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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 183 - Squalicum Storm Preview · Whatcom Preps Podcast

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This is Squalcome Senior Kobe Lewis, and you're listening to the Qualcom football preview
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on the Welcome Preps Podcast with Tyler and Ryland roll Storm. Greetings, and
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welcome to the Welcome Preps Podcast. You're listening to the twenty twenty three Squalcom
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Storm a team preview. I'm Rylan Spencer along with me as always Tyler Anderson
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of a Welcome Preps. Tyler, how we doing? Uh? Doing great?
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Yeah, but you know we're flogging along now the third day of previews,
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the fifth team of previews. Have a lot of fun. Man,
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this is great. This will officially be the halfway point when we are done
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with this one. So yeah, my butt is starting to get a little
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used to this chair, Tyler. I think so that's when we know we're
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getting towards the season. Here the chairs starting to hate me. Yeah.
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But this is the fifth of ten team previews as we get ready for the
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upcoming season. We have already covered Sea Home, Bellingham and the two Linden
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schools. If you'd like to listen to those, head over to Walcom Prepps
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dot com. You'll find all previews on the front page. Later today,
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we'll be talking about the blame Border rights. That's five PM is when that
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one goes live. But be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can
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get notifications when we post future shows. And actually, Tyler I haven't even
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mentioned on any of the podcasts yet, but this is going to go right
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up to the season. We're gonna go all the way to Wednesday night and
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then Thursday morning. If you're subscribed to the podcast, you will get a
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notification with our week one preview. We're gonna cover all kinds of topics week
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one, and then on Friday, that week one preview will go live onto
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the website. So if you're subscribed to the podcast, you get it to
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day early. That's right. Yeah, so you definitely want to subscribe and
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always get those notifications. It makes life a lot easier, it really does.
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Speaking and making life easy. Colby Lewis did that for us because he
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gave us a great intro. I mean, it makes life easy because then
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I don't have to edit, change the editing or anything I'll gotta do to
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slide that piece right in there. But yeah, we've got all kinds of
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We've got one, two, three, four, we've got five more coming
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up Blaine, Nooksack Valley, Mount Baker, Meridian from down. We've already
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done the other ones. I mean, this is the best time of the
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year, Tyler. We are rocking and rolling. Uh. You were out
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at Squalicum. What was it Saturday? It was Saturday morning. It was
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it was supposed to be Friday morning. I talked about it a little bit
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during the Bellingham preview, but uh, and I just it just kind of
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missed my window, and I was like, thinking, well, I got
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to try to squeeze it in Saturday. It was so funny because I'm you
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know, I'm out at Lyndon and there's so many kids to interview and coaches
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interview and stuff, and and you know, the parking lots little ways away
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from the practice field, and and I'm looking at my clock and I'm like,
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I have to get to Squalicum. I have to get there in like
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twenty twenty minutes. I have to Yeah, and you drive up my grandma,
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So that's right. Yeah, And and uh, and I you know,
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I'm thinking, Okay, practice ends at eleven thirty. I think I'm
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gonna arrive right at eleven thirty. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
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I'll get him another time. I'm pulling into the parking lot and they're
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just breaking away from stuff to kind of cuddle at the fifty yard line,
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and I'm like, I'm like, oh man, oh man, keep him
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there, Nick, keep him there. I get all my stuff right out
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of the car, go down the hill, and and right as Coach Lucy
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sees me, he's you know, he knows exactly what's up, and he
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tells everybody, hey, stick around for pictures. And I was like,
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oh, this is perfect. This worked out just right. So I didn't
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really get to see them practice a whole lot, but I was able to
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get the headshots and and uh and talk to coach and kind of get the
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get the idea of what to look for for the twenty twenty three storm this
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year. Well, we've got all kinds of stuff to talk about here.
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Let's get right into it. Coach Lucy, as you mentioned there, tenth
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season with Squalicum, it's unbelievable, Tyler. You and I were talking before
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the podcast here, he's technically the old man now in the in the in
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the Northwest two Way Conference because there's been so much coaching turnover the last couple
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of years. He's been there ten seasons now, and the next closest,
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I believe would be coach Van Dalen and coach Ward has been at Cedar Woolie
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for a little bit. So those three guys, the other five teams all
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with new head coaches. Now, let's see here just really quickly. I
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mean new to the program, new to the program, was in the program,
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new to the program was in the program. So two of the five
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new head coaches were part of the program beforehand. The other three are brand
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new to it. So pretty wild, pretty pretty wild. That's going on
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to the Northwest Conference, considering it's you know, top to bottom, maybe
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the best conference in the state regardless of classification. But Squalacom Storm they play
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their games a Civic Stadium, they're in Bellingham. Last season four and five.
