Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 448 - Gatorade Gameday Preview Podcast - Week 4

Transcript

Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 448 - Gatorade Gameday Preview Podcast - Week 4 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome into the Whatcom Preps podcast. This is
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: episode 448. It's the week four Gatorade game day football preview.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I am Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps and let's get
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: right to it. Of course, we got to talk about
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Walton Beverage, who's been a staple in our community for
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: 95 years. And now we'll continue to work harder every
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: day to make the fantastic people at Walton Beverage a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Proud to sponsor youth sports in our community. They deliver
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: superior quality and commitment, and I plan to do the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: very same. Also, do you live in Whatcom, Skagit Island,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: or San Juan County and want to become an official?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Officiating is a great way to give back to your
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: community and ensure our youth have an opportunity to compete
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: in athletics.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Go to nwofficials.com.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: We got a handful of games here for this weekend
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and they're scattered out through over, over three days. We
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: got two games on Thursday, five on Friday and two
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: more on Saturday. And the funny thing is, is each
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: day we have two games that are in the County
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, three of them on Friday.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So we have only two games outside the County.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So if you wanted to see football in person three
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: days in a row, you have that ability and you
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: can stay in Whatcom County to do it. So, When
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: we take a look at all the games, well, we'll
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: look at them one by one here. So we'll start
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: off with the Thursday night games, kicking it right off.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Bellingham at Linden. First time they're playing each other in
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: about 10 years. So it's really cool to see this
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: rivalry renew a little bit. As the max prefs rankings go,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Bellingham is ranked 36th in 2A with a 1-2 record.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Linden is ranked fourth in 2A with a 2-1 record.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So Linden has the decided advantage here. We'll see how
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the weather is on natural grass. It might play heavily
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: into the Lions' favor there, but you never know. And
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: we caught up with Coach Leonard, and I'm now joined
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: on the Gatorade Game Day podcast with Belliam coach Adam Leonard.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Coach, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm doing all right, Tyler. I hope you're
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: doing well and feeling better.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm getting there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And so it's good to be talking to all the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: coaches again after missing last week. And, you know, last
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: year I asked all the coaches what their favorite football
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: movie was. This time I'm asking what's your favorite sports
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: movie that doesn't have to do with football?
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: Oh, gosh, these are fantastic questions. Uh, well, since I'm
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: also a baseball coach, I'm going to go down. I would,
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: I would go Rocky, but I'm not going to go Rocky.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: It's everybody seems to feel Rocky. So I'll go baseball
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: movie and I'm going to say it's one of the
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: best movies I've ever seen.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: I'm going to go feel the dreams.
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: Oh yes.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Feel the dreams.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: That's a, that's, and Rocky, they're both great movies.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And what's great about both of those is.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You do not have to be a sports fan at
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: all to watch, to love those movies. Um, um, Do
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you remember that, you know, they showed, um, field of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: dreams a few years ago in the movie theaters again,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: 35th anniversary. I actually just went and it was like
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a one night only. I went by myself and watched it. Um,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: what is it about field of dreams that you love?
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: Uh, there's a lot of things, uh, obviously, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: restored relationships between father and son kind of where the
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: movie culminates at the end.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Uh, I have a terrific relationship with my father.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: And so, um, I was recently watching, uh, People who
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: had never seen Field of Dreams, their reactions to the movie.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: You ever seen those where people react?
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I love those videos on YouTube.
