Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 442 - Gatorade Gameday Preview - Week 2

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 442 - Gatorade Gameday Preview - Week 2 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome into the Whatcom Preps podcast. This is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: episode 442, the week two Gatorade game day preview, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I am Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps. I want to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: give a shout out to Walton Beverage, who's been a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: staple of our community for 95 years, and I will
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: continue to work harder every day to make the fantastic
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: people of Walton Beverage proud to sponsor youth sports in
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: our community. They deliver superior quality and commitment, and I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: plan to do the very same. All right, let's take
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a look at all the games that are coming up
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this weekend. We've got quite a few of them as,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of course, none of the teams are playing another Whatcom
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: County team. So we do have 10 games. Lummi does
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: have a bye week. But it's going to be another
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  Speaker 1: long weekend of games, and it all starts off on
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  Speaker 1: a Thursday night game. and that is the Anacortes Seahawks
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  Speaker 1: coming to town to take on the Squalicum Storm at
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Civic Stadium. That will be Thursday night at 7 o'clock,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and that's a heck of a game. Last year, we
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: all remember that was the big upset game that Squalicum won.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: You know, you kind of, when you watch that film,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you look at it and say they played the perfect game,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and they did some really good things on the defensive
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: front with quick guys. They were, you know, causing havoc,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and And, you know, Anson Osbjornsen was making plays, and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: they had the reverse pass or double pass or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it was. I mean, they just had– everything went right
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: in that game. And they were able to knock off
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the Seahawks. And, of course, the Anacortes, it might be
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a huge revenge game for them. Although a lot of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the guys still aren't there, but they do have the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: All-State quarterback, Ryan Harrington, who's, you know, all set to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: go to the Washington State Cougars next year. So it's
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  Speaker 1: still a very, very good team. I know that they
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: got some key defensive players back, some key linemen back. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they're not going to miss a beat for
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: many years to come. It's the machine that Anna Cordes
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: has right now. Squalicum Storm unveiled that new offense. You know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: people are calling it a wishbone. I didn't see one
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: wishbone formation, but I looked at it as more of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: like a mixture between a wing T and a flex
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: bone formation. And with the mobile quarterback, Asher Oz Bjornsson,
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  Speaker 1: they ran it extremely well. And, you know, I think it's,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you go with your personnel and taking the,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you know, suck the air out of the ball and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: control the clock and play that, the kind of defense
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  Speaker 1: that they're able to play with the athletes that they have.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And it worked really well last week, beating Seaholm 26-0.
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  Speaker 1: And I mean, obviously it's a little tougher task with
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: this offense, Anacortes' offense, but, you know, playing on a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, I always look at these Thursday night games
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: as the home team having a huge advantage because it's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a school night. If you go on the road, it's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: not like it's just right down the road. I mean,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a really good game.
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  Speaker 1: Anacortes is ranked with the max preps rankings as the
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  Speaker 1: third best team in 2A. They have Squalicum as the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: fifth best team in 2A. Both teams went 1-0 or
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: are 1-0 on the year so far. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's looking like a really good matchup. So I'm really
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: excited about that one. I was not able to get
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: an interview with Coach Lucy this week. Maybe I'll be
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: able to track him down next week. But I do
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: have most of the coaches that we're going to hear
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: from here shortly. And then we move on to Friday night.
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  Speaker 1: First game to talk about, Okanagan traveling to Nooksack Valley.
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  Speaker 1: And this is going to be a great one because
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  Speaker 1: the Pioneers, the first game on the turf field, So
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that's going to be really fun. I've seen it. It
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: looks futuristic. It doesn't look real, but it's real, ladies
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  Speaker 1: and gentlemen, and it's ready. And that was the big
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: question mark all summer was, is it going to be ready?
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  Speaker 1: Is it going to be ready? And it is ready. Okanagan,
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  Speaker 1: a great, great program. They're 1-0 on the year. They're
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  Speaker 1: ranked 4th in 2B. Nooksack Valley with the win last week.
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  Speaker 1: They are ranked 7th in 1A. Now joining me on
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the Gatorade Game Day podcast is Nooksack Valley football coach
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  Speaker 1: Craig Bartle. Coach, thank you for joining me today. How
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing well, thanks. How are you doing?
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  Speaker 1: Doing all right. It's weird getting back into the swing
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of things. It's trying to remember what are Mondays like?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: What are Tuesdays like? What are Wednesdays like? And then
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: with the holiday, it kind of threw everything off. But
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be back and doing these. It's
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a It's just kind of the way I like it.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm sure you're feeling like you're back in your
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: groove too, right? It's the same type of deal.
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  Speaker 2: Feeling like we're back in the groove, but having a
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  Speaker 2: Saturday game, that first game, it's throwing us off a
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: little bit for this week. For the kids, it's the same,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: but for the coaches, it's a short week for us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you lose a day, obviously, and the Saturday game
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: being a night game on the road, so it cuts
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: even like it's like a day and a half almost
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that you lose.
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  Speaker 3: It is.
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  Speaker 1: And Week 1 is out of the way now. It
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: must have been nice to have that easy game to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: get the season started with no excitement at the end
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. Of course, I'm joking. It was
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: one of the most exciting Week 1 games in the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: state as your defense came up big at the end
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to secure the 14-7 win at Cascade Christian. That final drive, boy,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: just tell us kind of what that feeling was like
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: on the sidelines and kind of what happened out there.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when we were on defense, is that what you're
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: talking about?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was– you know, I'm really proud of our
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: defensive coaches and our defensive players. They did a fantastic
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: job of kind of rising to the occasion. They– you know,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: it was– I mean, I hate to say this, but
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I think you'll understand it. It was kind of like
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: who's on first with the penalty situation. It was– there
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: was a play and we're, we're all holding our breath. Like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: is there going to be a flag somewhere that comes out? Uh,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: and a few of the times there was, but you
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: know what? I'm really proud of our kids that, that
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  Speaker 2: they didn't let that affect them. Um, I'm still trying
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: to figure out what some of those flags are, but
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the kids didn't let it affect them. They worked their
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: butt off. They came together as a team and they
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: played with, with some energy at the end of the game, which, um,
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  Speaker 2: You know, that's a really big stride for us, especially
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: game one. So proud of the entire defensive staff for that.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: You know, you brought up a good point there. A
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: lot of energy at the end of the game. That
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  Speaker 1: speaks to conditioning. And to be like that in week one,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: like you said, that's hard to do. Because, you know,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you're going to have a lot of first-time kids out there.
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  Speaker 1: They're going off adrenaline. And by the fourth quarter, it
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: might zap them a little bit. But they were going
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: hard in that fourth quarter. Can you remember the last
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: time you coached in a game where no points were
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: scored by either team in the entire second half?
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: No, it's been a long time. Definitely. And we may
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: get into this, but that's a little bit of a
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: frustration offensively that we left some points out on the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: field in the red zone. But yeah, I didn't realize
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: that until I either heard it from you or read
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: it from you. And yeah, that's an interesting stat.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those things. I mean, you saw
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  Speaker 1: a lot of 14-7 scores when we were kids.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But it just doesn't happen these days anymore. And, you know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: it's just kind of football nowadays. And for your team,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you know, you had a quarterback battle going into the season.
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  Speaker 1: You elected to go with the sophomore Lucas Woodrich. He
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: threw for over 200 yards. How do you feel about
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: his performance in his first varsity start under center?
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  Speaker 2: I think he did a pretty good job. He's still
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: obviously learning. He made some throws that were really good throws.
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  Speaker 2: He made some reads, one specifically on a blitz. It's
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: a veteran move for a young quarterback. But then in
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the same breath, he missed a couple guys. I think
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: he had a pretty good game. he I think would
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: be the first one to say, hey, there's some things
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  Speaker 2: I need to clean up. But, yeah, pretty proud of
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  Speaker 2: how he went out there and kind of took charge
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  Speaker 2: of the huddle, took charge of the offensive team and
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  Speaker 2: made some plays.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's– I don't know if it's to say
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  Speaker 1: that's tough to do as a sophomore to take charge
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: of the huddle. It's your job. You're the quarterback. But
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  Speaker 1: that's nice to see that a sophomore can do that And,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know, if the upperclassmen are looking at him saying,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: we're behind you, that's only going to give him more
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: confidence and going forward. And, you know, I thought you're right.
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  Speaker 1: He had some throws with the blitz that I was like, wow.
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  Speaker 1: Like he, you know, he's kind of got that feel, right?
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  Speaker 1: Kind of knows what to do with the ball. So
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that's really, really cool. Let's talk about your week two game.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: First of all, I saw pictures of the new turf.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It looked like AI to me. It didn't look real.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: It was just crazy to see. Have you been able
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to practice on it yet?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Not yet. I flew the drone, I think it was Sunday,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: and I took some of those pictures. And yeah, I
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: got comments that this is AI. I'm like, no, that's
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: actually the drone. And it was the one looking down
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: on the field. The screen on my drone popped up
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: and said, it's reached the limit, the height limit. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: so- It's going to be really nice to play on.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: We have not practiced on it yet, Um, unfortunately it
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: needs to be certified. And so, uh, for today, yesterday
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and today, we got to, to stand and look at
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: a pretty, uh, new field and, uh, Wednesday, it's supposed
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: to get certified. And so, uh, you know, we'll get
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: a chance on Wednesday to get some practice on that
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Wednesday and Thursday.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Oh man. It's good. When you, I love it when
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I see those new fields for like for the first
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: time and stepping on it. So spongy and nice and, and, uh, Oh,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: it's going to be, it's going to be fantastic. And, and, uh,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: you know, tell us about this week too, because it's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: not just a game that's going to be played. There's
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things pregame kind of explain what's going
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: to be going on there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this will be a kind of a big dedication
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: to the field. Um, kind of a thank, thank you
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: to the community, um, and open the doors to the
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: community because, um, The bottom line, this field is not
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: just football. It's not just soccer. This is a community
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: field for everybody. So there'll be some dedication to that.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: There's some donors that have helped, you know, foot some
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: of the bill for the field. The Seahawks, I don't
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: want to take our superintendent's thunder away, but the Seahawks
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: and NFL made a donation. And so they'll be recognized.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, It's the 25th anniversary of 9-11.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: And although these kids, you know, really don't know about
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: it other than what we talk about, this is a
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: pretty big, you know, I hate to call it an anniversary,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: but I mean, it is. And so there'll be some
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: remembrance on that and just a lot of things going on.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: It's a youth night. The barbecue, the first game barbecue
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: is going on. So, In the middle or at the
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: end of that or the bookend, somewhere in between there,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: there'll be a football game. And we're excited for our community. And,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you know, from a football standpoint, that's what we're going.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: To worry about.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: And we'll let our community enjoy the festivities outside of that.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You're going to be hosting Okanagan. They're always a
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: really strong team. They came up and beat LC a
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: couple years ago. Always seem to play really tough football.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: You've been playing these really hard-nosed, smaller schools the last
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: couple years. They give you a good look. Tell us
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: about the Bulldogs this year.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're big. I don't know where they keep getting
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: these kids, but they're huge. And yeah, they've won, what,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: two or three state championships in the last three or
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: four years. So They're very well coached. They have some
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: really good athletes, and they know what to do to
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: win games. This will be a big challenge for us.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: We're having them come in, and they like to run
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: the ball. They'll run on a little option. They'll throw
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the ball, and they play really tough defense. Week two
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: will be a big challenge for us.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Speaking of week two, every coach talks about the biggest
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: improvement of their own team generally happens between game one
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and game two. So with that being said, what would
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you like your biggest improvement to be?