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Twenty twenty one, they are seven and three. They were state semifinalists.
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Tyler, is that considered like the best season in team history twenty twenty
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Yeah, that's still. Yeah, that's the only time in school history they've
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gotten to the final four. And okay, and yeah, I mean they
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made a heck of a run and lost that fourteen to three game to tum
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Water and they were in it the whole time. So yeah, I would
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I would say, and I think most people would say that's the best team
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that they've had two. It was. It was a pretty good team.
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Yeah, decent. They had a couple of okay players, Yeah, especially
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at Wazoo. Yeah. Actually they might lead the state in players at Washington
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State right now, I mean about that. Yeah, actually I think they
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what do they have four? Yeah? They have four players also, right
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yeah? Yeah. And then the only other team I can think of that
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even has two is tom Water with the Pain Brothers. But anyway, lots
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of key quote unquote key losses here in your preview, Tyler and Nick wats
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one of them, Jacob Sorenson, Jacob Donnelly, Josh Leonard has moved over
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to Bellingham. We talked about him a couple of days ago. I mean,
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there are some really really good names, and this is probably the second
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third time almost in a row where they've had a lot of guys. But
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they bring back guys that we've talked about a lot the last couple of seasons.
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I mean they really do. Marcus Nixon, Joaquin Ortiz, DeAndre Dunne,
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Moore, Colby Lewis the young man that gave us the intro. I
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mean, there's still some serious talent on this team, and we know how
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well they are coached, so uh, definitely exciting Tyler. The biggest question
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mark maybe coming into the season though, is who the heck is gonna play
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quarterback? Yeah, you know that's a it is a crazy thing. With
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Josh Leonard transferring, it kind of opened the door for ideas. Uh.
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Nolan Lamb is a five ten, one hundred and seventy five pounds senior that
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got some time last year. He was you know, ten of fifteen for
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one hundred and eleven yards, and but they you know, if you you
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know, when you close your eyes and think of Squallycome's offense, you think
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of, you know, a quarterback and running back that are both threats to
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run. And you know last year they did it with Marcus Nixon and DeAndre
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dune Moore kind of back and forth thunder lightning type stuff, and but they
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could never play on the field. At the same time, it was super
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rare. There might have been a few times actually that Marcus Nixon was doing
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some wildcat type stuff, but uh, now it's pretty much locked in now
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Marcus Nixon is going to be taking the snaps from center, so uh,
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just to I mean to just to defend that and prepare for that has got
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to be scary with with those two guys back there and then and then uh,
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you know, walking Ortiz coming in that fly sweep. So you got
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you know, you got three legit studs that could get the ball on the
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exact same looking play every time. And you know, trying to be able
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to you know, read your assignments and make the play on defense is gonna
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be really tough. You know. The big question is is how Marcus Nixon
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can throw the ball at the Uh so him throwing some passes at the scrimmage
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at Sea Home back in July, and you know he looked fine. I
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mean, you know, guys that are athletes are athletes. You know,
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this might be very reminiscent of Layton Smithson playing quarterback, you know, Spencer
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Lloyd playing quarterback. There's it's uh, it's not different from what Squalakum has
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done in the past. And so they're gonna put their best eleven on the
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field and and having Marcus Nixon with the ball in his hand and on it
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on every play is not a bad thing. Yeah, And I mean I
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think we both know coach Lucy might adapt to his teams as well as anybody
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in the state. I mean, you know, they've they've had it in
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the past where maybe they didn't have the you know, the greatest you know,
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they didn't have a brand Heppner back there sling the rock around what they
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do. They went to a little bit more of a running you know,
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uh what do you call it? A power spread run game? And you
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know, even if they don't have the biggest and best offensive line, they
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still scheme some things, you know, So it'll be interesting. But now
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that we know who the quarterback is going to be, Tyler, the biggest
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question marker on the team, who's the running backs? Because Marcus Nixon was
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that guy last year eight hundred and ten yards, six touchdowns, I would
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assume he's still going to get a lot of rushing yards. And we know
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DeAndre Dunmore can carry the rock when needed. Last year thirty seven carries a
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seventy two and two touchdowns four point seven yard average and Nixon was four point
