Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 383 - Gatorade Gameday Football Preview - Week 8

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 383 - Gatorade Gameday Football Preview - Week 8 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: This is his Sea Home Seniors or Woods and you're
0:04
Speaker 1: listening to the Walcome Preps Podcast with Tyler Anderson.
0:07
Speaker 2: Go America.
0:15
Speaker 3: Greetings and welcome to the Gatorade Game Day preview on
0:19
Speaker 3: the Walkham Preps Podcast. This is episode three hundred and
0:22
Speaker 3: eighty three and I am Tyler Anderson with Walkam Preps.
0:26
Speaker 3: We're gonna preview all eight games this weekend involving Walcome
0:30
Speaker 3: County teams. I want to give a special thank you
0:33
Speaker 3: to Sawyer Woods, the Seahome senior running back and defensive back,
0:37
Speaker 3: for giving the intro. Holy cow, did he have a
0:40
Speaker 3: night on last Friday night? Two hundred and sixty whatever,
0:44
Speaker 3: two hundred and sixty three yards rushing five touchdowns. The
0:48
Speaker 3: five touchdowns tied to school record for rushing touchdowns in
0:51
Speaker 3: a game. Two hundred and sixty three yards tied for
0:55
Speaker 3: the fourth place for the most rushing yards in a
0:58
Speaker 3: game in Seahome history. So awesome night by him his
1:02
Speaker 3: offensive line, and thank you so much for doing the intro. Also,
1:07
Speaker 3: congratulations to Mount Baker's Toga Tickle Out and jet Ross
1:11
Speaker 3: on winning the Week seven PEPSI Play of the Week
1:14
Speaker 3: with their game winning touchdown pass. It was their fourth
1:17
Speaker 3: touchdown connection of the night and their fourteenth on the season.
1:21
Speaker 3: Because of that, they each win a case of Gatorade
1:24
Speaker 3: thanks to Walton Beverage. I'm going to step away for
1:26
Speaker 3: a short fifteen seconds so we can hear from our
1:29
Speaker 3: title sponsor.
1:32
Speaker 4: You hear that that's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar.
1:36
Speaker 4: The better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar Cola Pepsi zero sugar,
1:43
Speaker 4: Let your taste decide.
1:45
Speaker 3: I can't tell all of you how blessed and thankful
1:47
Speaker 3: I am for a company like Walton Beverage, who's been
1:50
Speaker 3: a staple in our community for over ninety years, to
1:53
Speaker 3: take an interest in walking preps and allow me to
1:55
Speaker 3: keep doing what I love to do. It's a game
1:57
Speaker 3: changer for me, and I will continue to work harder
2:00
Speaker 3: every day to make the fantastic people at Walton Beverage
2:03
Speaker 3: proud to support youth sports in our community. They deliver
2:06
Speaker 3: superior quality and commitment, and I plan to do the same. Okay,
2:12
Speaker 3: let's talk some football. We have eight games to talk
2:14
Speaker 3: about for this weekend, and all eight of them are
2:16
Speaker 3: tonight at seven o'clock. I have all eleven Walkin County
2:21
Speaker 3: Football head coaches lined up to discuss their games. Let's
2:25
Speaker 3: not keep them waiting any longer. We'll start with the
2:28
Speaker 3: Lemon Nation Blackhawks, who are on the road to face
2:30
Speaker 3: the Charles Wright Academy Terriers. Lemy Nation is three and
2:35
Speaker 3: three on the season, Charles Wright is two and four.
2:37
Speaker 3: The Max Preps rankings shows lem Nation with a slight
2:40
Speaker 3: advantage in this one. And we are now joined on
2:43
Speaker 3: the Gatorade Game Day preview by Lemon Nation football coach
2:46
Speaker 3: with Tiko Layton. Thank you for joining me today, Coach,
2:49
Speaker 3: How you doing.
2:50
Speaker 2: Doing pretty good?
2:50
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me, Tyler, You're welcome. At what
2:54
Speaker 3: point in your football life did you think to yourself,
2:57
Speaker 3: I would love to be a coach.
3:00
Speaker 5: Honestly, I never thought it would be a coach. It
3:03
Speaker 5: just happened last second when Sanski asked me to be
3:05
Speaker 5: an assistant. Yeah, and then he left and the eighty
3:09
Speaker 5: asked me to step up, and just ever since then,
3:11
Speaker 5: I stepped up for that position.
3:12
Speaker 2: But I never thought I would be a coach.
3:15
Speaker 3: Did you Are you happy with the decisions you've made?
3:18
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I'm glad it panned out like this.
3:21
Speaker 6: Yeah. Good?
3:23
Speaker 7: Uh?
3:23
Speaker 3: And who are the who are the most influential coaches
3:26
Speaker 3: you've had in multiple sports, any sport.
3:29
Speaker 2: Uh.
3:30
Speaker 5: I would say the two most inspirational coaches and that
3:35
Speaker 5: I looked up to was Bo Westfird for football growing up. Yeah,
3:39
Speaker 5: and Chad Hunt for basketball.
3:42
Speaker 6: Yeah.
3:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I know Chad, I don't know
3:46
Speaker 3: him very well. I know Bo a little bit better.
3:48
Speaker 3: And yeah, awesome guy. He was a heck of a
3:52
Speaker 3: player back in the late late eighties. And and that's
3:56
Speaker 3: really cool. Before talking about your Week eight opponent, let's
3:59
Speaker 3: talk about last week. Nia Bay came out strong, got
4:02
Speaker 3: the best of you guys. What was your biggest takeaway
4:05
Speaker 3: from that game?
4:08
Speaker 5: Probably just stopping the run game. You know, they're very
4:10
Speaker 5: physical and quick. They had a couple of runs that
4:14
Speaker 5: broke free early in the game, and then we were
4:17
Speaker 5: able to adjust to it later on, but just that
4:20
Speaker 5: first and second quarter really torment us for the rest
4:23
Speaker 5: of the game.
4:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's hard to I mean, it's hard to
4:27
Speaker 3: come back after that after they jump out to a
4:29
Speaker 3: big lead. And yeah, it's tough. I mean, obviously big
4:33
Speaker 3: time opponent, right, and it's hard to get that back.
4:38
Speaker 3: You brought up in the past about seeing a lot
4:40
Speaker 3: of happy faces When you look at your team, What
4:42
Speaker 3: does that mean to you? When you can see the
4:44
Speaker 3: emotion on your players' faces like that, It.
4:47
Speaker 2: Just shows that they truly carry you know.
4:49
Speaker 5: They they don't look losing, you know, but at the
4:52
Speaker 5: end of the day, they know that there's more weeks
4:55
Speaker 5: to come, and overall, the standing is what we want.
4:59
Speaker 2: If we lose one game, we just got to come
5:00
Speaker 2: back better.
5:01
Speaker 5: So that them knowing that and being able to readjust
5:05
Speaker 5: on weeks coming is just shown a lot for their personality.
5:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely. All right, let's talk about this Friday night. You're
5:15
Speaker 3: back on the road, heading down to in a southwest
5:17
Speaker 3: Tacoma area to take on Charles Wright Academy. You know,
5:21
Speaker 3: I look at their schedule and or who they've played already,
5:25
Speaker 3: and you know, they got doubled up by cool scene,
5:28
Speaker 3: but then they handled concrete. So it's kind of a
5:31
Speaker 3: mystery to me. You know, I could see them being
5:35
Speaker 3: pretty comparable to you guys. Tell me about the Terrier team.
5:39
Speaker 5: So they're a big team. They're one A dropping down
5:43
Speaker 5: to one BEE playing in our league. But they're physical.
5:47
Speaker 5: They like to spread it out a lot and air
5:50
Speaker 5: it out. But they're another team that if we can
5:54
Speaker 5: minimize their their past game and keep everything inside, it
5:58
Speaker 5: should be a good one for us.
6:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a little a little different. I mean,
6:03
Speaker 3: you've gone against teams that are that are very run
6:05
Speaker 3: heavy and pack it in and sounds like they like
6:08
Speaker 3: to spread it out and throw it. Do you have
6:10
Speaker 3: a preference when your team is playing defense, just based
6:13
Speaker 3: on your team's abilities and strengths? Is it? Do you
6:17
Speaker 3: do you like going against these bigger teams that pound
6:20
Speaker 3: it and kind of pack everything inside, or team that
6:22
Speaker 3: likes to spread it out.
6:24
Speaker 2: We do like teams that compact it because.
6:27
Speaker 5: It it's better for our speed.
6:31
Speaker 2: We're not really the fastest team or very strong and.
6:36
Speaker 5: Stockey, and so having teams that air it out can
6:40
Speaker 5: be a challenge for us.
6:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of plays to your strengths, right, if
6:44
Speaker 3: it's they put it back all together, awesome stuff. Well,
6:47
Speaker 3: good luck against Charles, right and uh yeah, a one
6:51
Speaker 3: A team playing down one B. That's a that's a
6:53
Speaker 3: big jump. So you got your work cut out for you.
6:55
Speaker 3: Good luck, And thank you so much for joining me
6:57
Speaker 3: on the Gatorade Game day preview.
6:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate thank you for having me Tyler.
7:01
Speaker 3: You're welcome, all right, and we'll all be rooting for
7:03
Speaker 3: the Blackhawks there to get back above five hundred again
7:07
Speaker 3: this late in the season, that'd be fantastic. The next
7:10
Speaker 3: game of the night we're going to discuss has the
7:11
Speaker 3: Bellingham BayHawks going on the road to take on the
7:14
Speaker 3: Marysville Pilchuck Tomahawks. Bellingham is three and four in the
7:18
Speaker 3: season and Marysville Pilchuck is one and six. MAX Preps
7:22
Speaker 3: gives the edge to the BayHawks here and we are
7:24
Speaker 3: now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview by Bellingham
7:26
Speaker 3: football coach Adam Leonard. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
7:29
Speaker 3: How are you doing, I'm doing all right.
7:31
Speaker 8: Thanks for having me day, Tyler, You're welcome.
7:34
Speaker 3: At what point in your football life did you think
7:36
Speaker 3: to yourself, I would love to be a coach.
7:40
Speaker 8: Well, I've always wanted to be a coach.
7:42
Speaker 9: When I was playing collegiate sports at the University of
7:45
Speaker 9: Figure Sound, I found opportunities, whether it was coaching, you know,
7:51
Speaker 9: youth baseball, football, basketball, just to volunteer my time. I
7:54
Speaker 9: actually got hooked up with a job doing summer ball
7:57
Speaker 9: over a Cascade Christian and pi alplach to when I
8:00
Speaker 9: was down at the University of Puge of Sounds, so
8:02
Speaker 9: I knew at that time I just what I wanted
8:04
Speaker 9: to do and you know, creating a career both in athletics.
8:09
Speaker 9: I am a former athletic director when I was living
8:11
Speaker 9: in southern California in Los Angeles, and you know, being
8:14
Speaker 9: I was a quarterbacks coach when I was the AD
8:17
Speaker 9: down there and just had an opportunity to coach. I
8:20
Speaker 9: just knew this is something I want to do. I
8:21
Speaker 9: love coaching. I love high school athletics, I love college athletics.
8:25
Speaker 9: I love I love high school like game management, everything
8:27
Speaker 9: about sports. It's just its dear to my heart. So
8:31
Speaker 9: from a very young age, especially when I even when
8:33
Speaker 9: I was playing collegiate sports.
8:35
Speaker 8: I knew I wanted to be involved with it, and I.
8:37
Speaker 9: Get an opportunity to do it also coach my own children,
8:39
Speaker 9: which is just it's a huge blessing for me.
8:41
Speaker 8: So it's a huge part of my life.
8:44
Speaker 3: That's awesome. Do you have who are the kind of
8:47
Speaker 3: the most influential coaches that you've had.
8:50
Speaker 9: Well, I played for my father and he was really
8:53
Speaker 9: tough on me. And my dad was a former college
8:56
Speaker 9: a divisual on college basketball player, and he was. He
8:58
Speaker 9: was just a big part of what I what I did,
9:02
Speaker 9: and when in coaching me and shaping me and molding me,
9:04
Speaker 9: I'd have to, you know, say credit my dad to
9:07
Speaker 9: how you coached me. And I wanted to do that
9:08
Speaker 9: with my own kids, and I want to do that
9:09
Speaker 9: for other kids too when my kids, when I'm when
9:12
Speaker 9: I'm an empty nester, my kids are ound the house,
9:14
Speaker 9: I'll spital be coaching.
9:15
Speaker 8: This is something I'm really passionate about doing.
9:17
Speaker 9: And I'm really excited about what we're doing in all
9:20
Speaker 9: the sports over going in high school, and we're building
9:23
Speaker 9: a culture, and we have some great athletes over there.
9:25
Speaker 9: We just we're slowly but really building that up awesome.
9:29
Speaker 3: Before talking about your Week eight opponent, let's talk about
9:31
Speaker 3: last week really quickly, a big rivalry game against Sea Home.
9:35
Speaker 3: They get the win over your team, But was it
9:37
Speaker 3: just kind of a matter of overall team talent and depth?
9:41
Speaker 9: You know, Seaholmes got tremendous depth, They have tremendous athletes.
9:44
Speaker 9: You know, you take one aspect of their offense away,
9:46
Speaker 9: you get beat by their other. For us, really, you know,
9:49
Speaker 9: we had opportunities on offense We left some points definitely
9:53
Speaker 9: on the field, and we need to do better and
9:56
Speaker 9: clean that up as we as we move on at
9:57
Speaker 9: the season. Defensively, you know, they're tough, They're tough to
10:00
Speaker 9: game plan be where we've tried it to. You know,
10:01
Speaker 9: No One Write is one of the most dynamic quarterbacks
10:03
Speaker 9: and Walking County history. For the most part, we kept
10:07
Speaker 9: him under check, but again we got killed on the
10:09
Speaker 9: ground game. Sawyer Would's just had a career night, probably
10:12
Speaker 9: a record great unite for Sea Home Athletics, and you know,
10:16
Speaker 9: you take one thing away from them, you get beat
10:18
Speaker 9: in the other aspect. That all credit to them, their
10:20
Speaker 9: coaching staff. Just a tremendous team and probably going to
10:24
Speaker 9: make a playoff run and we'll.
10:25
Speaker 8: See where they end up.
10:26
Speaker 9: But it was a tough night for the BayHawks. But
10:29
Speaker 9: you know we're back at it here on Monday and
10:31
Speaker 9: getting to work and got another game this week.
10:34
Speaker 3: One player that we haven't really talked a lot about
10:36
Speaker 3: even off there you and I as your senior safety,
10:39
Speaker 3: Aidan Pohler. He came in late in that game against
10:43
Speaker 3: last year against Lakewood, caught a touchdown pass. This year,
10:46
Speaker 3: he's been starting all year. Free safety is He kind
10:49
Speaker 3: of the epitome of a senior making the most of
10:51
Speaker 3: his final season of high school football.
10:54
Speaker 9: Aiden makes the most of everything he does. Aiden, he's
10:59
Speaker 9: he's such a good teammate, He's such a great young man,
11:02
Speaker 9: great kid, great student athlete. He is making the most
11:05
Speaker 9: of the situation right now. Aiden was always a part
11:07
Speaker 9: in those youth programs of that those super teams that
11:10
Speaker 9: we had in Bellingham youth football. You know, he was
11:13
Speaker 9: teammates with you know, Josh Kroll and Ben Leonard and
11:15
Speaker 9: Nolan Wright and Cole Terrell and and you know Antsy
11:19
Speaker 9: and as Bjornson and all those you know, superstars in
11:22
Speaker 9: the in the city. He was a big part of that,
11:24
Speaker 9: and he always had a smaller role. But now that
11:26
Speaker 9: he's getting his opportunity, he's making the most of it.
11:28
Speaker 9: And he's a very very smart football player, a great kid,
11:31
Speaker 9: and a great teammate. He joined up playing baseball last
11:34
Speaker 9: year and with no experience, just to be some JV
11:37
Speaker 9: just to you know, be part of the team and
11:39
Speaker 9: be that that dugout guy. And he's that guy on
11:41
Speaker 9: the sideline that keeps everybody having fun, keeps him engaged,
11:44
Speaker 9: and keeps him focused.
11:45
Speaker 8: He's a he's a great overall kid. I love Aidan Fuller.
11:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love to hear that because especially that the
11:52
Speaker 3: baseball thing, there's there's such a dynamic to that of
11:56
Speaker 3: the positivity, the ripple effect. I'm so glad that he's
11:59
Speaker 3: getting his opportunit unity and making it count because this
12:02
Speaker 3: is a kid that you know, I've been in contact
12:04
Speaker 3: with for a couple of years and he's always you know,
12:08
Speaker 3: positive and commenting, and I'm thinking, man, I hope he
12:11
Speaker 3: gets his shot. I hope he gets a shot, and
12:12
Speaker 3: he's doing it this year, and so it's really really
12:15
Speaker 3: cool to see. He had a load of tackles this
12:17
Speaker 3: last week. So it's a lot of fun to see.
12:19
Speaker 3: Let's talk about this upcoming Friday night. You're heading south
12:22
Speaker 3: to take on Marysville pilcheck on Friday at seven o'clock.
12:25
Speaker 3: Tell us about this year's Tomahawk team.
12:28
Speaker 6: Well, you know, they like us.
12:31
Speaker 9: They played in the toughest conference in two as, so
12:33
Speaker 9: you know they've they've had some struggles against some top teams,
12:36
Speaker 9: but they're a team with a hist with a rich history.
12:39
Speaker 9: Are current defensive coordinator Gavin Wogness was a star over
12:44
Speaker 9: at Marysville Pilchack back in the day before he started
12:47
Speaker 9: playing football at Western Washington University, and he said one
12:49
Speaker 9: thing about the Tommy's, they are not gonna go down
12:52
Speaker 9: without a fight.
12:53
Speaker 8: So they're gonna come out. They're gonna play as hard,
12:55
Speaker 8: They're gona play as physical.
12:56
Speaker 6: They like to run the ball.
12:57
Speaker 8: They so we need to be prepared for that.