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds cliche, but that is accurate. The good
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: thing is we have a lot of things to fix.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And the even better thing is the things that are fixable.
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: And so.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Yesterday we watched film. And, um, usually it's not too long,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: but yesterday's film session was, was close to two and
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: a half hours. Um, and so it was, it was just, uh,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: educating the kids on and showing them, Hey, these are
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the things that we need to improve on. Um, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: how do we, and then we met as coaches and
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: how do we get the maximum, uh, potential? How do
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: we put our kids in, in, in a spot for success? Um,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and we'll, we'll, we'll tackle that this week and, I
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: think you're right, and every coach will say it. Yes,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the difference between week one and week two is usually
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: your biggest leaps, and we're hoping that that happens this week.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: There's a lot that we need to do, and so
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: we'll get after things.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: Awesome.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: All right, Coach, thank you so much, and best of
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: luck against Okanagan on Friday night.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Appreciate everything you do. Thank you.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Coach. Always great to hear from Coach Bartle, and
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: we're going to move on to the next game. That
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: is Mount Baker going on the road to take on
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: North Kitsap, the Vikings. North Kitsap is the 11th ranked
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: team in 2A. They got the win last week. Mount
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Baker ranked 4th in 1A. Again, these are the max
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: preps rankings, which is fantastic. Very, very computer-based, but, you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: at least it gives us something. The coaches poll I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: don't think comes out for another week or so, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: those are the ones I will use once that comes out.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: But they only have a top ten for each classification.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: But for right now, that's what we got. Now joining
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: me on the Gatorade Game Day podcast is Mount Baker
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: football coach Ron Lepper. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: How are you doing?
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: Thanks for having me on.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: You bet.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I look forward to it. Yeah. Well, week one is
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: now past us. Uh, you got off to a great
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: start against Port Angeles, including a 79 yard touchdown run
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: on the first play from scrimmage, which won the Pepsi
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: play of the week. So I'll be by to deliver
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: that Gatorade later, but did this game go about as
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: well as you could have hoped?
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, um, you know, we, we knew that we
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: probably were a little bit better. They had some, you know,
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: they had some kids that, uh, transferred out and didn't, uh,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: didn't come out, but, uh, Yeah, I mean, you know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: we get the, you know, we didn't really handle the
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: first kickoff very well, but then, you know, first play,
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: we knew they were going to be aggressive. Watched what
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: they did at the Jamboree, bringing a lot of pressure inside,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: so we just, you know, kind of went to our,
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: you know, block down and kicked out and was able
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: to spring them for a long run to get us started,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: and then, you know, we probably could play a little
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: better at times on defense early on. We just kind
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: of took some bad angles in that, but then came
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: up big when we had to, and then offensively we
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: kind of just kind of moved the ball around a
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: little bit and it was good.
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: A lot of people got to touch the ball.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: So overall, pretty good start.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You know, the blocked punt, that's a, that's a something
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: that can really get a team going. It happens early
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in the game. Kind of explain what happened on that play.
• 16:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: You were just doing our, you know, our punt return and, and,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: and Trey Galbraith was able to get by his guy
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: and able to get a hand or leg or some
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: part of his body got on that, you know, and
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: then Gunnar was right there in McGrath to scoop it
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: up and, Wasn't that long of a scoop and score,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: but was able to do that and get in the
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: end zone. And then, you know, kind of really, you know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: like I said, got people pretty excited. And then we
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: just kind of rolled from there. Yeah.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And momentum is so huge in high school sports. And
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: especially in week one, everyone's jacked up. You're at home.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's everything perfect circle kind of coming together.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: You know, I brought up. Noah Nicole Mills with the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: long touchdown run to start the game. And Knox Smith
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: on his first official carry and Juan Mapes on his
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: first official carry. They all scored on their first carry,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: which is pretty crazy. Have you ever seen something like that?
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: No, I didn't realize that, but yeah, no, it probably
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: doesn't happen very often. So, you know, good for those guys.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, they're able to run behind the
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: first line and, and then, you know, I was able
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: to find some grass and then explode, which, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: they've been working hard, you know, in the off season
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: and then during two days and, you know, preseason camp.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: So it's kind of nice to see those guys get
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: some success early.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You know, coach, you know, I, I, I feel
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: so sheepish about this, but when people were asking me about,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: what do you think about Baker this year? Like when
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: they're asking over the summer, I said, you know, Instead
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: of these two-play drives, one-play drives, they're going to be
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: like 10-play drives. They're not going to have these long touchdowns.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, that's how the game starts.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So everyone probably looked at me and said, oh, okay.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: They're not going to have these long touchdown runs. But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: it was great to see. They looked great. But we're
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in week two now, and you're on the road this
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: week at North Kitsap. What do you know about the Vikings?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I knew they got a new head coach.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: He was Vendor's offensive coordinator. So offensively, it looks like
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: a lot of the same. Concepts and ideas are going
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: to spread the ball out. Try to get to the
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: boundary a little bit running-wise. They have a really good
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: running back, number eight. He's going to be a guy
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: we really have to be concerned about. Quarterback's been at
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: least a two-year, if not three-year starter for them. And
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: then they've got a couple of good receivers there. So, yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: it's going to be a challenge that way. Obviously, we've
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: got to make sure that we're where we're supposed to
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: be and recognize it on the snap. hopefully get our
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: guys in the right spot. And then defensively, going to
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: be an odd front most of the time and bringing
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: some pressure like Port Angeles did.
• 18:55
  Speaker 6: So a little bit different how they line up.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: We're going to have to be able to handle that
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: because they are going to put some pressure on you.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they've had some success recently, obviously, and kind of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: dipped down a little bit, but you just never know
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: with those bigger schools. They could always pop right back
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: up and Like you're saying, if they have a returning
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: quarterback two or three years, that always just is a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: huge thing for any high school team. So I would
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: imagine they'll be okay. Every coach talks about the biggest
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: improvement of their team generally happens between game one and
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: game two. And if you had your druthers, what would
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: you like your biggest improvement to be?
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: Well, I want to make sure that we're taking proper angles.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: I want to make sure we're getting to where we're
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: supposed to when we're blocking and then Overall, we didn't
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: tackle great at times. I don't know if that's just
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: because guys were you know, a little too jacked up
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: or whatever, but we guess, you know, we're kind of
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: focusing on that this week of doing a better job
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: of tackling. And then, you know, again, this week, we're
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: really focused on ourselves. Obviously, you know, you got to
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: be ready for what they want to do, but we
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: have to improve what we, you know, some things we
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: didn't do the way we want in week one. So
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: I'm excited to see us be able to execute that
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: come Friday night.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Awesome coach. Thank you so much. Best of luck at
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: North Kitsap on Friday night.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Tyler. We will wait and see if Mount Baker
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: can keep things rolling. Let's keep it in Friday night
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: as we stay in the county as the Bayhawks of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Bellingham are hosting the Sultan Turks. Bellingham ranked 38th in 2A.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Sultan ranked 45th. So with those rankings... You know, both
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: with a loss last week to very, very good teams.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: This should be a pretty even matchup. Max Preps gives
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: a slight advantage to Bellingham. Now joining me on the
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Gatorade Game Day podcast is Bellingham football coach Adam Leonard. Coach,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: how are you doing today?
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: I'm doing great, Tyler.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: How are you?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I'm doing all right. Let's get right into it. Last week,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: week one, you hosted defending state champs and Archbishop Murphy.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you were already missing nearly a dozen players and they
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: looked like a college team. So with those two combinations,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: what do you say to your team before the game?
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: Well, obviously, you know, we, we had some guys out
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: quite a bit of guys out starters, number twos, key
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: position guys, but you know, at the end of the day,
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: it's the next, it's the next man up next player up.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: And we had that mentality.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: We're going to go in and we're going to compete.
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: You know, not many people can say they're going to
• 21:20
  Speaker 8: be playing against, you know, a lot of guys are
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: gonna be playing on Saturdays here in the future and
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: potentially on Sundays, but, It was a great opportunity for
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: our guys.
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: We came in with the, hey, let's just prepare like
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: we're going to do any other week. Guys that are
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: out running next to people up. We saw some young guys.
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: Get an opportunity that are usually, you know, sub-varsity players.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: And I think, you know, we came out, we gave
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: them everything we got.
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: And this is the reason why they're the number one
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: team in 2A in the state.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: They look like it, every good of it.
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: But I was really proud of the way we competed
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: in the entire game.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: And it was, you know, it's a game that, It's
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: part of our schedule, and it's done now. We're moving
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: on to the next week.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You know, it kind of reminded me and take
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: me back a few years here. When you were at
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: University of Puget Sound, you pitched against the Huskies, the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Washington Huskies. Can you draw any comparisons to that matchup
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: as to this week one game?
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: I was a little nervous going into that game. They
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: were ranked number eight or nine in the nation when
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: I pitched against them. Coach came down to me and said, hey,
• 22:22
  Speaker 8: you're getting the ball for game one of two. And
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: I said, oh, this Saturday? He goes, no, Wednesday against UW.
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: And I said, okay, all right, I'm ready. And I
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: was a freshman. And so I went in there, gave
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: everything I got, tried to mix up speeds, keep the
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: ball down the zone, keep the ball in the yard
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: over on that beautiful field by Lake Washington. So, yeah,
• 22:42
  Speaker 8: I would say the only comparison I'd make is, you know,
• 22:44
  Speaker 8: you get an opportunity. You know, I told our players,
• 22:46
  Speaker 8: we're going to look back and say, hey, we had
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: an opportunity to play the best.
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: In the state.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: We played against these guys. And, you know, we gave
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: it everything we had. It's a good story for them
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: to tell. their friends and family later down the road
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: in life.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And, you know, they got off to a big
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: lead early on with some big plays and they just,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: they have all this talent like you were talking about,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: but you did some really good things in the second half.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Talk about kind of what you liked there.
