that's that's that that's up there, you know,
• 25:26
  as far as the stuff. But Dak Schagrin had some big punting numbers and
• 25:30
  Kyle Sankowski and so those guys averaging over forty yards of punt, So it's
• 25:34
  hard to do running the ball. Ninety one carries for eight hundred and twenty
• 25:38
  nine yards and nine touchdowns. That's nine point one yards per carry. That
• 25:44
  broke a school record most yards per carrying a season. I mean, that's
• 25:48
  they're the highest yards per carying a season, I should say, uh,
• 25:52
  the game against Friday Harbor, he averaged almost thirteen yards per carrying that game,
• 25:56
  fourteen carries for one hundred and seventy nine. The same thing against Sultan
• 26:00
  fifteen carries for bucks seventy one. His nine rushing touchdowns was tied for ninth
• 26:06
  most in the season. He caught five balls for sixty four yards. He
• 26:08
  returned eight kickoffs for one hundred and nineteen yards. He was kind of that
• 26:14
  unsung weapon that I think that you know, with the passing game as dynamic
• 26:18
  as it was, I don't think a lot of people understood how valuable he
• 26:21
  was into a lot of their wins. You know, there was that game
• 26:23
  against Friday Harbor. I mean he took over the you know, the fourth
• 26:26
  quarter in that one, and uh, that was a huge comeback win for
• 26:32
  them, and he was a big, big part of that and a great
• 26:33
  player. Sick we go from five to nine to six five, two twenty.
• 26:40
  It's a tight end defensive end at number forty nine. Elias to Godjay.
• 26:45
  Yeah, So I didn't know anything about him coming into the season.
• 26:48
  He was really impressive looking at practice obviously, and I thought, okay,
• 26:53
  that's kind of a project kind of guy. And I was there for game
• 26:56
  one and I didn't I didn't see him two. I think it was the
• 27:02
  second game. I see him and he's starting at defensive end and he's making
• 27:07
  plays and he's physical and he's athletic, and I was like, man,
• 27:11
  this guy's who is this guy? I had to look at my roster.
• 27:15
  Oh, that's that all kid? I saw, okay. And then I
• 27:18
  was up in the booth for like the third or fourth game of the year,
• 27:22
  and this was hilarious. I think it was against South Wiby and I'm
• 27:26
  up in the booth. I'm by myself and I'm just keeping stats and he
• 27:30
  had like, I don't know, three or four sacks in like the first
• 27:34
  half, and there's someone entered my booth and goes, who's forty nine?
• 27:45
  And I'm like, and I don't know if it's a South Wilby coach or
• 27:49
  if it's like the PA announcer doesn't know how to announce his name. So
• 27:53
  I thought that it was like someone like thinking it was some other guy,
• 27:56
  and I was like, it's the same guy in my roster, that is
• 27:59
  it that it is on yours? And he looks at it and he goes
• 28:02
  that Elias kid. I go, yeah, he goes okay, and he
• 28:06
  walked out, and I just I never knew who that was to ask me
• 28:08
  that. I didn't know if they thought I was a bal Am coach.
• 28:12
  Who knows, but you still don't he was, he was. No,
• 28:15
  I don't have no clue. Who has asked me that. That's funny.
• 28:18
  He he took over that game, and I think that gave him confidence to
• 28:22
  because he played so well after that going as the season war on. Boy,
• 28:29
  what a what a cool thing that for a senior to. I mean,
• 28:32
  so many there's a lot of seniors in this group that didn't play a
• 28:36
  lot of football until this year. And he's, uh, boy, he's
• 28:41
  really really good. He had forty two tackles, seven tackles for lost,
• 28:45
  six sacks, a force fumble, a pass broken up, he intercepted a
• 28:49
  pass too, and uh and returned a kickoff for twelve yards as one of
• 28:53
  the up guys. So and he starts at center on the basketball team.
• 28:56
  So so much fun watching him. He really he really isn't again a lot
• 29:03
  like Illigan and and uh, you know Holden Bates. These are guys that
• 29:07
  I had no clue who they were coming into senior year, and then they
• 29:11
  just go out and have this amazing year. And and I love learning about
• 29:15
  kids like that. Let's see here six two two oh five left guard and
• 29:21
  linebacker Tyler. I love it when sometimes you break it down on the O
• 29:25
  line. Yeah, left left guard and linebacker. That's number fifty. Rourke
• 29:30
  O'Malley. Well, now it's with this whole group. There's there's a group
• 29:37
  that's a lot of them are new. You know, you got some transfers,
• 29:38
  you got some first time first year players, stuff like that, and
• 29:42
  then you got like the guys that have been through you know, every I
• 29:48
  feel like we've talked about this guy for a while. Yeah, and Rourke
• 29:51
  O'Malley's been there, you know, through it all. Uh you know it's
• 29:56
  it's uh all all hair team for team by far. And he started at
• 30:03
  center last year, and I remember he was our first ever Offensive Lineman of
• 30:07
  the Week award winner and this year yeah, yeah, no one else can
• 30:15
  say that that they're the OG the OG. Yeah. And then he went
• 30:18
  from OG to LG this year. Oh, because he played center all last
• 30:22
  year, he got moved to left guard. I thought he might be left
• 30:26
  tackle, just kind of based on his athleticism. He got a little,
• 30:29
  he got bigger, got stronger, and I thought he might play left tackle,
• 30:33
  but they moved him to left guard and that you know, there was
• 30:38
  a lot of improvements on the Bellingham's team from last year to this year,
• 30:42
  and one of the biggest one was protecting the quarterback. And you know,
• 30:48
  last year they went through like five different quarterbacks. They never had time back
• 30:52
  there. It was a disaster at times. And this year I think Leonard
• 30:59
  may have got been sacked twice all year. And he's it's not like he's
• 31:03
  like avoiding guys with his fleet footwork, you know. And Rourke O'Malley is
• 31:11
  that pillar that has been there through the years, has gone through all the
• 31:14
  tough times and stuff like that. Last year he played a lot of linebackers
• 31:18
  didn't play that much. This year they got so many new guys that didn't
• 31:21
  really need him at linebacker. But his for his career forty four tackles,
• 31:25
  five tackles for loss, a sack, two fumble recoveries. One he recovered
• 31:30
  for a touchdown that was earlier this year. So cool to see him score
• 31:33
  a touchdown you know, a guy like that that has been doing it forever.
• 31:37
  Once you see them actually get their hands on the ball and then actually
• 31:41
  score touchdown is always a really cool deal. And that was awesome to see
• 31:45
  six foot two fifty offensive line defensive line Tyler's number sixty nine, Aden Reinhardt.
• 31:51
  Yeah, he's a kid that is a backup lineman that would get into
• 31:53
  games every once in a while, and you could see how energized he is,
• 31:56
  like even on the film, like you could see him like, this
• 32:00
  is my chance, this is my chance, and he would he would make
• 32:01
  some plays. A big kid that can move. Uh and he did have
• 32:07
  a tackle on the season. Uh, they they played I don't know how
• 32:09
  many defensive linemen they played through the year. Uh, you know they went
• 32:14
  they had a three down line and they must have played fifteen different guys there
• 32:19
  at different times. They they had different kinds of injuries, kids that were
• 32:22
  ineligible, kids that were showing up, you know that came out late for
• 32:24
  the team. So many different you know parts where he was kind of that
• 32:30
  you know odd one out every once in a while, but he'd come in
• 32:32
  late in games and and and just and just run around and be you know,
• 32:38
  just do everything that he can with every all with his abilities, Yes,
• 32:43
  exactly, and he did it really well. Six and ninety five pounds
• 32:47
  guard, defensive lineman's number seventy Alex Howry. Yeah, big body. He
• 32:53
  started the year at guard, didn't didn't finish the year starting there, but
• 32:59
  he was a reliable backup. Uh there were I mean man running behind him.