13:00
Speaker 9: I think, you know, whether they play a factor this week,
13:02
Speaker 9: but we still plan to stick to our game plan
13:04
Speaker 9: and income after them and really kind of bounce back
13:08
Speaker 9: this week. I never want to say this is a
13:10
Speaker 9: get right week, because every week's going to be tough.
13:12
Speaker 9: You can't overlook an opponent. So we're prepping with everything.
13:15
Speaker 9: We have to give the topics everything we can give them.
13:19
Speaker 3: You know, it's you and I were talking off here
13:21
Speaker 3: about injuries, and we're into week eight now and every
13:24
Speaker 3: team is dealing with stuff. It seems like so many
13:27
Speaker 3: teams around the county, whether it's injuries or grades or whatever.
13:31
Speaker 3: How are you looking just kind of overall you don't
13:33
Speaker 3: even have to say any names, but just just kind
13:36
Speaker 3: of overall health wise and all that. You guys still
13:39
Speaker 3: holding up pretty well.
13:41
Speaker 9: I mean, we're okay I would say that between health
13:44
Speaker 9: and grades and my gosh, you know, I'm becoming a
13:46
Speaker 9: tutor now as well as a head coach. Try to
13:48
Speaker 9: get our guys where they need to be for their grades,
13:51
Speaker 9: to get them up for eligibility this week. But you know,
13:54
Speaker 9: we had a couple of key guys out last week,
13:56
Speaker 9: agains seeing home, hoping to get those guys back. But
13:59
Speaker 9: I think we're we're no different. We're not immune to
14:02
Speaker 9: the situation like every other school in our conference. Everybody's
14:05
Speaker 9: got dealing with injuries and you know, great checks things
14:08
Speaker 9: like that. So we should be a little bit healthier,
14:12
Speaker 9: a little bit more eligible this week in terms of
14:14
Speaker 9: a team. So we're feeling good about that. And you know,
14:16
Speaker 9: we're not looking past marriage. We'll Filchuck.
14:18
Speaker 10: We have that, we have a weeknight opponent of the
14:21
Speaker 10: crosstown rival, and you know, a week ten game hopefully
14:23
Speaker 10: and then yeah, right now, our focus is one hundred
14:27
Speaker 10: percent on taking care.
14:29
Speaker 6: Of m V Yeah.
14:31
Speaker 3: That's awesome, man. Good luck against the Tomahawks on Friday,
14:33
Speaker 3: And thank you so much for joining me on the
14:35
Speaker 3: Gatorade game day preview.
14:37
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me, Tavia.
14:38
Speaker 3: Have a great week you too. As we look at
14:40
Speaker 3: the one A games in conference play. We'll start with
14:43
Speaker 3: the Blaine Border Rights hosting the Mount Baker Mountaineers. Blaine
14:46
Speaker 3: is two and five on the season and Mount Baker
14:49
Speaker 3: is six and one. As you may have fought, the
14:51
Speaker 3: Mountaineers hold the advantage here and we are now joined
14:54
Speaker 3: on the Gatorade Game Day preview by Mount Baker football
14:57
Speaker 3: coach Ron Lepper. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
15:00
Speaker 3: How are you.
15:00
Speaker 6: I'm doing well as always and great to be talking
15:03
Speaker 6: to you.
15:03
Speaker 3: Coler awesome, Thank you. At what point in your life
15:07
Speaker 3: did you think to yourself, I would love to be
15:10
Speaker 3: a coach.
15:11
Speaker 6: Oh, that's a twofold answer for you. When I was
15:15
Speaker 6: a junior in high school, I coached a litle league
15:18
Speaker 6: baseball team, and I just gave up my dream of
15:23
Speaker 6: baseball and being Steve Garvey and was just looked in
15:27
Speaker 6: ways after school and ended up coaching. They needed a
15:31
Speaker 6: coach and I didn't know. I mean, I didn't have
15:33
Speaker 6: any relatives on the team or anything like that. Just
15:36
Speaker 6: kind of fell into it and I kind of enjoyed it,
15:38
Speaker 6: and then I really didn't do anything until coach Preston,
15:42
Speaker 6: who you know very well, ye mentioned to me, you know,
15:45
Speaker 6: my at the end of my senior year at SFU
15:49
Speaker 6: that hey, if you know, I saw had some classes
15:52
Speaker 6: to finish up to get my degree, and he goes,
15:53
Speaker 6: we would love to have you come out and be
15:55
Speaker 6: part of the staff and start coaching, and and then
15:58
Speaker 6: and you know, that was nineteen eighty five, so I've
16:00
Speaker 6: been doing it ever since.
16:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I mean, it's silly question. But my next
16:06
Speaker 3: one of the follow up is pretty obviously says who
16:08
Speaker 3: was your most influential coaches you've had? And Coach Preston,
16:13
Speaker 3: I mean he is one of my all time favorites.
16:15
Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about Coach.
16:17
Speaker 6: P Yeah, I mean Coach P's and I were different
16:21
Speaker 6: and how we you know, just outward, how we communicate.
16:24
Speaker 6: He's pretty cerebral and you know, logical stuff. I'm a
16:28
Speaker 6: little more you know bestie back in back in when
16:31
Speaker 6: you remember when I first got there, I was pretty
16:33
Speaker 6: hot headed and you know, emotional and still be that way,
16:37
Speaker 6: but I've kind of calmed down a bit. In all
16:39
Speaker 6: my former athletes sa I'm really soft now. But yeah,
16:42
Speaker 6: it was just you know, and understand I and give
16:44
Speaker 6: me a chance and doing that and then I think
16:46
Speaker 6: the other two coaches that really had an impact on
16:48
Speaker 6: me were my high school coach, Jack Collins, who was
16:51
Speaker 6: in the Hall of Fame, and then Bill, my wrestling coach,
16:54
Speaker 6: also a Hall of Famer. Just how they you know,
16:57
Speaker 6: they just pushed you to be better. You know, they
17:00
Speaker 6: weren't as maybe didn't show them maybe the carrying side
17:04
Speaker 6: as much, but it was was what I needed at
17:06
Speaker 6: that time because I was probably not really headed down
17:10
Speaker 6: the right path, and those guys took an interest in me.
17:13
Speaker 6: And you know, the reason I'm Mount Baker's because of
17:17
Speaker 6: Coach Collins, because I remember when Coach Preston went for
17:19
Speaker 6: when actually that same year, the cashmir job came open,
17:22
Speaker 6: and I was really wanted to take that job, and
17:24
Speaker 6: I talked to him and he said, as much as
17:27
Speaker 6: he goes, I'd love to have you there. I think
17:28
Speaker 6: you should stay at Mont Baker. I think he got
17:30
Speaker 6: something good going there. So I made a decision to
17:32
Speaker 6: stay here at Mount Baker. And later thirty few years later,
17:36
Speaker 6: I'm still here.
17:37
Speaker 3: Oh that's awesome.
17:38
Speaker 6: I love it.
17:39
Speaker 3: And you know, Steve Garvey, I mean, at least she
17:41
Speaker 3: got the forearms down, yeah, and that's you know, so
17:44
Speaker 3: you're good. Steve Garvey Man should be in the Hall
17:47
Speaker 3: of Fame. I don't care what anybody says. Before talking
17:51
Speaker 3: about your Week eight opponent. Let's talk about last week.
17:54
Speaker 3: It was back and forth, instant classic. It had a
17:56
Speaker 3: lot of the same vibes as you're gaming at Nuuksack
17:59
Speaker 3: Valley a few weeks prior. It felt like neither team
18:02
Speaker 3: deserved to lose. I mean, it was just it had everything.
18:06
Speaker 3: What was your biggest takeaway from that game?
18:08
Speaker 6: Well, I think, you know, we talked, we emphasized in
18:12
Speaker 6: the week that we needed to take a big step forward.
18:14
Speaker 6: We felt like we haven't hadn't really taken the kind
18:17
Speaker 6: of steps we wanted between you know, the Bellevue game
18:20
Speaker 6: obviously the next that game was a great game, back
18:23
Speaker 6: and forth, you know, and then we had you know, Meridian,
18:26
Speaker 6: where you know, I take a lot of blame for
18:29
Speaker 6: that because I didn't do a good job of coaching
18:31
Speaker 6: as I could have on during the game. And so
18:35
Speaker 6: we really talked about that, and I thought, like you said,
18:36
Speaker 6: both teams battled. There was both teams had some chances.
18:40
Speaker 6: You know, we were we told ourselves or you know,
18:42
Speaker 6: a team in locker room at halftime like it's twenty
18:44
Speaker 6: one twenty and you know, I don't think we have
18:46
Speaker 6: any more toes to shoot off, But I was wrong,
18:48
Speaker 6: because you know, we have a couple more in the
18:51
Speaker 6: second half. But yeah, just a really good high school
18:53
Speaker 6: It's a great high school football game. You know, both
18:55
Speaker 6: teams making plays, both teams playing hard. But I think
18:58
Speaker 6: we did take the step that wean on of those
19:00
Speaker 6: guys to do, and so we wanted to continue to
19:02
Speaker 6: keep building as we get closer and closer to the postseason.
19:05
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I want to talk a little bit about your
19:08
Speaker 3: senior fullback and linebacker Camden Moa. Here's a kid that
19:12
Speaker 3: has weighted his turn in the backfield toughest nails, always
19:15
Speaker 3: been a great linebacker, and correct me if I'm wrong,
19:18
Speaker 3: but he might be the only player on your team
19:20
Speaker 3: that stepped between the lines in the state championship game
19:23
Speaker 3: three years ago against Royal. Tell our listeners what it's
19:26
Speaker 3: been like to coach him.
19:28
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, you know, Camden is one of those
19:30
Speaker 6: guys that you know, he's not gonna you know, Valu
19:32
Speaker 6: with his size and stuff, but you know he's got
19:35
Speaker 6: good notes for the game and plays hard. You know,
19:38
Speaker 6: last year when he did get his chance to run
19:39
Speaker 6: the ball, he ran the ball extremely well and hard.
19:42
Speaker 6: So we knew coming into the season and we're going
19:44
Speaker 6: to be fine there. And he you know, he he
19:47
Speaker 6: doesn't have maybe some of the numbers that some of
19:48
Speaker 6: the other guys have, but he's got some tough runs
19:50
Speaker 6: for us. I mean that that fourth down run that
19:52
Speaker 6: he had, you know, in the fourth quarter was a
19:55
Speaker 6: huge run for us. And then on the last drive,
19:58
Speaker 6: you know, we kind of got a couple chunks in
20:00
Speaker 6: a row, and you know, he was one of those
20:02
Speaker 6: guys that just runs that ball hard, finishes his runs
20:04
Speaker 6: like he's not probably going to try to avoid too
20:07
Speaker 6: many guys, and so, you know, he's a guy that
20:10
Speaker 6: we count on to come out every every week and
20:12
Speaker 6: play hard for us.
20:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's fun to watch. You know, there's so
20:16
Speaker 3: many of those moas and and uh, you know it's
20:19
Speaker 3: exciting to see when there's another one coming. All right,
20:23
Speaker 3: let's talk about Friday night, another conference game, this time
20:25
Speaker 3: on the road against Blaine. Tell us about this year's
20:28
Speaker 3: Border Right team.
20:30
Speaker 6: Well, you know that I know going into the season,
20:32
Speaker 6: coach Olson was you know a little concerned, but uh,
20:36
Speaker 6: you know, those guys were playing hard. He They've got
20:39
Speaker 6: some athletes that can, uh, it can make you look
20:42
Speaker 6: silly if you you know, if you've given them them
20:44
Speaker 6: the opportunity. You know, they played pretty well last week
20:48
Speaker 6: against Friday Harbor. They've been in you know, they moved
20:51
Speaker 6: the ball against any Christian early and then you know
20:53
Speaker 6: kind of got bogged down. You know, put some points
20:55
Speaker 6: against nuts sacks. So you know, we we got to
20:57
Speaker 6: be ready to go because they spread you out a
20:59
Speaker 6: little bit. The quarterback's kind of elusive back there. Number
21:03
Speaker 6: seven and number seventeen do a good job of run
21:05
Speaker 6: around and catching the ball. So you know, we again,
21:09
Speaker 6: like we always do, there's things that we know we
21:10
Speaker 6: have to do, but we focus on what we're going
21:12
Speaker 6: to do to try to you know, try to counter that,
21:14
Speaker 6: and then you know we're offensively, we're going to have
21:17
Speaker 6: to really kind of establish ourselves a little bit and
21:21
Speaker 6: then you know, give us our best opportunity.
21:23
Speaker 3: Now I can't remember at Hawkinson, but will this be
21:28
Speaker 3: the first game all season for your team to be
21:30
Speaker 3: played on artificial turf?
21:31
Speaker 6: It is, Yeah, it'll be our first turf game.
21:34
Speaker 3: So how is that? I mean, do the kids have
21:36
Speaker 3: different shoes and all that stuff.
21:37
Speaker 11: Do you do you.
21:38
Speaker 3: Kind of let them know ahead of time or how
21:40
Speaker 3: does is there any difference to that as far as
21:43
Speaker 3: maybe how you coach or is it just kind of
21:45
Speaker 3: you know what, this is just a different This is
21:47
Speaker 3: just a different platform. You're just going to play football.
21:50
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, we don't talk about it. Everybody knows
21:52
Speaker 6: that they got turf up there. You know that this
21:55
Speaker 6: was twenty years ago. Then yeah, we'd have to have
21:57
Speaker 6: different shoes. It was the old AstroTurf, but this field turf,
22:00
Speaker 6: you wear your same shoes.
22:01
Speaker 3: Oh okay.
22:02
Speaker 6: We just know that, you know, suppose the it's supposed
22:05
Speaker 6: to be maybe wet on Friday, and so we just
22:08
Speaker 6: know that, you know, we won't have to deal with
22:09
Speaker 6: the mud and stuff, you know, like you do on
22:11
Speaker 6: grass at times. So but you know with that up there,
22:16
Speaker 6: it could be windy. I remember, you know, we had
22:18
Speaker 6: the mini playoff there a couple of years ago and
22:20
Speaker 6: the wind and the rain and stuff. But as football
22:23
Speaker 6: this time of year, you know, and so we're excited
22:25
Speaker 6: about that opportunity knowing that you know, down the road,
22:28
Speaker 6: if we continue to have some success that you know,
22:31
Speaker 6: we'll be playing more on turf. We're still playing grass
22:33
Speaker 6: like last year our first in a Week ten game
22:35
Speaker 6: we played at Zilla at their place. But yeah, I
22:38
Speaker 6: mean it's it'll be good to get a chance to
22:41
Speaker 6: be on turf before, you know, before Week ten.
22:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely good stuff, coach. Best of luck against the Border
22:47
Speaker 3: Rights on Friday. And thank you so much for joining
22:49
Speaker 3: me on the Gatorade Game Day.
22:50
Speaker 6: Preview manytime and again, just appreciate everything of you for
22:53
Speaker 6: the kids. Thank you, Tyler, You're.
22:55
Speaker 3: Welcome and we are now joined on the Gatorade Game
22:58
Speaker 3: Day preview by blaming football code Andy Olsen, coach, thank
23:01
Speaker 3: you for joining me today.
23:02
Speaker 6: How are you doing.
23:03
Speaker 12: I'm doing all right, you know, disappointing Mariner's result, but
23:07
Speaker 12: living the dream.
23:08
Speaker 3: Nonetheless, Yeah, exactly at what point in your football life
23:13
Speaker 3: did you think to yourself, I would love to be
23:16
Speaker 3: a coach.
23:19
Speaker 12: I know the answer to this one. I was in
23:22
Speaker 12: fifth grade and I was a ball boy on the
23:25
Speaker 12: Linden sideline, and well, most ball boys are enamored by
23:31
Speaker 12: the star players like you know. I was a big fellow,
23:33
Speaker 12: so I could have been paying attention to, you know,
23:35
Speaker 12: names like Evan nota Boom or Dirk Dalgren. That's an
23:39
Speaker 12: all time name too, by the way. Yeah, Instead, I
23:43
Speaker 12: was I was just completely, you know, infatuated by watching
23:46
Speaker 12: coach Graamy. I was like, I want to be a
23:49
Speaker 12: football coach right then and there. Like, I know, I'm
23:52
Speaker 12: not the most athletic guy in the bunch, and football
23:54
Speaker 12: is a lot of fun.
23:55
Speaker 6: I love playing.
23:55
Speaker 12: It, but I was like, this would be pretty cool.
23:58
Speaker 12: And I got kind of on Friday night lights at
24:01
Speaker 12: a really young age and haven't missed a lot of
24:04
Speaker 12: falls on the sidelines.
24:06
Speaker 3: That's true, and so yeah, I mean, obviously the follow
24:09
Speaker 3: up question is a no brainer because I have written
24:12
Speaker 3: here and who are the most influential coaches you've had?
24:15
Speaker 3: I think we know who the number one is.
24:17
Speaker 12: Yeah, And I mean I've I've been influenced by a
24:20
Speaker 12: lot of different coaches. I mean, coaching is just stealing
24:23
Speaker 12: ideas and ways of doing things from other people and
24:26
Speaker 12: trying to figure out what fits you the best. Another one, well,
24:29
Speaker 12: another two that have really impacted me. We're in different
24:33
Speaker 12: kind of avenues. That Terry Kimick. That's an old name.
24:37
Speaker 12: He coached CE Team football forever and I got a
24:39
Speaker 12: chance to coach at a really young age with Terry,
24:42
Speaker 12: and then another one was Kent Victor, and Kent Victor
24:44
Speaker 12: on the basketball court more so than the football. I mean,
24:46
Speaker 12: I played firm in seventh grade, but I got to
24:49
Speaker 12: spend a lot more time with him on the hardwood,
24:50
Speaker 12: and just his passion and energy and you know a
24:54
Speaker 12: lot of the things that we preach. He preached about,
24:56
Speaker 12: you know, controlling your control, bulls, and you know, every
24:59
Speaker 12: day you can give your very very best effort regardless
25:02
Speaker 12: of circumstance. So he always get us to get us
25:04
Speaker 12: hyped up to go play Scout team against you know,
25:07
Speaker 12: his defense. And I spent many years getting absolutely tally
25:11
Speaker 12: whacked by Chris Bolt as a Scout team post player
25:14
Speaker 12: at London. But every day Camp made me feel seen
25:17
Speaker 12: and made me want to work hard for him and
25:18
Speaker 12: for the program.
25:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ken Victor, what a legend. Yeah, my goodness. Those
25:24
Speaker 3: are some big time names there. And you know, growing
25:27
Speaker 3: up in London, I mean, how blessed are you?
25:29
Speaker 6: Right?
25:29
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just so many people that are influential
25:34
Speaker 3: and I you know, I didn't even grow up in
25:36
Speaker 3: the culture, and I know these guys. I mean I
25:37
Speaker 3: knew Kent because he taught at Mount Baker, but when
25:41
Speaker 3: I was in school. But yeah, I mean, it's just
25:45
Speaker 3: what an unbelievable avenue to go down and then and
25:50
Speaker 3: to become a coach. Before talking about your Week eight opponent,
25:54
Speaker 3: let's talk about last week. A big win on Friday
25:57
Speaker 3: Night against Friday Harbor. Both teams scoring back and forth
26:02
Speaker 3: in the first quarter. I think the Wolverines realized their
26:04
Speaker 3: only chance was to start kicking on side kicks, which
26:08
Speaker 3: they recovered a few, but in the second half it
26:11
Speaker 3: was all border rights. What was your biggest takeaway from
26:13
Speaker 3: that game?
26:15
Speaker 12: I think our biggest learning experience from that game is
26:18
Speaker 12: we had never really played with a two score lead before,
26:21
Speaker 12: and we come out, we go up fourteen to nothing
26:23
Speaker 12: early because we got a three now out after scoring,
26:25
Speaker 12: and then we go down to score again, right, and
26:27
Speaker 12: our kids didn't know how to handle that success very well.
26:30
Speaker 12: I think that we let the scoreboard dictate us. We're
26:33
Speaker 12: a lot better at not letting the scoreboard dictate what
26:35
Speaker 12: we do when we're on the other side of things,
26:37
Speaker 12: because we have a lot more practice at that Tyler.
26:39
Speaker 12: But we all of a sudden, we're up to scores
26:42
Speaker 12: and it's like, oh, okay, we're good, and you know,
26:47
Speaker 12: it was a good teachable moment. About halfway through the
26:49
Speaker 12: second quarter, we call the time out, we readdressed, what
26:52
Speaker 12: is our standards are?
26:53
Speaker 6: What are our expectations?
26:55
Speaker 12: And are we living up to those? And the answer
26:56
Speaker 12: was Orizon on the no. And from there on out.
27:00
Speaker 12: I was very pleased with our effort and our attitude
27:03
Speaker 12: and our focus and our attention to detail. And we
27:05
Speaker 12: went out and we executed, which was a lot of
27:06
Speaker 12: fun for those kids. And it was also just a
27:09
Speaker 12: gorgeous day out of Friday Harbor. You don't get those
27:10
Speaker 12: in October very often, so overall, just a really good experience.
27:14
Speaker 12: Kids got to go on the ferry and hang out
27:16
Speaker 12: with each other all day, So just it was a
27:18
Speaker 12: win across the board.
27:20
Speaker 6: Yeah.
27:20
Speaker 3: Absolutely, when you get a win and you get to
27:22
Speaker 3: take the ferry ride back and celebrate together as a
27:24
Speaker 3: team for that long of a time, and it's a
27:28
Speaker 3: great thing overall. I thought that one of the big
27:31
Speaker 3: things for that game is you were able to it
27:33
Speaker 3: was probably your best overall game just running the football.
27:37
Speaker 3: And I know there's been a lot of moving parts
27:40
Speaker 3: on the offensive line, and do you feel like this
27:43
Speaker 3: was your best game as far as your offensive line
27:46
Speaker 3: as a whole.
27:48
Speaker 12: Yes, maybe not to the physicality piece. We have some
27:53
Speaker 12: things to clean up there for sure, but it was
27:55
Speaker 12: great to go get some push and to develop some
27:58
Speaker 12: holes and we were in kind crowing quite a bit
28:00
Speaker 12: in the backfield. I think he had eleven carries. Yeah,
28:03
Speaker 12: and he did a good job.
28:04
Speaker 6: Hit the whole hard.
28:05
Speaker 12: You know, there's a senior leader that's just been all right,
28:07
Speaker 12: put me and send me right, I'll go play some
28:10
Speaker 12: running back, and he just he did a really good
28:12
Speaker 12: job for us as well. We keep getting better every
28:15
Speaker 12: week regardless of like, we'll always discover something new that
28:18
Speaker 12: we need to clean up. But again, the effort in
28:20
Speaker 12: the attitude that's never a question for us is just
28:24
Speaker 12: the execution piece. So we did some good things, we
28:26
Speaker 12: did some bad things, and we're excited for a new opponent,
28:29
Speaker 12: a new week, and a new challenge.
28:31
Speaker 3: Yeah. Let's talk about junior Axel Shelton for a little bit.
28:34
Speaker 3: He leads Watkin County and tackles. He made the switch
28:37
Speaker 3: about five weeks ago from tight end to right tackle
28:40
Speaker 3: on offense. How has that transition been for him and
28:42
Speaker 3: for your team?
28:44
Speaker 12: I think it was very pivotal for the maturation of
28:46
Speaker 12: this program. Axel made that decision on his own to
28:52
Speaker 12: go from playing a position I guess you're name in
28:54
Speaker 12: the paper to going and playing right tackle and protecting
28:57
Speaker 12: Connor Brown and trying to, you know, mix it up
28:59
Speaker 12: with with the big fellows inside. And we point to
29:03
Speaker 12: moments like that that kind of will transcend your season
29:07
Speaker 12: and either lift you up or break you down. And
29:09
Speaker 12: I think it's a completely different thing if it was
29:11
Speaker 12: me telling Axel you have to do this, versus Axel
29:14
Speaker 12: coming to me and saying I want to do this
29:16
Speaker 12: for the team. So we made sure to address that too.
29:19
Speaker 12: And since then, you know, you can't be selfish. If
29:22
Speaker 12: you're one of your most talented, if not the most
29:24
Speaker 12: talented football player on your team is saying I'm willing
29:28
Speaker 12: to go serve others. Kids will fall in line with that,
29:32
Speaker 12: and so that was that was a big moment. I mean,
29:34
Speaker 12: we talked about wins and losses and we put them
29:37
Speaker 12: in the paper, but I think that was our biggest
29:39
Speaker 12: win in the year. Was here's our leader leading. Yeah
29:43
Speaker 12: really awesome.
29:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, he's a joy to watch and you know,
29:47
Speaker 3: not exactly built like your typical offensive tackle, but doing
29:52
Speaker 3: you know, what he thinks is best for the team.
29:55
Speaker 3: And that's like you said, as just it can be
29:58
Speaker 3: monumental for the program going forward because the youngsters are
30:01
Speaker 3: going to see that, they're gonna want to help, and
30:03
Speaker 3: it's just gonna the ripple effect will keep going. Let's
30:06
Speaker 3: talk about Friday night. This upcoming Friday night, you're hosting
30:09
Speaker 3: Mount Baker. What kind of problems do the Mountaineers present
30:14
Speaker 3: a lot of problems.
30:15
Speaker 12: They're a very very good football team. I'm very open
30:19
Speaker 12: with our boys. I'm like, hey, Mount Baker is the
30:21
Speaker 12: standard that we're trying to build towards. When we look
30:24
Speaker 12: at how coach Leppers ran that program. They maximize their talent.
30:28
Speaker 12: They don't care about the scoreboard. They just want to
30:30
Speaker 12: go play smash mouth football to their level for forty
30:33
Speaker 12: eight straight minutes every single time they take the field.
30:36
Speaker 12: It was bused with the opportunity to watch them play
30:38
Speaker 12: against Bellevy and sit up in the stands with about
30:40
Speaker 12: six young border rights and my favorite moment just watching
30:45
Speaker 12: them the Mountaineers was they get down early. It's I
30:48
Speaker 12: think twenty one nothing right off the gate or something
30:50
Speaker 12: like that, and Baker takes the ball and it's three
30:54
Speaker 12: plays of just smash mouth in between the b gaps,
30:57
Speaker 12: we're gonna go finish drives and Bellvy had no idea
30:59
Speaker 12: what hit them.
31:00
Speaker 6: Like they're on their heels.
31:01
Speaker 12: They're thinking this team is just gonna fold over and
31:03
Speaker 12: quit and Baker, you and I know Baker doesn't do that.
31:09
Speaker 12: And they just went down and scored touchdown, made a
31:11
Speaker 12: ball game, and we're competitive the rest of the way
31:14
Speaker 12: after kind of that, you know, initial like, whoa, this
31:16
Speaker 12: is Bellvy, right, And we just point to moments like that.
31:20
Speaker 12: We think that, you know, if we want to be
31:22
Speaker 12: successful at Blaine, we need to try and model a
31:25
Speaker 12: successful program that's done for a long time, and we
31:29
Speaker 12: we look at Baker as kind of that model. How
31:31
Speaker 12: can we become more like them because we just are
31:34
Speaker 12: really impressed with their program as a whole. They have
31:37
Speaker 12: great talented players. This year, you know, they pretty much
31:41
Speaker 12: locked up the league, which is cool because it's been
31:42
Speaker 12: a few years since they've done that. And it's just
31:45
Speaker 12: gonna be another great opportunity for us to go up
31:47
Speaker 12: against another really good measuring stick and challenge ourselves in
31:49
Speaker 12: different ways to try and improve.
31:52
Speaker 3: Is there a way to replicate that wing T offense
31:56
Speaker 3: in practice.
31:58
Speaker 12: Uh no, but we're going to do our best. One
32:02
Speaker 12: thing that we love to do when we prepare for
32:05
Speaker 12: wing T is we actually use a very tiny football.
32:08
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, yeah, So we have like one of those.
32:11
Speaker 12: And it's awesome too because our scout team quarterback can
32:14
Speaker 12: chuck it about sixty yards, right, So that is always
32:17
Speaker 12: one of the limiting factors as well. You know they
32:19
Speaker 12: throw the deep pass. We don't really get a good
32:21
Speaker 12: look on that. You do when you're throwing the junior football,
32:25
Speaker 12: things like the size of a softball. And the reason
32:28
Speaker 12: why we use that is it's hard to see and
32:31
Speaker 12: it's going to train our linebackers to not be looking
32:34
Speaker 12: in the backfield but trust their keys because you're not
32:35
Speaker 12: going to see the football anyway. So that's been one
32:39
Speaker 12: fun thing that we've done. That's a product of coach
32:42
Speaker 12: defensive coordinator Troy Anderson. He had that idea a few
32:45
Speaker 12: years back and we've been using it since and we
32:47
Speaker 12: felt like it's helped us prepare better.
32:49
Speaker 3: That's a what a fantastic idea. Of course, Troy played
32:52
Speaker 3: at Burlington Edison back in the glory days and back
32:55
Speaker 3: then I don't know if I mean you know this
32:57
Speaker 3: or maybe he's said it. I think there was a
32:59
Speaker 3: time when Sedraw Woolley was doing did a lot of
33:03
Speaker 3: stuff like that, and they all wore these armbands that
33:06
Speaker 3: were like brown with white stripes, and like all the
33:10
Speaker 3: backs did, and so they would all it looked like
33:13
Speaker 3: they all had the ball at the same time, and
33:15
Speaker 3: there was something. I don't know if it was outlawed
33:17
Speaker 3: later or something, but I remember reading something about that
33:20
Speaker 3: back in the eighties, and I'm wondering if he remembers
33:24
Speaker 3: that and came up with that idea. But that's a
33:27
Speaker 3: that's such an interesting concept and a brilliant idea. And
33:31
Speaker 3: I don't know if any other coaches listening to this
33:32
Speaker 3: are gonna go, hey, that's a great idea.
33:35
Speaker 12: We're gonna do that too, A stolen ideas.
33:39
Speaker 3: Absolutely awesome stuff. Coach, thank you so much. Good luck
33:42
Speaker 3: against Mount Baker on Friday, and thank you for joining
33:45
Speaker 3: me on the Gatorade Game day preview.
33:47
Speaker 12: Absolutely thanks for having me Tyler go Border Rights.
33:50
Speaker 3: Well, there you have it from Coach Lepper and Coach Olsen.
33:52
Speaker 3: Now let's get a word from our premier sponsor.
33:57
Speaker 4: You hear that that's the sound of Pepsi's zero sugar.
34:01
Speaker 4: The better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar Cola Pepsi zero sugar,
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34:10
Speaker 3: In another one A conference game, we have the Linden
34:12
Speaker 3: Christian Links hosting the Meridian Trojans. Linden Christian is six
34:16
Speaker 3: and one on the season and Meridian is five and two.
34:20
Speaker 3: Max Preps shows els with a strong advantage here and
34:23
Speaker 3: we are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview
34:25
Speaker 3: by Meridian football coach Patrick Games. Coach, thank you for
34:28
Speaker 3: joining me today. How are you doing. I'm doing well, Tyler,
34:31
Speaker 3: how are you doing great? At what point in your
34:34
Speaker 3: football life did you think to yourself, I would love
34:38
Speaker 3: to be a coach.
34:40
Speaker 2: Hmm.
34:41
Speaker 13: I would say probably as I near the end of
34:45
Speaker 13: my undergraduate career in college when I decided to enter
34:52
Speaker 13: the teaching program at school, and it felt like a
34:55
Speaker 13: really natural extension at that point, And that was really
35:00
Speaker 13: solidified early when I was hired to come back here
35:04
Speaker 13: to Meridian. And you know, even before I had even
35:07
Speaker 13: taught one day in my own classroom, I was already
35:10
Speaker 13: out on the field at football practice.
35:12
Speaker 14: So that was a pretty natural extension.
35:14
Speaker 13: I know every coach will tell you this, and especially
35:18
Speaker 13: the ones that are in classrooms also that what you
35:22
Speaker 13: do out on the field.
35:23
Speaker 14: Is an extension of the classroom.
35:25
Speaker 13: So if you're in education, coaching is just another avenue
35:30
Speaker 13: for continuing the education, in this case on the football
35:33
Speaker 13: field of the young men that we have here at Meridian.
35:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this might be a silly question for you,
35:39
Speaker 3: but we're the most influential coaches that you've had.
35:44
Speaker 13: I could tell you all the coaches I had, to
35:46
Speaker 13: be honest, in middle school at Mount Baker Junior High
35:48
Speaker 13: it was Kent Victor, and I really appreciated a plan
35:52
Speaker 13: for mister Victor that was a lot of fun. And
35:56
Speaker 13: I had one coach here in high school that was
35:58
Speaker 13: my dad, And at UPS, my head coach was Gordie Elliott,
36:04
Speaker 13: wonderful man and coach who coached a lot of years
36:07
Speaker 13: in the Washington high school ranks and for all of
36:12
Speaker 13: my career at UPS, my running backs coach was the
36:16
Speaker 13: late Walt Hunt that we lost a couple of years
36:18
Speaker 13: ago that were my same was also a number forty five,
36:22
Speaker 13: so we had a special connection. He played on Rose
36:25
Speaker 13: Bowl teams at the University of Washington, and was really
36:29
Speaker 13: really instrumental in my development as a football player in
36:32
Speaker 13: college and had a really, really great and special bond
36:35
Speaker 13: with him.
36:36
Speaker 3: That's awesome, And I'm glad you mentioned Kent Victor because
36:40
Speaker 3: what a legend in Walkin County. And you know what's
36:43
Speaker 3: funny is when I interviewed Coach Olson and asked him
36:45
Speaker 3: the same question, he brought up Kent Victor as a
36:48
Speaker 3: like a junior high basketball coach that he had or
36:51
Speaker 3: something like that. So it's funny how he's touched so
36:53
Speaker 3: many lives around the county. Before talking about your Week
36:57
Speaker 3: eight opponent, let's talk about last week. Stayed with Niksack
37:00
Speaker 3: Valley for a while in the first half, trading touchdowns.
37:03
Speaker 3: It was fourteen fourteen. There were some weird plays back
37:07
Speaker 3: and forth, turnovers at the one yard line, and then
37:10
Speaker 3: they kind of it kind of erupted when they scored
37:12
Speaker 3: that long touchdown, and then from there they kind of
37:14
Speaker 3: had to control. What was your biggest takeaway from that game?
37:19
Speaker 13: They had some They have some really explosive athletes on
37:22
Speaker 13: that team. The quarterback does a really really good job
37:26
Speaker 13: getting the ball out quick, and their game plan was
37:28
Speaker 13: sound and solid against what we were trying to do
37:31
Speaker 13: to survive in that one. I thought the play that
37:36
Speaker 13: their slot receiver made on fourth and twelve twenty six
37:41
Speaker 13: twenty was the score halfway through the third quarter, and
37:44
Speaker 13: that kid laid out incredibly on a ball in the
37:47
Speaker 13: end zone to not just keep the drive going, but
37:50
Speaker 13: to score a touchdown to put them back up two scores,
37:54
Speaker 13: which really continued to generate momentum in their favor. And
37:59
Speaker 13: I was really really impressed by that individual effort. And
38:03
Speaker 13: it's that kind of effort from your senior leaders which
38:05
Speaker 13: makes differences in games that were close, and that one
38:09
Speaker 13: was closed at the time. And and then we gave
38:10
Speaker 13: up a couple more explosives, and with the guys that
38:14
Speaker 13: we've got right now are sometimes our our explosiveness is
38:19
Speaker 13: a little bit limited with who we've got left out
38:21
Speaker 13: on the field, and we just weren't able to match
38:24
Speaker 13: as quickly as as we would have liked to.
38:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that play that And
38:30
Speaker 3: I didn't realize sometimes when when I do what I do,
38:33
Speaker 3: just watching the film and taking stats and just kind
38:35
Speaker 3: of taking a few notes here and there, I didn't
38:37
Speaker 3: realize or maybe I'd forgotten already at that point that
38:39
Speaker 3: that was a fourth down play. Jackson Hester who makes
38:43
Speaker 3: the catch. Yes, kind of a kid on that team
38:46
Speaker 3: that is finally getting his chance as a senior. And
38:49
Speaker 3: I love it when seniors finally get their chance. And
38:51
Speaker 3: I kind of want to talk about one of yours
38:53
Speaker 3: really quickly. Cooper Merrim a guy that doesn't get the
38:57
Speaker 3: spotlight put on him too much. Switched from tight end
39:00
Speaker 3: to play the offensive line to fill a need. What
39:03
Speaker 3: has it been like to coach him over the years.
39:05
Speaker 14: Such a joy, such a pleasure.
39:08
Speaker 13: Cooper was a first time football player when he entered
39:10
Speaker 13: our program as a freshman and was a tight end
39:13
Speaker 13: for three years.
39:14
Speaker 14: And when we got to springball this.
39:15
Speaker 13: Year and he kind of looked around and noticed that
39:19
Speaker 13: we didn't have a lot alignement in our program, and
39:21
Speaker 13: he said, you know, I understand that it's a possibility
39:25
Speaker 13: that you know, I might play in the offensive line.
39:27
Speaker 14: I'd prefer to play tight end, but I'll.
39:29
Speaker 13: Do whatever the team needs me to do. That was
39:31
Speaker 13: the only conversation that we had about it. And he
39:34
Speaker 13: knew where he had to be to lead and to
39:37
Speaker 13: serve his team. And that's the kind of young man
39:39
Speaker 13: that Cooper is and always has been a selfless leader,
39:43
Speaker 13: a smart football player, maximizing his talents and his gifts
39:49
Speaker 13: and his intelligence for our team. And he's the only
39:52
Speaker 13: senior right now in our offensive line, and he's only
39:55
Speaker 13: played whatever we week seven, He's only played seven games
39:58
Speaker 13: of the offense in the offensive line as a high
40:01
Speaker 13: school football player, and here he is as as the
40:03
Speaker 13: leader of that group and he plays every down offense defense.
40:08
Speaker 13: Just I can't say enough good things about him. And
40:12
Speaker 13: he is quiet, consistent, steady, confident leadership. And you can't
40:17
Speaker 13: have a team, let alone a successful team, but you
40:21
Speaker 13: can't have a team without examples of what it actually
40:25
Speaker 13: means to sacrifice for the good of everybody else out there.
40:29
Speaker 13: And right now, that's Cooper for us.
40:31
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's so well put. And I love it when
40:33
Speaker 3: not only when seniors, like I said earlier, get their
40:36
Speaker 3: chance to play and play a lot of minutes, but
40:40
Speaker 3: at the same time, I should say snaps and a
40:42
Speaker 3: lot of but at the same time, when that same
40:44
Speaker 3: kid sacrifices his own for the good of the team,
40:48
Speaker 3: I mean that that ripples throughout the rest of the team.
40:51
Speaker 3: And there could be a freshman or sophomore right now
40:54
Speaker 3: in their head thinking I want to do the same
40:56
Speaker 3: thing when I'm a senior, you know, So that that's
40:58
Speaker 3: what's really cool is how it positivity goes throughout the program.
41:02
Speaker 3: And that's what's so fun about high school sports.
41:05
Speaker 13: It is, I want to share this this other thing
41:07
Speaker 13: for all coaches, for all players out there. We've had
41:11
Speaker 13: to ask other players in the past if they would
41:13
Speaker 13: like not, if they would like if they would move
41:15
Speaker 13: positions for the good of their team.
41:16
Speaker 14: And we've been told at.
41:17
Speaker 13: Times before, no, this is my position, and that was
41:22
Speaker 13: never a consideration For Cooper, it was more like, yes,
41:25
Speaker 13: this is my team, right, And that's the mindset that
41:29
Speaker 13: you're going to need to have if you're ever.
41:31
Speaker 14: Going to have.
41:33
Speaker 13: Any kind of authentic leadership that people can look to
41:37
Speaker 13: and say whose lead would I follow? And it's it's
41:41
Speaker 13: the guys that are going to make the self sacrificial
41:44
Speaker 13: decisions for the good of all.
41:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so well put, and you're exactly right, and yeah,
41:50
Speaker 3: I just that. And again, but that's what's so great
41:53
Speaker 3: about high school sports, right, is that kids can play
41:57
Speaker 3: different types of positions just based on you know, size
42:01
Speaker 3: and stuff. You're not going to see a six two,
42:03
Speaker 3: one hundred and eighty five pound tackle in college. But
42:06
Speaker 3: you can see that, you know, at the high school level,
42:09
Speaker 3: and when you can when you can jump into that
42:11
Speaker 3: position and make it your own, and it's a really
42:15
Speaker 3: positive thing. So I'm really happy for him and your team,
42:18
Speaker 3: and I'm glad it's working out. Well. Let's talk about
42:21
Speaker 3: Friday night. You're going on the road to face Lendon
42:24
Speaker 3: Christian who's coming off a tough loss as well. What
42:27
Speaker 3: kind of problems do the Links present?
42:29
Speaker 13: I think you asked me about this about the same
42:31
Speaker 13: question about Nooksac and it's a lot of them. The
42:35
Speaker 13: size and athleticism of that team, you can't overlook it.
42:40
Speaker 14: They do a really good job in their attack both.
42:44
Speaker 13: Challenging you in the run game, and obviously they got
42:46
Speaker 13: a wealth of playmakers at the skill positions also that
42:50
Speaker 13: they can get the ball out to and they play
42:51
Speaker 13: really sound defense.
42:53
Speaker 3: Will weather be a factor and we've been hearing about
42:56
Speaker 3: this Friday rain stuff and you guys like to chuck
42:59
Speaker 3: it around a little bit. Is it worse to play
43:02
Speaker 3: if you're a passing offense. Is it worse to play
43:04
Speaker 3: in heavy rain or heavy wind?
43:06
Speaker 2: Wind?
43:07
Speaker 6: Yeah?
43:08
Speaker 3: Explain why.
43:10
Speaker 13: It's a lot it's a lot harder to predict the
43:12
Speaker 13: flight of the ball for for quarterbacks. It's harder to
43:15
Speaker 13: judge for receivers. If if the weather devils down and
43:18
Speaker 13: it's wind and rain, it's especially challenging. You know, We've
43:21
Speaker 13: been in situations where you know the quarterback will come
43:24
Speaker 13: to the sidelines that I can't throw it.
43:26
Speaker 14: If it's really windy and rainy and the rain.
43:30
Speaker 13: Obviously, wet footballs are a challenge also, but still the
43:33
Speaker 13: flight of the ball is a little bit more predictable,
43:35
Speaker 13: provided you can get out of your hand.
43:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and you've you've been there before. I've
43:41
Speaker 3: been there before. Good luck to the ball boys on Friday. Yes,
43:45
Speaker 3: this is gonna be and I know little Bernardi is
43:48
Speaker 3: fantastic getting in and out and so you have a
43:52
Speaker 3: great one. I know that. But it's gonna be a
43:55
Speaker 3: lot of hustled, a lot of towels and all that stuff,
43:58
Speaker 3: and it's it's gonna be interesting. Good stuff. Good luck
44:01
Speaker 3: against Elsie on Friday. And thank you so much for
44:04
Speaker 3: joining me on the Gatorade game day preview.
44:06
Speaker 14: It's always a pleasure, Tyler. We'll talk to you next week.
44:08
Speaker 3: Thank you, and we are now joined on the Gatorade
44:11
Speaker 3: Game Day preview by Lyndon Christian football coach Greg Turpstra coach,
44:15
Speaker 3: thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
44:17
Speaker 15: Hey, doing good. We're just getting out of the weight
44:19
Speaker 15: room here where I'm in control of the music, so
44:22
Speaker 15: I take my phone away and all the kids are
44:24
Speaker 15: really bummed that they don't get to hear my bagpipes
44:26
Speaker 15: anymore this morning.
44:28
Speaker 3: Oh, at what point in your football life did you
44:31
Speaker 3: think to yourself, I would love to be a coach.
44:35
Speaker 15: Roba Blee on the last day of the last game
44:41
Speaker 15: of my college career.
44:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, you realized it pretty quick. I mean it's in
44:47
Speaker 3: your blood, right.
44:48
Speaker 6: Yeah.
44:49
Speaker 15: We had a game that we couldn't get to the playoffs.
44:53
Speaker 15: We're played at Drake University in Iowa, and as a
45:00
Speaker 15: is a big bowl, cool setting, but super cold, and
45:05
Speaker 15: they had they had shoveled off the field and the
45:08
Speaker 15: guys that were standing on the sidelines were standing about
45:11
Speaker 15: three feet up because the snow had crusted over and hardened.
45:16
Speaker 3: Yeah.
45:16
Speaker 15: And I remember just playing for the love of the
45:19
Speaker 15: game and thinking, Ky, you know, today's the last day
45:23
Speaker 15: of playing. I can't see this ending, so got a
45:28
Speaker 15: teaching job later on and was able to volunteer in
45:31
Speaker 15: Minnesota and then move back out here and started coaching.
45:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's crazy. I love hearing
45:37
Speaker 3: everybody's different, you know, perspective on it. So many of
45:39
Speaker 3: them kind of knew early on. And and football is
45:42
Speaker 3: one of those sports right where you know, even at
45:45
Speaker 3: our age now we can go out and play pick
45:47
Speaker 3: up basketball, and we can you know, pick up soccer
45:50
Speaker 3: or softball, but you're not going to put on nellet
45:53
Speaker 3: and pads and really go one hundred percent, you know,
45:57
Speaker 3: after college, really, you know, And and it's just different.
46:02
Speaker 15: The specialness is the rarity, right yeah, right, with anything,
46:07
Speaker 15: it's more expensive, it's worth more if it's rare, and
46:11
Speaker 15: I would say that about your playing days of football.
46:14
Speaker 6: It's rare.
46:14
Speaker 15: It's fleeting. Yeah, so it makes it really special.
46:17
Speaker 3: It goes really fast, and you know, I know that,
46:21
Speaker 3: you know, I hope the players understand that they're in
46:24
Speaker 3: a special moment right now, because it is you only
46:27
Speaker 3: play one game a week, and it goes so fast
46:30
Speaker 3: and you blink and it's over, and if you're lucky,
46:32
Speaker 3: you get to keep playing at the next level, and yeah,
46:36
Speaker 3: it's just there's something special about it. Before talking about
46:39
Speaker 3: Week eight, let's talk about your game last week. It
46:41
Speaker 3: was just a slug fest back and forth at Mount Baker.
46:45
Speaker 3: It had that feeling that neither team really deserved to lose.
46:48
Speaker 3: But sometimes a loss can set up for a refocus,
46:52
Speaker 3: and especially with the playoffs around the corner. What was
46:54
Speaker 3: the biggest takeaway from this game for you?
46:56
Speaker 15: I'd say just that, you know, refocus, and you know,
47:01
Speaker 15: I think we came away from it knowing that there's
47:04
Speaker 15: a lot of other things we could do better than
47:07
Speaker 15: an unfortunate outcome at the end. I think lots of
47:09
Speaker 15: things within the game we just could have executed better.
47:14
Speaker 15: I'm sure Baker could say the same thing. So, you know,
47:17
Speaker 15: I think both teams will get really better out of
47:20
Speaker 15: coming away from this game. And you know, no regrets.
47:23
Speaker 15: We just a lot of hard hitting. It was a
47:26
Speaker 15: fun Friday night to passionate fan bases, to passionate teams,
47:31
Speaker 15: passionate coaching staff. You know, it was. It was a
47:34
Speaker 15: great one. We would have wanted to come out on top.
47:37
Speaker 15: But yeah, like you said, there's worse things than a
47:40
Speaker 15: loss here and there. And I'll tell you why our
47:43
Speaker 15: kids are fullhearted right now and ready to go full
47:46
Speaker 15: throttle this week.
47:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I really thought that in the third quarter,
47:50
Speaker 3: you know, your running game really came alive. It was
47:54
Speaker 3: it was not really clicking in the first half. Was
47:57
Speaker 3: there certain adjustments that you made? And because in the third,
48:00
Speaker 3: like I said, in the third quarter, I think Chris
48:02
Speaker 3: Coyman ran for seventy five yards in that quarter alone.
48:06
Speaker 3: Was it just was it just some something hit in
48:08
Speaker 3: the holes or was there adjustments that were actually made?
48:10
Speaker 1: There?
48:11
Speaker 15: There was an adjustment that I'll die with.
48:13
Speaker 6: Yeah.
48:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean, I mean that's good and it
48:17
Speaker 3: definitely worked right, So, Yeah, that was really good to see.
48:21
Speaker 3: I want to talk about Wyatt camp House for a
48:23
Speaker 3: little bit. Here's a kid that's really shined for you
48:26
Speaker 3: this year, especially in the return game and on defense. Offensively,
48:30
Speaker 3: he's leading the county and passes defended, he's leading in
48:33
Speaker 3: punt returning. You know, he had that he had that
48:36
Speaker 3: forced fumble that he you know, he just ripped it
48:38
Speaker 3: out and recovered it himself.
48:40
Speaker 15: Yea, was that great?
48:41
Speaker 3: Yeah? What's it been like to coach him these past
48:43
Speaker 3: few years?
48:45
Speaker 15: You don't need to, Uh, he's a He's a self
48:48
Speaker 15: coached guy. He's so gritty, so feisty. You never have
48:54
Speaker 15: to worry if if he's, you know, emotionally ready to play.
48:58
Speaker 15: The kid just wasn't so so I guess, you know,
49:03
Speaker 15: giving him reps, I guess is the best thing we
49:05
Speaker 15: could do with coaching, just to get him better. But
49:09
Speaker 15: he just he loves the game. He loves mixing it up.
49:13
Speaker 15: He wants the challenge. There's times we have to have
49:16
Speaker 15: him back off a little bit or go a little
49:18
Speaker 15: easier on himself. He's a guy you don't have to
49:21
Speaker 15: yell at because he's already yelling at himself. So he's
49:24
Speaker 15: just a real joy to coach. He works really, really
49:27
Speaker 15: hard in the offseason. The guy looks just like a
49:30
Speaker 15: pack of muscle. We look like twins with our shirts off,
49:34
Speaker 15: I'm sure, but no, he just really put the time in.
49:39
Speaker 15: Really proud of him.
49:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's He's one of those kids that I kind
49:42
Speaker 3: of looked at last year and just thought there's something there.
49:46
Speaker 3: He kind of came on at the end of the year,
49:47
Speaker 3: did some things in the playoffs and stuff like that,
49:50
Speaker 3: and then and so it's so cool to see a
49:51
Speaker 3: kid shine like this when he gets his opportunity, and
49:56
Speaker 3: you know that running style that like that gate, there's
49:59
Speaker 3: nothing like it. I mean, it's a different style. I
50:03
Speaker 3: mean I think early on I couldn't tell who was
50:05
Speaker 3: returning the punt might have been in that week one game,
50:08
Speaker 3: and then I saw him running. I was like, oh,
50:09
Speaker 3: that's why it campus. I can tell just by the
50:11
Speaker 3: way he runs. But he's so he just doesn't want
50:14
Speaker 3: to go down and and I love that for you know,
50:17
Speaker 3: a player that you know, there's some players that when
50:20
Speaker 3: they get hit, they go, Okay, the play's over and
50:22
Speaker 3: they kind of go down, and he's he does not
50:25
Speaker 3: resign to.
50:25
Speaker 11: That at all.
50:27
Speaker 3: Let's talk about this Friday night, you're back home, you're
50:29
Speaker 3: hosting Meridian. What kind of problems do the Trojans present.
50:33
Speaker 15: They're really fast, and they chuck it short, and they
50:36
Speaker 15: chuck it deep, and they're committed to being very good
50:40
Speaker 15: in the air, and that is a challenge for any
50:45
Speaker 15: high school. You know, you mentioned Wyatt, We got some
50:47
Speaker 15: other great dbs. You know, I think one of the
50:51
Speaker 15: biggest jumps in getting better at a position when you
50:55
Speaker 15: go from high school to college is defensive back. I
50:58
Speaker 15: think very rarely do you actually see a defensive back
51:01
Speaker 15: who shuts down everything in high school. It's just like
51:04
Speaker 15: I said earlier, the reps, you just don't have enough
51:07
Speaker 15: of them to be super awesome. So if you are
51:11
Speaker 15: a Meridian with a really good passing game, that that
51:15
Speaker 15: poses real problems for a high school defensive backfield. Now,
51:19
Speaker 15: I think our kids are doing really well and going
51:21
Speaker 15: to match up great, but that is something that you know,
51:26
Speaker 15: Meridian again has hung their hat on and they've gotten
51:29
Speaker 15: really good at.
51:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know you've you've hung strong with this
51:33
Speaker 3: three four defense that has been playing great, and you
51:37
Speaker 3: know you've got outside backers that are fine dropping back
51:39
Speaker 3: and coverage covering the flat. But do you feel like
51:42
Speaker 3: you might have to make an adjustment take one of
51:44
Speaker 3: your inside linebackers out, put another dB in or do
51:47
Speaker 3: you or do you think you can roll with the
51:49
Speaker 3: eleven you've been kind of rolling with.
51:52
Speaker 15: Yeah, so if we go Nickel, we could go dime
51:55
Speaker 15: what's after dime?
51:56
Speaker 6: Yeah?
51:57
Speaker 2: Quarter?
51:58
Speaker 15: Yeah? Yeah, you know, can't dialed in our defense really well.
52:03
Speaker 6: This year.
52:04
Speaker 15: We've got plans for different things and yeah, we're we're
52:09
Speaker 15: looking forward to the challenge and our think I think
52:11
Speaker 15: our defensive backs are excited. I think our rush is
52:14
Speaker 15: pretty excited too. To make it a great Friday night.
52:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be a really cool game.
