Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 231 - Top 100 #4 John Stremler

Transcript

Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 231 - Top 100 #4 John Stremler · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Nooksack Valley John Stremler, and you're listening to the Top one hundred
• 0:03
  Countdown on the Welcome Preps Podcast with Tyler and Ryland Rally the Valley. Greetings,
• 0:32
  and welcome into the Wacome Preps Podcast. This is episode two and thirty
• 0:35
  one, the seventh of ten podcast. As we count down the Top one
• 0:38
  hundred, I'm Royland Spencer. Along with me as always is Tyler Anderson of
• 0:43
  What Come Preps. Tyler, how are we doing? Doing good? Does
• 0:50
  the little question mark at the end of there? Welcome Preps? Uh?
• 0:55
  Yeah, doing doing great. We continue on through this and you know,
• 0:59
  as we count down to the last few here, it's it was so crazy.
• 1:04
  And we talked about this in an earlier podcast about how it was really
• 1:10
  hard to pick. I kind of knew who my top four to five were,
• 1:15
  but the order was just I mean you could just roll dice and throw
• 1:19
  them out there and say, okay, boom boom boom boom boom. It
• 1:22
  was it was that hard this year, and and all these guys are so
• 1:26
  great and and even just to make the top five is you know, pretty
• 1:30
  amazing. So it's gonna be it's gonna be fun to talk about these last
• 1:34
  ones. And today we will be talking about number four on the list,
• 1:38
  meaning we've already counted down from one hundred all the way down to five.
• 1:42
  So if you would like to hear those podcasts, go back subscribe. But
• 1:47
  yeah, go back and listen one hundred down to eighty two, eighty one
• 1:49
  to sixty three. We got them all. There's been what would that be
• 1:55
  six podcasts leading up to this point, so go find them. The Top
• 1:59
  one I Heard Countdown is sponsored by Anytime Fitness. Visit any of their three
• 2:02
  locations in Ferndale, London or Linden North are the three that sponsored the Top
• 2:07
  one hundred Countdown, and you know, go in let them know that you
• 2:13
  heard it here on the Watcomb Preps podcast in Tyler. I mean, let's
• 2:17
  let's be honest here. You know, it's after New Year now, and
• 2:23
  it's uh, you know, everybody's got their New Year's resolutions, perfect timing.
• 2:29
  Yeah, what better thing to do than to go by a six month
• 2:30
  membership and only go for three. I mean that's uh, that's kind of
• 2:35
  what everybody does, right, That's what I've always heard. No, but
• 2:38
  yeah, Anytime Fitness Great sponsors of the program and great sponsors of of watcom
• 2:43
  preps in general. I mean they're they're locked in for a little while now
• 2:46
  they're gonna help keep things going. So if somebody knows somebody, or if
• 2:52
  somebody owns a business or they want to sponsor Tyler, how can they how
• 2:54
  can they do that? Well, getting a hold of me through social media
• 2:58
  is always the best way. Just search for walking and Preps through Facebook,
• 3:01
  Twitter, or Instagram, and then just send a direct message. That way.
• 3:08
  I am the lone person who is seeing all these things, so you
• 3:12
  will get directly to me, and I'll get back to you. And we
• 3:15
  can always figure out some sort of package if you're if you you're just like,
• 3:17
  well, I can only do this much. We'll figure something out.
• 3:21
  You know, there's there's lots of different things that we could do. Uh,
• 3:24
  you know, there's many things that are still available to be sponsored.
• 3:29
  So we can just have that discussion and we can talk about you know,
• 3:32
  maybe you say, well I can only I can do it this upcoming month,
• 3:38
  or you know my fiscal year ends at this time. Well we'll talk
• 3:42
  about it, we'll figure it out, we'll make it work. And and
• 3:44
  we just want to you know, keep it going. And and it's an
• 3:49
  amazing community that believes the same thing and wants to keep things going. So
• 3:52
  that's that's just kind of the way it rolls, and and I'm really fortunate
• 3:57
  to be in this position. I am to be able to keep this going
• 3:59
  for everybody else to enjoy. Tyler, let's talk about number four on the
• 4:03
  top one hundred pound down today. It is six foot three, two hundred
• 4:08
  and fifty five pounds right guard, linebacker, not defensive lineman like some people
• 4:13
  think, but linebacker. He is a senior from Knooksack Valley's number fifty two.