• 33:05
  Dude, there's a there's Uh, it's a lot of fun. Just
• 33:10
  an athletic kid that it impressed when I went to practice in August. He's
• 33:16
  another guy that really stood out. And that's another ben kind of one of
• 33:21
  the bugaboos from Bellingham is their lineman just haven't been very big. You know,
• 33:24
  I think you haven't had the size and and he filled that bill and
• 33:30
  they had one of the bigger offensive linemen that there are offensive lines this year
• 33:34
  as a whole, and he was a big reason, especially early on in
• 33:36
  the season. I'm Tyler. We got two guys here, both five eleven,
• 33:39
  one's two forty five, one's three twenty. A couple of large individuals
• 33:44
  offensive line and defensive line for both of them. Obviously. I mean we're
• 33:46
  not talking quarterbacks here. We've got number seventy two and seventy five. Give
• 33:51
  me Andrew Wymer, Give me Blake James. Yeah, these are a couple
• 33:53
  guys again, big bodies like Bellingham just hasn't had that Blake James could.
• 33:59
  You know, he'd come in every once in a while at nose tackle and
• 34:01
  just take it, just tick up blockers and space and yeah, space eater,
• 34:07
  you know. And Andrew Weimer, same type of thing. Another another
• 34:10
  reserve lineman that could that could come in place late in games, play if
• 34:15
  you need, if you're in a pinch, all those kinds of things.
• 34:19
  It's just, man, I love seeing all these kids out there playing football.
• 34:22
  And you get you get guys that are that big. It's you know,
• 34:25
  you're over three hundred pounds at the high school level. It's not easy
• 34:29
  getting through practice and doing all those things, and easy committing committing yourself right
• 34:34
  yeah, and going through all the stuff you have to go through and and
• 34:37
  uh. And that's why I like, you know, when we listen to
• 34:39
  other people kind of do what we're doing, and I'm always wondering, like
• 34:43
  did these people play football? You know? It's like going through high school
• 34:45
  football practice is high school wrestling practice even more but those are the hardest things
• 34:50
  you ever have to go through in your life, and they set you up
• 34:52
  for stuff so uh so really really cool. You know, these big dudes
• 34:57
  are going out there and doing their thing. I've worked hard at a lot
• 35:00
  of things in life. There's nothing that was harder than high school wrestling.
• 35:05
  High school football was not too far behind, but high school wrestling was.
• 35:08
  Well. You talk about something that will make you tough, you know,
• 35:13
  physically, mentally like it's and football is not a whole lot different. I
• 35:16
  mean, you have to just be you gotta be tough, you know,
• 35:20
  in every aspect of it. Let's see here, not getting any smaller here,
• 35:23
  Tyler, we're gonna go six to two fifty offensive line defensive line at
• 35:28
  number seventy six Tanner lob. I loved watching him progress this season, especially
• 35:34
  by the end of the year. He was a monster on the defensive line.
• 35:38
  Played played quite a bit actually at left tackle. There were moments when
• 35:44
  they needed a guy and he filled that role and did really really well.
• 35:50
  Super quick feet, athletic, tough to block, just a pain a nuisance,
• 35:55
  good size, strength. I finished with twenty seven tackles, five and
• 36:00
  a half tackles for loss, one and a half sacks and a forced fumble.
• 36:05
  I you know, he as the season went on, Like I said,
• 36:08
  he just was a guy that every time you'd see a play made you
• 36:14
  go seventy six again, It's like, oh that was seventy six again.
• 36:17
  Like he just keeps doing that. And and when when he was on,
• 36:22
  Bellingham won and that was just kind of the way that it was. And
• 36:25
  that says a lot about a kid with that kind of ability. Yeah,
• 36:29
  I like, I like guys like that. Yeah. Uh, let's see
• 36:32
  here, Tyler. We're into some heavy hitter names here now. Uh five
• 36:36
  nine eighty wide receiver, outside linebacker number five, muscle beach, Josh Tole.
• 36:42
  Oh my goodness again, so glad he came out to play. I
• 36:49
  my biggest question to coach Leonard before the season started was, you know,
• 36:52
  you brought in a quarterback that loves to throw the ball. You love to
• 36:58
  throw the ball as a coach, you love to throw the ball deep,
• 37:01
  and you don't return anybody with any varsity catches, So how do you answer
• 37:07
  that? And he just goes Josh Tole, you know, And I knew
• 37:13
  that BLI Henderson was on his way, and I knew that gave Vann hoffag
• 37:15
  and was going to change from quarterback to tight end. And but you know,
• 37:21
  and I knew like Owen Hanstead and Nate Lost and there's a lot of
• 37:22
  these guys that could fill roles. But I didn't know anything about Josh Tole
• 37:27
  and he just kind of noded his head and he goes, he's special,
• 37:30
  he wants to be great. He works so hard. He this he that,
• 37:34
  you know. And then when I saw him, I was like,
• 37:37
  man, he's really put together. He's he's not super tall, but he
• 37:40
  is gonna outwork you. And it's not like you go. I mean,
• 37:45
  he played in the slot for most of the year, but when Bli Henderson
• 37:50
  went down with an injury at Friday Harbor, he went out to the outside
• 37:53
  and was out jumping guys for balls. You know. He was a deep
• 37:57
  threat down the sideline at times. He got injured in the very first game,
• 38:01
  I think on the first drive, and it was a huge loss.
• 38:06
  They end up losing by like five points. He comes back in the second
• 38:08
  game and has a couple of touchdown catches and I'm like, Okay, this
• 38:12
  guy is for real. He ends the year with seventy five catches for one
• 38:16
  thousand and forty yards and twelve touchdowns. All those are school records, I
• 38:23
  mean. And the crazy because the twelve touchdowns that ties the school record with
• 38:28
  Wyat Stefan. So how cool is that? And they broke it by light.
• 38:31
  I think the old record was less than ten. And uh it's you
• 38:36
  know that's saying something man. All yeah, all three of those being school
• 38:39
  records is super impressive. Didn't play a ton on defense, wasn't really needed
• 38:46
  on defense, but could get the job done. Did have nineteen tackles,
• 38:50
  three passes broken up, a forced fumble, a sack, two tackles for
• 38:53
  loss, a fumble recovery. He intercepted a couple of passes. In his
• 38:58
  final game of the year, he intercepted it pass took it to the house
• 39:00
  on an unbelievable play, but it was called back. Hold on Tyler.
• 39:05
  You say he didn't play very much, and then you give me numbers like
• 39:07
  he played the whole year. You're absolutely right, but he did. He
• 39:10
  did not play very much. I would say he played so he was just
• 39:14
  ultra effective when he was out there. Yes, I would say he played
• 39:16
  ten percent of the defensive snaps. Maybe Wow. Yeah. I mean nineteen
• 39:22
  tackles that doesn't blow anybody away, but everything else you're talking about here,
• 39:24
  when you put it all together, yeah, he sounds like a second team
• 39:28
  All League guy right here, right exactly. Yeah, And he just he
• 39:31
  just is at play. He's a playmaker, pure and simple, hard to
• 39:36
  tackle, will not go out of bounds. I like that, you know,
• 39:39
  he just he just everything is just full on force. And you know,
• 39:45
  like when you picked him against for fantasy, you know, he sent
• 39:49
  you a message and said, oh, you know, I'll do you proud,
• 39:52
  you know what. And he saw me after the game and he's like,
• 39:54
  you know, tell Ryland, I did my best. Like he just
• 39:57
  he just he loves it. He loves everything about you know that that final
• 40:00
  game, I mean, imagine this for your final high school game. He
• 40:06
  catches fourteen passes for that's a school record. It was one away from tying
• 40:10
  the Walking County record. He for like one hundred and forty yards and a
• 40:15
  touchdown. He returns a kickoff for a touchdown. He has a pick six,
• 40:20
  but it was called back. I mean, he was just he wanted
• 40:22
  to be on on every play and do everything he could. And he's another
• 40:27
  kid that you know, he's on Twitter too, and if you watch that
• 40:30
  film, I know he's not the biggest kid, but he can be a
• 40:34
  slot guy somewhere because he's so physical, Like that's what you worry about,
• 40:37
  That's what you worry about with smaller guys playing at the next level, Like,
• 40:40
  well he could he could he handle that. He's like the strongest guy
• 40:44
  on the team. Yeah, you know he's he can, he's physical,
• 40:46
  he's not thin, you know, so I and he wants to play.