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: Well, I liked the way our guys, you know, we
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: went into the locker room, obviously we're down 40 something
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: to zero. And, you know, you know, if you look
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: at the scores last year, they did the same thing
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: to us last year.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: They did actually the same thing to the entire league
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: last year.
• 23:21
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: And, you know, I said, well, things, you know, we're
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: going to come out and we're going to have, we're
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: going to try to win this half. You know, we
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: have to try to find little wins within a game,
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: you know, the game within the game and how we
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: can compete and win.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: And we actually won the second half.
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: And, you know, you go out there and, you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: they're going to probably be, you know, putting some backups in.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: And we're going to go ahead and compete and see
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: what we can do.
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: And, you know, we saw an opportunity in the second
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: half to play some of our younger guys as well
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: and see what they could do. And just, you know,
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: it's a second half ball game and we tried to
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: find a, you know, any win we could in that
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: second half to have some momentum going into the next week.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a couple of players that made some
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: key plays. I want to talk about them. First, the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: first one is Max Pham. He's a guy that was
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a sub varsity player last year, and he's already making
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: an impact in week one of the season on special teams,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: on defense. Talk about him a little bit.
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: You know, it's funny when I saw Max Pham out
• 24:09
  Speaker 8: there wearing 21, I thought it would enhance that very
• 24:12
  Speaker 8: similar size player, you know, That's.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Owen's old number.
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: And Max is a tough kid. He's a very unassuming
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: kid sometimes. He kind of keeps himself under the radar.
• 24:21
  Speaker 8: He's quiet, but he comes to work every day at practice,
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: works his butt off.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: And he kind of gets after it.
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: He had a couple big plays in the game, and
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: the recovery of the punt and the forced fumble, he
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: just did something that really just created a lot of
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: eye-opening for our defensive staff on how he's going to
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: be a big part of our future here.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And another player, Matthew Steele, I don't think he
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: was 100% going into the game, but he had a
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: great game. What makes him such a great football player?
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: You're right.
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: So Matthew comes into the game, and he has been
• 25:00
  Speaker 8: examined by, I call him our team doctor, Calvin Van
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: Hoffwagen's father, Chris, who is an orthopedic surgeon, and he
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: does have some kind of a pulling away of the
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: muscle strain on his ribs. So he's in a lot
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: of pain out there, but he wanted to cut it
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: out and play it. As you know, it's only played
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: on one side of the ball. I mean, ideally we
• 25:19
  Speaker 8: want him playing our strong safety position. But, you know,
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: he had a great game offensively. He got through a
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: lot of pain. He went over 100 yards receiving a
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: couple of touchdowns. What makes Matthew very– he's got a
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: great attitude. He's a great team guy. He's also very
• 25:35
  Speaker 8: sneaky athletic. When you watch him run his routes sometimes
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: and you're like, wow, am I watching just a smaller
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: version of Wyatt Steffen out there a.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: Little bit, the way he moves?
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: And he draws those comparisons. And I don't want him
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: to draw those comparisons. I want him to be a
• 25:49
  Speaker 8: player because he's special. He's got an above 40-inch vertical.
• 25:52
  Speaker 8: He can do a lot of great things athletically. And
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: we're excited for him to get his opportunity now. He's
• 25:58
  Speaker 8: always been a great defensive player for us.
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: But now, as you see from week one, he can
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: be an offensive weapon for us as well.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And I still don't know how he didn't draw that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: roughing the kicker on that first punt. I don't know
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: what happened there, but he got off a good punt
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and he didn't punt the rest of the night. But
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know how that one was missed,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: but we'll just move on. And speaking of moving on,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: let's talk about this upcoming week. You host Sultan on Friday.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: They played Linden this past weekend. Tell us about the Turks.
• 26:29
  Speaker 8: Well, we sent a couple coaches over to Linden High
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: School to watch that game.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: We were getting feedback.
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: One thing I already knew about Sultan is that they're
• 26:37
  Speaker 8: very big and they're very physical. Obviously, against Linden, they
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: were stacked in the box with nine guys. They were
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: determined to stop the run against Linden. And they come in,
• 26:45
  Speaker 8: they're just very physical, they're very big. They look fantastic coming.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Off that bus.
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: They look like a big physical team that's going to
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: want to hit you in the mouth. So we know
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: that we do expect that.
• 26:56
  Speaker 8: What we want to do is make sure we neutralize
• 26:59
  Speaker 8: that because we don't have a lot of size right now.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: We do have some guys coming back.
• 27:02
  Speaker 8: Aaron Chassé is one of our top linemen on the team.
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: But we also want to neutralize our size, and we
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: want to use our speed and athleticism both on the
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: offense and the defensive side of the ball.
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: So we know what they're doing. We know what we're
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: going to try to do to negate that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 8: We have a great game plan coming in on offense
• 27:20
  Speaker 8: with Coach Matthew Nixon, and we have a great game
• 27:23
  Speaker 8: plan with– coach Mark Jackson on defense.
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: So we feel like we're well prepared.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I was just, you brought up Aaron Shaw
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: say possibly coming back. That was kind of my next question.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Are you going to be closer to full strength on Friday?
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, we might.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: We, we, we didn't have a mild concussion. We don't know.
• 27:41
  Speaker 8: We have to see for clearance for a job. He
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: has love rods. And so we're looking at him. We
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: are going to, we all, we will have Aaron Shaw
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: say that we will have Fisher Wilson back. We will
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: have Julius C free back. Some of that, some of
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: the key guys. I mean, I don't know if you've
• 27:55
  Speaker 8: seen Fisher lately. He's 6'3, you know, 205 pounds, very athletic.
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: He's going to be playing corner and receiver. We didn't
• 28:04
  Speaker 8: have him last week. We didn't have Eric Chausse. We
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: didn't have Julius, and Julius is just playing such great
• 28:09
  Speaker 8: football right now. He's a big-body, tight end, D-end, outside linebacker, 6'3, 230.
• 28:15
  Speaker 8: So we're excited to have some of these key pieces
• 28:17
  Speaker 8: that we didn't have last week back this week against
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: a team where we're going to have to master physicality
• 28:24
  Speaker 8: for sure.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a good one. I think
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: both your team and Sultan both come into this week going, okay,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: this is a more like opponent based on the week before.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: So I think it's going to be a really good game,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm really, really excited about it, Coach. Thank you
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: so much, and best of luck out at Civic Stadium
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: against Sultan on Friday.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, Tyler. Have a great week.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: You too.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: And our next matchup looks like quite a mismatch on paper,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: but you never know. The Linden Lions are going to
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: go down south to Arlington to take on the Lakewood Cougars.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Linden is ranked fourth in 2A. They picked up the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: win last week over Sultan. Lakewood is 0-1 on the year.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: They are ranked 51st in 2A. Now joining me on
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: the Gatorade Game Day podcast is Linden football coach Blake Vandalen. Coach,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me today. How are
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: you doing? Awesome.
• 29:20
  Speaker 9: Thanks for having me on.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you bet. I just want to start off by
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: publicly thanking you for introducing me back in May when
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I received the Silver Helmet Award. Your words meant a
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: lot to me, and I partially blame you for the
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: tears that I had.
• 29:34
  Speaker 9: Well, you were very deserving, and one of the highlights
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: for us as coaches, too. We talked about it afterward.
• 29:43
  Speaker 9: That was a special moment, and we hope to continue
• 29:47
  Speaker 9: that tradition, and you were very, very deserving.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much. Week one, your team did
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of good things in all three phases. Against Sultan,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: she picked up the 49-0 win at home. Did it
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: pretty much go as well as you could have hoped?
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker 9: I mean, I was excited because we have stuff we
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: can work on. So, yes, there was mistakes, but we
• 30:09
  Speaker 9: seemed to find a way to overcome almost all of them.
• 30:12
  Speaker 9: And so, yeah, when you can make mistakes and win
• 30:15
  Speaker 9: a game, every coach will tell you that's probably the
• 30:17
  Speaker 9: best case scenario because now you get to see what
• 30:20
  Speaker 9: you need to work on.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. And was it just me or did Sultan
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: have some pretty big dudes on their team?
• 30:26
  Speaker 9: They did. You know, when we watched film, there was
• 30:29
  Speaker 9: a couple kids out there that caught our eye. And
• 30:32
  Speaker 9: I said, hey, you know, we've been hitting each other
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: now for two and a half weeks. This will be
• 30:37
  Speaker 9: fun to finally get to hit somebody else. And they've
• 30:39
  Speaker 9: got a couple of kids that can hit. And so
• 30:42
  Speaker 9: it was good. I think our kids enjoyed the change
• 30:46
  Speaker 9: of pace and hitting someone else. And I think Sultan,
• 30:50
  Speaker 9: you know, is coming back into the toughest conference in
• 30:53
  Speaker 9: the state. But They do some things really well that
• 30:57
  Speaker 9: I think there's going to be some fun matchups for
• 30:59
  Speaker 9: them coming down the road.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I just want to talk about Austin Postman
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit because, and correct me if I'm wrong,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: but I don't think he started on offense or defense
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and wasn't the starting kicker, but he goes six for
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: six through the air with a touchdown pass. He has
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a touchdown run. He has a pick six on defense,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: kicked a few extra points. And if the league didn't
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: know about him before, they know now, Coach.
• 31:23
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 31:24
  Speaker 9: The kids that I got to call in when I
• 31:26
  Speaker 9: found out Austin last year, I don't know if JV
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: teams can have an MVP or how that works, but
• 31:34
  Speaker 9: if time to watch enough JV film, I bet you
• 31:39
  Speaker 9: the best kid in the county that played JV this
• 31:42
  Speaker 9: year would be Austin Postman. So really cool that he
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: came in. He's as cool as a cucumber. You know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 9: he's a starting goalie for our varsity soccer team here.
• 31:54
  Speaker 9: And so you kind of get to know a kid
• 31:56
  Speaker 9: as their freshmen and sophomores. And he's kind of got
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: ice in his veins and very athletic. And so it
• 32:03
  Speaker 9: was kind of a no-brainer that, you know, we love
• 32:05
  Speaker 9: to have Gordy at receiver once in a while. So
• 32:09
  Speaker 9: the two-quarterback thing worked. And, I mean, now the weird
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: part was we just moved him to safety, right?
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: Last week.
• 32:16
  Speaker 9: Cause we moved Gordy back to quarter to corner. And
• 32:20
  Speaker 9: so he's only played safety for one week in his
• 32:23
  Speaker 9: entire life. And he had a pick set.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, what's funny when I saw
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: it happen, I, I, I kind of closed my eyes
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and I pictured practice and, and, and when you guys have,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: when the ball gets tipped and the whole, the whole,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: everybody is pointing the other way and, and you guys
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: are cheering. It just, I, I could feel myself on
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the practice field at Saturday morning at Linden high school. And,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden it did go the other
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: way and it kept going. And I just, I just
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: shook my head and I just said, man, I love it.