• 4:17
  John Stremler. Yeah, that's true. And you know you could throw
• 4:23
  in full back every once in a while too. Yeah, it's it's has
• 4:27
  he ever done any punting? No, but I would imagine he'd be okay
• 4:31
  at yeah, probably like he'd probably kick it all the way to Abbotsford.
• 4:34
  Yeah, I would feel I'd feel so sorry for that football it may it
• 4:39
  would make me feel like going back to watching the original Superman movie that came
• 4:43
  out in nineteen seventy eight, and there's a scene where you know, he's
• 4:46
  still a kid and he's in high school, but he's like the athletic he's
• 4:48
  like the he's like the equipment manager. And you know, they're all like
• 4:53
  throwing the towels and the jersey, you know, dirty jerseys at him.
• 4:56
  And as the football players are going away and they're all picking on him,
• 4:58
  and then as they all walk away, he's all angry and he gets the
• 5:00
  football and he punts it and it just goes out of picture like you never
• 5:03
  see it again. Uh used to what's that horse? Yeah? Who's the
• 5:11
  horse from that movie? Uh? Not, mister ed right, I have
• 5:17
  no idea. I think that was a TV show. But oh was it
• 5:20
  a TV show? I thought it was a movie. Yeah, I think
• 5:23
  that was a TV you know what I'm talking about? Though, Right,
• 5:25
  I can have this. I have this vision in my head. I can
• 5:29
  see it. Yeah yeah, but I can't remember the name. Let's see
• 5:32
  horse kicking a football that comes up with all kinds of crazy stuff. Yeah,
• 5:40
  horse on YouTube got crazy? Guess the kicking horse, Gus, that's
• 5:46
  what it says. I don't know about it, but I'll tell you how
• 5:50
  John John was kicking football though. Oh it was a mule. Sorry,
• 5:54
  Oh okay, okay, you know I you know I first saw John as
• 6:00
  a freshman, and that KNUK sac team during the COVID year was very young,
• 6:04
  and they started a lot, you know, they started freshman, you
• 6:08
  know, Joey Brown was starting, Duke was starting, but there was also
• 6:13
  John Stremler was starting, and he was the one I was kind of curious
• 6:17
  about. I didn't know that much about. And he would just kind of
• 6:20
  make plays and then he kind of got into the rotation on defense and started
• 6:25
  making plays. And then from his freshman to his sophomore year, as most
• 6:29
  kids do, he grew quite a bit, got bigger, got stronger,
• 6:33
  and right off the bat his sophomore year, he was you know, he
• 6:40
  leaps and bounds, was already like you could see, was one of the
• 6:43
  better players. I think he was ranked in the you know, in the
• 6:46
  thirties is sophomore year on the top one hundred list, he was, I
• 6:49
  think it was like thirty three or something like that. I think I had
• 6:53
  him ranked as the highest sophomore and and he just he just willed his way
• 7:00
  to be a better player, and he just kept getting bigger and stronger and
• 7:02
  working out bigger and stronger, and then faster you'd see him, you know,
• 7:08
  because he was a defensive end of the time. But you'd see him
• 7:10
  against certain teams like Blaine, for instance, would do a lot of quick
• 7:14
  passes. That was when they had Avery Donor and Jackson court Lever and those
• 7:16
  guys, and they threw the ball a lot, and they do a lot
• 7:19
  of quick outs and just stuff like that, and he'd be like an outside
• 7:23
  linebacker and he'd be he'd be covering Jackson court Lever, you know. I
• 7:28
  mean, it was crazy to see his speed and his ability to play in
• 7:30
  the in coverage and just running all over the place. And you watch him
• 7:36
  on film and you see how fast he is, and then you see him
• 7:40
  in person, you see how big he is, and it's just you can't
• 7:42
  comprehend the two things combining each other. And as a junior, you know,
• 7:49
  just kept getting bigger and stronger, and going into this year, there
• 7:54
  was you know, a spot at inside linebacker and I didn't know, if
• 8:01
  you know, Coleton Lentz was going to take that spot or who was going
• 8:03
  to be playing there. And they you know, you take, you know,
• 8:07
  one of the best defensive ends you know in the county, if not
• 8:11
  the state, and you move him to another position and so but you had
• 8:18
  guys like Brady Ackerman, Dalton Hickey, and you had these other defensive ends
• 8:22
  that were worthy of starting. And you get you know, every coach says,
• 8:24
  put your best eleven on the field, move him back to linebacker.