• 40:52
  And I think his grades are pretty good too. And and he's a guy
• 40:55
  that people should be looking out for because you put up those kinds of numbers
• 41:00
  and you know you're doing something right. And again another guy that I'm just
• 41:05
  glad he came out and played football this year because so much fun. Six
• 41:09
  four, two seventy five right tackle, defensive lineman number seventy four, Jesse
• 41:15
  Harward. Yeah, just what a great career for him. I mean,
• 41:19
  you know, played played two years of varsity football for Mount Baker, transfers
• 41:22
  to Bellingham. Three year starter at right tackle. And kind of a perfect
• 41:30
  situation too, because you're playing you're a natural right tackle. You've been playing
• 41:34
  right tackle over the years at Baker, you come to Bellingham and now you're
• 41:37
  you're the blindside protector for your left handed quarterback. It's perfect. Uh And
• 41:43
  I he was so dominant. I know the competition wasn't what he was used
• 41:47
  to, but he was. I mean, nobody got even at no one
• 41:52
  could get close to getting past him. He was just you know, pass
• 41:55
  protection. Josh Leonard could just sit back there all day run blocking. Forget
• 42:01
  about it. He's he is going to he is going to go right through
• 42:07
  you. We've talked about players that have that switch, you know, it's
• 42:13
  the name is escaping me. Now. Caleb Newman, we've talked about,
• 42:16
  you know where nicest guy in the world off the field. You don't want
• 42:20
  to, you know, deal with him on the field stepping between the lines
• 42:22
  and he's punching himself in the face because he's so fired up right, Very
• 42:27
  very similar with Jesse Harward. Every time I see him off the field,
• 42:31
  Hey, Tyler, how you doing, shakes my hand and very you know,
• 42:36
  very gracious in everything and a sweet kid. But on the field,
• 42:39
  dasty and it's and it's it's odd to me. I mean, I guess
• 42:45
  it makes sense because there is an actual line there, like you can tell
• 42:49
  yourself, Okay, I'm going to be this person now. But he really
• 42:52
  he really puts it to work. He was the only player this year for
• 42:55
  Belliam that was named All Conference second Team, which is really hard to make
• 43:00
  in that you know, you go to that meeting and it's the toughest conference
• 43:02
  in the two A already as it is, and they didn't play any of
• 43:07
  those teams, so just to make the All conference team is really tough.
• 43:10
  And but he was named All Conference second team as an offensive lineman. Finished
• 43:16
  his career with forty nine tackles, eleven and a half tackles for loss,
• 43:21
  three and a half sacks, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.
• 43:24
  Didn't didn't play too much on defense this year. They really really wanted him
• 43:30
  to be fresh on offense and it worked out. I think defense he did
• 43:36
  he would do great when he was in there, but he rotated a lot,
• 43:39
  but definitely on offense, was a big time difference maker. Now,
• 43:44
  Tyler, Yeah, in the years past, this this guy here size wise
• 43:47
  would have probably been alignment at the school. We've talked about some big dutes
• 43:52
  today. So they were able to maybe have him played another position. He
• 43:55
  also gave us our intro six to four to two fifteen quarterback not a corner
• 44:00
  quarter, a full quarter, a full quarter. Interesting, that's number one.
• 44:06
  It's Josh Leonard. Wow. An amazing season. I mean, just
• 44:13
  a season that we haven't seen in Walkin County numbers wise, and since the
• 44:17
  Simon Burkett Casey Bauman days. And I know they like to throw, but
• 44:24
  they ran the ball quite a bit too, you know, putting up over
• 44:29
  four thousand yards of offense this year. And he was a big, big
• 44:34
  reason why, just you know, super strong arm, but effortless throw.
• 44:39
  You know, I see so many deep balls that he threw. I can
• 44:43
  picture it right now, like down the right sideline to Bly Henderson, down
• 44:46
  the left sideline to whyat Stefan that were just kind of like step and then
• 44:51
  just kind of flick and you could throw it sixty yards on a flick.
• 44:54
  It was just it's beautiful to see, really really accurate too. Down the
• 44:59
  field, rolling out, hitting Gabe van Hofwagen on on some tight end outs
• 45:06
  and stuff like that. Was you know, a piece of cake. Always
• 45:09
  had a good demeanor and what you really want as a quarterback doesn't get too
• 45:14
  high, doesn't get too low. Everything is just kind of you know,
• 45:17
  next play if something happened wrong or whatever. Transferred to Bellingham this year and
• 45:24
  broke one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
• 45:29
  eight, nine, ten school records. Now, how many of them were
• 45:32
  single season? How many of them were career their careers, Yes, but
• 45:39
  like percentages and stuff, because he had enough attempts for career, okay,
• 45:45
  but pass attempts in a season, pass completions in a season, passing yards
• 45:50
  in a season, passing touchdowns in a season, so everything basically passing.
• 45:55
  He completed fourteen out of fifteen passes in one game, ninety three point three
• 46:00
  percent completion percentage for a game, school record, yards per pass attempt in
• 46:05
  a season, and a career five touchdown passes in one game. He tied
• 46:09
  that school record, but he did it three times. Most pass attempts in
• 46:14
  a game without an interception thirty seven. Uh, they're just you know,
• 46:17
  he kind of just rewrote the Bellingham passing record book. I was I was
• 46:23
  fortunate enough to be asked to hand out some awards at the Belling and Football
• 46:30
  banquet last week, and and it was basically the record breakers award and or
• 46:35
  all the different guys that broke records. And you know, there was five
• 46:39
  different players that broke records, and they got these really cool awards, like
• 46:44
  a Golden Record, And as I was talking about them, it didn't hit
• 46:49
  me then, but it hit me on the way home that all five of
• 46:51
  those guys it was their first year playing for Bellingham Football. And it's just
• 46:54
  like, man, I hope that inspires people that are thinking that are good
• 46:59
  athletes that I think, Man, I wonder what would happen if I went
• 47:01
  out and played football. Hey man, you might break records. Who knows.
• 47:05
  I mean, it's if there's chances for you to get on the field
• 47:08
  and you're on the right situation and everything, it could really happen. For
• 47:13
  Josh Leonard's career, huge numbers not I mean, only a handful of guys
• 47:19
  have thrown for over four thousand yards in their career Walking County history. He
• 47:22
  became one of them. Completed two hundred and seventy two passes for four thousand
• 47:27
  and ninety seven yards and forty four touchdowns. He also ran in a couple
• 47:30
  of touchdowns this year. It was you know, I know that people are
• 47:36
  gonna say, well, the competition and blah blah blah. But I look
• 47:38
  at what he did and I say, like, I think there's a lot
• 47:44
  of teams in the league that would trade their quarterback for him. I think
• 47:47
  that, if you know, it wouldn't be much of a downgrade for a
• 47:52
  lot of other teams either. I think he could have led playoff teams to
• 47:55
  the playoffs all that stuff. I just think that he is one of those
• 48:00
  players. And again, super humble, quiet kid, does not want to
• 48:06
  promote himself, just loves playing football, loves me with his friends, and
• 48:10
  he had just one of those magical years, you know, just put up
• 48:15
  huge numbers, led the county all year and almost pretty much every passing category,
• 48:19
  and just an awesome year for a great kid. Well, Tyler,
• 48:24
  that's it as far as Bellingham is concerned. Last words before we move on
• 48:30
  and talk about Blaine. Yeah, I just want to say that I think
• 48:35
  that the program's heading in the right direction. I'm really hoping they play a
• 48:39
  Northwest Conference schedule. There's been a lot of talk about the pluses and minuses
• 48:45
  and everything. I know next year's team will be very different. This was
• 48:47
  a very special group of seniors, but there are some really good pieces I
• 48:52
  mean really good pieces coming back. You know, Evan Eisley, your kickers
• 48:55
  coming back. You got Tyler Frost coming back, gave Van Hofwagen, Owen
• 48:59
  Hanstead had led the county and interceptions. So you have some really really super
• 49:04
  pieces coming back. But who's gonna be the quarterback? What kind of system
• 49:07
  are they gonna run? Might be completely different. You might see some heavy
• 49:10
  jumbo running the ball with Tyler Frost. Who knows. So I really like
• 49:16
  the way they're headed, and I like their coaching staff. I think that
• 49:21
  I just think that, you know, it's I don't think it's too soon
• 49:24
  to jump back in, and I really hope it happens, partially because then
• 49:30
  they could play other walking County teams and I really like that. But so
• 49:32
  part of part of it is as you know, that reason. But I
• 49:37
  really I like what. I like where they're going, and I think they
• 49:38
  can continue the trend. What do you say talk about some border rights?