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eight. So combined, I mean you've got two guys in the backfield,
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and I mean let's face it, They're they're gonna find ways of running the
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rock with I'm sure both those guys are Is that kind of the idea and
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are there more guys? Yeah, that's the main idea. But you know,
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DeAndre Dunmore plays a lot of linebacker again, so they're gonna want to
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keep him somewhat fresh. So Maliki Smith is a five eleven hundred and eighty
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five pound junior that has looked really good in camp so far, and he
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can definitely spell done more. He gives kind of a kind of a more
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of a you know, cutting back and forth type of guy. DeAndre Dunmore
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is up to about two forty now he's gonna run you over. Maliki Smith
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is more of that speedy guy and so and that's always good too, kind
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of give different looks and stuff like that. Maliki Smith suffered a kind of
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a nasty arm injury out. I think it was like the second to last
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play of the season last year. I was at the game. It was
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right there on the Squellocomes sideline. He caught a pass took at twenty five
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yards and uh yeah, it was just I just I hate to see any
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injury obviously, but when it's like the second and the last play of the
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game and in the last game of the season, he's completely healed, he's
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ready to go. He looks good. So so yeah, so he'll be
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kind of that next weapon out of the backfield and and that can be at
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the use for coach Lucy well Tyler in classic Marcus Nixon fashion. He's also
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the team's second leading receiver, right behind Joaquin Ortiz. Ortiz thirty six receptions,
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three hundred and sixty two yards or excuse me, two touchdowns, but
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Marcus Nixon had thirteen for two twenty three and four touchdowns. So they actually
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return, you know, maybe as many receiving touchdowns as almost any team in
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the county if I'm thinking right, I mean, I'm sure there's actually I
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guess there's a couple of teams that we still got to talk about that might
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have some guys there. But that's quite a few receiving touchdowns to return,
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and you know, there's still a little bit of question mark can they get
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some of the ball. But one of them is Marcus Nixon, so he
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ain't thrown to himself unless he's Marcus Mariota and Brett Farve so who are the
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guys he's thrown to. Yeah, Waking Ortiz is gonna be definitely, you
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know, a weapon, a target, a main target. Find ways to
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get him the ball where he's in a good position to make a move maybe
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on just just on one guy and then go U not the biggest guy five
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seven, one hundred and forty one pounds, but just like he's just a
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lightning bug. I mean he is. He is so quick, back and
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forth, side to side, straight ahead, doesn't matter. He will make
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some moves. He's tough, he stays low, he can break tackles.
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Uh, just love watching him play football. He's a guy that last year
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just came out of nowhere. I didn't even get his head shot last year.
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I had to get a picture of him after a game once because I
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knew he was after seeing him play. He's gonna be in the top one
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hundred, all that stuff. I knew I needed that that that picture.
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So yeah, so it's a it's definitely him. Nava Egging is just a
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super talented athlete five ten, one hundred and seventy pounds. He looked great
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at the beginning of the season. He missed the second half of the season.
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I'm not sure if he was injured or something, but he looked like
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he could be a big time player. You know, Squalacomb posts their agility
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numbers a lot online and different things like that, you know, verticals and
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and broad jumps and all these different things. And Nava Egging is just it's
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just he's at the tops of everything. He's just one of those great athletes,
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awesome leader, amazing kid, so many of those really cool traits to
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have as a senior leader now, so I expect him to be a big
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time target as well. Zach Watt. How about that another wat coming up
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six one, one hundred and seventy five pounds sophomore, providing a pretty big
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target for him. Blake Nolan is a kid that is coming out at six
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one hundred and seventy pounds senior. How about another scambal Brady Scammele five eight
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one hundred and sixty, one hundred and sixty pounds senior. And then another
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sophomore receiver at five ten is here ready for this? And as Bjornson and
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so as Bjornson what a name? Yes, I know, I was like,
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Manna, you spell it aj B S or A S b J O
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R N S E. N. Yes you do look at you? Uh
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that is yes. And I know my I don't know Scandinavian name. Yeah,
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I mean I don't even The only reason I know it and I'll admit
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it there was a quarterback and in a tackle from Graham Copalison with that last
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name. Oh well, there you go. So he's in the mix two.