52:21
Speaker 3: I mean, these these two teams, I mean, you know
52:24
Speaker 3: how it was playing against Meridian. It was it was
52:26
Speaker 3: always a battle. It's been a great rivalry over so
52:29
Speaker 3: many decades. And and uh, it's a great atmosphere out
52:33
Speaker 3: at Lyndon Christian, especially since they built that new area
52:35
Speaker 3: where all the the students are, and and I'm sure
52:38
Speaker 3: the band is gonna be going. It's such a fun
52:40
Speaker 3: place out there. And and you know it's supposed to
52:43
Speaker 3: be two inches of rain on Friday too, so yeah,
52:46
Speaker 3: we'll see how that affects it.
52:48
Speaker 15: It's also our back to Blue night, so we're really
52:50
Speaker 15: gonna nice.
52:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
52:52
Speaker 15: Yeah, we're gonna honor our our men and women in uniform,
52:56
Speaker 15: police share a border, patrol the whole group. At halftime,
53:00
Speaker 15: we have a competition punt pass kick and it's just
53:05
Speaker 15: a really exciting night. We'll get a lot of cruisers
53:08
Speaker 15: here and everything. Yeah, I'm trying to get the bagpipes
53:11
Speaker 15: for the national anthem. We'll see if it happens, but yeah,
53:16
Speaker 15: it should be an awesome night.
53:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been to that the last couple of years.
53:19
Speaker 3: It is really really cool for those of you who
53:21
Speaker 3: don't know it, you know, yeah, the cruiser are out there,
53:24
Speaker 3: the lights are going off after big plays and scoring
53:28
Speaker 3: and and uh, it's just a really cool thing. I
53:31
Speaker 3: got my money on Anthony Reese in the punt pass kick.
53:34
Speaker 3: That guy was an awesome athlete played at Nuksack Valley.
53:36
Speaker 3: It's so cool to see so many former Walcome County
53:39
Speaker 3: athletes in uniform and and uh, yeah, it's a it's
53:43
Speaker 3: a it's a really cool deal. Awesome stuff.
53:45
Speaker 6: Coach.
53:45
Speaker 3: Good luck against Meridan on Friday, and thank you so
53:48
Speaker 3: much for joining me on the Gatorade game day preview.
53:50
Speaker 3: A long time rivals there. It should be an awesome
53:54
Speaker 3: night out at LC. A non conference game there that
53:57
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about. Next in one A has
53:59
Speaker 3: the Knuksack Valley Pioneers hosting the Montesesano Bulldogs. Nuckzak Valley
54:04
Speaker 3: is four and three on the season and Monta Seno
54:07
Speaker 3: is undefeated at seven and OHO newly ranked number two
54:10
Speaker 3: in the coach's pool in the state at one A
54:13
Speaker 3: by virtue of that the Bulldogs are the favorites in
54:15
Speaker 3: this one. And we are now joined on the Gatorade
54:17
Speaker 3: Game Day preview by Nuzack Valley football coach Craig Bartell. Coach,
54:21
Speaker 3: thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
54:24
Speaker 6: Not too bad?
54:24
Speaker 11: The weather's changing. We're starting to feel like fall. It's good.
54:27
Speaker 6: Talk to you.
54:28
Speaker 11: It's a good day.
54:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's good. At what point in your football
54:32
Speaker 3: life did you think to yourself, I would love to
54:35
Speaker 3: be a coach someday.
54:40
Speaker 11: You know, it was.
54:43
Speaker 16: Shortly after I graduated, going to see home. We had
54:49
Speaker 16: really I'm very fortunate that we've had that. I was
54:53
Speaker 16: able to be around Hall of Fame guys like Burgersolberg
54:56
Speaker 16: and Gary Hatch, Pat Fitter, Nola Airs, Mike McKee. So
55:04
Speaker 16: looking back, having those people around all the time and
55:08
Speaker 16: talking the same message, and you know, Birder and Hats
55:12
Speaker 16: were kind of instrumental and kind of mentors to me.
55:15
Speaker 16: And then later down down the road, Vic randall those
55:20
Speaker 16: guys inspired kind of that that coaching mentality and you know,
55:26
Speaker 16: the x's and o's and helping kids out and helping
55:29
Speaker 16: people out, and very fortunate to be a part of that,
55:35
Speaker 16: you know, just growing up through high school and then
55:37
Speaker 16: you know, you didn't really realize that, and then when
55:40
Speaker 16: you get out of school and you look back there, guy, man,
55:43
Speaker 16: there were some great people that we were around and
55:46
Speaker 16: learned a lot of lessons, and so how do we
55:48
Speaker 16: take those lessons and give it to other people? So, yeah,
55:50
Speaker 16: shortly after I graduated ninety three ninety four, that's aging
55:54
Speaker 16: me a little bit, but you know, during that area
55:58
Speaker 16: and then you know, just the mental or that I
56:00
Speaker 16: had as coaches when I was playing.
56:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's amazing how those kind of those
56:07
Speaker 3: are big time names, like you said, the Hall of
56:09
Speaker 3: Famers that and I love that. It's it was in
56:13
Speaker 3: that school, but different sports. I mean, I mean Nola
56:15
Speaker 3: Air crying out loud. I mean, you might not be
56:17
Speaker 3: able to find a better, more successful coach in the
56:20
Speaker 3: state of Washington's history, and you know, obviously with the
56:24
Speaker 3: gymnastics and I don't know, twenty something state titles and
56:27
Speaker 3: but it's it's amazing how I'm glad that you brought
56:30
Speaker 3: that up because you who knows if there's a kid
56:34
Speaker 3: right now listening to this thinking about thinking about yourself
56:39
Speaker 3: and Shane Wickers and you know what I mean and
56:42
Speaker 3: those names because you you don't know who's who's always listening,
56:48
Speaker 3: and you always and you want to always put together
56:50
Speaker 3: that that positive mentality because it can change somebody else's
56:53
Speaker 3: life and you don't even know you're doing it. And
56:56
Speaker 3: so it's and it's a it's a fun it's a
56:58
Speaker 3: fun circle that you've been through, I mean as an
57:00
Speaker 3: assistant and then you're coaching at nook Sack. You took over
57:03
Speaker 3: a Bellingham team that and people might not know this,
57:06
Speaker 3: but when Squalaum became a school, all the Bellingham you know,
57:11
Speaker 3: they closed Bellingham down for two years to redo the
57:14
Speaker 3: school and kind of revamp it, and so there was
57:18
Speaker 3: no football. There was nothing from Bellingham for two years.
57:21
Speaker 3: And then they come back with a very young school.
57:25
Speaker 3: Because if you've gone to Squalicam now for a couple
57:27
Speaker 3: of years, you're going to graduate from Squalkum. So they're
57:29
Speaker 3: going to restart the program, brand new coach, a bunch
57:32
Speaker 3: of freshmen and sophomores. And they bring in some fresh
57:35
Speaker 3: faced coach named Craig Bartell. And what was that situ
57:39
Speaker 3: I mean, tell just talk a little bit about that situation,
57:42
Speaker 3: because that's a really unique situation. That not many coaches
57:45
Speaker 3: have ever gone through.
57:47
Speaker 6: Yeah it was.
57:48
Speaker 11: I mean you build them from the ground up, and.
57:52
Speaker 16: Yeah, you have a you know, a lot of kids
57:54
Speaker 16: that were that were wide eyed, not a lot of
57:57
Speaker 16: football experience, and you just tried to.
58:01
Speaker 11: You know, I was still early and so a lot
58:03
Speaker 11: of a lot of things.
58:04
Speaker 16: If I had to go back, i'd do differently, but
58:07
Speaker 16: you know, at the time, it was just get the
58:09
Speaker 16: kids excited, teaching the fundamentals, and just try to establish
58:13
Speaker 16: a program.
58:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was a unique situation obviously, and
58:17
Speaker 3: and it wasn't like, oh, we're gonna play an independent
58:20
Speaker 3: schedule for a couple of years while they get older.
58:23
Speaker 3: You're playing in the Northwest League. You're three A at
58:25
Speaker 3: the time, playing against Lynden. I mean it's Ferndale. I
58:29
Speaker 3: mean yeah, I mean it was just it was crazy.
58:33
Speaker 3: But there were some guys, you know, Osbo Beard and
58:36
Speaker 3: Tim Celleright and Toby sim I mean, these were big
58:39
Speaker 3: time guys, but they were young at the time, and
58:42
Speaker 3: so it was kind of fun to coach them at
58:44
Speaker 3: the the young part there before talking I mean I
58:47
Speaker 3: could talk history all the time. I love that stuff.
58:49
Speaker 3: But let's let's talk about what people are really wanting
58:52
Speaker 3: to listen to before talking about your Week eight opponent,
58:54
Speaker 3: Let's talk about last week. Meridian put the ball in
58:57
Speaker 3: the air sixty times. It was back and forth early on,
59:01
Speaker 3: tied at fourteen fourteen, but and there was all those
59:04
Speaker 3: plays down at the one yard line that it was
59:06
Speaker 3: just a unique spot of the game. And kind of
59:09
Speaker 3: what broke that and changed the tide was that ninety
59:12
Speaker 3: nine yard touchdown pasted a Cole Coppinger and it kind
59:16
Speaker 3: of really topped the scale to your favor for the
59:18
Speaker 3: rest of the game. Tell us about that forty seven
59:20
Speaker 3: to twenty win over the Trojans.
59:23
Speaker 16: Yeah, that, I mean, we have to eliminate mistakes that
59:27
Speaker 16: their self induced.
59:29
Speaker 11: And so we were in a little.
59:30
Speaker 16: Funk there and you know that particular play we had
59:34
Speaker 16: watched on film that you know, their defender anytime he
59:38
Speaker 16: saw a fast scream, was super aggressive and he'd had
59:43
Speaker 16: a pick six earlier in the year, and so we thought, okay.
59:46
Speaker 11: How do we take advantage of that.
59:47
Speaker 16: So we put a guy in motion from the opposite
59:50
Speaker 16: side of the field and we're.
59:51
Speaker 11: Like, Okay, he's not going to see him coming, He's
59:54
Speaker 11: just going to see that the screen by Cole and
59:57
Speaker 11: then he's going to.
59:58
Speaker 16: Come flying up, and sure enough he did, and we
1:00:01
Speaker 16: had Jackson Paster at full full full go uh and
1:00:06
Speaker 16: and I don't know that the defender saw him till
1:00:08
Speaker 16: it was too late, and you know, he got a
1:00:11
Speaker 16: great block on him, and then and then Cole used
1:00:13
Speaker 16: his speed and we had other guys blocking as well.
1:00:16
Speaker 16: But yeah, that was kind of a catalyst that got
1:00:20
Speaker 16: us going a little bit. We still made a lot
1:00:22
Speaker 16: of mistakes, but you know, I think we're getting better again.
1:00:28
Speaker 16: You know, we saw some things that that Marini was
1:00:30
Speaker 16: going to do or that we thought they were going
1:00:32
Speaker 16: to do defensively, and so we tried to take advantage
1:00:35
Speaker 16: of that. I didn't realize that through it sixty times,
1:00:38
Speaker 16: I know, the game seemed like it took forever and
1:00:41
Speaker 16: now I know what But yes, you know, credit to
1:00:46
Speaker 16: Marini for for throwing that many times. And for Alexander.
1:00:51
Speaker 16: He's a good player. He makes a lot of things
1:00:53
Speaker 16: happen and that stresses it, you know, at defense. Now,
1:00:56
Speaker 16: I thought our kids did a really good job trying
1:00:59
Speaker 16: to defend past sixty times, and so you know, when
1:01:04
Speaker 16: there's that many the percentages go up. I think in
1:01:07
Speaker 16: favor of the offense of just you know, guys getting
1:01:10
Speaker 16: open at some point.
1:01:12
Speaker 11: But I think, you know, in credit.
1:01:14
Speaker 16: Our kids for in our coaches for for get kids
1:01:16
Speaker 16: in the right spot and you know a lot not
1:01:19
Speaker 16: allowing too many big plays and kind of containing that
1:01:23
Speaker 16: that passing game.
1:01:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, it was a it was a fun game
1:01:26
Speaker 3: to watch the film of. I mean there was a
1:01:28
Speaker 3: lot of big plays obviously, then you know the ninety
1:01:30
Speaker 3: nine yard or Meridians scored early on that fifty five
1:01:33
Speaker 3: yard touchdown where their little receiver Casey Brennan just kind
1:01:36
Speaker 3: of split the defense. Uh I, Trey Trey Houghton had
1:01:39
Speaker 3: a kind of a breakout game running the ball. And
1:01:42
Speaker 3: it's been fun to see because that was the big
1:01:45
Speaker 3: question mark coming into the year was Okay, you know
1:01:48
Speaker 3: there's no more Colton Lenz. Who's going to run the ball.
1:01:50
Speaker 3: And you kind of had that mixed bag of three guys.
1:01:53
Speaker 3: One of them goes down and but the other two
1:01:55
Speaker 3: guys have been improving every week. But the guy I
1:01:58
Speaker 3: want to really talk about this week, and I try
1:01:59
Speaker 3: to find a senior to talk about and tell me
1:02:03
Speaker 3: about Caleb Visser. He looks the part at six foot three,
1:02:06
Speaker 3: two hundred pounds. So many of your seniors had to
1:02:08
Speaker 3: sit behind some great players that have now graduated, and
1:02:11
Speaker 3: they're getting their chance to shine. This is a kid
1:02:14
Speaker 3: that I've known about for a little while, just haven't
1:02:15
Speaker 3: seen him play very much. And he's another one that's
1:02:18
Speaker 3: really making the most of his opportunity he has.
1:02:21
Speaker 16: He's you know, and we've talked to the kids about this.
1:02:24
Speaker 11: He has been fantastic.
1:02:26
Speaker 16: His season was cut short last year with a knee injury,
1:02:30
Speaker 16: and you're right, we've had a lot of guys that
1:02:32
Speaker 16: have played scout team in the last three years and
1:02:35
Speaker 16: to keep going and not you know, in not quitting
1:02:40
Speaker 16: last year and knowing that this year during that they
1:02:42
Speaker 16: were going to get an opportunity, and him being one
1:02:45
Speaker 16: of them.
1:02:45
Speaker 11: Mist He has been steady. He's got a great attitude.
1:02:50
Speaker 11: He helps out the younger guys.
1:02:52
Speaker 16: He'll go to JV games and see team games and
1:02:54
Speaker 16: he'll help coach some of the younger guys. He's really
1:02:59
Speaker 16: taking a captain's role or a leadership role without being
1:03:03
Speaker 16: a captain, and so he's been His play on the
1:03:06
Speaker 16: field has been consistent. He always gives a great effort
1:03:10
Speaker 16: and then just the intangibles, the stuff that nobody else.
1:03:13
Speaker 11: Sees that he's doing.
1:03:16
Speaker 16: Super impressed and super proud of what he's been doing
1:03:20
Speaker 16: this year, especially, you know, he's not thinking about, gosh,
1:03:25
Speaker 16: you know what I could have done last year had
1:03:27
Speaker 16: I not had the injury, and he's taken full advantage
1:03:29
Speaker 16: of the opportunities that he's got this year.
1:03:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he he jumps off the page. And
1:03:35
Speaker 3: it's so funny because this will happen to me a lot.
1:03:37
Speaker 3: I watch so much film of so many of so
1:03:40
Speaker 3: many teams where I get kind of lazy about knowing
1:03:44
Speaker 3: the numbers of each kid, kind of where I'm like, yeah,
1:03:47
Speaker 3: I've seen this guy a lot and a lot of
1:03:49
Speaker 3: times I'll see a kid make a play over and
1:03:50
Speaker 3: over again, and I have to keep looking at the roster,
1:03:52
Speaker 3: going who's eleven, Oh, Caleb Bissard, Who's wait, who's eleven? Ohkayleb.
1:03:56
Speaker 3: I had to keep doing it. Now I'm at the
1:03:58
Speaker 3: point where I know it's him. Yeah, you had it.
1:04:00
Speaker 3: You had a a lot of stuff, did a lot
1:04:02
Speaker 3: of great things at that blame game. It's been a
1:04:04
Speaker 3: lot of fun to watch. Let's talk about this Friday night.
1:04:08
Speaker 3: You're stepping back from conference play for one week, but
1:04:11
Speaker 3: not exactly taking a week off as Monticeno's coming to town.
1:04:16
Speaker 3: What kind of problems do the Bulldogs present?
1:04:20
Speaker 11: Gosh, how much time do we have there.
1:04:23
Speaker 16: They're you know, I think they're ranked one or two
1:04:26
Speaker 16: or three or something like that, or they're they're going
1:04:28
Speaker 16: to be ranked one, two or three.
1:04:30
Speaker 11: You know, they got a lot of guys back from
1:04:32
Speaker 11: last year.
1:04:34
Speaker 16: Their their skill guys are they're big, they're fast, They
1:04:38
Speaker 16: do a lot of a lot of different things.
1:04:41
Speaker 11: Offensively, they try to try to get.
1:04:43
Speaker 16: You into different formations and create some mismatches similar to
1:04:46
Speaker 16: kind of what Meridian tries to do. And their line
1:04:50
Speaker 16: is big. Their quarterback is a dual threat. He can run,
1:04:54
Speaker 16: he can throw it, and so they.
1:04:58
Speaker 11: You know, they do a lot of things really well, and.
1:05:01
Speaker 16: So that presents a problem in some areas. I think,
1:05:06
Speaker 16: you know, athletic like wise, were we're right up there
1:05:10
Speaker 16: with them.
1:05:11
Speaker 11: But they're they're really good at what they do.
1:05:13
Speaker 16: They're disciplined, you know, on defense, their backside guys play away.
1:05:18
Speaker 16: They're really disciplined about staying at home and doing what
1:05:21
Speaker 16: they're supposed to do.
1:05:22
Speaker 11: And so they're a really good football team.
1:05:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that of like
1:05:26
Speaker 3: a one A Linden, right, and and Linden's like one
1:05:31
Speaker 3: of those teams where you don't try to run a
1:05:33
Speaker 3: trick play against them because they're so disciplined, like they
1:05:37
Speaker 3: will they will stay home, right and and a good
1:05:41
Speaker 3: A good tell of a team like that is a
1:05:43
Speaker 3: team that's consistently in the top ten year after year.