• 49:44
  Yeah, let's do it, alrighty. The first one we're gonna talk about
• 49:46
  here five nine one fifty wide receiver and safety. It's number two. Mason
• 49:52
  Auckry. Really glad he came out for football too. Awesome baseball player,
• 49:59
  third baseman lead up, and that's what I knew him from. And then
• 50:02
  when I went out and did headshots and I saw him out there, I
• 50:05
  was like, man, it was interesting because I kind of thought, if
• 50:08
  they're deep anywhere, it's receivers and d DB's like they just are loaded with
• 50:15
  that spot, like beyond loaded. You know, they got eight or nine
• 50:21
  studs, and you know, I guess it's never that's never a bad thing.
• 50:24
  And I thought, I don't know where he'll fit in this because he's
• 50:29
  kind of late to the game. He's very athletic, but I just didn't
• 50:31
  really know. And boy, once they started losing guys due to injury,
• 50:37
  he stepped right in at safety halfway through the year and took it over and
• 50:40
  owned it. I did have a couple of catches for ten yards, but
• 50:44
  he finished with twenty nine tackles, two passes broken up, a forced fumble,
• 50:47
  a tackle for loss, and an interception. One of his interceptions was
• 50:52
  was against Josh Leonard actually, and boy, just you know, at a
• 50:58
  great attitude, U feisty and and a competitor, you know, and you
• 51:05
  know, not the biggest kid, but but but plays big and really really
• 51:09
  glad that he turned out for football this year. Five ten, one sixty
• 51:15
  five running back linebackers number five Christian Bullard. Yeah, did get that much
• 51:21
  run, uh, you know, but not really in the rotation at at
• 51:24
  running back. Played some played you know, special teams stuff like that.
• 51:29
  Did register a tackle, uh, but you know there was just he's in
• 51:34
  some some crowded position, you know, spots at Blaine right now, and
• 51:38
  so not a ton of run. But that's where you get your reps in
• 51:40
  on special teams and scout teams stuff like that. Five to eleven, one
• 51:45
  fifty kicker and punter number eight. A guy that I think we picked a
• 51:49
  couple of times in the fantasy this year. It's Matthew Hayes. Yeah.
• 51:52
  You know, I became pretty friendly with Matthew over the year, and and
• 51:57
  uh it was funny because last year he was named All Conference first team kicker
• 52:01
  and I was I was so happy for him and I but I didn't have
• 52:07
  a headshot him. And when I do my All Conference, you know,
• 52:12
  right up, I do headshot. I put a headshot of every kid that
• 52:15
  makes it and their stats and everything. And I didn't have a headshot up.
• 52:17
  And I was like, oh no, I hate when this happens.
• 52:21
  And I looked through my action photos and I didn't really have anything that was
• 52:23
  good enough, and so I just messaged him on Instagram. I was like,
• 52:27
  hey man, and I didn't want to tell him why because he didn't
• 52:30
  know he made the team, and so I was like, I need a
• 52:34
  headshot of you. Can I send him like a like an example. I
• 52:38
  was like, can you send one? He's like absolutely, sends it over
• 52:42
  right away. I was like, great, perfect, and it was like
• 52:45
  in his football jersey, like on the field and everything, and it was
• 52:46
  it was exactly what I needed. It worked great. And then this year
• 52:52
  glad he was at practice got his headshot because we used it. Man kicking
• 52:55
  that game winning field goal against Meridian was just on homecoming. Uh. You
• 53:01
  know, that was a huge moment for that whole team and that's what they
• 53:06
  needed so bad, and and I got to and then you know, then
• 53:12
  he's Special Teams Player of the Week and now I have his picture to use
• 53:15
  and it's great and it's things are going great. I talked to him on
• 53:17
  the sideline before the LC game and and his back was hurting and he was
• 53:22
  like, yeah, I don't know I'm not gonna be able to kick off.
• 53:23
  I just you know, I hurt my back at the trampoline park and
• 53:28
  I was like, oh man, and uh, you know, kickers,
• 53:30
  man, what are you gonna do? And uh, but it was he
• 53:34
  was I got you're gonna be able to punt. He's like, yeah,
• 53:35
  I'm gonna be able to punt and kick extra points. I just can't kick
• 53:38
  off. I was like yeah, And it was just it was fun just
• 53:42
  talking to him on the sideline pregame, like just normal conversation and and got
• 53:47
  to know him pretty well. You know, he he played some linebacker last
• 53:50
  year and he told coach. He's like, hey, if you need someone
• 53:52
  a linebacker, Coach Olsen's like, yeah, we we got you, okay.
• 53:58
  But what I love is in the last game of the year year over
• 54:00
  at East Jefferson, they put him. They put him at tailback and gave
• 54:02
  him a carrey, which I think was a really cool deal. Uh.
• 54:07
  He busted to the outside and picked up zero yards. But but what a
• 54:12
  great career. Two time All Conference first team kicker, thirty two extra points,
• 54:17
  five field goals made in his career average twenty seven point three yards.
• 54:21
  Punt also had nine tackles on his career. Not all those were on special
• 54:24
  teams. Like I said, he did play some linebacker last year. Man,
• 54:29
  just really really cool. I mean, two field goals in one game.
• 54:32
  You know, only one kicker in school history has kicked more than that.
• 54:36
  That was san Kowski, Kyle Sankowski. And a really really good career.
• 54:40
  That can't be you know overstated six three one eighty wide receiver and corner
• 54:49
  number ten that Tyler Bauma. I always think of him as like, man,
• 54:52
  what if? Because he missed ninety five percent of the year as a
• 54:58
  junior, getting her in the first game early on and uh, and I
• 55:02
  think that I almost treated this his senior year like his junior year. I
• 55:07
  just kind of felt like, man, I wish he had one more year,
• 55:09
  but that that happens. A big play guy, big, a big
• 55:14
  kid, fast kid. Uh just had that great combo size speed combo.
• 55:21
  Sixteen catches for three hundred and seven yards and two touchdowns, eight tackles,
• 55:25
  one pass broken up, had an interception of fumble recovery, returned four kickoffs
• 55:29
  for seventy two yards. I believe those were earlier. He might have had
• 55:32
  one or two this year, but had some earlier as a junior. Uh,
• 55:36
  you know, averaged almost twenty yards of catch. Like I said,
• 55:37
  a big play guy, guy that you throw it down the field too,
• 55:42
  had a big time, had a long touchdown catching and spelling him a guy
• 55:46
  that just I wish there was more to see. I wanted to see more
• 55:52
  of him. Let's see here six one seventy wide receiver corner number eleven,
• 55:59
  justin at Minuarez. Again, these these receivers and dbs, there's just so
• 56:04
  many of them. Awesome speed, great, great athletes, stopping go type
• 56:10
  stuff. You know, route runner boy on the basketball court. He is
• 56:15
  lightning quick defender. You know, you put him on your star and just
• 56:20
  just and he's just an antagonizer, you know. It played a lot more
• 56:25
  defenses junior, but most mostly an offensive guy. As a senior, finished
• 56:30
  his career with twenty seven catches for four hundred and twenty seven yards and three
• 56:35
  touchdowns. Also had twenty nine tackles, eight passes broken up, a sack,
• 56:38
  force fumble, two interceptions for twenty six yards, and a fumble recovery.