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So there's that's six guys that could be split out wide that have been
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looking good at practice, and you know they can get a good rotation there.
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But I mean Ortiz and Egging are I think you're going to be kind
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of the main targets. And then at that tight end spot, there's there's
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a couple of guys that have looked really good. Chase Nelson is a kid
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that jumps off the screen when you're watching films six five two fifteen. He
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is a senior. He started last year as an outside linebacker, did really
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well, played a little bit of tight end, caught a touchdown pass.
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I could see him just going off. I have a really big time season.
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And he's backed up by one of the most intriguing kids. Uh see
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home transfer at six three, two hundred ten, just a sophomore Locky Fagata
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and he is h he's a kid that he was in the running for Freshman
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of the Year last year. The name you can't remember. How I knew
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that name? Yeah, And after I took his head shot, I said,
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okay, okay, hey, Locky, how do you pronounce your last
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name? He told me three times, and I'm I think I still have
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it. I'm not, you know, it's uh, it's it's not what
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you think it is. I remember that and so but man, both those
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guys are just premier athletes that could play tight end. I mean, you
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know, Coach Lucy was even kind of kind of shrugging his shoulders. He
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goes, we have the ability to go double tight, which you know they
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I don't think they've ever done since he's been there, So, uh,
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that kind of can open the game, you know, the game. And
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those are those are two big kids that could help block for the you know
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if power run game too. So a lot of a lot of nice weapons
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to like there for the storm. Yeah, it sounds like it now,
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Tyler. I'm always seeing two guys with O L next to their names here
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in the top retornees. I see Kolby Lewis, the young man that gave
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us the intro, and then I see Alden Webb. I mean, I
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hope those guys are both playing offensive line because they also play defensive line according
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to this. So I like them already. But who are those guys?
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What positions they playing? Who are the other three? You gotta have five?
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So who are we talking about here? Yeah, you're right, Well,
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Kolby Lewis is you know, the third will be a third year as
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a starter. He's he's he's the man child up front. He's six two,
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two hundred and seventy five pounds and I don't know if I've ever seen
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a kid that big carry it that well. He's an athlete. He's he
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plays third base on the baseball team. You know, he's he's uh,
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he moves really well. He's he's got he's got all the tools to you
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know, to play at the next level. He's just big, strong,
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he's wide. You know, he's just built differently and I really really like
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him at right tackle. On the left side, left tackle is ben kin
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Singer. He's a six two, two hundred and ten pounder, very athletic.
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Kind of waited his turn. So now he'll be at a left tackle.
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At center is Elijah Ingram. He's six feet, two hundred and fifteen
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pounds. He's a coach's kid. I played against his dad, Kurt,
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back in high school. If you want to say playing against, I mean
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he was an all county lineman and he was playing were standing. I went
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on the field three times a game. And uh. And then and they
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have a sophomore guard, Bryson Verene, five ten, two hundred pounds.
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He's been you know, a lot of they've really liked him at practice.
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Alden Webb is in the mix, like you said, six one, two
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hundred pound at a guard. And there's a couple of other kids. There's
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a big sophomore, Braden Ortiz five eleven, two hundred and seventy five pounds,
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and another big one, Kayden Fulton at five ten, two eighty he's
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a senior. So they got about seven guys right now that they're looking at.
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And that's kind of the case. As you know, this time of
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year is is uh, you're still gonna work things out. You're gonna go
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play in the you know, the scrimmage or the jamboree and different things and
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just kind of see kind of what you got and then you'll kind of have
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some mattras by then. But uh, coach Lucy's very happy with the amount
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of guys he has and knows that he'll have a good five to start the
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season with. Now on the defensive side of the ball, as far as
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off or excuse me, defensive line goes Ryland. Yeah, defensively, let's
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talk about the offensive line. I see some names here of some guys that
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you know have some tackles for the loss and stuff, But I mean the
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one I see the most is actually a linebacker. So who are we talking
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about inside on the defensive side of the ball, Well, I think Colby
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Lewis will kind of man that knows position. And one of the things that
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Coach Lucy really likes about him is he's challenged him to to get in great
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shape and to rarely leave the field, and so, uh, you know,
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every once in a while, no Squalacombe will have those guys that will
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play both ways on the line and just and just go, go, go.