1:05:46
Speaker 3: And Manaseo has just always been there. I mean, they've
1:05:49
Speaker 3: been there forever. And that's good coaching. That's a good,
1:05:53
Speaker 3: just grit program that you can always rely on. And
1:05:57
Speaker 3: so I'm not surprised to hear that they're just plan
1:06:00
Speaker 3: and they stay at home and they do the right things,
1:06:02
Speaker 3: and they're not going to be penalized very much, and
1:06:04
Speaker 3: they're just going to be playing the right way. And
1:06:07
Speaker 3: that's hard to defeat when they when you add athleticism
1:06:09
Speaker 3: to it. And so no surprise that they're seven to
1:06:13
Speaker 3: zero on the season. But playing at home, though, it's
1:06:17
Speaker 3: got to be nice to be back home, it's a
1:06:19
Speaker 3: little bit of a trek for them. I mean, but
1:06:23
Speaker 3: do you think weather can be an issue in this
1:06:24
Speaker 3: It's supposed to be quite rainy on Friday.
1:06:27
Speaker 11: Yeah, absolutely, I do.
1:06:29
Speaker 16: It's uh, you know, the atmospheric river or whatever they're
1:06:34
Speaker 16: calling it. You know, I looked yesterday and two inches
1:06:36
Speaker 16: of rain was predicted.
1:06:39
Speaker 11: I think it's it's actually gone.
1:06:40
Speaker 16: Down to an inch and a half or inch and
1:06:42
Speaker 16: a quarter now and so still that's that's a lot
1:06:46
Speaker 16: of water coming out of the sky.
1:06:48
Speaker 11: So I think it absolutely does.
1:06:50
Speaker 16: We saw that last year when we played Retty in
1:06:53
Speaker 16: a torrential downpour.
1:06:55
Speaker 11: You know, we'll have some things for that.
1:06:58
Speaker 16: I think last year playing that gave us a good opportunity.
1:07:02
Speaker 16: You know, now we can look back and go, Okay,
1:07:04
Speaker 16: in a game like this, what can we do?
1:07:07
Speaker 11: What can't we do?
1:07:09
Speaker 16: I think we'll still be able to throw the ball
1:07:11
Speaker 16: a little bit or try to throw the ball a
1:07:14
Speaker 16: little bit.
1:07:14
Speaker 11: But yeah, it comes down to a running game at
1:07:18
Speaker 11: that point.
1:07:18
Speaker 16: And quite honestly, you know, will okay, who who is
1:07:23
Speaker 16: going to just who wants this game more and who
1:07:28
Speaker 16: can execute in those kind of conditions. And we talked
1:07:30
Speaker 16: to our kids about you know, you can't control that
1:07:33
Speaker 16: and so embrace it. And we had a good practice
1:07:38
Speaker 16: Gestredady talking about it. And actually I kind of hope
1:07:41
Speaker 16: that it rains, and I think we're excited.
1:07:44
Speaker 11: I got all my rain girl ready to go.
1:07:46
Speaker 16: But yeah, yeah, it's I think we have a great
1:07:50
Speaker 16: opportunity this week, you know, to prove something to ourselves.
1:07:55
Speaker 16: And you know we talk about the other team a lot,
1:07:58
Speaker 16: and so you know, this is a great chance for
1:08:00
Speaker 16: us to focus on ourselves, eliminate some mistakes and play
1:08:03
Speaker 16: a really good team and see what happens.
1:08:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and heads up to the ball boys out there,
1:08:09
Speaker 3: this is your chance to shine because you know all
1:08:12
Speaker 3: of us that have been bald boys before. When it's raining,
1:08:15
Speaker 3: that's when you do your most work. You are running
1:08:17
Speaker 3: in and out every play, get a new ball in,
1:08:19
Speaker 3: drive that ball off. I'm telling you kids, this can
1:08:22
Speaker 3: be a make or break. You can help Nook Sac
1:08:24
Speaker 3: win with this with your efforts. So good luck to
1:08:28
Speaker 3: that awesome stuff coach. Good luck against Montesano on Friday.
1:08:31
Speaker 3: And thank you so much for joining me on the
1:08:32
Speaker 3: Gatorade game day preview.
1:08:34
Speaker 11: Appreciate it. Thanks Tyler.
1:08:36
Speaker 3: That's going to be a tall task for the Pioneers,
1:08:38
Speaker 3: but the game still needs to be played on the field.
1:08:40
Speaker 3: Look for the Kpug crew to be out at the
1:08:43
Speaker 3: stadium at three o'clock for a four hour pregame show.
1:08:47
Speaker 3: I might even pop out there for a little bit.
1:08:48
Speaker 3: Who knows. Dang all this talking is making me thirsty.
1:08:55
Speaker 4: You hear that? That's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar.
1:08:59
Speaker 4: The better taste, more refreshing, zero sugar, Cola Pepsi zero sugar.
1:09:05
Speaker 4: Let your taste decide.
1:09:08
Speaker 3: Let's get back into the two A games now, as
1:09:10
Speaker 3: we have the Squalorum Storm taking on the Seahome Mariners
1:09:14
Speaker 3: at Civic Stadium in a game that has major playoff
1:09:16
Speaker 3: implications on the line. Both teams are four and three,
1:09:20
Speaker 3: but Max Preps shows Seahome with the advantage. And we
1:09:23
Speaker 3: are now joined on the Gatorade Game day preview by
1:09:26
Speaker 3: Sea Home football coach Brian Young. Coach, thank you so
1:09:28
Speaker 3: much for joining me today. How are you doing.
1:09:31
Speaker 2: I'm doing great.
1:09:32
Speaker 17: You know you always catch me right after I get
1:09:34
Speaker 17: off the field, baby.
1:09:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's right, always working hard and improving every day.
1:09:40
Speaker 3: Right at what point in your football life did you
1:09:46
Speaker 3: think to yourself, I would love to be a coach someday.
1:09:50
Speaker 17: You know, I was actually on a plane flying back
1:09:53
Speaker 17: when I was playing minor league football for Sam Adams
1:09:58
Speaker 17: and the coach at the time, a guy named Kenny
1:10:02
Speaker 17: Anderson's legend and at that level of football, we're just
1:10:06
Speaker 17: flying back and we're just talking football. And he looked
1:10:08
Speaker 17: at me one day and said, you know, I think
1:10:10
Speaker 17: you'd be a great coach. And I'd never thought about
1:10:13
Speaker 17: it up until that point, but then he put the
1:10:16
Speaker 17: bug in my head and I was like, hey, all right,
1:10:19
Speaker 17: never thought about like that, but let's give it a try.
1:10:21
Speaker 18: And I loved it ever since.
1:10:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's always that one moment, right for every coach,
1:10:27
Speaker 3: And that's why I like to ask that question because
1:10:29
Speaker 3: it's usually a pretty memorable moment and everyone's got a
1:10:31
Speaker 3: little different story there. Before talking about your Week eight opponent,
1:10:35
Speaker 3: let's talk about last week. It was a rivalry game.
1:10:38
Speaker 3: You played pretty great in all three phases. What was
1:10:42
Speaker 3: your biggest takeaway in that fifty six to seven win
1:10:44
Speaker 3: overbelling him?
1:10:46
Speaker 17: Well, you know, we're still yet to play a complete game.
1:10:49
Speaker 17: We started off a little rockier than we wanted to.
1:10:53
Speaker 17: But one thing we did change. I made a decision
1:10:55
Speaker 17: and I said, hey, if we win the toss, we're
1:10:58
Speaker 17: just gonna take the ball. I mean, we would take
1:11:00
Speaker 17: the ball and defensively we kind of took a different
1:11:03
Speaker 17: mindset where we said, hey, let's.
1:11:05
Speaker 3: Just get after it right away.
1:11:07
Speaker 17: So we kind of turned it up, you know, earlier
1:11:09
Speaker 17: to start the game, especially with all the senior stuff
1:11:12
Speaker 17: and you know, all the things around the game.
1:11:15
Speaker 6: And so what we.
1:11:16
Speaker 17: Basically said to ourselves was let's play fast and furious
1:11:20
Speaker 17: and just be fearless when we're out there.
1:11:22
Speaker 18: And I think that's how our guys played best.
1:11:25
Speaker 3: So that's really what we learned from that. Yeah, you
1:11:27
Speaker 3: want to play to your team's strengths, and and when
1:11:30
Speaker 3: you've known these guys for so long now and you
1:11:33
Speaker 3: can you can go right to that and it happens.
1:11:36
Speaker 3: Did you go into the game wanting to run the
1:11:39
Speaker 3: ball or was that more taking what the defense was
1:11:41
Speaker 3: giving you.
1:11:42
Speaker 18: No, we made up our mind.
1:11:44
Speaker 17: We just said, hey, you know what, we need to
1:11:46
Speaker 17: be physically better. You know what we're doing. So we
1:11:51
Speaker 17: came in there with the game plan to run the
1:11:53
Speaker 17: football and try to physically dominate the line of scrimmage.
1:11:57
Speaker 17: Sawyer Woods was off the chart, just on fire running,
1:12:02
Speaker 17: but the offensive line was just those guys were really
1:12:07
Speaker 17: you know, focus on what they were doing. They were
1:12:09
Speaker 17: not going to be denied that piece, and it was
1:12:11
Speaker 17: a beautiful thing to watch.
1:12:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right. I mean, I you know, I look
1:12:15
Speaker 3: around and I look for you know, I'm picking an
1:12:18
Speaker 3: offensive lineman of the week, and and I watched all
1:12:21
Speaker 3: the film and I'm looking and I saw some stuff
1:12:23
Speaker 3: that Logan Rogers did that just blew me away. And
1:12:27
Speaker 3: you know, he's he's uh, he's something special, that's for sure.
1:12:31
Speaker 18: Yeah.
1:12:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I always like to find a different senior
1:12:36
Speaker 3: every week to kind of touch on, and I really
1:12:38
Speaker 3: want to talk about Finn sites greg Wire. He's an
1:12:41
Speaker 3: amazing football player that is great on both sides of
1:12:43
Speaker 3: the ball. He's always making plays. I feel like he
1:12:45
Speaker 3: plays much bigger than his actual size. But when I
1:12:48
Speaker 3: saw him make that play on Friday night at Civic Stadium,
1:12:51
Speaker 3: and you probably know which one I'm talking about where
1:12:53
Speaker 3: Belly and had a big play and it gained about
1:12:55
Speaker 3: fifty fifty yards on a pass play and he comes
1:12:58
Speaker 3: in to run him down. That showed me a lot
1:13:00
Speaker 3: of heart, a lot of desire. What has it been
1:13:02
Speaker 3: like to coach him the last three years?
1:13:04
Speaker 17: Well, Finn is he's a really smart guy. He's a
1:13:08
Speaker 17: student engineer type student guy, right, that's the first thing.
1:13:11
Speaker 17: You know, a great sense of humor. Awesome kid. You know,
1:13:15
Speaker 17: his light is always on. You know, it's always a
1:13:17
Speaker 17: pleasure to be around him. But the thing about Finn
1:13:20
Speaker 17: is his motor doesn't stop running. I mean, he just goes.
1:13:24
Speaker 17: It doesn't matter if you're three hundred pounds or you're
1:13:27
Speaker 17: one hundred and thirty pounds. Right, you roll up your
1:13:29
Speaker 17: sleeves because it's going to be a fight and he's gonna.
1:13:31
Speaker 18: Fight you all four quarters.
1:13:33
Speaker 3: And you can't coach that.
1:13:35
Speaker 17: That comes from his own character, that comes from how
1:13:37
Speaker 17: he was raised. But yeah, NonStop, man, he's just wonderful
1:13:42
Speaker 17: to watch him go after success on the football field.
1:13:46
Speaker 3: Absolutely very well. But let's talk about Friday night. It's
1:13:49
Speaker 3: another conference game, another rivalry game, this time against Squalkham.
1:13:53
Speaker 3: And you know you said earlier you coach with Nick
1:13:56
Speaker 3: Lucy over at squalk him for quite a while. Do
1:13:58
Speaker 3: you feel like it's an advantage for you to know
1:14:00
Speaker 3: his tendencies or is it basically a watch because he
1:14:03
Speaker 3: knows your tendencies as well.
1:14:05
Speaker 17: Well? I think one, it starts off with a high
1:14:08
Speaker 17: level of respect. You know, I think Nicholausy is a
1:14:12
Speaker 17: great football coach. Let's put that out there right now.
1:14:15
Speaker 17: The other thing is I just look at it and go,
1:14:18
Speaker 17: you know what, he knows some of the things I
1:14:21
Speaker 17: really like to do. I know some of the things
1:14:23
Speaker 17: that he really likes to do. But at the end
1:14:25
Speaker 17: of the day, Tyler, it's really about the players. It's
1:14:28
Speaker 17: about whatever we're asking them to do, can they physically
1:14:31
Speaker 17: do it, you know, to their opponent, and you know what,
1:14:34
Speaker 17: to what level can they sustain it? So like we're
1:14:37
Speaker 17: going into this game kind of saying, okay, like Squalkum
1:14:41
Speaker 17: be Dana Chordis. They're kind of the favorite, you know,
1:14:44
Speaker 17: like they're the new hot thing on the shelf. Right well,
1:14:48
Speaker 17: just in case, just in case, Tyler, you know that
1:14:52
Speaker 17: we might be pretty damn good sometimes as well. We're
1:14:55
Speaker 17: gonna show up and we're going to try to bring
1:14:57
Speaker 17: our a game too, and you know what, we'll see
1:14:59
Speaker 17: what happens from there.
1:15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, what kind of problems does the squalle come team present.
1:15:06
Speaker 17: Well, they're incredibly disciplined, you know, Anson Cole, you know,
1:15:12
Speaker 17: a hell of a quarterback receiver combination. Waddie back there
1:15:16
Speaker 17: in the secondary is the hell of a player.
1:15:18
Speaker 3: I mean, they have really solid.
1:15:21
Speaker 17: Football players all the way around and guys that really,
1:15:24
Speaker 17: you know, understand the game.
1:15:25
Speaker 2: They're well coached, they're disciplined.
1:15:28
Speaker 17: So we have to play a really good game as
1:15:31
Speaker 17: far as our errors, and we've been challenged with that.
1:15:34
Speaker 17: That's no secret, right, So it's a great opportunity for
1:15:37
Speaker 17: us to step up, you know, improve our level of
1:15:39
Speaker 17: football and kind of refocus ourselves and really play to
1:15:43
Speaker 17: the the expectations that we had at the beginning of
1:15:46
Speaker 17: the year.
1:15:47
Speaker 3: That's awesome. Good luck against the storm on Friday, coach,
1:15:50
Speaker 3: and thank you so much for joining me on the
1:15:52
Speaker 3: Gatorade Game Day preview.
1:15:54
Speaker 2: Thank you, Tyler, and we.
1:15:56
Speaker 3: Are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview by
1:15:58
Speaker 3: squalic And football coach Nick Lucy. Coach, thank you for
1:16:02
Speaker 3: joining me today. How are you doing.
1:16:03
Speaker 18: Hey, I'm good. Thanks for having me.
1:16:05
Speaker 3: You're welcome. At what point in your football life did
1:16:09
Speaker 3: you think to yourself, I would love to be a coach.
1:16:12
Speaker 7: Oh, while I grew up, my dad was a coach,
1:16:16
Speaker 7: and I just kind of to me as one of
1:16:18
Speaker 7: those I don't even know really.
1:16:19
Speaker 14: Thought about it, thought about it.
1:16:20
Speaker 18: It was like one of those things like you do.
1:16:22
Speaker 18: It's just what you do, and you just kind of
1:16:23
Speaker 18: assume you do it, but.
1:16:26
Speaker 6: I don't know.
1:16:26
Speaker 7: I'd gone to college with the idea that I was
1:16:29
Speaker 7: going to go into like ski area management or something,
1:16:31
Speaker 7: and that didn't last real long, and I was like, what,
1:16:33
Speaker 7: my dad's got it right, pee teacher, And you put
1:16:35
Speaker 7: a football like a pretty good gig. So I figured
1:16:39
Speaker 7: that out pretty quick when I was in college.
1:16:42
Speaker 14: That's awesome.
1:16:43
Speaker 3: And I mean, this might be the most obvious question,
1:16:46
Speaker 3: but this is the one. This is the follow up
1:16:48
Speaker 3: I have for it is who are the most influential
1:16:50
Speaker 3: coaches that you've had? Obviously your dad, Yeah, definitely might
1:16:55
Speaker 3: have others as well.
1:16:56
Speaker 18: Yeah, No, definitely got to start there. I was, uh
1:16:59
Speaker 18: maybe yeah, been huge and there my rock.
1:17:02
Speaker 7: And then really fortunate because I went to WSU after
1:17:06
Speaker 7: coaching with my dad for a year and got on
1:17:09
Speaker 7: staff with the guy just taking the job, Bob Wallen
1:17:13
Speaker 7: was there with him for three years and just a
1:17:15
Speaker 7: phenomenal coach and knew how to get players that will
1:17:20
Speaker 7: play and just had a lot of fun there. He's
1:17:22
Speaker 7: now assistant down at w F West, but had a
1:17:24
Speaker 7: really successful career, you know.
1:17:28
Speaker 14: And then let's see, Washington State.
1:17:30
Speaker 7: Would have been guys like George Arno, Mike Levin, Cellar,
1:17:33
Speaker 7: Todd Sturdy, and then I've been around a lot of
1:17:35
Speaker 7: a lot of great coaches here. My athletic director Patrick
1:17:38
Speaker 7: Browns and Ad was a football coach.
1:17:40
Speaker 18: So I've been really blessed to be around so many
1:17:42
Speaker 18: good people.
1:17:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's interesting sometimes when you learn
1:17:47
Speaker 3: about who what coaches know what other coaches from around
1:17:50
Speaker 3: the state, and how quickly that tree connects, right, It's oh, yeah,
1:17:53
Speaker 3: it happens pretty quickly. Before talking about your Week eight opponent,
1:17:58
Speaker 3: let's talk about last week. A big win on Saturday
1:18:00
Speaker 3: against a really inspired Port Angela's squad. You took advantage
1:18:05
Speaker 3: of some things in the passing game.
1:18:07
Speaker 13: Uh.