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: I love it.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: It was fantastic to see. And this week, you're going
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: to be going to Lakewood. The Cougars have been a
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: young team the last few years, so I would imagine
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: at some point these kids are going to have a
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: lot more varsity experience. What do you know about this
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: year's Lakewood team?
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: It's interesting because that was one of our last games
• 33:12
  Speaker 9: last year, one of our first games this year. So
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: we were preparing for them. It put a pressure on
• 33:21
  Speaker 9: our minds. Oh, yeah, they do this. Oh, yeah, they
• 33:23
  Speaker 9: do that. So from an X's and O's standpoint, a
• 33:27
  Speaker 9: lot of the same stuff they did last year. And
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: then you're right. There was a lot of similar, remember
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: this kid, and now this kid's back at quarterback again,
• 33:36
  Speaker 9: and this is their best wide receiver and things like that.
• 33:40
  Speaker 9: So there was actually a lot of familiarity with them
• 33:44
  Speaker 9: being one of our last games last year and first
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: games this year. And so, so we kind of know
• 33:50
  Speaker 9: what we're getting into and I'm hoping the weather will
• 33:53
  Speaker 9: be better. I don't know if you remember, this is
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: that week last year where I think it rained two
• 33:57
  Speaker 9: to three inches during the game. And so this year
• 34:00
  Speaker 9: we're hoping for, you know, much better weather, but we
• 34:02
  Speaker 9: are back down at Lakewood and we love playing down there.
• 34:05
  Speaker 9: They got a nice turf field and a brand new school.
• 34:08
  Speaker 9: So it's a good place to go.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 34:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: It is fun to, to sit up in the stands
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: and the backdrop of the new school looks so cool. And,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: It's such a fun field. And, yeah, I mean, you
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: should talk to Coach Lepp about that sometime. I know
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you keep in touch with him quite a bit. This
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: first game he ever coached as a head coach was there,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and he's got a fun story about the bus breaking
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: down on his first ever game. Imagine that as the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: head coach and that happening. They get there right before kickoff, and,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of course, they pick up the win. Every coach always
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: says that the biggest improvement of their team happens between
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: game one and game two. And if that's the case,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: what would you like your biggest improvement to be?
• 34:50
  Speaker 9: We talked about two years ago when we were watching film.
• 34:53
  Speaker 9: I said to them, I want you to score because
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: we're going to approach this film meaning that wasn't acceptable
• 35:04
  Speaker 9: or that wasn't acceptable. So that way, sometimes you sweep
• 35:08
  Speaker 9: things under the rug because you won and We want to,
• 35:11
  Speaker 9: you know, would be honest with ourselves and say that
• 35:14
  Speaker 9: the best I could have done on that play. And
• 35:16
  Speaker 9: I thought the kids handled that really well. But you
• 35:19
  Speaker 9: do have to prepare them for because they're high school
• 35:21
  Speaker 9: kids and it was a home game and the crowd
• 35:23
  Speaker 9: was amazing. The band was awesome and everybody got to
• 35:27
  Speaker 9: play and things like that. But you don't get better
• 35:30
  Speaker 9: if you just look at all the positives and the
• 35:33
  Speaker 9: bells and the whistles. So we needed to kind of
• 35:35
  Speaker 9: get in there and get down and dirty and, and
• 35:38
  Speaker 9: look at what, you know, we didn't do well that
• 35:41
  Speaker 9: we have to, to be successful against certain teams that
• 35:44
  Speaker 9: we need to beat this year.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point. You know, a lot of
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: times in week one, you know, a lot of, a
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: lot of things that you see the most of is
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: just procedure penalties or, and cramping. Those seem to be
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the two things you see a lot of and, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: then things kind of get squared away in week two. So,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: and I did, I did, you know, when I looked
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: at the schedule and I looked at you guys were
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: playing Sultan week one, you know, I thought, okay, that's
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: going to be, it's a rough go for them back,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: getting back into the league. But I knew you were
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: really excited about a handful of sophomores. And I thought
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: this could be a good time. If things go as expected,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: you might be able to get a lot of them
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: some playing time in the second half and really see
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: what they could do. Do you feel like that you
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: kind of got to see some, some younger kids in
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: varsity action?
• 36:28
  Speaker 9: It was kind of fun. Even, as early as the
• 36:33
  Speaker 9: third or fourth position talking about, you know, can we
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: get this kid attached? Can we get that kid attached
• 36:40
  Speaker 9: to see what he can do? And, and it was
• 36:42
  Speaker 9: funny because I think we ended up with two interceptions
• 36:45
  Speaker 9: and both were by kids named Austin. And the other
• 36:48
  Speaker 9: one is Austin Postma obviously. And then Austin Pease was
• 36:51
  Speaker 9: a sophomore that's actually played a lot for us both
• 36:54
  Speaker 9: ways coming off the C team. And so kind of
• 36:57
  Speaker 9: fun for him to get out there and play some
• 36:59
  Speaker 9: defense in place of Gordy and, in the second half
• 37:02
  Speaker 9: and make some plays. And so I would say, so
• 37:05
  Speaker 9: I say, I would say, you know, um, even some
• 37:07
  Speaker 9: of our linemen, we had a, uh, a late week
• 37:11
  Speaker 9: injury that caused us to do some shuffling on the
• 37:13
  Speaker 9: old line. And so we got a sophomore in at
• 37:16
  Speaker 9: center and, and he had maybe one bad snap, but
• 37:20
  Speaker 9: with our, our quick thinking athletic quarterbacks, I think Austin, uh,
• 37:25
  Speaker 9: took that bad snap and made it all the way
• 37:26
  Speaker 9: down to the one yard line. So it's a really
• 37:28
  Speaker 9: cool to get slayed side in there at center. Um,
• 37:31
  Speaker 9: with literally one day's heads up that he'd be the
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: starting center. And I thought he did really well as well. So, yeah,
• 37:39
  Speaker 9: really fun to get everybody in and home game. All
• 37:43
  Speaker 9: the parents are happy.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Everybody's happy. Yeah, it's happy land out there in Linden.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: It's a fantastic place to be this time of year.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Coach, and best of luck at
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Lakewood on Friday night.
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 37:55
  Speaker 9: Have a great week. Appreciate all you're doing. And sorry
• 37:57
  Speaker 9: I don't get to watch your game day show. It
• 38:00
  Speaker 9: sounds like it's been a lot of fun, so keep
• 38:02
  Speaker 9: that up.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: Awesome.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Coach. Going back into Whatcom County now, as the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Blaine Borderites, who are 1-0 on the year, have a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: ranking of 11th in 1A in the Max Preps rankings,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: they will be taking on a very strong Meadowdale Maverick
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: team that is 1-0 ahead. They are ranked 26th in 3A,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: so you've got a 1A versus 3A matchup. Blaine with
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the big win last week, but if they can take
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: it to Meadowdale and at least keep with them, that
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: is really going to show me a lot about this
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: year's Borderite team. Now joining me on the Gatorade Game
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Day podcast is Blaine football coach Andy Olson. Coach, thank
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: I'm doing great, Tyler. Thanks for having me.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: You bet. Week one, you go on the road to Iwako.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: And things go about as well as they could for
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: a week one game. You get the 42-7 win. But
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: before talking about the game, go over what that day
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: entailed as far as what time did you wake up
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and what time did you get home?
• 39:02
  Speaker 10: Well, I'm a little OCD, so I woke up probably
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: earlier than needed.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: I was up by about 4.15.
• 39:09
  Speaker 10: I got to the school, made sure we had everything
• 39:10
  Speaker 10: packed up, even though we packed up the night before. But,
• 39:13
  Speaker 10: you know, I'm a little meticulous that way. The kids
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: got there about 6. We left by 6.30. drove down
• 39:19
  Speaker 10: to Olympia, stopped to go to the bathroom, and continued
• 39:24
  Speaker 10: on our merry way down the coast and found the
• 39:26
  Speaker 10: other corner of Washington south of us at Blaine.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, so we got there.
• 39:31
  Speaker 10: About 12.10, which was okay. A couple of our longer
• 39:36
  Speaker 10: trips we've done in the past, going to Chelan and whatnot,
• 39:38
  Speaker 10: we've got there like three or four hours early and
• 39:40
  Speaker 10: stretched our legs.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: And I just found it's too much time in between.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: So to get off the bus.
• 39:46
  Speaker 10: get stretched out with Coach Gill, get warmed up with
• 39:48
  Speaker 10: Coach Vakma, and then get going.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: That seemed to work pretty well for us.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of things went well on that afternoon.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: What did you like the most?
• 40:00
  Speaker 10: You know, week one, you see a lot of, like,
• 40:02
  Speaker 10: self-inflicted wounds from teams, whether it's bad snaps or kind
• 40:08
  Speaker 10: of obscure penalties or illegal formations and things like that, right?
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: I felt like our offense did.
• 40:14
  Speaker 10: A really good job being prepared and eliminating those self-inflicting wounds,
• 40:17
  Speaker 10: which was great to see. And then we just got
• 40:20
  Speaker 10: to go out and play, and we played fast and
• 40:22
  Speaker 10: had fun.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: You installed a new defense this season, and you held
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the fishermen to just eight yards in the first half.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: So safe to say they're picking up the new defense
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: pretty well?
• 40:32
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, we go as fast as they're willing
• 40:34
  Speaker 10: to learn. You know, we haven't installed a whole lot yet.
• 40:37
  Speaker 10: I'd say we're pretty vanilla. but I'd rather be good
• 40:40
  Speaker 10: at a little than average at a lot. And we're
• 40:43
  Speaker 10: getting to the point where we're starting to feel pretty
• 40:44
  Speaker 10: good about the little that we got.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. You can do a little bit at a
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: time and they're, if they're always good, then you're good
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to go. Last year, the running game kind of didn't
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: really get going until the final week of the season.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: But you ran the ball pretty well in this game
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: with four different backs showing what they can do. You
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: have to be happy with what you saw there.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:05
  Speaker 10: It was great to be able to get all four
• 41:06
  Speaker 10: guys touches and, kind of give them their own series
• 41:09
  Speaker 10: or two where.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: They can do that.