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So Colby Lewis will probably be that guy. He'll be flanked by guys
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like ben Ken Singer Alden Webb showed up last year did did pretty well.
18:07
And they have another kid, Carlos Garcia. He's five seven, one hundred
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ninety pounds. You know, Squalicum likes to have sometimes those smaller defensive lineman
18:15
again get in there and mix it up and have some things happen. So,
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uh, those are the four guys I'm kind of looking at right now
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for those three spots. Who's the guy that I drafted to the Cougars that
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was the smaller guy who played like defensive van Oh yes, yes, uh
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Squalicum kid. I loved him. Yeah he had a single digit number.
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Yeah. Oh man, why can't I think of who it was? I
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don't know what. It's gonna drive me nuts too, I know, I
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just know that I feel like this last nay maybe started with an end or
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oh rising to Cobby, Rising to Cobby, man, I love yes,
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yes, yes, yeah, And he's exactly what you're talking about. Their
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smaller kid but just absolutely just goes out just bananas. Yeah, it's it
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could be a kid that's you know, I'm not going to play on offense.
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So he's he's jack when it's time to go in, he's fresh.
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Yeah, he's going against some guys that might be a little more tired,
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and that's where you could take advantage. He's like a third guy, you
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know, third down guy, but on every down, you know what I
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mean, Like the guy that the guy that in the NFL they send it
19:15
on third downs, go get those sacks, like Bruce Irvan was his rookie
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year. Like Bruce, just go tea off, no rising. Kakabi was
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going in whenever he wanted and he was just gonna go freak him nuts.
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Linebackers. DeAndre Dunmore, who else are we talking about here? Yeah,
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DeAndre Dunmore, third year as a starter. I mean, he just puts
19:30
up huge numbers over the years. I remember you talked very highly of him
19:34
when you saw him as a sophomore against Cedra Woolley, and he's just one
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of those impressive kids that can make plays. Malachi Smith on the inside next
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to him, he's a kid that he made a few plays too when he
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when he was able to get in there last year. They were pretty loaded
19:49
at linebacker last year, so you know he's gonna be kind of spelling them
19:53
more every once in a while running back, but he'll be playing a lot
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inside linebacker, outside linebacker, it's the it's those two tight ends, Chase
20:00
Nelson and Locky Fagato. Is those two guys are gonna be I just I
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love the size and the length of those guys coming off the edge. I
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mean, you think of Squalcum defense, that's the first thing I think of,
20:14
is those guys coming off the edge. You know, the Bryson Lambs,
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the Chevinsky schlim Bakers, you know these guys were these these guys are
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just made just it's so tough to plan because you almost have to go up
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the middle. You can't go on the outside because those long arms, grab
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a grab a shoulder pad and just and just hang on and and bring a
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guy down, big strong hands. Both these guys are gonna be able to
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do that. And that's that's like I said, It's very much a staple
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of the of the Squalacum defense now. Just looking it over and obviously,
20:45
I mean Nick Watt was one of those guys that I feel like we drafted
20:48
almost every single week in our fantasy pick them. Yeah, you know,
20:52
the I look at it and I see no returning interceptions and only one past
20:57
defended Tyler, So what's going on in the secondary? Yeah, A lot
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of newcomers here, right, I mean, there's there's just a lot of
21:04
chance now for people to make a name for themselves. Marcus Nixon, it
21:10
was played sparingly as a defender last year. They what they would do is
21:14
they kind of put him in on like a just like you were talking about
21:17
Bruce Servant type deal. They put him in on a third and long to
21:19
get after the quarterback and he would make plays those and he would go in
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maybe five plays a game on defense. Now he's gonna start at corner.
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And again, when you think of Squalachum, think of the Kai Posy,
21:30
Jacob Sorensen, you think of these big six three physical press corners, and
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that's what Marcus Nixon can be. And you know you see that, you
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know, I mean, he's a he's a force. He's a figure on
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the field. Coaches are gonna look the other way. Well you look,
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you look the other way, and the via Egging is a stud, you
21:47
know, and so he's gonna he can stay with anybody. He can.