• 56:43
  Then he returned twenty four kickoffs for four hundred and thirty yards and two
• 56:46
  punts for nine yards. Uh, finding ways to get him the ball was
• 56:51
  paramount, and uh, you know like returning those kickoffs, you know,
• 56:54
  quick quick screens, something over the middle, deep did did, didn't,
• 56:58
  didn't matter. Very good at catching a short pass, making a move and
• 57:02
  then taking off. That was that was a lot of fun to see.
• 57:06
  Had a big touchdown against Lendy Christian doing that. And another one that I'm
• 57:10
  gonna miss watching play football five ten, one sixty five. It's wider,
• 57:15
  wider wide receiver and corner number sixteen Jesse Deming. Yeah, a kind of
• 57:23
  a personal favorite here because just just all out guts all the time, good
• 57:30
  athlete, not saying he's not athletic, a really good athlete. Point guard
• 57:35
  on the basketball team, outfielder on the baseball team, and was just became
• 57:42
  kind of their go to guy once Vezzetti and I were both injured. He
• 57:46
  was the guy they were gonna get the ball to in key situations and he
• 57:50
  didn't disappoint. And he's probably was probably their best corner all year. Was
• 57:53
  a great corner as a junior. Had a pick six against Seahome and I
• 58:00
  believe it was gonna see home. It might have been against someone else now
• 58:01
  that I think about it, but yeah, that's right because it was at
• 58:06
  home, but it was. But man, just you know, I know
• 58:09
  coach Olsen raved about him in the preseason, you know, because they had
• 58:14
  kind of all these guys that were all similar, and I said, does
• 58:15
  anybody stand out? And he just kind of nod and goes, Jesse Deming
• 58:19
  stands out. You know. He was just kind of, you know,
• 58:22
  under his breath kind of saying it, but like he was serious, like
• 58:24
  he say, this kid's this kid's different. H forty four catches for his
• 58:29
  career for four hundred and thirty two yards and three touchdowns, forty nine and
• 58:32
  a half tackles, six passes broken up, one and a half tackles for
• 58:36
  lost, two fumble recoveries, three interceptions, one return for touchdown. Then
• 58:40
  had five hundred and thirteen kickoff return yards and one hundred punt return yards.
• 58:45
  Rarely left the field, especially his senior year, you know, took over
• 58:50
  that slot receiver role that was very important in that offense and played corner all
• 58:53
  year, was returning kicks all year. An awesome athlete, really fun to
• 58:59
  walk six foot one ninety out offensive line, as I say, outside line
• 59:06
  and linebacker number fifty three with a name that my cousin would like because I
• 59:13
  think this is a type of pie he would like, Kale Pie. Kale
• 59:17
  Pie was when he got his opportunity to play, it almost it almost always
• 59:24
  seemed like he was the best player on the field. So it's like I
• 59:28
  sometimes I go, why isn't he playing more? But I mean coaches nor
• 59:31
  way more than I do. He'd you know, he'd come into games every
• 59:35
  once in a while and I'm taking defensive stats, and I swear when he
• 59:38
  come into game, he'd make every tackle and I was just like, my
• 59:42
  goodness, this kid loves to tackle. And I think that he got some
• 59:47
  more playing time as a season war Aw and he did have an interception as
• 59:51
  a junior. Actually too didn't play much offensive line, but linebacker and special
• 59:55
  teams, great tackler finisher twenty six a half tackles on the year or on
• 1:00:00
  this career, two sacks, one and a half tackles for loss and that
• 1:00:04
  one interception. There's just some really good linebackers around him during during his career
• 1:00:09
  and found it hard to make the field, but he would, You'd find
• 1:00:14
  little moments to get in there and every time he was in there, he
• 1:00:15
  would make a play. Loved loved watching that. Let's see here sixty four
• 1:00:21
  two fifteen left tackle, defensive line number fifty four, Alejandro Moser Hernandez.
• 1:00:29
  Yeah, really good athlete, first basement on the baseball team. Hit a
• 1:00:32
  home run last year, and uh just has just a nat like you look
• 1:00:37
  at him, you go, man, that's a specimen. Just a big
• 1:00:39
  strong kid. Uh it might even be taller than six y four. Actually,
• 1:00:45
  I think he is had a knack for blocking kicks. I think he
• 1:00:49
  block six kicks this year, punt like, combining punts and pats field goals,
• 1:00:54
  that's a lot. That is a lot. I mean, he just
• 1:00:58
  has he just had that way to see just this. Yeah, just I
• 1:01:00
  mean that's most guys don't do that in a career, let alone, right
• 1:01:05
  right, And it's it's one of those stats that I don't keep track of.
• 1:01:09
  Yeah, so I don't know like records and stuff like that. But
• 1:01:14
  once I noticed like three or four of them, I was like, I'm
• 1:01:16
  gonna start counting because this is crazy. And I remember doing that with Tim
• 1:01:22
  Molow too. Tim Malow used to come off the edge and basically just catch
• 1:01:24
  the ball. Yeah, and one of the most impressive things I'd seen.
• 1:01:28
  But he had a knack of just getting through the line and putting his hand
• 1:01:32
  up and he's six to five and block it, you know, no problem.
• 1:01:37
  Played left tackle too, and and was started his career as a tight
• 1:01:43
  end. He caught a pass for thirteen yards in week one his junior year,
• 1:01:46
  and I was excited about that play. I was like, man,
• 1:01:50
  he's gonna be an awesome tight end. And then just kind of got lost
• 1:01:53
  in the shuffle his junior year and was mainly on defense this year, switched
• 1:01:58
  his number, went to and played left tackle, was you know, very
• 1:02:02
  good there, and was in on the rotation on defensive line. Played quite
• 1:02:06
  a bit and finished his career with thirty six and a half tackles, seven
• 1:02:09
  and a half tackles for loss, the pass broken up and like I said,
• 1:02:13
  those six block kicks and punts this season and and uh yeah, just
• 1:02:17
  one of those one of those weird numbers that you don't see very often.
• 1:02:22
  And uh but I'm gonna see him again for baseball season. They'll be fun.
• 1:02:27
  I'm tyler this next guy. I looked at the height and weight and
• 1:02:30
  the position and the number I thought it was me for a second. I
• 1:02:34
  was like, this is a young Ryland Spencer right here. But it's not.
• 1:02:36
  It's five eleven two forty five offensive line, defensive line. It is
• 1:02:39
  number seventy eight. I mean this guy is me, Tyler, Like that
• 1:02:42
  is my height and weight from high school and that is my number. Those
• 1:02:45
  are my positions. Although it doesn't say ce and NT, but it's Cone
• 1:02:49
  Alexander. I thought it was me, Tyler. I really did. Yeah.
• 1:02:52
  Yeah, Well, I mean, man, I gotta get some film
• 1:02:57
  from you. I think it's gonna happen. So I got a I'll find
• 1:03:00
  some film someday. Good luck. Yeah, get the old Beta Max out.
• 1:03:06
  Uh but man, wait, yeah, older than I am, Tyler.
• 1:03:09
  Oh I know, I know, uh yeah, and I had a
• 1:03:13
  Beta Max growing up, trust me, I know all about it. Hard
• 1:03:15
  to rent movies that way. It's like, oh man, we got the
• 1:03:19
  Sound of Music or Gone with the Win? Which one are we gonna rent?
• 1:03:22
  But uh yeah, Coen Alexander, you know, backup offensive defensive lineman,
• 1:03:27
  providing that depth throughout the year. Special teams guys, scout team guy.
• 1:03:30
  Uh, you know, proving value where the best place you can prove
• 1:03:35
  it six tight end defensive end number eighty eight. Connor Dellery what an crazy
• 1:03:43
  career. As a sophomore, he was about well he's about six or four,
• 1:03:49
  but he was like one sixty and put him on the offensive line.