• 41:11
  Speaker 10: We know, we kind of know the pecking order of
• 41:14
  Speaker 10: that room, but for week one, we could tell where
• 41:17
  Speaker 10: the direction of the game was going and those kids
• 41:19
  Speaker 10: all work really hard throughout the summer and during the
• 41:22
  Speaker 10: off season. So to get everybody touches was awesome. I mean,
• 41:25
  Speaker 10: it's just a good feeling when everybody feels involved in
• 41:27
  Speaker 10: the game.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I saw a lot of different formations where sometimes
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: you had multiple backs in the backfield and you, you
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: got me even watching the film where, You know, your
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: tailback would go out in motion and the up back
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: would actually get the hand off. And I was like, wow,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: he just... That was great. So when you have a
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: lot of guys and you're able to use them in
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: different spots, it was really cool to see that. Let's
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: talk about this week. You host Meadowdale on Friday. I
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: haven't seen them in a few years. I saw them
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: against Ferndale a few times, you know, play in-game, stuff
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: like that. But they beat a very talented Mount Vernon
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: squad last week. So tell us about the Mavericks.
• 42:09
  Speaker 10: Yeah, this is their year, man. They got 27 seniors
• 42:13
  Speaker 10: out there. A bunch of kids signed up playing football.
• 42:17
  Speaker 10: They're fast. They're athletic. They're strong.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: They're big.
• 42:20
  Speaker 10: It's going to be one of the toughest teams we
• 42:21
  Speaker 10: probably face this year. I won't say the toughest, but
• 42:24
  Speaker 10: one of the toughest. And we're really excited for that
• 42:28
  Speaker 10: opportunity to go match our skills against the athletes. They're
• 42:31
  Speaker 10: similar to some of the teams that we saw at
• 42:33
  Speaker 10: camp when we went over to the Troy Cities this summer.
• 42:34
  Speaker 10: So our kids have seen it. But, yeah, excited for
• 42:38
  Speaker 10: the opportunity and the challenge that lays ahead.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: What's their base offense? What do they look like?
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Very similar to us, which is kind of nice. It's
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: a blessing and a curse.
• 42:48
  Speaker 10: So a lot of the times you'll see three wide
• 42:51
  Speaker 10: with a H back or a tight end, but then
• 42:54
  Speaker 10: they'll run some of the old, I call it Burlington
• 42:56
  Speaker 10: has been a trip sponge tight, things like that as well.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: They do some good stuff offensively. They're well coached. You
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: can see that.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: And defensively, is it, what do they look like?
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Defense? They switched their fronts.
• 43:08
  Speaker 10: They'll go odd front and even front, which is a
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: great resource to have when your kids can understand what
• 43:13
  Speaker 10: they're doing.
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: Um, they like to drop four or five deep.
• 43:17
  Speaker 10: Um, so they keep the play in front of them,
• 43:20
  Speaker 10: trust their athletes to go make the plays and it's
• 43:22
  Speaker 10: kind of that bend, but don't break style.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: So yeah.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Man, it sounds like it's going to be a tough one. Uh,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: you know, every coach says the biggest improvements of their
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: team happens between week one and week two. So right now,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: when you look at that, that's exactly where, where we are.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: What do you think your biggest improvements will be or
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: can be?
• 43:40
  Speaker 10: I think defensively, I'm being selfish here because I'm calling
• 43:43
  Speaker 10: defenses here. We got to do a little bit better
• 43:45
  Speaker 10: job understanding our gaps and maintaining gap integrity and doing
• 43:50
  Speaker 10: our jobs. Sometimes when we get a little squirrely, we
• 43:53
  Speaker 10: maybe got away with it last week or this week
• 43:55
  Speaker 10: when our rules break down and we start doing things
• 43:57
  Speaker 10: that we're not supposed to do, we'll get exposed, I guess,
• 44:00
  Speaker 10: to a good team like Meadowdale, which is why you
• 44:03
  Speaker 10: put them on the schedule too, to find out. So
• 44:05
  Speaker 10: from that standpoint, It's a good opportunity for us to
• 44:08
  Speaker 10: really have to put our nose to the grindstone and
• 44:10
  Speaker 10: do our jobs.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a good one. We're excited to
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: be watching it on the YouTube show, and it's going
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun. All right, thank you
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: so much, Coach, and best of luck against Meadowdale on Friday.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Tyler. I appreciate you.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: All right, and now we're going to go back down
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: south to Everett still on Friday night as the Sehome
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Mariners travel down to take on top-ranked Archbishop Murphy. Seaholm
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: had a rough one in week one as they lost
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: 26-0 to Squalicum. So their ranking dipped down to 37th
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: in 2A as Archbishop still holds the top spot in 2A.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: And I was not able to get Coach Young this week,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: so we can talk about this a little bit. But
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: it's going to be, you know, they played each other
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: twice last year. Once in the regular season, it did
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: not go well. Seaholm rested a ton of their starters.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: They played them all in the playoff game. And Seaholm
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: did some really good things in that game. It was
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: kind of, you know, their last effort and they scored
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: some points and put up a lot of yards. But Archbishop,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: of course, won that game as they went undefeated on
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: the season. You know, we'll just have to wait and
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: see with this one. You know, the Wildcats are heavily,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: heavily favored here, but you just never know. I mean,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: high school football can be wonky. You get a kick return,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: you get a fumble, you get some weird things happening
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: and you just never know. Archbishop at home, very, very strong.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: And this is one that, you know, it could get
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: out of hand early, but you just never know. Like
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: I said, high school games are, you know, are very,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: very tricky. You know, Seaholm's Logan Rogers is a, he's
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: a kid that could, you know, would be one of
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the top players if he, if he played on Archbishop Murphy.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: So it's not like there's, there's talent missing on the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Seaholm team. There is a lot of talent there, but
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: they just got to put it together. Still looking to
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: score their first points on the year. And to do
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: it against Archbishop Murphy will be a tall task. So
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: we'll have to wait and see how that one goes. Again,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: I was not able to track down Coach Young. So
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: we are going to move on to the very next game,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: which is an 8 o'clock game down in that same
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: area in Edmonds. It is the Ferndale Golden Eagles taking
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: on Edmonds Woodway. And the reason why it's an 8
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: o'clock game is down at Edmonds Stadium, there's always a
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: doubleheader every Friday night as there's four teams there. that
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: use that stadium as their home stadium. And so every
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Friday night, there's two of them playing quote unquote at home.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: And so there's always a double header. Well, one of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: them is Edmonds Woodway. They will be hosting Ferndale. And
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: so the second game starts at eight o'clock. So, so
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: just kind of keep that in mind, maybe keeping your
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: mind that maybe seven 30 is the start time. So
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: you can get there early just in case. And it
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: should be a good one. Ferndale with the wind last week,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: it's ranked 14th now in three, eight, Edmonds Woodway with
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the loss last week is ranked 37th in 3A. Now
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: joining me on the Gatorade Game Day podcast is Ferndale
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: football coach Jamie Plankovich. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: How are you doing?
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: You bet. Week one is past us now. You got
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: off to a great start against Everett. They were able
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: to make a few things happen in the middle of
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the game, but then your team finished strong with the
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: 34-12 win. What did you like about Friday night's game?
• 47:30
  Speaker 11: Well, you kind of hit on some things right there.
• 47:32
  Speaker 11: I thought we started out really fast. I think it
• 47:35
  Speaker 11: was 20-0 in the first quarter. And then we give
• 47:39
  Speaker 11: them some credit. Their kids played really hard for four quarters.
• 47:44
  Speaker 11: They did some good things against us. We kind of
• 47:46
  Speaker 11: had a lull there. And one of the things we've
• 47:49
  Speaker 11: been focusing on is making sure we're finishing games.
• 47:53
  Speaker 6: And our guys made plays when we needed to.
• 47:56
  Speaker 11: Make plays after that game got tight.
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: Everett cuts it to 20-12.
• 48:00
  Speaker 11: We get a really big momentum builder with Block and
• 48:05
  Speaker 11: the extra point. Otherwise, it would have been a seven-point game.
• 48:09
  Speaker 11: And then we were able to put together a couple
• 48:11
  Speaker 11: drives and some stops from there on out.
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: So credit to our kids how we finished that game.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Coach, double tight ace formation. That was something to see.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen a lot of that out of Ferndale.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: You know, is this a personnel decision? Do you look
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: around and say, I really like the tight ends I have,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: or is it just kind of, hey, let's just try something?
• 48:34
  Speaker 11: No, it definitely, you know, every year you're looking at
• 48:38
  Speaker 11: what is going to be our strengths, what can we
• 48:41
  Speaker 11: utilize within our personnel. We have several good tight ends.
• 48:46
  Speaker 11: on our roster and one that's not even playing yet.
• 48:49
  Speaker 11: So we felt like that was a really big strength.
• 48:54
  Speaker 11: And it was something that is difficult to defend when
• 48:58
  Speaker 11: you get those extra big bodies on the field and
• 49:03
  Speaker 11: able to go double tight. So it causes some stress
• 49:06
  Speaker 11: on the defense. And again, we're looking to match our
• 49:11
  Speaker 11: personnel and utilize it in the best way possible.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: You know, I was I was doing the show live
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: on Friday night and we're kind of like an NFL
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: red zone feel. looking at from game to game and I'm,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I'm hitting my partner going Ferndale's going single back, double tight.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Look at this. And then on that play was when
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Bobby Kelly scored that touchdown and on that play as well,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: the blocking Braden Arps down the field, the kick out
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: by Braden Henderson. Talk about the offensive lineman. I mean,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: they are really clicking already.
• 49:39
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they did a good job.
• 49:41
  Speaker 11: You know, there's a lot of little things you're going
• 49:43
  Speaker 11: to see in week one that we need to fix, but.
• 49:47
  Speaker 6: Overall up front, our guys did a really good job.
• 49:50
  Speaker 6: I think one of the things.
• 49:51
  Speaker 11: That stood out to us re-watching that game was that
• 49:55
  Speaker 11: we had very few assignment mistakes. We had other stuff
• 50:00
  Speaker 11: that we're going to fix in technique and just our
• 50:03
  Speaker 11: angles on guys, but.
• 50:06
  Speaker 6: for game one oftentimes. And they came out.
• 50:10
  Speaker 11: You also don't know what the other team for sure
• 50:12
  Speaker 11: is going to do against you. So you got to
• 50:13
  Speaker 11: be able to adapt as the game goes on. So
• 50:17
  Speaker 11: having some veteran guys up front, they did a good
• 50:19
  Speaker 11: job adjusting to whatever it was trying to do to
• 50:22
  Speaker 11: us defensively and really had very few assignment mistakes.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: That's really great for week one, especially. And I really
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: thought Mason Buttonshaw looked strong inside linebacker. When I watched
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: the film There were numerous times where his reaction time
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: was so quick, which enabled him to get to the
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: ball carrier quicker than most. You played the position. What
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: are you seeing on the field with him?