1:18:07
Speaker 3: What was your biggest takeaway from that game?
1:18:10
Speaker 7: Uh, you know, I was I was really impressed with
1:18:13
Speaker 7: Uh with Cole Our and our receivers played while the
1:18:17
Speaker 7: Colebroker quarterback. You know, most games when it rains like
1:18:21
Speaker 7: it did, Uh, it's gonna be you know, tough sled
1:18:24
Speaker 7: and throwing the ball. And Cole is such a cool customer.
1:18:28
Speaker 7: It has been so much fun to coach and have
1:18:29
Speaker 7: these last couple of years. And there's a lot like
1:18:33
Speaker 7: reminds me of coach and a college quarterback, but he
1:18:35
Speaker 7: just loose and loves to play and the rain, you know,
1:18:37
Speaker 7: some guys will get finicky in the rain, and Cole
1:18:40
Speaker 7: like you wouldn't even know it's raining and ended up
1:18:42
Speaker 7: setting the school record in it and made a lot
1:18:44
Speaker 7: of great plays. We had to avoid rushers and make
1:18:47
Speaker 7: things happen, and I was really impressed with our receivers, Antones,
1:18:51
Speaker 7: jornsen kyl Binta. We had aj burscil A step up
1:18:56
Speaker 7: and start at guard for us and he's a he's
1:18:58
Speaker 7: a sophomore and did a great job. And then uh, defensively,
1:19:02
Speaker 7: we you know, we locked down there. Their pesky quarterback
1:19:05
Speaker 7: is is is tough and uh and their guys made
1:19:08
Speaker 7: plays and like port Angels of program, that's always gonna
1:19:10
Speaker 7: you know, they're gonna show up and play tough, and
1:19:12
Speaker 7: that's kind of what we thought they'd do.
1:19:14
Speaker 3: It's so funny you mentioned that about the rain, because
1:19:17
Speaker 3: I watched the game online and the rain doesn't really
1:19:22
Speaker 3: didn't really come through on the video, and so I
1:19:25
Speaker 3: and I'm I'm looking, I could look out the window. No,
1:19:27
Speaker 3: it was raining, But after watching it, doing the stats.
1:19:32
Speaker 3: And it's it's so funny to mention that because I
1:19:34
Speaker 3: totally forgot that it was raining in that game. And
1:19:36
Speaker 3: and the way you said it, it was like he
1:19:38
Speaker 3: played like it wasn't a factor. And that's what it is,
1:19:43
Speaker 3: Like just adds how impressive it is. They threw for
1:19:46
Speaker 3: you know, nearly four hundred yards and five touchdowns and
1:19:48
Speaker 3: and ran for another two and and yeah, it's just
1:19:52
Speaker 3: it was a great game. I want to talk a
1:19:54
Speaker 3: little bit about your senior Avery Wiener for a little bit.
1:19:57
Speaker 3: Running back, inside linebacker, punter. Uh, He's he's done some
1:20:01
Speaker 3: place kicking for you over the years. What has it
1:20:04
Speaker 3: been like to coach him over the years.
1:20:07
Speaker 18: Yeah, Avery's so much fun. He's he's a Swiss army knife.
1:20:10
Speaker 18: We're a little thin.
1:20:11
Speaker 7: On the old line right now, and he's dying to
1:20:15
Speaker 7: go play guard. Uh, you know, and that should tell
1:20:18
Speaker 7: that should tell you about him. But you know, he's
1:20:20
Speaker 7: been a two year starter at inside back. It really
1:20:23
Speaker 7: started first game as a freshman at Sedrow Willie against
1:20:25
Speaker 7: a really good uh Sie Drow team and just such
1:20:28
Speaker 7: a smart.
1:20:29
Speaker 18: Kid and kind of like kind of embodiment.
1:20:31
Speaker 7: Of our senior class where these kids just like playing.
1:20:34
Speaker 7: They don't get they don't get caught up.
1:20:36
Speaker 18: In anything else.
1:20:36
Speaker 7: They just enjoy preparing, they enjoy playing their competitors. They
1:20:40
Speaker 7: got this mindset that will do whatever it takes uh
1:20:43
Speaker 7: to win and whatever the team needs.
1:20:44
Speaker 18: And had a great.
1:20:45
Speaker 7: Year running back, running the ball, uh, and then defensively
1:20:49
Speaker 7: is a heat secret inside backer and stepped up and
1:20:51
Speaker 7: done a phenomenal jumb putting the ball right.
1:20:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it is crazy that and that tells me
1:20:57
Speaker 3: a lot. A kid that who carries the ball is
1:21:00
Speaker 3: saying I want to play guard. That's something you never
1:21:03
Speaker 3: hear usually, Uh, it's the other way around where obviously
1:21:07
Speaker 3: the guards want. But a lot of times, especially you'll
1:21:09
Speaker 3: see it in the Ferndale and Mount Baker programs where
1:21:13
Speaker 3: they have you know, twenty running backs in their youth
1:21:15
Speaker 3: program that you know, the third and four string guys
1:21:18
Speaker 3: turned it get turned into really good guards. Yeah, and
1:21:22
Speaker 3: so you know you kind of get that. But that
1:21:24
Speaker 3: that does tell me a lot. And I bet he
1:21:26
Speaker 3: would shine as a as a left or right guard
1:21:29
Speaker 3: in your program.
1:21:30
Speaker 18: I mean, oh, he'd be an awesome guard.
1:21:33
Speaker 15: Yeah.
1:21:33
Speaker 3: And bowling, could you imagine got to get a different
1:21:36
Speaker 3: number on their jersey. But other than that, I think
1:21:38
Speaker 3: it would work out pretty well. Let's talk about this
1:21:41
Speaker 3: upcoming Friday night. You're taking on sea home with a
1:21:44
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of you know, a lot writing
1:21:48
Speaker 3: on the game as far as postseason stuff like that,
1:21:52
Speaker 3: and so what what kind of challenges do the Mariners present.
1:21:57
Speaker 7: Well, they're you know, they're the diverse team and the
1:22:01
Speaker 7: standpoint they you know, they got physicality.
1:22:04
Speaker 18: But I think I really think I mean the guy
1:22:06
Speaker 18: that uh.
1:22:07
Speaker 7: You know, just stands out right away that you got
1:22:09
Speaker 7: to address his the quarterback Nolan Right, he's a hell
1:22:11
Speaker 7: of a player, extends things, you can have things covered
1:22:15
Speaker 7: and he's kind of like playing a video game and
1:22:18
Speaker 7: just really see things well, pulls the trigger by a
1:22:22
Speaker 7: little extra time. He's really accurate too, like throwing into
1:22:25
Speaker 7: tight spots and kind of getting.
1:22:26
Speaker 18: Away from trouble.
1:22:27
Speaker 7: So maybe a guy whose eligibility we're glad is about up.
1:22:32
Speaker 7: But they're also they're they're fast, you know, they got
1:22:35
Speaker 7: they got some good receivers, they're physical, they're big upfront.
1:22:40
Speaker 7: They do some different things defense defensively from the standpoint
1:22:43
Speaker 7: of you know, putting pressure on your line.
1:22:45
Speaker 18: So they're a good ball club b whise he's done
1:22:48
Speaker 18: a great job.
1:22:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was another thing I was going to say,
1:22:51
Speaker 3: is this a coach young has was on your staff
1:22:54
Speaker 3: for quite a while, and so are there things? Are
1:22:59
Speaker 3: there tendencies? Does that help you? Does that help him?
1:23:02
Speaker 3: How does that really balance each other out?
1:23:05
Speaker 15: Uh?
1:23:05
Speaker 7: You know, I mean the biggest thing I'd takeaway is
1:23:07
Speaker 7: they're just they're really really well coached. So in one
1:23:11
Speaker 7: of those things, like you said, we gotta gotta take
1:23:13
Speaker 7: a look. They do a great job offensively, and you know,
1:23:17
Speaker 7: it starts there.
1:23:17
Speaker 18: We got to be able to limit them and contain things.
1:23:19
Speaker 7: And then from a you know, from from our offen
1:23:22
Speaker 7: our offensive standpoint, you know, starts with we got to
1:23:24
Speaker 7: be sound. We got to make sure that, you know,
1:23:26
Speaker 7: we're handling some of the things that they're doing upfront.
1:23:29
Speaker 18: So yeah, I don't think a whole lot there.
1:23:31
Speaker 7: They probably you know, know less better from that standpoint
1:23:34
Speaker 7: because you know, scheme wise, were pretty similar to what.
1:23:36
Speaker 18: We were doing back when back would be wiser. But
1:23:40
Speaker 18: it's yeah, football football has been a couple of years now.
1:23:42
Speaker 3: So yeah, absolutely, coach, great stuff, Good luck against see
1:23:46
Speaker 3: him on Friday, and thank you so much for joining
1:23:48
Speaker 3: me on the Gatorade Game Day preview.
1:23:49
Speaker 18: Appreciate it, Tyler.
1:23:51
Speaker 3: That will be a tremendous matchup and a game played
1:23:53
Speaker 3: with a lot of guys that know each other very well.
1:23:56
Speaker 3: It definitely has the potential to be the game of
1:23:59
Speaker 3: the week. We also have the Linden Lions heading south
1:24:02
Speaker 3: to take on the Lakewood Cougars. Linden is five and
1:24:05
Speaker 3: two on the year and Lakewood is one and six.
1:24:09
Speaker 3: The Lions should get things back on track this week
1:24:12
Speaker 3: and we are now joined on the Gatorade Game Day
1:24:14
Speaker 3: preview by Linden football coach Blake Ben Dalen coach, thank
1:24:17
Speaker 3: you for joining me today. How are you doing?
1:24:20
Speaker 15: How are you doing?
1:24:21
Speaker 3: I'm hanging in there. At what point in your football
1:24:25
Speaker 3: life did you think to yourself, I would love to
1:24:28
Speaker 3: be a coach.
1:24:31
Speaker 19: I think the day I couldn't play anymore. I went
1:24:35
Speaker 19: to that first Friday night game the year after I graduated.
1:24:40
Speaker 19: A bunch of the guys that I had played with
1:24:42
Speaker 19: obviously the year before were still playing. They ended up
1:24:45
Speaker 19: winning a championship at Lyndon in ninety one, when Cramy's
1:24:47
Speaker 19: first year. I remember standing on the sideline watching and
1:24:51
Speaker 19: I just there was something inside of me and just said,
1:24:53
Speaker 19: probably more than anything in life, this is what I
1:24:55
Speaker 19: missed the most, and playing high school football was that.
1:24:58
Speaker 19: So I think that was the moment when I said, okay,
1:25:01
Speaker 19: if I am going to be a teacher, because at
1:25:02
Speaker 19: that point I had kind of decided to go that route,
1:25:05
Speaker 19: the one thing I get to do is be available
1:25:07
Speaker 19: to coach football.
1:25:10
Speaker 3: That's awesome. I love how every coach has that that moment,
1:25:13
Speaker 3: they know that moment, they can pinpoint it. And then
1:25:17
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean this is a loaded question, especially
1:25:20
Speaker 3: for you, but who are the most influential coaches that
1:25:23
Speaker 3: you've had, either that you've played for or coached with.
1:25:26
Speaker 19: Yeah, that for me, those are easy ones, just because
1:25:29
Speaker 19: I spent you know, twenty years with coach Kramey and honestly,
1:25:32
Speaker 19: even the way we do things is, you know, when
1:25:35
Speaker 19: people ask why do you do this?
1:25:37
Speaker 3: I know the reason, but.
1:25:38
Speaker 19: I also like to say because that's how Gramey did it,
1:25:40
Speaker 19: and so that would probably be the easy answer. And
1:25:44
Speaker 19: then also, you know, it's tough because I played for
1:25:48
Speaker 19: roly D Coost. But if I'm going to say who else,
1:25:51
Speaker 19: it's guys like Ron Lepper.
1:25:53
Speaker 15: You know, Ron.
1:25:55
Speaker 19: Called when Kurt passed away, And honest, I just remember
1:25:58
Speaker 19: he was the first boy I heard, and then it
1:26:02
Speaker 19: just seems like he's the guy I call a lot
1:26:06
Speaker 19: when I have questions that that I'm just want to
1:26:10
Speaker 19: bounce them off somebody. So so put the big guy
1:26:14
Speaker 19: in there with it. You know, it's like talking to
1:26:16
Speaker 19: Santa Claus. So why wouldn't you love it?
1:26:17
Speaker 2: Right?
1:26:18
Speaker 6: Absolutely?
1:26:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's things about coaching that people don't understand, where, yeah,
1:26:23
Speaker 3: you got to know football, and you got to know
1:26:24
Speaker 3: x's and no's, but it's it's communicating with teenagers and
1:26:30
Speaker 3: not everyone's the same, and you've got to coach maybe
1:26:33
Speaker 3: some kids differently than other kids, and you got to
1:26:35
Speaker 3: find out how to bring out the most in each kid.
1:26:37
Speaker 3: And there is so much to that.
1:26:40
Speaker 19: And I think my time with Brian Roeper twenty years
1:26:43
Speaker 19: in coaching basketball, he's the master at that and basketball
1:26:47
Speaker 19: is unique that way, and that you got to get
1:26:49
Speaker 19: the most out of every kid because you don't have
1:26:51
Speaker 19: eleve of them out there, you only have five. So
1:26:52
Speaker 19: he would also be someone who's been right there.
1:26:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great one. That's a great one. And
1:26:58
Speaker 3: that's so weird because I've been in the community for
1:27:00
Speaker 3: so long and just really got to know Coach Roper
1:27:04
Speaker 3: about a year and a half ago, and it's one
1:27:07
Speaker 3: of those things where we just never really crossed paths
1:27:09
Speaker 3: a ton And as soon as he shook my hand
1:27:13
Speaker 3: for the first time, he's like, I love what you do.
1:27:15
Speaker 3: How did you become such a good writer? And I
1:27:17
Speaker 3: just said, wow, Like, how did you become such a
1:27:20
Speaker 3: great politician? Because I get right at all?
1:27:26
Speaker 19: We always call him the mayor. He's always running for mayor.
1:27:29
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Oh man, before talking about your Week eight opponent,
1:27:34
Speaker 3: we have to do this and talk about Week seven.
1:27:37
Speaker 3: You ran into a buzzsaw down in Everett as the
1:27:39
Speaker 3: Archbishop Murphy Wildcats were as advertised. Was this a game
1:27:43
Speaker 3: that you, like, you completely move on from or are
1:27:46
Speaker 3: there still things you can take from it as you
1:27:48
Speaker 3: move forward?
1:27:49
Speaker 6: Oh?
1:27:50
Speaker 19: No, yeah, we we have to take from it as
1:27:52
Speaker 19: we move forward, especially because, like I told our kids,
1:27:55
Speaker 19: none of them had experienced anything like that. And when
1:27:58
Speaker 19: you've coached long enough and around long enough, you know
1:28:01
Speaker 19: that everybody goes through that at some point. We've been
1:28:04
Speaker 19: on the opposite end many times where you know, we've
1:28:07
Speaker 19: had to put on the brakes and uh, but so
1:28:10
Speaker 19: I showed them when it's happened to Lennon.
1:28:13
Speaker 9: In the past.
1:28:14
Speaker 19: And the one thing that was interesting was it almost
1:28:16
Speaker 19: always happened in the playoffs to end the season, and
1:28:20
Speaker 19: we didn't. That wasn't this And so our kids get,
1:28:24
Speaker 19: you know, rise up from the ashes and make something
1:28:27
Speaker 19: good come out of it. All the other teams had
1:28:29
Speaker 19: had in their gear and you know, we lost the Lakes,
1:28:32
Speaker 19: and we lost to Bellevue, and we lost to Shotcress.
1:28:35
Speaker 19: All these blowout losses were at the end of the season.
1:28:38
Speaker 19: That's not our journey. So and if we work really,
1:28:41
Speaker 19: really hard, they get to do something no team has
1:28:44
Speaker 19: ever done, and that's have a second shot at or
1:28:48
Speaker 19: have another opportunity at that team. But you've got to
1:28:51
Speaker 19: do a lot of really good things in the next five, six,
1:28:54
Speaker 19: seven weeks if you want that shot.
1:28:56
Speaker 6: Yeah.
1:28:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you brought up all those scenarios and you're
1:28:59
Speaker 3: so right. It has happened. And even recently it was
1:29:02
Speaker 3: Stillicum and and and Archbishop in twenty sixteen too, So
1:29:07
Speaker 3: I mean it's it's it happens, and you're so right.
1:29:10
Speaker 3: And I've got so many people texting me, has it
1:29:13
Speaker 3: ever has has there ever been a Linden defeat that
1:29:16
Speaker 3: bad and all this stuff and and you know, point
1:29:19
Speaker 3: different point differential wise. No, but there's been games that
1:29:22
Speaker 3: were close.
1:29:23
Speaker 2: Uh.
1:29:23
Speaker 3: But but there's like you said, there's there are things
1:29:28
Speaker 3: that you know, it's better to be a regular season
1:29:31
Speaker 3: game than a playoff game. Basically, it's kind of like
1:29:33
Speaker 3: what you were saying. Let's talk a little bit about
1:29:37
Speaker 3: your senior defensive lineman, Isaiah Harris. He's been such a
1:29:40
Speaker 3: stout player up front, very strong, very athletic. He plays
1:29:44
Speaker 3: with a positive emotion that gets his teammates going, I
1:29:47
Speaker 3: love that. On the kickoff he's high five and whoever
1:29:50
Speaker 3: whichever canaan is running up to kick it off, he
1:29:52
Speaker 3: just puts his hand out there and it's a it's
1:29:54
Speaker 3: such a cool thing. And what has it been like
1:29:56
Speaker 3: to coach him over the years.
1:29:59
Speaker 19: It truly has been a state championship for me. There
1:30:02
Speaker 19: is no different feeling from a coaching perspective to being
1:30:06
Speaker 19: blessed to win a team championship. But then also personally,
1:30:13
Speaker 19: Isaiah's journey for me has been a state championship where
1:30:17
Speaker 19: he started as a freshman.
1:30:19
Speaker 2: To exactly what you're talking about.