• 1:03:53
  Yeah, because they today, I thought this guy was an offensive line.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah, they didn't have him. Yeah, Spencer Dolly's was very very good
• 1:04:01
  player center, middle linebacker. Yeah. And and and Connor was bigger as
• 1:04:10
  far as taller than his brother, but you know, was probably going to
• 1:04:14
  be bigger. But man, they needed him at tackle because because they didn't
• 1:04:17
  have size. And he got tough and got tougher and tougher and tougher.
• 1:04:23
  And then the next year came around his junior year, and he played tight
• 1:04:25
  end and was like an outside linebacker on defense. And then this year he
• 1:04:30
  was it was more of like a like an h back and he caught like,
• 1:04:35
  I don't know, almost twenty passes as a junior and hardly caught any
• 1:04:39
  this year because it was just a different role that he filled. It wasn't
• 1:04:43
  needed. But he loves to hit, you know, he'd rather hit somebody
• 1:04:45
  than go catch a pass. I think, so it kind of fit what
• 1:04:48
  he was doing. But basically three completely different positions. He all three years
• 1:04:53
  of high school two different positions on defense, playing defensive end, then going
• 1:04:58
  out and playing outside linebacker, and then coming back to de defensive end.
• 1:05:00
  But man, just just bigger than you think. Like when you see him,
• 1:05:05
  you're like, man, he's like, you know, he's jumping ball
• 1:05:08
  in the center corps start games playing center. A strong, strong kid really
• 1:05:15
  just kind of quiet and and but an attacker on defense and a good just
• 1:05:21
  a good physical overall football player, the kind that you want. Twenty four
• 1:05:26
  catches, two hundred and ninety four yards and four touchdowns on offense in his
• 1:05:30
  career non defense, seventy two tackles, seven and a half tackles for lost,
• 1:05:34
  seven sacks, four passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage, a
• 1:05:39
  forced fumble. He recovered four fumbles too for his career, for twenty six
• 1:05:44
  yards in returns. You were at that game against Cedar Park Christian where there
• 1:05:48
  was that ball loose right in the middle of the field and he was the
• 1:05:51
  one that you know, ended up scooping it up, and man, I
• 1:05:56
  just that would have been awesome to see him pick it up and go.
• 1:05:58
  But it was a really awesome career for him, really fun to watch.
• 1:06:03
  Now, Tyler to the next couple of guys here, I mean, Dollary
• 1:06:06
  is right there with him. I feel like we've been talking about these guys
• 1:06:09
  for about a decade. Yeah. The next one on the list though,
• 1:06:13
  six foot two, thirty five, a beautiful center, defensive tackle number fifty
• 1:06:17
  five at Victor Gerval. Yeah, awesome strength and initial first couple steps is
• 1:06:25
  great and leverage. I mean a wrestler, you know, took second in
• 1:06:30
  state last year at the heavyweight and is probably gonna do some damage again this
• 1:06:34
  year. And as a as a center, he kind of moved around the
• 1:06:41
  offensive line as well. I think he was playing some guards and tackle this
• 1:06:44
  year playing center. Not everything in the shotgun, but most of it.
• 1:06:49
  I don't recall a bad snap, really got after it as a defensive tackle,
• 1:06:56
  sidelined a sideline for a defensive tackle, something you just don't see a
• 1:06:59
  ton of. But he could move and he would he would dive for tackles,
• 1:07:03
  and he was athletic. Eighty three and a half tackles in his career,
• 1:07:08
  nine and a half behind the line of scrimmage, five and a half
• 1:07:10
  sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Like you said, we've
• 1:07:14
  been talking about him forever and it was a really great career. Next up
• 1:07:17
  on the list here six to two, one eighty pounds wide receiver and outside
• 1:07:23
  linebacker, Number thirteen Hunter of Veazzetti. Yeah. Again, I think when
• 1:07:27
  you were at the Cedar Park game where he caught a long touchdown and you
• 1:07:32
  may have I can't. We had some sort of back and forth interaction.
• 1:07:35
  I was watching it on the live feed. I was doing some other stuff.
• 1:07:39
  I was writing about another game or something, and you you texted me
• 1:07:42
  you're like Vezzetti sixty yard touchdown or something like that, and then I did,
• 1:07:45
  like the I sent like a gift over to you of like the Italian
• 1:07:48
  like the hand like you know, like the vizit. Yeah, you know,
• 1:07:54
  yeah, and holy cow Wiry, that's the first thing I think of.
• 1:08:00
  Long arms, strong, not super big, but strong and long,
• 1:08:08
  like just you know, a great baseball player, probably going to go play
• 1:08:12
  college baseball somewhere, left handed player, baseball player, awesome swing and played
• 1:08:19
  a little bit as a sophomore. I remember him having an interception in like
• 1:08:24
  a game on a Saturday and it's kind of like, oh, that's one
• 1:08:28
  hundred visetti, that's the baseball player. Oh cool. I didn't know he
• 1:08:30
  played football, and then all of a sudden, his junior and senior year,
• 1:08:32
  he just exploded catching the ball. I think you know. His junior
• 1:08:38
  year he had six hundred yards receiving. That was in the top fifteen in
• 1:08:42
  school history. His numbers were a little down this year. He got injured
• 1:08:45
  halfway through the year, so that kind of caused that. But in his
• 1:08:47
  career, sixty seven catches for nine hundred and twenty seven yards and eleven touchdowns
• 1:08:53
  and then defense, fifty three and a half tackles, six and a half
• 1:08:56
  tackles for lost, three and a half sacks, eight passes broken up and
• 1:08:59
  intersect when I talked about his sophomore year and a fumble recovery. And then
• 1:09:02
  he also this was kind of weird. He wasn't like the deep guy on
• 1:09:05
  kickoff. He was kind of the next line up, like at the you
• 1:09:10
  know, twenty yard line or so. And he returned three kickoffs this year
• 1:09:13
  for one hundred and forty one yards and one of them was for one of
• 1:09:15
  thee was for a touchdown. So man, just a just one of those
• 1:09:20
  just great overall athletes, like a kid that probably hasn't played basketball since seventh
• 1:09:26
  grade, but you could put him on the team. He could probably dunk,
• 1:09:28
  you know, just one of those kinds of guys. And uh,
• 1:09:30
  and it's just a shame. When I was talking to Matthew Hayes before the
• 1:09:35
  LC game, you know, he was to my right, full uniform everything,
• 1:09:39
  and that I look over to my left and there's Vezzetti and I both
• 1:09:42
  standing there and there let him in his jackets, like like the two best
• 1:09:45
  players, and they're neither of them. They're both done for the year.
• 1:09:47
  It's just not the not the easiest thing to deal with. And and uh,
• 1:09:54
  just awesome career though, really really great kid and and uh again get
• 1:09:59
  to se him play baseball, so for one more year. It'll be great.
• 1:10:01
  Well last, but certainly not least here for Blaine five to eleven one
• 1:10:04
  sixty five wide receiver and safety number twelve guy you just mentioned there, Tyler
• 1:10:09
  Riley Eyed, Yeah, what an unbelievable career. Uh, as a sophomore
• 1:10:15
  played out of this whole class. I think him and Victor Gerbel played the
• 1:10:18
  most. Connor Dolry too, I suppose uh and and Riley Eyed. You
• 1:10:24
  know, I kind of look to the future at that point and said,
• 1:10:29
  he's gonna be something I don't I don't know what yet. Like he was
• 1:10:32
  starting it as a safety as a sophomore, and and then his junior year
• 1:10:39
  he really turned it on at safety and wide receiver. And then coming into
• 1:10:42
  this year, he was getting reps at quarterback, you know, or I
• 1:10:47
  call it like a Riley cat. Uh. And he was more of a
• 1:10:51
  running threat. He could throw the ball, but he was he was a
• 1:10:54
  big time running threat. Uh. They even put him at tailback against Nuksac
• 1:10:59
  last year when they needed to, like when it was like third and one,
• 1:11:01
  you know, it's like, let's put Eyed at tail back and just
• 1:11:04
  give it to him. Like like they just you know, sometimes you just
• 1:11:08
  have to find guys to you know, you're in a desperate situation and you're
• 1:11:12
  like, let's just give the ball to Eyed. You know, he's never
• 1:11:15
  even played tailback in his wife, you know, but they can. But
• 1:11:17
  they depend on him. They know he can do the job. And that's
• 1:11:21
  and that's why it was just so tough for him to get injured so early
• 1:11:26
  on in the year, and and that was basically it. POI was having
• 1:11:29
  such an amazing season. I think he was fourth in the county and scoring.