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: He had a great game Friday night. He had– and
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: here's what's really cool.
• 50:53
  Speaker 11: He had struggled in practice with some of the reads
• 50:57
  Speaker 11: during the week. So to watch him put it together
• 51:00
  Speaker 11: for Friday night after– having some challenges during the week.
• 51:05
  Speaker 11: He played exceedingly fast. He cares a lot about being
• 51:11
  Speaker 11: a good football player.
• 51:12
  Speaker 6: He studies. He does the things he needs to do.
• 51:14
  Speaker 11: So to watch it come through the practice week, kind
• 51:19
  Speaker 11: of struggle a little bit, get a little better towards
• 51:21
  Speaker 11: the end of the week, and then really play lights
• 51:23
  Speaker 11: out on Friday night was really cool to watch.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I'm shocked to hear that,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: that he was struggling with the reads because, man, it
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: looked like he was reading everything faster than anybody else
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: out on the field. You're on the road this week,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: this time against Edmonds-Woodway. What do you know about the Warriors?
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: They can chuck it all over the field.
• 51:47
  Speaker 11: They do a really good job of pushing the ball
• 51:51
  Speaker 11: down the field. Their quarterback is back from last year,
• 51:55
  Speaker 11: who's a very good football player. He's a very, very
• 51:59
  Speaker 11: accurate thrower of the ball. They're really going to challenge
• 52:03
  Speaker 11: us in the secondary. So, and then they'll mix in
• 52:07
  Speaker 11: the run. So offensively, they're going to spread you out.
• 52:11
  Speaker 11: And like I said, he does a great job of
• 52:14
  Speaker 11: driving the ball down the field. So we've got our
• 52:16
  Speaker 11: challenges trying to keep them in front of us, and
• 52:19
  Speaker 11: then there's going to be opportunities that we've got to
• 52:22
  Speaker 11: make tackles in space against them.
• 52:25
  Speaker 6: Offensively, their.
• 52:28
  Speaker 11: Defense is going to be somewhat similar to what we
• 52:30
  Speaker 11: saw last week with mostly an odd front, and then
• 52:34
  Speaker 11: they're going to be aggressive. So we're hoping to control
• 52:39
  Speaker 11: the football, put together some drives, and then make them
• 52:42
  Speaker 11: not keep the ball.
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: In front of us.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Does the fact that it's an 8 o'clock game throw
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: anything off, or do you just adjust a little bit
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: and you're good?
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: Well, that's the challenge, right?
• 52:53
  Speaker 11: And it's something that we've talked to our team about,
• 52:56
  Speaker 11: not just in this specific situation. But we've got to
• 53:00
  Speaker 11: be able to meet changes, and things don't always remain
• 53:04
  Speaker 11: the same, whether it's within a game or just as
• 53:08
  Speaker 11: we lead up to it. We're not going to have
• 53:10
  Speaker 11: access to the field. like we normally do in a pregame.
• 53:14
  Speaker 11: So we've got to adjust how we get ready for
• 53:16
  Speaker 11: the game. Cannot make that a focus or a big deal.
• 53:21
  Speaker 11: We just do what we need to do to be
• 53:23
  Speaker 11: ready at eight o'clock.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point. I didn't think, I didn't even,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: that was the part I didn't think about because down
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: there every Friday night, right, there's a doubleheader. And I
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: didn't think about if it's the second one, you can't
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: get on the field early. That's a, I didn't even
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: think about that. So that's a great thing there. to
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: think about every coach says that, you know, and you
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: touched on this a little bit, but every coach says
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: the biggest improvements of their team happened between game one
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: and game two. What would you like your biggest improvements
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: to be?
• 53:51
  Speaker 6: Just like I said earlier, just a lot of little stuff.
• 53:54
  Speaker 11: Our pad level is still way too high on both
• 53:58
  Speaker 11: sides of the ball at the, at the get off.
• 54:00
  Speaker 11: So it's for sure a focus for us this week
• 54:04
  Speaker 11: is our pad level. maintaining blocks. We don't want to
• 54:09
  Speaker 11: be one-hit wonders. We want to maintain our blocks. And
• 54:13
  Speaker 11: then just little stuff like your first step being with
• 54:18
  Speaker 11: the proper foot. And when you don't do that, that
• 54:22
  Speaker 11: causes problems, especially within our offense. We saw that a
• 54:26
  Speaker 11: few times on last Friday night. So it's just kind
• 54:30
  Speaker 11: of fixing those little things. We can fake better. in
• 54:35
  Speaker 11: the backfield to kind of draw people away from where
• 54:39
  Speaker 11: the ball is actually going.
• 54:40
  Speaker 6: So just a lot of little things to clean up.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much, Coach. Best of
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: luck at Edmonds-Woodway on Friday night.
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: And that is the final game for Friday night as
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: we're going to head on to Saturday afternoon now where
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: we got a couple of road games for Whatcom County.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: All three of them were road games last week on Saturday.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: So Whatcom County is still yet to host a Saturday game.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: And this time it will be Meridian going to Cascade Christian.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: And we saw Cascade Christian last week as they hosted
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Nooksack Valley. So a little familiar opponent here. Meridian ranked
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: 17th in 1A. Cascade Christian 19th in 1A. Both lost
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: heartbreakers last week. Both were in the game. So this
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: is a very, very even matchup as far as max ranks,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: max preps ranking is concerned and the win loss record. And,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: you know, two teams that were really close to teams
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: that are traditionally very strong and neither team wants to go. Oh,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: and two. So I, I look at this game as
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: being one of those that's going to go, it's going
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: to be extremely tight. It's going to go all the
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: way to the last snap. So I always love that.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: It's really, really exciting. But yeah, we'll have to see
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: how that goes. Now joining me on the Gatorade game
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: day podcast is Meridian football coach, Patrick Ames coach. Thank
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 56:04
  Speaker 6: I'm doing well.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Tyler.
• 56:05
  Speaker 5: How are you doing?
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: All right. Uh, it was a tough week one loss
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: at Liberty bell. Uh, it, it was kind of a
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: mystery team to me. What did you know about them
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: going into the game?
• 56:16
  Speaker 7: Well, we knew that they were, uh, a really competitive program. Um, and,
• 56:21
  Speaker 7: and they absolutely didn't disappoint. Um, And, uh, they had
• 56:25
  Speaker 7: a guy back there pulling the trigger quarterback that, I mean,
• 56:28
  Speaker 7: we knew he was going to be a problem. Um,
• 56:31
  Speaker 7: and he removed any doubts, excuse me, as to whether
• 56:34
  Speaker 7: or not he's going to be one of the best
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: players in their classification that we just didn't have any
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: answers for him. Um, and, uh, just the, the way
• 56:42
  Speaker 7: that he was able to move and throw on the
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: move and the speed at which he operated back there. Uh,
• 56:48
  Speaker 7: we knew he was good to your question. Like, what
• 56:50
  Speaker 7: do we know about them? Um, but, uh, even knowing
• 56:54
  Speaker 7: that he was going to be the center point centerpiece
• 56:56
  Speaker 7: of everything they did, we still weren't quite ready to
• 56:58
  Speaker 7: match him.
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: He was something, you know, especially in the second half,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: he made those two key touchdown runs and you're so,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: you're so right about the speed. It seemed like everything
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: was sped up, like fast forward on the tape, even
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: everything was just boom, boom, boom. First half though, it
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: was back and forth just, You pull ahead, and they
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: pull ahead, and you pull ahead, and they're going for two.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: And it's just crazy back and forth. But then you
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: pull ahead by nine at the end of the first half,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: thanks to a pick six by Trey Alexander and the
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: two-point conversion. But, you know, tell me kind of– there
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: seemed to be some confusion with something at the end
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: of the first half during a goal line stand. I
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: don't know what's going on, but can you explain what
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: happened there? I can. I can.
• 57:46
  Speaker 7: We made a stop there at the goal line at
• 57:48
  Speaker 7: the end of the half and the clock ran out
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: and they were out of timeouts. And I think there was,
• 57:56
  Speaker 7: there was obviously some confusion on the field.
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: And they allowed them to line up and to run
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: another play with the clock showing zeros with no timeout
• 58:05
  Speaker 7: or penalty called. And yeah, the explanation we were, the
• 58:10
  Speaker 7: explanation we were given was that, you know, that was,
• 58:13
  Speaker 7: just some of their mechanics still working themselves out in,
• 58:17
  Speaker 7: in week one.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: Okay. I was just going to say it must be
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: week one for everybody. Cause it's just, so you see
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: weird things like that and it's tricky. But there were
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: definitely some glimpses of major positivity. You scored touchdowns in
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: all three phases. Are there, are those things that you
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: can build on for the next week?
• 58:35
  Speaker 7: Sure. Yeah. You know, anytime you're in a close game,
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: you've done enough things well that, um, you can, you
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: can look at and say, okay, like we weren't, we
• 58:45
  Speaker 7: weren't totally inept in all three phases. And that wasn't
• 58:48
  Speaker 7: even close to the case that, you know, in spots,
• 58:51
  Speaker 7: we move the ball really well. And in spots, our
• 58:53
  Speaker 7: ball security was incredibly lacking. And, you know, in spots,
• 58:58
  Speaker 7: we protected the passer well, and, you know, a couple.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Of times we, we didn't.
• 59:02
  Speaker 7: Um, so, you know, some of the inconsistencies that, um,
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: are going to really show up in week one, probably
• 59:09
  Speaker 7: more so than it any other time. At least that's,
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: that's where our focus has been is cleaning up the
• 59:14
  Speaker 7: things that we need to clean.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Up from, from week one.
• 59:16
  Speaker 7: But yeah, we did, we did, we did enough things
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: well to, um, to compete and stay in that game
• 59:20
  Speaker 7: till the, till the end. And we, we know top
• 59:24
  Speaker 7: to bottom in our program that, you know, had we
• 59:26
  Speaker 7: not made some of the mistakes that we made on
• 59:28
  Speaker 7: Friday night that, We know the outcome there would have
• 59:31
  Speaker 7: been different, and we expect to play a better football
• 59:34
  Speaker 7: game this week.
• 59:35
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: And it seemed like Pierce Brzozowski was all over the
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: field defensively. You know, you moved him out to the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: edge after playing safety the past few years. Is it
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: safe to say he's adjusted well to the new position?
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: Pierce is just such a smart football player in all phases,
• 59:51
  Speaker 7: both sides of the ball.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: He could play every level.