• 8:28
  And I was really anxious to see how this was going to work out.
• 8:33
  I was, I was excited, but I just I thought, man,
• 8:37
  does he have I mean, he's two hundred and fifty five pounds. Is
• 8:39
  he going to be able to move and keep up with guys sideline the sideline?
• 8:45
  And boy, he answered that question right away. I mean, it
• 8:48
  was it was. It was crazy to see how much he could go back
• 8:52
  and forth. And then when they would try to do like a just a
• 8:56
  dump over the middle, you know, like find a soft spot in the
• 8:58
  zone type of play, he would just light those plays up. Holy cow.
• 9:03
  It just the hits would echo throughout the stadium and you could see that
• 9:09
  those were the kinds of plays that you know in open field, when he's
• 9:13
  when he's free and he's he's he can he could run. He could really
• 9:16
  thrive in that in that spot. I mean at the high school level now
• 9:20
  going on and playing in the future, yeah, he'll be you know,
• 9:24
  a lot of contact and the line of scrimmage and stuff like that, but
• 9:28
  boy, he's he's so quick. And then on the offensive side of the
• 9:31
  ball, him pulling and point of attack was just unreal, I mean,
• 9:37
  and then blitzing as a linebacker two. You could see him coming every once
• 9:41
  in a while. And it might not even be too I don't know how
• 9:46
  to put this like, it might not even be for a specific like,
• 9:50
  Okay, if it's third and more than nine, I want you blitzing or
• 9:52
  whatever. He just kind of did it in certain situations in it and if
• 9:58
  if, if he didn't make a play on any body in the backfield,
• 10:01
  it kind of threw a wrench into the rest of the day for the offensive
• 10:05
  guard who just got crushed by a blitzing linebacker. And then I don't know
• 10:09
  how much he wants to, you know, put up with that for the
• 10:13
  rest of the game. You know, you kind of put a negative imprint
• 10:16
  into his mind, and that can throw a lot of things, you know,
• 10:18
  and you know, out of whack for the rest of the game.
• 10:22
  So he was, he was putting his imprint all over the game in so
• 10:24
  many different ways. And then when they came out with a jumbo formation and
• 10:28
  he gets moved back to fullback. I mean, they they ran that.
• 10:31
  You know, few plays a game right off the bat right from week one,
• 10:37
  and it was you know, as a lead blocker, you get him
• 10:41
  a few more steps. His point of impact is amazing. But then it
• 10:46
  was all of a sudden, like in week eight or something like that,
• 10:50
  they gave him the ball once and it was just because of the way that
• 10:56
  the defense lined up against it. It was a better it was a better
• 11:00
  play to hand the ball off to Strembler. And they just kept doing that,
• 11:05
  like if it if the defense is going to play it this way,
• 11:07
  they'll give it to Strembler. If it goes the up, if it goes
• 11:11
  this way, we'll give it to Lents or Wittern, you know. And
• 11:15
  when they would all rotate one way, it's like, well, it's better
• 11:18
  to give it to Strembler. I mean, he averaged almost twenty yards of
• 11:22
  carry and he carried the ball seven times. I mean, he's a guy.