• 1:11:32
  He had one game where he scored four touchdowns and they were all like
• 1:11:34
  different ways, like one on defense, one, one he threw, one,
• 1:11:39
  he ran, one in he caught one, like all in the same
• 1:11:41
  game. Just a great athlete. That and he is playing basketball now,
• 1:11:47
  so he's recovered from the knee injury, which is great. In his career,
• 1:11:50
  forty six catches for six hundred and thirty five yards and eight touchdowns,
• 1:11:55
  nineteen carries for fifty five yards and two touchdowns. He also is three of
• 1:11:59
  eight pass for fifty three yards and a touchdown, and on a defense,
• 1:12:02
  ninety six tackles in his career, six tackles for loss from the safety spot,
• 1:12:08
  seven passes broken up, two interceptions returned for forty yards, one was
• 1:12:13
  for a touchdown. He also had three hundred and ninety seven kick return yards
• 1:12:16
  as a junior, broke a school record, and you return a punt for
• 1:12:19
  eleven yards. So there wasn't really much that he couldn't do. He was
• 1:12:24
  asked to do a lot and did it all very very well. Tyler.
• 1:12:28
  Anything to say about Blaine before we move on to Meridian. Not a huge
• 1:12:32
  senior class, but some big, big pieces that'll be missed next year,
• 1:12:38
  but a lot of good pieces coming back for Coach Olson and really excited for
• 1:12:43
  the trajectory that they're going to be on. I think that winover Meridian was
• 1:12:45
  huge for their confidence, especially doing it in front of the homecoming crowd and
• 1:12:49
  everything. And I think they're going to be a team that people are going
• 1:12:53
  to have to be looking out for the quick future, the near future.
• 1:12:58
  Well, what do you say we talk about some Marie the Trojans now,
• 1:13:00
  Tyler, yes, do it. We will start with five foot eight one
• 1:13:03
  and fifty eight pounds running back in defensive tackle, which always blows me away.
• 1:13:09
  Number two Caden Clean Cammer. Yeah, really quick, really really quick,
• 1:13:15
  first year player. And I think that you get a guy that's that
• 1:13:18
  size but is just crazy quick and he doesn't know maybe a lot about football,
• 1:13:25
  that's not a bad spot to put him. You know, you can
• 1:13:28
  just put him in there and just a defensive tackle I'm talking and you could
• 1:13:30
  just just tell him, Okay, as soon as that ball moves, then
• 1:13:33
  you just hit this area right here and just muck it all up and he
• 1:13:40
  wasn't out there like starting games or anything, but they put him in there
• 1:13:42
  every once in a while, like all of a sudden, you see number
• 1:13:44
  two and it knows tackle in like the second quarter and they're like, okay,
• 1:13:47
  all right, so you know, like stuff like that. He did
• 1:13:50
  have a carry for six yards and but finished with five and a half tackles.
• 1:13:56
  And again going into this year, coach Ames I was like, it's
• 1:14:01
  not a big senior class, and he's just like nope, he goes,
• 1:14:03
  but we have a couple of first year guys and he was really happy with
• 1:14:06
  him. And he was one of them. Five foot eight, one fifty
• 1:14:11
  a corner number nineteen, Taylor Sharp and here's he's a kid that's been with
• 1:14:15
  the program all four years, that didn't play a ton over the years,
• 1:14:19
  played some special teams and this year earned you know, here you go,
• 1:14:24
  you're gonna start at corner. This is this is your your time now,
• 1:14:28
  and and played pretty well. Wasn't gonna be like a threat that's gonna you
• 1:14:31
  know, get it an interception and take it to the house, but dependable
• 1:14:36
  enough to where you could trust him on the outside covering a guy, and
• 1:14:41
  he made some play. He's finished with twenty four and a half tackles in
• 1:14:44
  his career. Six passes broken up. I believe they were all this year.
• 1:14:46
  He also had a tackle for a loss on like a quick a quick
• 1:14:49
  pass and not again not the biggest guy, uh but and wasn't gonna play
• 1:14:55
  offense. It was just a purely a corner that was gonna, you know,
• 1:15:00
  do everything he could and make sure his guy doesn't catch the ball.
• 1:15:02
  And he did a good job. Five foot nine and thirty five pounds.
• 1:15:06
  Another one sided guy here, Tyler defensive tackle number fifty five, Lesse Peta.
• 1:15:13
  Yeah. Another he turned out a little late too. Another kid I
• 1:15:15
  didn't get a headshot of. And I was there for senior night that was
• 1:15:18
  against Bellingham and they were, you know, celebrating all the seniors and and
• 1:15:23
  I knew that wasn't going to be a long roll call there and and this
• 1:15:27
  kid, I was like, Oh, he's he's new. And I had
• 1:15:30
  to go back and watch them film and he would get some brun in there
• 1:15:33
  at defensive line and and just a bigger body than you know, they didn't
• 1:15:39
  have a ton of size. They had some guys, but as far as
• 1:15:42
  seniors go, he was the biggest one and uh had a one and a
• 1:15:45
  half tackles and and just asked to just kind of eat up blocks in the
• 1:15:49
  middle. There six six, one eighty five tyler tight end outside linebacker.
• 1:15:55
  It's number eighty Christian Klausen. And another kid that was a first year guy
• 1:16:00
  as far as I'm concerned, I hadn't seen him before. Really stood out
• 1:16:03
  in August obviously, being six foot six, and you know, they kind
• 1:16:09
  of have that guy with James heat all. James is going to be moved
• 1:16:13
  out as a receiver in a corner at that size, and they just didn't
• 1:16:16
  have a tight end really. You know that this year they had some younger
• 1:16:20
  guys that Cooper Merim and those guys might be ready, but they you know,
• 1:16:27
  but this kid could fill the bill right away and start at tight end.
• 1:16:30
  Missed a big chunk of the season right in the middle, but came
• 1:16:32
  back at the end. Had a big game against Bellingham, caught a touchdown
• 1:16:36
  pass, finished with seven catches for one hundred and twenty nine yards and a
• 1:16:40
  touchdown. Played a little bit on defense, did did get a tackle,
• 1:16:44
  but that was very very early on in the year before they kind of settled
• 1:16:46
  on who they ended up with on the defense side of the ball. I
• 1:16:49
  remember the Bellingham game because I remember looking at the box score going, who
• 1:16:53
  the heck is this guy? Right? Yeah? And it was early,
• 1:16:57
  early touchdown. Yeah yeah, you were like, oh, this was this
• 1:16:59
  was a good one here. Uh five, nine, one seventy Tyler,
• 1:17:01
  a wide receiver in safety. It's number thirteen, Cone Fuller and another guy
• 1:17:05
  that I knew about a little bit these past few years but didn't play a
• 1:17:11
  ton of varsity. And then first game of the year, I'm watching the
• 1:17:15
  film against Grant Falls and Jager five keeps throwing at number thirteen. And this
• 1:17:21
  happens especially early on in the year when I don't have all the numbers quite
• 1:17:25
  in my head yet. But it seemed like even in week two and week
• 1:17:28
  three, like he would throw the ball and I'm like, okay, and
• 1:17:32
  that's a catch by so and so, and I'm like thirteen, Like who's
• 1:17:36
  thirteen? I swear I had to look like five times before it locked in.