• 59:53
  Speaker 7: On defense, and obviously we moved him down closer to
• 59:56
  Speaker 7: the ball, and you saw the impact that he had
• 59:58
  Speaker 7: on Friday night's game. Um, and, and we're, we're, we're
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: hoping and planning that he's, he's going to continue to
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 7: be that kind of, um, heady, impactful player, um, and,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 7: and all the games that we play and we're going
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 7: to need him to be right. That's what you need
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: from your, your senior leaders, your captains, which he is. Um, and,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 7: and we don't expect anything, you know, but, but smart
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 7: play from him. Um, ever since he's been in our lineup. Yeah.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: He's just one of those kids that you kind of,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: You know it when you see it and at practice
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: and everything. And it's fantastic to have a kid like that.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: You're back on the road this time on Saturday. You'll
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: be facing Cascade Christian, who just came off a close
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: loss to Nooksack Valley. Tell us about this year's Cougars.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: They are big.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 6: They're big.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: I think they're two tackles.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: They list them in their program at 280 pounds each,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 7: and they've got a guy playing in the middle of
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 7: their defense who's 265 pounds. They're really big for a
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 7: 1A team. They've got a running back that obviously they
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 7: really like and for good reason, and we expect that
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 7: he's going to carry the load for them. I know
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 7: their quarterback was starting his first high school game against
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 7: Nooksack last weekend. We expect he's probably going to take
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 7: a step forward like most of their other newer players.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 7: But they're a really good, solid, fundamentally sound team. And
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 7: I know against Nooksack that also looked really, really solid.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 7: Nooksack was just able to execute a little bit better
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 7: and that game could have probably, Nooksack probably could have
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 7: scored a couple more times in that one. and Cascade
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 7: Christian just kept hanging on until the end and gave
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 7: themselves a chance right there at the end of the game,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 7: and I think Nookzak stopped them inside the five-yard line
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 7: on the game's last play. So we know that's a
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: team that is going to be as solid as we
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 7: saw against Nookzak, but also the intangibles that you look
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 7: for in an opponent, like are they going to get rattled?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 7: Are they going to get flustered? Are they going to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 7: give themselves chances to stay in it until the end?
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 7: And that's absolutely what they look like, and obviously that's
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 7: a program with that's had a lot of success historically,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 7: that's year in and year out a playoff team. So
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 7: we know it's a significant challenge for us and we're
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: just going to have to try to match their collective
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 7: belief with ours and we'll see who's improved more from
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 7: our first week games.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you mentioned like the success they've had
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: in recent history and the program that they've had. And
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: you're right. It seems like every time I've watched them live,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: which has been a handful of times, you know, they've
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: played a lot of Whatcom County teams, whether it be
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: non-league game or even a playoff game. And when I
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: think of them, I close my eyes and I think
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: of them, I always think of five wide just running
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: around the field. And it looked totally different against Nooksack Valley.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: You know, they were running the ball and it must
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: be with the personnel, right? Like you said, they're like
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: the running back, the big, the big tackles. So it
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: might be a little different Cascade Christian than people are
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: used to if they're coming out to the game. um, every,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: and you, you kind of touched on this a little bit,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: but every coach talks about their biggest improvements usually during
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: the year happened between game one and game two. And
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: if that is the case, what would you like your
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: biggest improvements to be?
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 7: Um, ball security is number one, um, eliminating some of
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 7: the self-inflicted, um, injuries that we, that we suffered, namely
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 7: some of the penalties that we had show up in,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 7: in week one, that would be number two. And number three, um,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 7: being able to play, um, better situationally. That as coaches,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 7: we know that we made some tactical mistakes with some
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 7: of the things that we were trying to do, especially
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: offensively in that first game. And we know that those
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 7: are things that are well within our control to be
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 7: able to get fixed. So we've got a pretty clear
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 7: focus on how we want to improve, along with, you know,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 7: did we tackle soundly on every play in all phases?
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: Of course we didn't.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 7: And we know some of that is just due to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 7: the fact that, you know, the guy that we were
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 7: trying to tackle was us playing at a speed that
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: we haven't been able to replicate, you know, in the
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: first two and a half weeks.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: But, um, those are some of the elements.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 7: That you're, you're like, okay, right. We, we know that
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 7: he forced us to miss some tackles that we might've
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 7: made against, against other guys, but the things that we
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 7: can control are where our focus is most right. Ball security,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 7: not making the kinds of mistakes that, you know, that,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 7: that hurt us in week one. Um, and then just
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 7: making sure that we're, we're sound and how we're approaching
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 7: and attacking every play. And that starts with the coaches.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: All right. Sounds good. Thank you so much, Coach. Best
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: of luck at Cascade Christian on Saturday.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Tyler.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 6: It's a pleasure.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Also on Saturday afternoon, Lyndon Christian will travel up to
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: the Great White North to take on Vancouver College. Vancouver
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: College won a no on the year as they played
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: a team from Alberta and got the win there. Lyndon
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: Christian with the big win over Franklin Pierce. So their
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: max preps ranking shot up to number one past Royal
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: as they are 1-0 on the year as well. So
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: two teams that are 1-0. And we might have to
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: rely on Coach Terpstra to tell us a little bit
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: about this Vancouver College team because you just never know.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the Gatorade Game Day podcast is
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Linden Christian football coach Greg Terpstra. Coach, thank you for
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: joining me today. How are you doing?
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 12: Hey, it's my pleasure. Doing great.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: Uh, well, you got to kick off the entire season
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: in Whatcom County with a Thursday night game at six o'clock. Uh, it,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of, to me, it had that feel of,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: you know, when the NFL starts its season with this,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: with the solo game and everything. So all the reporters
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: were there and that was really fun. But before talking
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: about the game, how do you feel about opening up
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: on a Thursday night? Did it have kind of a
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: weird feel to it?
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 12: You know, I think we were all so amped up
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 12: and ready to go. Um, sooner the better.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 13: Um, It was fortuitous, selfishly for me, because I got
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 13: to go then fly out to the East Coast and
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 13: watch my newest son-in-law play a game. So that worked
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 13: out really, really well. I'm not quite sure if I'm
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 13: going to get to another one.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: Right, exactly. That does work out really well. And glad
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: you got back home safe and everything. I heard something
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: about there was like a weather delay or something at
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: that game.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 13: Lightning strikes and things like that. Yeah, there was a
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 13: lot of weather going on, and they had a shortened warm-up.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 13: But what a beautiful setting. I mean, Liberty, where Caleb plays,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 13: is a gorgeous setting. JMU, up the road, just under
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 13: two hours. Got to play there. And beautiful setting. You're
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 13: just sitting up, seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains, and everybody
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 13: loves their football there. A lot of pageantry and just
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 13: a great football and a great afternoon.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. It was really cool. I had it
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: on my screen while I was watching the film from
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Friday night of all the games, and I was like, hey,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: I know Coach Terp's there. That's really cool. So Franklin
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: Pierce came to town with their phone booth offense, and
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: you were able to contain them pretty well, and then
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: turned around and made some big plays offensively. You pick
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: up the 38-14 win, which was fantastic. you know, 38-0
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: before all the backups were in and everything. You have
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: to be pretty pleased about how everything turned out.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: We were.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 13: I think Coach Bauma and the rest of the guys
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 13: had a great plan. We knew that stopping them physically
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 13: on their offense was just going to be a tall task.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 13: They just have a lot of humanity going in one direction.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 13: And it was going to be a game where It
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 13: wasn't so much a tactical game as much as it
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 13: was just reaching deep in and seeing what you had
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 13: just from a tough, gritty standpoint. And the kids responded.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 13: I'd say mostly led by Eli Stamps. He's just a
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 13: brute in the middle there, just.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 3: A tough sucker.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 13: The more contact, the better in his mind.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 12: And I think he really led the team from within
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 12: that way.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. He was in on so many tackles and
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: you kind of have to be against that kind of offense. Uh, your,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: you know, your inside linebackers really have to do their jobs.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, that is just crazy. So the discipline that
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: your linebackers had him and Caden, uh, talk about that
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: and why it's so important against a team like Franklin
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Pierce to have that kind of discipline.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 13: Uh, Marcus Facuma and Jordan Kreider did a really good
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 13: job of training those eyes of the backers. Um, Just
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 13: to do your job, to read your keys, play an
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 13: assignment football, it sounds boring, but, boy, it really does
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 13: pay off because there's a lot of teams up ahead, too,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 13: that we have to do the same thing for.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 12: Any wing T team. And it's really.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 13: An exercise in trusting your teammates because you can have
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 13: a couple studs on your team that just want to
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 13: go make every play, whether it's across the field or
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 13: here or there, and just abandon what they're supposed to do.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 13: So really proud of our guys for trusting each other,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 13: trusting the coaching staff, and then just executing them.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: What's great about that is, you know, trust is something
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: that comes along throughout the season and having it in
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: week one. That's pretty great, you know, to have that feeling.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: So you must feel pretty good about that. It was
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: the first varsity start at quarterback for senior Dawson Hines.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously not a stranger to varsity athletics, but
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: he did some really good things through the air and
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: on the ground. What did you like there?
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 13: Yeah, Dawson, you know, we wondered. If you're going to
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 13: take over our offense, there's a lot of moving parts.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 13: We are, I don't want to say quarterback dependent, but
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 13: we're quarterback heavy. And he really responded well. He has
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 13: a much better arm than I think we knew going in.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 13: We had seen glimpses of it, but we just didn't
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 13: see it in volume. He reads the field really well,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 13: like a point guard. Not a stranger to him. Um,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 13: and he, he trusts again, we'll bring that word up
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 13: his receivers and he put that ball just where they
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 13: can go after it and where our guys could be athletes.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 13: I think he, you know, he threw two development that
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 13: were just gorgeous balls, um, and only up where Caden
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 13: could get them. So, um, I think he's going to
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 13: be a great teammate to play with because he wants
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 13: to get you the ball. He wants you to do
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 13: something spectacular. And he did that.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: It's just, It was really great to see, you know,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: because going in, there's a lot of teams around the
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: county that there's a battle at quarterback. And so this
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: week one was extremely fun for me just to see, OK,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: who is it going to be and how are they
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: going to do? And when I was there for the
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: first quarter before I had to bolt to another game
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: and I got to see some good things and he
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: did great. And it was really cool to see. And
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: that was, you know, I loved it. So let's talk
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: about this upcoming week. You travel up north to take
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: on Vancouver College. It'll be your third time playing them
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: in three years. And you've said before that from year
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: to year, that team can be a lot different. What
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: do you know about this year's team? Yeah.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 13: Well, the only tape we have on them, they usually
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 13: have two games going into this one. They usually have
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 13: like a week zero or something there ahead of us,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 13: but they just have one. And they played a team
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 13: called Notre Dame of like somewhere in Alberta, Edmonton or somewhere.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 13: Some teams travel a long ways away. And new to
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 13: me was the fact that they used CFL rules for
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 13: all the other high schools outside of BC. So Vancouver
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 13: College played nice host. And they allowed Notre Dame to
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 13: use the forward.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 12: Running, uh, guys in motion.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 13: Um, and then Vancouver college didn't use that against them.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 13: So it was, yeah. And, and they, they handled them
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 13: pretty good. Vancouver college did, but I kind of look
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 13: at that stuff. I'm like, you know, how do you not,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 13: how do you not throw for 450 yards with that? But,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 13: you know, I think they're used to the three downs too.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 13: So there was give and take, um, But I think
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 13: Vancouver College was a very gracious host in offering certain
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 13: rules to.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 12: Them that they didn't do. So it's an interesting film
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 12: to watch.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine. I mean, you know, traditionally, they
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: have a lot of athletes. They have a lot of size.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: Does that kind of look the same as far as
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: this year?