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He can. You know, he's got like a thirty seven inch vertical.
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I mean, he's a kid that could do a lot of great things.
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On the other side, so you gotta kind of pick your poison. It's
21:57
gonna be really, really tough with the corners at safety. Joaquin Ortiz was
22:02
kind of that third safety last year. He got some time when he was
22:04
in there. Uh, he's gonna be starting. Brady Scammel probably get a
22:10
decent amount of playing time as at safety. You know. You know,
22:12
his brother was a great uh inside linebacker, and and Brady's built a little
22:18
bit, a little bit smaller, but very physical and very very tough.
22:23
I love watching him on the on the baseball team. You know, he's
22:26
he gets on first, he's stealing second. One one of those guys,
22:30
Zach Watt Uh it could be in the mix too as a safety. We
22:33
all saw what nick Wa could do. And then there's there's a sophomore five
22:37
eight hundred and fifty five pound Rheese Nolton, who's a kid that you might
22:40
want to look at too, because he's a guy that's gonna find his way
22:42
into the lineup do different things nickelback, safety, stuff like that. So
22:47
I think he'll be able to make a difference as well. I like it.
22:52
I like it. It's a lot of new names, but that almost
22:53
excites me. Even more. You know what I mean, It's fun.
22:56
I mean, it's so fun. This this time of year is just is.
23:00
I always tell everybody, I'm like, this is this is Christmas.
23:02
Man, Like everyone always sees me when I come out to practice and they're
23:04
they're like, yeah, this is And I said, I know, you
23:07
don't. We don't even have to have a conversation. We just we just
23:11
feel it. You know. It's a great it's a great feeling. This
23:12
this is better than Christmas, Tyler, this is more like Thanksgiving. I
23:18
agree, I agree? All right? How about the kicking game? Kaison?
23:22
And last year was about his I mean he was he was reliable,
23:26
he was a good kicker. It seems like Squalacom always has one of these
23:30
guys. Oh yeah, doesn't it. I mean, actually, it seems
23:33
like most teams of Welcome County always have a guy that can do this.
23:36
Who are looking at? Who are looking at? I mean I know that
23:37
they've you know, traditionally had their their punter be their quarterback also, and
23:42
you know what I mean, let's face it, we got a guy back
23:45
there that could run the ball if needed, and some some fakes and stuff.
23:48
But who are looking at? It as far as the kicking game goes.
23:51
And then last year Marcus Nixon was the kickoff return guy. We are
23:55
we gonna have a quarterback back there returning kicks? Well, I think so,
24:00
but I just don't know who's gonna be kicking to him. That's always
24:02
the key, right You're you're definitely not gonna want to kick to that guy.
24:04
You know. Avery Hagen is a five nine hundred and forty pounds sophomore.
24:08
He might be taken on the kicking duties, and I think, you
24:12
know, and Marcus Nixon could be the punter. Uh. They do like
24:17
to have their quarterback be able to punt. That doesn't necessarily mean like,
24:19
hey, I mean if it's you know, if it's fourth and fifteen,
24:22
you're not gonna do that little thing where you line up for So I think
24:26
that, uh, if it is that, maybe Blake Nolan could come in
24:30
and punt. You just never know. It's it's kind of up in the
24:33
air right now. A lot of teams they don't start working on that until
24:37
a little bit after I've been to practice. I try to get there a
24:40
little early and get all the information, So sometimes I don't get all the
24:44
information that I can get. But but if a kid writes down a little
24:48
k or a little p on their a little sheet that they're hanging, that
24:49
they're whole nothing, I get a pretty good idea of what might happen as
24:53
far as the kick return game goes. I mean, yeah, Marcus Nixon
24:57
might be back there. If they kick it to him, fantastic, it's
25:00
gonna help out the storm. They might be kicking it away. But Nava
25:03
Egging, Walking Ortiz, these guys are so fast, I mean, you
25:07
know there, it's not going to be helpful to have it in their hands
25:11
either. So you might see a lot of you know, high short kicks.