• 11:26
  Remember Dane Winter. We talked about him, you know, years ago,
• 11:31
  but he was a former lineman that became a running back. I remember
• 11:35
  you, yeah, yeah, And it was his senior year and he became
• 11:39
  a running back and he ran for a thousand yards his senior year, and
• 11:43
  it's like like he's now. He was really fast, like track fast,
• 11:48
  And I get that, but I'm curious if Stremler was a running back the
• 11:54
  entire like the main featured running back, I bet he could have gained a
• 11:56
  thousand yards. Reminds me a lot easy. Yeah. Travis Welch was a
• 12:01
  player in the in the eighties for Meridian who when he showed up as a
• 12:07
  freshman, full full beard, you know, six feet tall, two hundred
• 12:11
  and ten pounds as a freshman and coach James looked at him and said,
• 12:16
  you're starting at guard as a freshman. As a true freshman, he was
• 12:18
  an All conference first team guy. And he was just kept yeah, and
• 12:22
  he just kept getting bigger and stronger, and he was I think he ended
• 12:28
  up about six two and forty pounds and as a senior he ended up playing
• 12:33
  running back and and it was was amazing and he was a two time All
• 12:39
  state you know, defensive end and and uh. But as a senior he
• 12:43
  went played running back. Travis Bass TJ's dad very similar. He was a
• 12:50
  guy also at Meridian who was aligneman that was you know, five eleven but
• 12:54
  like two forty and just you know, but could run like a four eight
• 12:58
  five and just a barrel of a guy. And as a senior they put
• 13:03
  him at running back and he was unstoppable and he's strumbler is a guy that
• 13:07
  could have done that. But on defense, holy cow, seventy two tackles,
• 13:13
  twelve and a half tackles for loss, six sacks, three pass deflections,
• 13:16
  two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, and he'd been putting up numbers
• 13:22
  for four years, so it's it's not surprising at all, you know,
• 13:28
  from what I expected of him this year. He did all that. Plus
• 13:33
  some did not think he was going to run the ball. That was just
• 13:37
  so exciting to see him run the ball and and like shift the ball into
• 13:41
  the other hand and oh it was just you could tell that he really enjoyed
• 13:45
  those moments and scored a couple of touchdowns doing it as well. What a
• 13:50
  fun year to watch him play football and always with you know, a smile
• 13:54
  on his face off the field, but on the field, just one tough
• 13:58
  Henry dude. I'm just looking over his So he signed with Eastern Washington.
• 14:05
  Yeah, it would have been just before Christmas. Coaches report, so this
• 14:11
  is usually I don't know if this is actually like written by their head coach,
• 14:16
  but usually these coaches things are written by the head coach or his position
• 14:22
  coach. One of the two says, here a team. And when I
• 14:24
  say head coach or position coach, I'm talking from Eastern not coach Bartell.
• 14:30
  He says here though a team captain on a semi final team. John played
• 14:33
  offensive line and linebacker in high school because that's where a team needed him.
• 14:37
  Showed multiple years at our team camp that he has all the tools to be
• 14:43
  a successful defensive tackle in the Big Sky. So looks like they're going to
• 14:48
  beef him up a little bit there, Tyler. You mentioned where he was
• 14:54
  as a sophomore. He was number thirty three on the top one hundred count
• 14:58
  down and get this, sixty three yeah two years on sixty pounds in two
• 15:07
  years. Yeah yeah, wow. It's like he and he's getting faster too,
• 15:13
  that's the crazy thing. Yes, I think he plays at a much
• 15:16
  better speed now, yeah, I truly believe he does that. Being said
• 15:20
  Tyler, as a sophomore, his his numbers fifty four and a half tackles,
• 15:24
  six tackles for a loss, four and a half sacks, four pass
• 15:26
  deflections, and one forced fumble. And that was as a defensive end.
• 15:31
  Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean this guy has gotten better every
• 15:35
  single year. From a true recruiting standpoint, I think it would be hard
• 15:41
  for him to find a place to get you know, in the FBS,
• 15:46
  to get offers. But I also think he's the type of guy that with
• 15:50
  the way things go now in college football, where guys play a couple of
• 15:54
  years that in the Big Sky or something and then move on, I could
• 15:58
  I could absolutely see that happening because I've seen guys do that at Eastern,
• 16:03
  at Montana, at Montana State, at you know, these different places that
• 16:07
  I don't think as highly coming out of high school as I did John Stremler.