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 13: They got some dudes and their football IQ is high.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 13: They are really, really well coached. Coach Chu, really good coach,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 13: CFL Hall of Famer. He's got a great staff. They
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 13: are wonderful hosts. They give us a meal afterwards, and
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 13: then they have all the kids sit together and all
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 13: the coaches sit together, and you sit.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 12: And talk, and it's a great environment. We love how
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 12: they do it.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that makes it easy to put that
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: game on the schedule, right? When you kind of know
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: what to expect, you know it'll be good competition, and
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: you know that– After the game, you get fed. It
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: sounds like it's a win-win every year. It's a great
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: one to schedule. I'm sure they feel good, too, because
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: it's good competition for them as well.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 13: Yeah, and the reason why it could change a lot
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 13: is it's a school of 900 boys.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 12: You shake the bushes and you get 14 new guys.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 13: I'm not quite sure how many are new yet.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 12: But they look like they've got a great program.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Every coach says that the biggest improvements of their team
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: happens between week one and week two. What do you
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: think your biggest improvements will be?
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 12: Being sharper.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Or what would you like them to be, I guess?
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 13: Yeah, I'd really like to sharpen things up. Both sides
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 13: of the ball, special teams, just get really, really sharp.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 13: I think if you watch the Apple Cup, there was
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 13: not a whole lot of sharp there. So it kind
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 13: of makes you feel okay that, you know, your high
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 13: school squad wasn't completely sharp.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 12: But it's such a big deal.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 13: Even that Liberty-JMU game, there were just a couple giveaways
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 13: and dumb penalties by one side or the other that
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 13: really flipped the game. And I don't want us to
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 13: ever beat ourselves. And sometimes maybe that's a little bit
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 13: of pie in the sky.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 12: But by week two, I don't want that to be
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 12: an issue.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I think that's usually the big thing.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: You see a lot of things, you know, the two
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: things you see a lot in week one are procedure
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: penalties and cramps. Those are the two things you see
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of. And, you know, and one of those things, well,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: I guess both of them you can, you know, fix,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: you know, fluids and everything, obviously, but then just attention
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: to detail and just You're going to see a lot
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: of wide eyes. I'm sure there was a few kids
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: that were their first time playing for you on Thursday night,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: especially extended time. Those little things are going to happen,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: but once you get into it, you do see those
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: huge improvements going into week two. It's going to be fun.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: I'm excited. It was a great team to watch with
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: you guys. I thought it was an awesome game. I
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: expect really good things, and I think the rest of
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: the county does too. It's always a good product that
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: you put on the field. But thank you so much, Coach.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: Good luck up in Canada on.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: Friday, eh?
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Or on Saturday.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 12: Yeah, Saturday at 1.30, I believe, kickoff is.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: Awesome. Thanks a lot, Coach.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 5: Hey, thanks.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: All right. Thanks a lot, Coach. And one last team
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: we have to talk about, Lummi Nation, who won their
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: game last week. And in dramatic fashion, in overtime, they
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: do have a bye week this week. But I was
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: able to catch up with Coach Watiko Layton, and this
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: is how it went. Now joining me on the Gatorade
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: Game Day podcast is Lummi Nation football coach Watiko Layton. Coach,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 12: I'm doing pretty good.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, Tyler. You bet. let's talk
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: about this week one game a little bit. It was
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: on the road against Crescent and your team scores a
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: late touchdown to make it a two point game. So
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: obviously you're going for two, you, you get it, you
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: tie it up. You go to overtime and come out
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: with a 28, 22 win. So first tell me about the, the,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: the late touchdown run. It looked kind of like a,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: like a misdirection or a counter run. It was, it
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: caught me by surprise. It definitely caught Crescent by surprise.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: Was that the, was that the, the designed play where
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: he takes the hand off and then cuts to his
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: left or did he cut on his own there?
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's one of our counter plays.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 14: So we were running on our heavyset towards our heavyset
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 14: over and over and over. And then once we got
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 14: pretty close, I hit him with the counter and, um,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 14: you know, Deandre pulling that kick out and, um, case
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 14: and William, one of our new kids is, um, just
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 14: hit it perfectly downhill and, uh, secured us that touchdown.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a great call because I was kind
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: of watching that at the end. And then I just
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: I I almost laughed to myself when I saw it
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: because I just threw my hands up and I said
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: either that was a great cut or or it was
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: like he saw it or it was designed. And either way,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: he went right in. Now, you know, for sure, because
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: there was not much time left. You knew for sure
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: you had to go for two there to tie it up.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: Did you have a play in mind the entire time?
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: If we get there, this is what we're going to do.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 14: It was more of our quarterback Landon LaFontaine's confidence. I
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 14: asked him from the get-go, right after he came to
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 14: get the play, can you get us this extra point?
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: Are you going to get in that end zone?
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 14: And he just gave me that, yes, coach, yes, coach.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 14: And so his desire just to wedge into that end
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 14: zone was perfect.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: And talk about a kid that Landon LaFontaine does not–
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: the pressure does not get to him, it seems like.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously– That game-winning shot at Mount Vernon that
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: we saw last year. So that's a kid that wants
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: the last shot, right? That wants that pressure. So that
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: works pretty well. So then you go into overtime and
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: talk about your defense a little bit because they made
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: that stop on fourth down. So then you got your shot.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: So talk about your defense there.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 14: Yeah, so Crescent came out into an empty set, two
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 14: by two on each side. A thing we didn't see
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 14: in those four quarters.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 12: So it surprised us a lot, but our.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 14: Defense was real um our defensive line was swarming the
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 14: quarterback a lot putting pressure so their routes couldn't develop
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 14: in time um but they were able to get some
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 14: quick routes off to um but our linebackers and dbs
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 14: were real quick to make those quick passes and tackles
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 14: yeah and that's.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: I mean my goodness an eight man football tackling how
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: it's the biggest thing in the world because so much
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: of the time if if they, if one tackle is broken,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: it could be a touchdown. So, uh, so that, so getting,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: you know, getting a stop at all in eight man
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: football is tough, but to do it in overtime is key.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: And then you get the ball back, score the winning
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: touchdown on a pass play. Tell us about that.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 14: So, um, our first play was just going to be
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 14: our normal heavy set, um, running the ball, trying to
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 14: just inch it in, in those four downs. Um, but
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 14: we jumped off sides with, which moved us back 15
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 14: yards from the goal line. And, um, you know, I
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 14: could see their, all their DBs linebackers were playing close
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 14: into the box. Um, so I could feel that pressure
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 14: and I asked Landon again, you know, can you get
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 14: that ball to on that corner? Are you going to
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 14: slot it perfectly?
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: He's yes, coach. I got it. I got it.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 14: And, um, you know, you had a nice, perfect ball.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 14: Mason was able to grab it and secure that touchdown.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 14: So that was, that was really nice for us.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: I was, uh, you know, sometimes in, you know, week one,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I see a lot of teams, especially in college,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: you know, they kind of schedule that, uh, you know, that,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: cupcake game you see Alabama face Abilene Christian or something
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: and you're like yeah let's just get this one out
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: of the way so we can get a feel for
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: ourselves and and this was like this was uh you
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: know a tough one to start off as far as
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: going to overtime it's like man we're just hitting the
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: ground running it's a little it's a little it's a
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: little crazy um and you're off this week so explain
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: how a bye week works are you still practicing like
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: normal throughout the.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 14: Week Yeah, so we'll practice normally, more of development and stuff,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 14: fixing up what we had mistakes-wise from our previous game,
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 14: and then we'll also implement scouting and looking at our
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 14: next opponent for week three, but also a lot of
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 14: more contact and hitting since we can utilize it during
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 14: this week and don't have to worry about injuries.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, that's a good call. And, you know, every
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: coach says that the biggest improvement of their team is
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: happens between game one and game two. So for you,
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: what would you like your biggest improvement to be going
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: into week three?
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 14: I would say more of our overcoming and resilience. You know,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 14: we showed it a lot in the second half, but
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 14: when Crescent was having that ball and moving around and
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 14: getting their defensive stops for that first half, I wish
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 14: we would have had more resilience and a better outcome
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 14: for those. But they were able to do it the
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 14: second half. So hopefully we can work on it more
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 14: this by week. So week three comes up. Um, we'll
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 14: be ready for Northwest Christian.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be awesome coach. It's, it was, uh,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: it was a crazy game to watch and I kept,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: I just kept looking over. I was at a volleyball game,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: but I had your game on the, on my, on
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: my screen, on my phone. And I kept looking over.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, come on, come on. And, uh, and
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden I see the wind and
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: I was just like, Oh my goodness, they pulled it out. So,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: That's so cool. You know, I thought you guys did
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: so well last year with the improvement to the previous
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: two years. Do you feel like, you know, getting this
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: win the way that last year was, do you feel
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: like it's kind of on the upswing, like you can
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: ride that momentum a little bit?
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: I believe so, yeah.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 14: Even after that close win and even overcoming that first half,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 14: you know, my kids were still upset about their mistakes.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 14: So them wanting to improve and get those mistakes minimized
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 14: shows a lot for this season.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. It's going to be a fun ride, Coach.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: And thank you so much for joining me. And I'll
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: talk to you again next week. Awesome.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 14: Thank you for having me, Tyler.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: You bet. And there you have it. That is the
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: episode 442, the week two Gatorade game day preview. I
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: am Tyler Anderson of Walkin' Preps. And I hope that
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: you'll be rooting on your favorite teams and, you know,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: having fun and playing. Maybe tune in to the Walkin'
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: Preps channel on YouTube. If you want to find out
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: what the score is on Friday night of another game
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: and you're already at a game, just go to YouTube,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: type in Walkin' Preps, and there should be a live
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: showing right there with all the scores going on, updated
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: at the minute. So be sure to check that out.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: I'm there for you. So go ahead and check that out.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: And until then, I will talk to you in a
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: couple days.