25:15
You might see a lot of squib kicks. You might see a lot
25:17
of directional kicking. You never know. Nava Egging and Walking Ortiz, those
25:21
guys can return punts. Two. Egging was a great punt returner last year
25:25
before the season was cut short. He even had a punt return as a
25:26
sophomore too, so they've been looking at him for a while. So it's
25:30
it's a lot of this, a lot of these same names doing a lot
25:33
of things. But uh, you know, Squalcom's kind of they kind of
25:37
do that. They can find. They always put their best athletes in the
25:40
best spot possible. When you talk about coaches around the county, when you
25:45
know everyone has the utmost respect for Lucy. I mean I've heard multiple times
25:48
from different coaches saying just as far as like knowing the game and coaching the
25:52
kids and x's and oh's, like they're like, Nick, Lucy's the best.
25:56
Like you just can't you just can't, you know, underestimate anything that
26:00
he does. He's always his mind's going constantly and when you go out to
26:06
practice, I mean he is, he is perpetual motion. He's just out
26:10
there running everything. I mean, it is and we've talked about there before,
26:15
like you go there, you know who the head coaches, and it's
26:18
it's it's it's impressive to see him work. And uh, I just I
26:22
love that he's still doing it. I'm hoping he does it for a long
26:25
time because it's always fun to see him out at Qualcom High School. Now,
26:29
Tyler, as I look over the schedule here, there's something that I
26:33
don't know how many times it's happened in Wacom County. Maybe you can give
26:36
me a better idea, but just look at their first two games. It
26:40
appears as though they're planning for the subway ball up in the BC play Stadium
26:42
for the BC Provincial Championships because they start with New Westminster a British Columbia and
26:48
Seaquam Secondary. Who I mean, I think you know we know these teams
26:52
because New Westminster for years, you know, they would they would come come
26:56
down and play in that uh bring scrimmage yea, or is it a week
27:02
zero? It's week zero, I believe, wasn't it. No when we
27:06
when we saw them at Civic and when we saw farhand, that was that
27:08
was like in June. Okay, yeah, yeah, so so yeah,
27:11
they they they would come down and and newest Minster. Over the years,
27:15
they've they've never shied away from coming down and playing American teams. And then
27:18
uh, last year SIAQWAM came down and yeah, let's just say the conversion
27:25
ratio wasn't real good for them against h against Lyndon Christian. But they start
27:30
off with with those two games, both home games, by the way,
27:33
so they don't they don't have to cross the border. And then so no
27:37
Tim Horton's unfortunately for the team, but you know that's fine. They can.
27:41
I'm sure there's a donut place in Walcom County that can you know,
27:44
aspire to be Tim Horton's. That just means more tim bits for you.
27:47
Let's just be honest, correct, Uh. That being said, though,
27:51
it's two games and then it's it's right into it at Lynden Home versus Archbishop
27:56
Home versus Burlington Edison. I mean, I guess if you're looking at some
27:59
some pluses here four out of their first five, or at home but then
28:03
at Lake would at Anacortis home versus Sea home, and then at straw Willie
28:07
to wrap it up, Tyler, a couple of games, anything specific here
28:10
you're looking at. Yeah, I like the you know, the Sea home
28:14
game, Squalacom Sea home game, it's kind of known, has been known
28:15
as the city championship game last couple of years. Uh. I think you
28:22
know, the the second game against Siaqwam. That's gonna be the second game
28:26
of a double header. So I'll probably be there for that. Uh.
28:30
Yeah, it's it's gonna be interesting. You know. Those those are kind
28:34
of the ones I'm looking at. You know, I think of the one
28:36
the game at Linden, and I think of when they played Week three at
28:40
Lindon a couple of years ago. That was just the mucky rainy. Uh.
28:44
You know, everybody's getting injured in that game, and you know,
28:48
for some reason, Campbell Nolty has better cleats than everybody, and he's scoring
28:51
a touch. He's just running by everybody. You know. That was That
28:55
was the fifth crazy fifteen to twelve game and almost ended up being a repeat
28:57
later in the year for the state champ ship. Was that the game where
29:00
I think was it Schlenbaker got hurt and yeah, yeah, that was That
29:04
was a game that almost seemed like it could potentially derail uh Squalicum season.
29:11
Yeah no, because I remember, you know, he missed a couple of
29:12
games and maybe they even dropped a second game in there if I can remember,
29:15
right, But yes, no, you're right. Yeah, they managed
29:18
to kind of work their way back and get healthy and then got on a
29:22
great run. Yeah, right, absolutely, And this is you know,
29:26
it's it's gonna be interesting because, uh, like you said, New Westminster,
29:30
you know, they don't shy away. They come down. They played
29:33
Linden, They've they've played some teams over the years. I can't remember what
29:36
school it was. It might have been New Westminster. They came up.