• 1:17:41
  Okay, that's going Fuller. I don't have to look anymore. I
• 1:17:43
  don't have to look anymore. And he just kept making plays early on,
• 1:17:46
  play after play after play after play. Finished with twenty one catches for two
• 1:17:50
  hundred and eighty yards and a touchdown. Had six carries for twenty two yards
• 1:17:55
  on some end rounds stuff like that. Twenty two and a half tackles,
• 1:17:58
  half a tackle for loss, five has broken up a fumble recovery. He
• 1:18:01
  also had an interception I believe it was against Oh boy Kingsway, Yeah,
• 1:18:08
  Kingsway Christian and nine kickoff returns for one hundred and one yards. He returned
• 1:18:12
  to punt for five yards. This is a kid that I didn't expect a
• 1:18:16
  ton from and then he really showed out, especially that first half of the
• 1:18:20
  year. The last not least, but the smallest five seven one five running
• 1:18:27
  back inside linebacker number thirty Josh tin Elmer, Oha, boy, this could
• 1:18:33
  take a while, Tyler, I'll be back. I'll just leave you alone.
• 1:18:38
  Well, it's it's a fun story. Obviously, we've talked about it
• 1:18:41
  over the years. As a sophomore at August practice, you know, I
• 1:18:46
  remember he was taking off his cleats or something. He's looking up to me
• 1:18:49
  and he goes, I'm going to be in your top ten. And I
• 1:18:54
  was like, I have no clue who this kid is. And that just
• 1:18:59
  made me laugh. And and you know, I remember taking his picture and
• 1:19:04
  looking at his name and I was like, I've never heard of this kid.
• 1:19:06
  I don't know anything about this kid. And then like week three,
• 1:19:10
  they're playing a non conference game at home against Bellingham and Hunter Jones was unable
• 1:19:16
  to play that game, and so they had and a Hunter Jones was a
• 1:19:20
  running back at that point, so they had, you know, they needed
• 1:19:24
  a running back, so they put him in at running back and he ran
• 1:19:28
  for like one hundred and thirty yards or something, scored a couple of touchdowns,
• 1:19:30
  and I'm like, after the game, I go to interview him and
• 1:19:32
  I'm like, oh my goodness, that's that kid. That's the kid that
• 1:19:36
  told me he was going to be great. And we joked about it,
• 1:19:41
  we laughed about it. And on the every roster I've seen it, says
• 1:19:45
  Josh Elmer, and he kind of pulled me aside and he goes, whenever
• 1:19:50
  you, whenever you, if you write anything up, say use Joshtin and
• 1:19:56
  he spelled it for me and I said, you got it, and he
• 1:20:00
  it was almost like he was saying, like, you know, I'm just
• 1:20:02
  giving this to you, like I don't want you know anyone else, and
• 1:20:05
  it was just a cool moment that we had. And and we've shared a
• 1:20:12
  lot of these moments since then, and he's become one of my favorites,
• 1:20:15
  and you know, we've joked about stuff all the time and and uh,
• 1:20:19
  you know, doing interviews, and you know, then the next year,
• 1:20:24
  you know, he goes he was like, Okay, now I'm gonna be
• 1:20:28
  in your top five, Like he was joking, like he knows the gag,
• 1:20:31
  he's in on it. It's it's it was cool to see his progression
• 1:20:35
  throughout the year. Has never got any bigger. But boy just so tough
• 1:20:44
  and never i mean never left the field. I mean there were times when
• 1:20:48
  he'd walk out the field and you'd see coach James go, no, get
• 1:20:51
  back out there. I mean, he was just he was needed all the
• 1:20:56
  time. And if he's not carrying the ball, he's catching the ball,
• 1:21:00
  if he's if he's you know, defense, he's in on everything. He's
• 1:21:02
  breaking through the line, he returns every kick, every punt. He's been
• 1:21:06
  doing it forever and threw me off one game because he was wearing a different
• 1:21:12
  jersey number. But boy, it's hard to not you know, it's hard
• 1:21:15
  to displace him. He does stand out in the opposite way because he's,
• 1:21:20
  you know, he's he's heading and shoulders below everybody. But oh, my
• 1:21:25
  goodness, what a what a fun career to watch him play. Two hundred
• 1:21:29
  and ninety eight carries in his career for two thousand and ninety yards twenty two
• 1:21:34
  touchdowns. That's just rushing. Sixty five catches for seven hundred and eighty one
• 1:21:39
  yards and four touchdowns this year alone, by far, had more all purpose
• 1:21:45
  yards than anybody in walk them counting. He also completed a pass for eight
• 1:21:47
  yards, and then on defense, one hundred and ninety six tackles in his
• 1:21:51
  career, one hundred and ninety six, twenty six tackles for loss, five
• 1:21:57
  quarterback sacks, three forced fund, five passes broken up, two interceptions that
• 1:22:01
  he returned for fifty yards, two thumber recoveries that have returned for thirty six
• 1:22:05
  yards and a touchdown. He also returned twenty eight kickoffs for six hundred and
• 1:22:10
  three yards and two touchdowns and returned five punts for ninety seven yards as a
• 1:22:15
  junior, nine point two yards per carry, third all time school history.
• 1:22:18
  In his career. Over seven yards of carry in his entire career. That's
• 1:22:23
  good for sixth all time in Meridian Trojan history. We're talking about the Meridian
• 1:22:27
  trojans man. This is huge history stuff. Tied for sixth all time with
• 1:22:31
  twenty two rushing touchdowns in his career. It's going to be so weird next
• 1:22:35
  year with him not on the field. And it's such a from the day
• 1:22:42
  I met him to tonight that we're talking about him with the level of not
• 1:22:46
  knowing anything about him to where like I feel like I could create him on
• 1:22:51
  a video game and it would be you would know exactly who that was.
• 1:22:55
  And it's, uh, this he's one of those reasons like guys like him
• 1:23:00
  as those are those reasons that we love what we do, and we we
• 1:23:04
  we kind of attach ourselves to certain kids and and follow them after high school
• 1:23:09
  and become friends with them, and and it's a it's it's really fulfilling,
• 1:23:14
  you know when you meet kids like that, and and I'm excited for whatever
• 1:23:17
  he decides to do. He's a great kid. Uh give it to me,
• 1:23:21
  Tyler. What do you got kind of last words on Meridian? Well,
• 1:23:26
  obviously a small senior class. Uh, you know, they return their
• 1:23:30
  entire offensive line quarterback, some big time pieces on the outside. Landon Downey
• 1:23:34
  returns a Meridians another team that is definitely on the rise. They did not
• 1:23:39
  win a conference game this year, which is kind of like, you know,
• 1:23:42
  wow, that doesn't happen very often. But at the same time,
• 1:23:45
  they're not a bad team. I think that they're uh, you know,
• 1:23:49
  they have all the pieces there if they just they something just needs to click
• 1:23:54
  and and they can go forward with that. I love a lot of the
• 1:23:57
  pieces that they have coming back and and they're gonna be They're gonna be pretty
• 1:24:00
  scary next year to Northwest Conference one A is not going away. It's gonna
• 1:24:03
  be strong. Bellingham, Blaine, and Meridian. We all ready talked about
• 1:24:09
  Mount Baker and Lyndon. That was a couple of podcasts ago. You can
• 1:24:13
  also find Lenny Christian and Squalicum. That was the last one we did before
• 1:24:15
  this. Ferndale, Noksack Valley and Seahome are up next on Friday, December
• 1:24:20
  eighth, So be sure to subscribe to the podcast and you will get all
• 1:24:24
  of that when it becomes available. And then we've got all kinds of stuff
• 1:24:28
  coming right behind that, including the football Top one hundred so be sure to
• 1:24:32
  subscribe to the podcast. That way you don't miss anything. He's Tyler Anderson.
• 1:24:38
  I'm Ryland Spencer. You've been listening to episode two hundred and seventeen,
• 1:24:41
  the third of four podcasts saying goodbye to the Class of twenty twenty four here
• 1:24:45
  on the watchom Preps podcast. We will talk to you in a couple of days.