• 16:11
  And I think Strembler still has a long ways to go, right.
• 16:14
  I think he's still figuring things out, you know what I mean, And
• 16:18
  that let's get him to Eastern, get him on a college weights program,
• 16:19
  and you know, let him eat all he wants. Yeah. Yeah,
• 16:25
  I mean, he could absolutely be to ninety in no time. He's just
• 16:30
  good man, just a beast. Yeah. I mean, just think about
• 16:33
  that. I don't think he would lose much speed. He's gotta lose a
• 16:38
  little bit, but I don't think he would lose much. And yeah,
• 16:42
  I mean it would be It would be truly wild, wouldn't it if if
• 16:47
  Eastern ended up getting him. Brady Ackerman and Colton Lentz, Yeah, you
• 16:52
  know, yeah, well they were those were the when I went to Eastern
• 16:56
  campus last year. All three of those one position uh position MVPs. And
• 17:00
  I know there's you know, you give you you know, you give those
• 17:04
  out because you're like, man, come here, you know, you try
• 17:07
  to say, but you also earned those two. And I was at a
• 17:11
  lot of those linemen. I watched a lot of those linemen uh drills and
• 17:15
  stuff like that, because that's done on the big field, you know.
• 17:18
  And and I sat in the stands and watched a lot of those, and
• 17:22
  Stremmler stood out. Yeah. And there's some great schools and great players in
• 17:26
  that group. And and you know, I think, you yeah, I
• 17:34
  know there's another thing I was gonna say, but I'm not gonna get into
• 17:37
  it. But he's just totally cow. He he is full throttle all the
• 17:44
  time, and and he's just you know, he's kind of just like shoulders
• 17:52
  up, like I just love playing football type of guy. You know.
• 17:55
  There's it's I love that there was. I didn't know that much about him,
• 18:02
  you know, coming in as a freshman, and for him to just
• 18:07
  that rapid improvement every year, there was never like a level off. You
• 18:11
  know, it just kept boom boom boom. It just kept jumping every single
• 18:15
  year. And and another thing too, is this was a huge thing,
• 18:21
  and I want to emphasize this was in that State semi final game in overtime,
• 18:26
  there was that really really you know, tough call against them, and
• 18:32
  for the past interference in overtime, you know, moved lakeside up and everybody's
• 18:37
  just kind of down on the dumps and arguing and stuff like that, and
• 18:40
  John Strembler was the one that was trying to calm everybody down and say,
• 18:44
  you know, you could you could see it on the field. You could
• 18:47
  see his emotion on the field of a way of getting everybody just relaxed.
• 18:49
  There's nothing we could do about it next play, Like when I saw that,
• 18:55
  like, that's that's huge. Yes, And so it's not just about
• 18:59
  his abil on the field physically, but the ability to get everybody together and
• 19:04
  just say hey, erase it. It's we're onto the next thing. And
• 19:10
  that was that really stood out to me. So great, great young man,
• 19:15
  and wish him all the best in the future. Yeah. Hell of
• 19:19
  a football player, I mean really really good football player and one of those
• 19:25
  guys that's, you know, equally as talented off the field as he is
• 19:27
  on it. Yep, you know, in so many different ways, you
• 19:32
  know, so definitely been fun to watch him. Tyler, I guess maybe
• 19:37
  that was your final word, but any last words before we go. I
• 19:41
  think we did. Think we're good already. Again. Thank you to Anytime
• 19:44
  Fitness in Ferndale, Linden North for the sponsorship of the Top one hundred countdown.
• 19:49
  He's Tyler Anderson of Walkompreps walkompreps dot com. I'm Ryland Spencer. You've
• 19:53
  listening to episode two hundred and thirty one, number four John Stremler here on
• 20:00
  the Welcome Preps podcast. We will talk to you tomorrow.