29:38
They came down to play at Civic Stadium against Squalicum back in the Tristan Smith
29:42
days, and that was the eighty five to seventy game. It was.
29:48
It was insane. I've never seen a game like that. I was only
29:52
there for the first half. It felt like I was there for the whole
29:53
game. It was just crazy back and forth, just one of the most
29:57
It was nuts. It was I's never seen so much offense. It was
30:03
unbelievable. So but yeah, I think that, you know, it's it's
30:07
good to have those non league games first, obviously, especially with Marcus Nixon.
30:11
See how comfortable he is at quarterback. He's just such a force.
30:15
You know, he's gonna And the cool thing is is that there are other
30:18
guys and so if you really try to focus around Nixon, they he will
30:22
he can get the ball to other guys to make it work, and and
30:26
uh, coach j Lucy's gonna he's gonna recognize that instantly and make things go.
30:32
So, uh yeah, I'm excited about the squalacom season. Yeah,
30:34
it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting. I think there's some definite, uh,
30:38
definite question marks. But if there's anything we've ever learned is that they
30:42
find a way to they find a way to coach it up. You know
30:45
what I mean, They just Tyler when we start talking about the breakout player
30:49
here. It's a name that maybe doesn't necessarily surprise me because we all know
30:53
who Marcus Nixon isn't. I think a lot of us maybe know the name
30:57
Nava Aging, But do they know the name Nayaging right? Right? Absolutely?
31:03
I think I just love everything about his game. I think that there's
31:07
a great chance that he just has one of those crazy season and just it
31:12
just goes off. And I'm talking all phases offense, defense, special teams.
31:17
He's he's gonna be that guy that other teams if they forget about him,
31:22
that's that's gonna be. It's gonna be a long day for them.
31:26
And I think that, uh, he just has the ability to play bigger
31:30
than his size, He's faster than most guys. He's just such a great
31:36
kid. He's not gonna be He's not gonna shy away from the moment.
31:38
I love all the things about his game and and uh, I think,
31:42
like I said, I don't know for sure, but I think his season
31:45
was cut short last year. I only saw him in the first few games.
31:48
So I think that, you know, now, going into his senior
31:52
year, he really has a chance to make some big things happen, and
31:55
I think he's gonna take advantage of it. Tyler, last chance to say
31:57
anything about Squala Clum before we move on to the next one. I think
32:00
we're good. I think he covered it all. Everything's good to go.
32:05
Yeah. Uh, how was Coach Lucy's hair and beard looking when you were
32:07
out there? Uh? It was it was mid season form. Uh.
32:12
You know, he had had the hat on. You know, it's a
32:14
little bit more gray going there. And uh but man, he's he's rocking
32:17
the glasses and you know, and and uh, you know, we looked
32:22
like brothers out there. It's just one of those weird things and and uh
32:25
but his beard is much better than mine. But yeah, he just yeah,
32:30
he's looking great. He's ready to go. And and like I said,
32:34
yeah, the beard is in mid season form. I'm trying to remember
32:36
the last time I saw him with that one. I think it was before
32:37
COVID. Actually it very well could have been, because he was halfway looking
32:42
homeless when we interviewed him on the Zoom interview. But we're but but you
32:45
know what, so did leap, So we're all good to go here.
32:49
Actually he looked there like Santa Claus. Yeah, it was. It's kind
32:52
of the look during the COVID days. Yeah, I was. I was
32:54
completely homeless. I mean I looked awful. I really didn't. I wouldn't
32:58
want an over a year without shape so or even trimming the beard or anything.
33:01
I was. Yeah, it wasn't good that being said, Tyler,
33:06
let's wrap it up right there. We've got five more to go later today.
33:09
You can hear Blaine, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast so
33:13
you can get a notification when that happens. Other than that, I'm Rylan
33:16
Spencer. He's Tyler Anderson. You've been listening to the twenty twenty three Squalicorm
33:21
Squalicum Storm. That's harder to say than I remember. Squalicum Storm team preview
33:25
here on the Watcomb Preps podcast. We will talk to you later today