1:30:20
Speaker 19: This week he won Defensive Lineman of the Week and
1:30:25
Speaker 19: Scout Defensive Player of the Week. Meaning he doesn't just
1:30:29
Speaker 19: go and stand on the sideline and be too cool
1:30:31
Speaker 19: for school. He's going against Zachdikstra every day in practice,
1:30:35
Speaker 19: trying to make and help him get better. And he
1:30:39
Speaker 19: loves it. Zach loves it.
1:30:40
Speaker 14: Our team loves it.
1:30:42
Speaker 19: You're right. That is a kid who came in and
1:30:46
Speaker 19: possibly you could say had a few strikes against him,
1:30:49
Speaker 19: but because of how hard he's worked within our team
1:30:54
Speaker 19: and for our team. You know, we have a Bible
1:30:56
Speaker 19: study on Tuesday nights and he's the one kid who
1:31:00
Speaker 19: so everybody else gets their food, then he packages up
1:31:03
Speaker 19: all the boxes and brings them out to the recycling
1:31:06
Speaker 19: and one time I did it just because it's what
1:31:08
Speaker 19: dads do, and he goes, coach, please don't ever do
1:31:10
Speaker 19: that again. That's my job. And what a great kid
1:31:13
Speaker 19: to have in your program. And you're right, Friday night,
1:31:17
Speaker 19: he was not the problem. He was outstanding. He was
1:31:20
Speaker 19: a part of the solution the whole time, trying to
1:31:23
Speaker 19: stay pumped up, trying to keep us positive, trying not
1:31:26
Speaker 19: to let the kids, you know, turn on each other
1:31:28
Speaker 19: or get down and and and there was a humbling journey,
1:31:31
Speaker 19: but he was definitely a star pupil in his element
1:31:35
Speaker 19: of helping us through a really tough night.
1:31:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just he's been a joy to watch. I
1:31:39
Speaker 3: mean that Franklin Pierce game, My goodness, he had a
1:31:43
Speaker 3: great game. And there's been these spurts and I love
1:31:45
Speaker 3: it when these seniors get their chance to shine them.
1:31:48
Speaker 3: He played quite a bit last year and but not
1:31:52
Speaker 3: you know, this year, it's been really it stood out
1:31:55
Speaker 3: a little bit of offense as well for him, which
1:31:56
Speaker 3: has been great. And well, yeah, he.
1:31:59
Speaker 19: Came to me in the offseason and he said, I
1:32:02
Speaker 19: want to be Parker Williams. And you remember Parker, Yeah, exactly.
1:32:05
Speaker 19: Parker never came off the field. Parker helped us. It
1:32:09
Speaker 19: was a defensive starter, but was on every special team
1:32:11
Speaker 19: and then even subbed in when we had some dinged
1:32:13
Speaker 19: up linemen. While Isaiah has been playing tight end. Like
1:32:16
Speaker 19: you said when we ask him too, he's been on
1:32:19
Speaker 19: almost every special team and so he just wants to
1:32:22
Speaker 19: be like a positive impact on our team and he
1:32:25
Speaker 19: has been.
1:32:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I was actually going to bring up Parker
1:32:28
Speaker 3: Williams because that was kind of his thing. Last year
1:32:31
Speaker 3: his senior years standing out and then becoming an All
1:32:34
Speaker 3: Conference player and showing what he could do. And I
1:32:37
Speaker 3: love it when seniors get their opportunity and out at Lyndon.
1:32:41
Speaker 3: And sometimes that's just the way it happens because there's
1:32:43
Speaker 3: so much depth and there's so many great players all
1:32:45
Speaker 3: around you. Let's talk about Friday night, another conference game,
1:32:50
Speaker 3: this time on the road against Lakewood. Tell us about
1:32:52
Speaker 3: this year's Cougar team.
1:32:54
Speaker 19: You know, I'm really proud of their coaching staff because
1:32:57
Speaker 19: they would tell you, you know that it's a it's
1:32:59
Speaker 19: a down year where where they're they're struggling to find
1:33:03
Speaker 19: ways to score and and and it's been difficult to
1:33:06
Speaker 19: stop teams as well. But I'll tell you what, They've
1:33:10
Speaker 19: never forfeited. They've never canceled the game. They've never taken
1:33:13
Speaker 19: a step backwards. They keep fighting and trying to do
1:33:17
Speaker 19: things the right way with what abilities and talents they have.
1:33:21
Speaker 19: And so I really respect the heck out of their
1:33:24
Speaker 19: coaching staff and their players because their attitude this whole
1:33:28
Speaker 19: season has been commendable.
1:33:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I love seeing that, And you're right, it's
1:33:34
Speaker 3: it's it is tough. It's a rebuilding type year. But
1:33:37
Speaker 3: it's such a young team, and so when you can
1:33:39
Speaker 3: start off with that positive attitude, you know it's only
1:33:42
Speaker 3: going to get better as the years go on. Lakewood,
1:33:46
Speaker 3: you know you can always count on them to to
1:33:49
Speaker 3: to bring it back right and it'll it will, it
1:33:52
Speaker 3: will get better for them. It has been a struggle
1:33:55
Speaker 3: this year, but you know, it's a and it's a
1:33:58
Speaker 3: fun place to play. There's something about that place. I
1:34:01
Speaker 3: don't know what it is, but I always love watching
1:34:04
Speaker 3: game film when it's there. The turf looks a little mystical.
1:34:07
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know how to describe it, but
1:34:10
Speaker 3: you know, is it okay? I mean you probably have
1:34:12
Speaker 3: tons of memories of games down there.
1:34:15
Speaker 12: Yeah, our kids are really excited.
1:34:16
Speaker 9: They're hoping.
1:34:17
Speaker 19: The last time we played there, it was either homecoming
1:34:20
Speaker 19: or Senior night, I don't know which one it was,
1:34:22
Speaker 19: But afterward they did a firework show and it was
1:34:25
Speaker 19: like a fourth of July. Our kids were laying down
1:34:28
Speaker 19: on the field in their uniforms for a good fifteen
1:34:30
Speaker 19: to twenty minutes. And so they're all hoping that we
1:34:33
Speaker 19: get the same result. And and you know it would
1:34:39
Speaker 19: be interesting for me Friday night because I found watching film.
1:34:42
Speaker 19: I'm rooting for them along. I'm like, oh, let's see
1:34:44
Speaker 19: him put together a good driver, let's see him. Well,
1:34:46
Speaker 19: I can't really do that when I'm coaching against them,
1:34:49
Speaker 19: and so so for one game, I'll be a little
1:34:51
Speaker 19: bit perplexed in that I'm going to be all in
1:34:54
Speaker 19: for our guys, but I'm also a human being and
1:34:55
Speaker 19: i want to see the other team, you know, build
1:34:58
Speaker 19: on some successes. And you're right, they're young, they're talented
1:35:00
Speaker 19: in certain positions and they're going to make plays, and
1:35:03
Speaker 19: so tip your hat and go back to work.
1:35:05
Speaker 3: Absolutely great stuff, coach, Good luck against the Cougars on Friday,
1:35:09
Speaker 3: and thank you so much for joining me on the
1:35:10
Speaker 3: Gatorade Game day preview.
1:35:12
Speaker 19: All Right, I have a great week.
1:35:14
Speaker 3: And finally we have the West Coat three A North
1:35:16
Speaker 3: matchup with the Ferndale Golden Eagles heading down to take
1:35:20
Speaker 3: on the Sedro Wooly Cubs. Ferndale is three and four
1:35:23
Speaker 3: on the season and Sedro Woollie is seven and zero,
1:35:27
Speaker 3: which makes the Cubs the favorite here. And we are
1:35:30
Speaker 3: now joined on the Gatorade Game Day preview by Ferndale
1:35:32
Speaker 3: football coach Jamie Plankovich. Coach thank you for joining me today.
1:35:36
Speaker 3: How are you doing?
1:35:37
Speaker 6: Doing good?
1:35:37
Speaker 8: About yourself?
1:35:38
Speaker 3: Doing all right?
1:35:41
Speaker 14: What?
1:35:41
Speaker 3: At what point in your football life did you think
1:35:44
Speaker 3: to yourself, I would love to be a.
1:35:46
Speaker 1: Coach, probably still in high school. Actually thought it was
1:35:53
Speaker 1: something that I'd like to do, and got an opportunity
1:35:58
Speaker 1: pretty early on after.
1:36:00
Speaker 3: That, and he'd just been doing it ever since.
1:36:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been to it for a while.
1:36:05
Speaker 3: So it's rare that you know, someone in high school
1:36:09
Speaker 3: knows exactly what they want to do and do it.
1:36:13
Speaker 3: You know a lot of kids in high school they
1:36:15
Speaker 3: have an idea, they they and that's what they want
1:36:19
Speaker 3: to do, but then you know, they get into their
1:36:21
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty and then they changed their idea, and so
1:36:25
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's a great thing when
1:36:27
Speaker 3: you know what you want to do and and you
1:36:29
Speaker 3: actually do it. It was the same for me. I mean,
1:36:31
Speaker 3: I started writing at the Herald when I was twenty,
1:36:33
Speaker 3: so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Who
1:36:37
Speaker 3: are the most influential coaches that you've you know, been around,
1:36:41
Speaker 3: either coached you or you've coached with.
1:36:45
Speaker 1: Clearly, I got super lucky when I started at Sion
1:36:48
Speaker 1: because we had Burger Silberg was the head football coach
1:36:53
Speaker 1: who was an incredible influence on my life. Gary Hatch
1:36:59
Speaker 1: coached with US coach with me once I had the
1:37:03
Speaker 1: head job at CM, you know, as a Hall of Famer,
1:37:07
Speaker 1: is also extremely impactful in my coaching career. And then
1:37:13
Speaker 1: Pat Veetter was a basketball coach. I used to like
1:37:16
Speaker 1: to just go watch them practice and watch how he
1:37:19
Speaker 1: ran a practice, and so I just was exceedingly fortunate
1:37:26
Speaker 1: of the mentors and coaches I got to be around
1:37:30
Speaker 1: as a young coach.
1:37:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I'm not surprised with those names obviously, And
1:37:35
Speaker 3: when I talked to coach Bartell earlier, I mean he
1:37:37
Speaker 3: kind of echoed those exact names, right, I mean, playing
1:37:41
Speaker 3: at Sea Home, kind of being around that and knowing
1:37:43
Speaker 3: he wanted to be a coach pretty pretty early on.
1:37:47
Speaker 3: Before talking about your Week eight opponent, let's talk about
1:37:49
Speaker 3: last week. It was against one of the top overall
1:37:52
Speaker 3: teams in the state, Lake Stevens. You had said you
1:37:55
Speaker 3: wanted to come out and compete for four quarters, and
1:37:58
Speaker 3: I feel like you absolutely did that.
1:38:00
Speaker 8: Would you agree, Yeah, it was.
1:38:03
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes unfortunately scoreboard doesn't tell the whole story.
1:38:08
Speaker 1: We would like to win that game, but we also
1:38:11
Speaker 1: saw some really good things from our kids and how
1:38:14
Speaker 1: we came out and played in that game, and the
1:38:17
Speaker 1: effort that our kids played with it continued to play
1:38:20
Speaker 1: with even when the score wasn't going our way. And
1:38:25
Speaker 1: sometimes that's a hard thing to teach your kids, but
1:38:30
Speaker 1: we wanted not to matter what the scoreboard says, and
1:38:33
Speaker 1: a lot of times it will take care of itself.
1:38:35
Speaker 1: If you play with effort and intensity, a lot of
1:38:40
Speaker 1: good things will happen. And we thought we competed really
1:38:43
Speaker 1: well and it came off of a very good practice
1:38:47
Speaker 1: week for us, So that was something that we're stressing
1:38:50
Speaker 1: coming into this week. We saw the results of how
1:38:53
Speaker 1: we practiced last week and how we played Friday night.
1:38:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:38:57
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
1:38:58
Speaker 3: And a lot of times if I'm at a game
1:39:00
Speaker 3: early enough on a Friday night, and and I try
1:39:03
Speaker 3: not to bug coaches, you know, on the sidelines, especially
1:39:06
Speaker 3: especially a head coach right right before the game, but
1:39:08
Speaker 3: if I see an assistent, the first thing I say was, Hey,
1:39:10
Speaker 3: how was your week of practice? Because I'm always curious
1:39:13
Speaker 3: because it always seems like a good week can really
1:39:15
Speaker 3: lead to that kind of positivity on Friday nights and
1:39:19
Speaker 3: let's talk about this Friday night. You're you're back in
1:39:21
Speaker 3: conference play on the road against undefeated Sea Woolie Cubs.
1:39:25
Speaker 3: Last year's game was just a great back and forth battle.
1:39:29
Speaker 3: So many things happening in that game. Tell our listeners
1:39:33
Speaker 3: about this year's Sgial Woolie.
1:39:34
Speaker 1: Team, Well, they have a lot of guys back from
1:39:37
Speaker 1: that team from last year. Obviously, they have had an
1:39:41
Speaker 1: outstanding year. Like you said, they're undefeated. They've got things
1:39:46
Speaker 1: rolling on both sides of the ball. They're unique in
1:39:50
Speaker 1: what they do offensively. You know, they have maybe a
1:39:55
Speaker 1: little uh wing team base in what they do, but
1:40:01
Speaker 1: have really taken it to a different level with with
1:40:06
Speaker 1: all that they do on that side of the ball.
1:40:07
Speaker 1: Their quarterback is completing just about seventy five percent of
1:40:11
Speaker 1: his throws. Wow, they challenge you in the screen game.
1:40:17
Speaker 1: He's got some really good skill guys. And then they
1:40:21
Speaker 1: up front. They're really good on both sides of the ball.
1:40:23
Speaker 1: Their kids play really hard. They obviously understand what they're
1:40:27
Speaker 1: trying to do. They've been really good on the defensive
1:40:30
Speaker 1: side of the ball. But yeah, we got our hands full.
1:40:34
Speaker 1: We got a challenge this week. We're excited to go
1:40:36
Speaker 1: down there and play.
1:40:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's a great atmosphere. You know, there's
1:40:42
Speaker 3: when you look at all the teams in West go
1:40:44
Speaker 3: three a North, you know this is this is the
1:40:46
Speaker 3: one that has the history with Ferndale. I guess you
1:40:50
Speaker 3: could say it's it's smart that they can go back
1:40:52
Speaker 3: and and yeah, it's it's one of those games too
1:40:56
Speaker 3: where you probably wish he had two weeks of practice
1:40:59
Speaker 3: because a week might not be enough with all the
1:41:02
Speaker 3: different things that they can't do. That inside handoff concept.
1:41:05
Speaker 3: It just for some reason, it looks so simple, uh
1:41:09
Speaker 3: just to the regular fan, but it's executed so well.
1:41:13
Speaker 3: It's like you look at it and you go, how
1:41:14
Speaker 3: come they're getting someone you know, like six seven yards
1:41:17
Speaker 3: every time they do that? Is it just is it
1:41:20
Speaker 3: just the the playing, repetition and execution that just like
1:41:23
Speaker 3: kind of machine like that makes it so great for them.
1:41:26
Speaker 1: Well, they do a really good job of given of
1:41:31
Speaker 1: attacking the same area with a lot of different looks.
1:41:35
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so it's it's they're tough to prepare for.
1:41:40
Speaker 1: They keep you off balance and then their their guys
1:41:43
Speaker 1: up front are really good. So that always, that always
1:41:47
Speaker 1: is going to help. But you know, they don't rely
1:41:50
Speaker 1: on one one guy to really carry him. They spread
1:41:54
Speaker 1: the ball around, which again, you know, something that we
1:41:57
Speaker 1: always want to do on on the offense aside as well,
1:42:00
Speaker 1: because it makes you.
1:42:01
Speaker 2: Harder to defend.
1:42:02
Speaker 1: So yeah, it looks, it looks simple until you start
1:42:06
Speaker 1: breaking them down because that look may come from four
1:42:11
Speaker 1: or five different formations with different motions. So it's just
1:42:16
Speaker 1: keeps adding on with what you guys are what we're
1:42:20
Speaker 1: trying to diagnose as the play starts.
1:42:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's really interesting to watch and and you know,
1:42:26
Speaker 3: I wish I had more time to dive into film
1:42:28
Speaker 3: like that, but holy cow, it's it's one of those
1:42:31
Speaker 3: things that Segar Woollie's just is that way all the time,
1:42:34
Speaker 3: and and that's why they've they're perennial, you know, above
1:42:38
Speaker 3: five hundred every single year. Good luck coach against the
1:42:42
Speaker 3: Cubs on Friday. And thank you so much for joining
1:42:44
Speaker 3: me on the Gatorade game day preview.
1:42:46
Speaker 2: Thanks Tyler, thanks for having me.
1:42:51
Speaker 4: You hear that that's the sound of Pepsi zero sugar.
1:42:54
Speaker 4: The better tasting, more refreshing zero sugar Cola Pepsi zero sugar,
1:43:01
Speaker 4: Let your taste decide.
1:43:03
Speaker 3: And that wraps it up. I hope you've enjoyed the
1:43:05
Speaker 3: Gatorade Game Day Football Preview for Week eight, and I
1:43:08
Speaker 3: just want to thank all the coaches them made the
1:43:10
Speaker 3: time out of their busy day to join me here.
1:43:12
Speaker 3: I can't wait to do it again next week. I'm
1:43:14
Speaker 3: so glad I'm getting all eleven on board and yeah,
1:43:18
Speaker 3: it's just fantastic. And I think this is three or
1:43:21
Speaker 3: four weeks in a row now that they've all been available,
1:43:24
Speaker 3: so it's starting to come together. Also a huge thank
1:43:27
Speaker 3: you to Walton Beverage for their sponsorship. And you've been
1:43:29
Speaker 3: listening to episode three hundred and eighty three of the
1:43:32
Speaker 3: Walkom Preps podcast. It's the Gatorade Game Day Football Preview.
1:43:37
Speaker 3: Don't forget to vote on Monday for the PEPSI Play
1:43:39
Speaker 3: of the Week and we'll talk to you again next week.