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: I saved it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: And actually, I think I put it on our VHS football.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: I was like, watch these people react. And they were
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: just coming on glue emotionally. But it just has such
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: a great theme. It's such a good just overall movie.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: And the thing is, too, is for some reason, I'm
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: obsessed with the movie Moneyball.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I don't know why. My wife says it's a very
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: boring movie, but I love it. Yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: So I have to put that number two for a
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: baseball movie, but I feel Field of Dreams because you're right.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: You don't even have to be a sports fan to
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: really enjoy how great that movie is.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: You know, and there's a funny thing about that, too, is,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you know, when they did the scene at Fenway Park,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: they as you know, they had a few thousand extras
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: in the stands and stuff and a couple of the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: extras were.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Were Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
• 4:39
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So they were, they were there and they were trying,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: they tried to, you know, I think they got to
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: talk to Kevin Costner a little bit and say like.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Hey, we want to be in the movie business someday.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And so they were teenagers back then, which is pretty,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: it's a pretty cool story to hear and that they
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: were actually there for that, but it is a fantastic movie.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: And what's cool is you can look up, there is,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: there was a Moonlight Graham that played, you know, in
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: one inning and a lot of.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: That stuff is real. But it's so cool. It's such
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: a fantastic movie. So let's talk about last week here.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: You picked up your first win of the season on
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Friday on the road at Lakewood. You know, they they
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: possessed the ball a lot in that first half. The
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: first two drives went down and scored on a touchdown
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and a field goal. But things changed in the second half,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: especially the fourth quarter.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Tell us about what about that game.
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I mean, it was a great
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: performance and a great comeback, and our players really were
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: pretty level-headed coming out of the locker room. I will say,
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: you know, regardless of who you play in the Northwest Conference,
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: there are no easy wins in this conference. Every team
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: is much improved. Every team, it's a battle, it's a test.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's just no easy win week to week.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: Every team's going to give you everything they have. And
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: for us, you know, I was most proud of the
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: way we overcame adversity in that first half, you know,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: We had a little stumble at the end. We had
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: a chance to put three points on the board. We
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: had a kick that was, you know, we had 12
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: men on the field, which was unfortunate. Alejandro Pringle tries
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: to hit a 44-yarder, comes up a little bit short,
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: hit the earlier one before the extra five yards. So
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: we had a lot of things going against us. Lakewood
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: and their secondary is very physical. I saw what I
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: thought were a lot of some holds and some pass interference,
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: but I told our guys to play tough and control
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: what you can control.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: And that's exactly what we did in the second half.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: When we came out, And the one wrinkle we put
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: in that you talked about in your story.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Is we know that Ben can run, Ben Leonard.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: And he showed a lot of how dynamic he can
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: be with his legs, especially this year. So that's something
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: we're going to be bringing out more and more. And
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: I think that helped us move the chains. We hit
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: field goals when we needed to. We executed when we
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: needed to. We picked up first downs on fourth down
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: when we needed to. And, you know, that big fourth quarter,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: we were able to put it away. And our defense
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: really stepped up at second half.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everything kind of came together. And I have it
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: written right here. Ben Leonard, dual threat quarterback, question mark.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: How about that? That was so cool because when.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I first saw that in the third quarter and he
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kept it and went, nobody saw that coming as the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: whole defense swayed towards the running back. And he took
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: off and he had another he had a couple of
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: big runs there, including, you know, that touchdown run or
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: shorter touchdown run. you know, I, I almost thought when
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I saw the first one, was that a designed play
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: or did Ben say, you know what, this is supposed
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to be a run to the left, but I'm taking it.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: How, how did that come about?
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: Well, the first one was a design play and I
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: think he was actually, you know, he caught everybody off, off, um,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: like with my surprise. And then obviously at the end too,
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: you know, he had the late hit onto the track
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: and got an extra 15. And, um, he was just
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: the one thing about Ben, it's, this is, this is
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: the Ben Leonard of middle school. And when he was younger,
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: he was a dual threat quarterback.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: The whole time.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: He can run, he can move, you know, we, you know,
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: we think he's going to be our leadoff hitter in
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: baseball and swipe bags. He's, he's, he's sneaky athletic and
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: I'm not saying he's fast, fast, but he's quick and
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: he's definitely elusive.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: And he showed that, uh, the touchdown run he did have,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: he pulled that on his own. Uh, DM was crashing
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: down pretty hard.
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: That was an easy decision for him to pull that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: And so, um, Similar design runs.
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: Coach Nixon, our offensive coordinator, wanted to see more Q
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: options out of him, and we saw that. I think
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: what it's going to do for him is, now that
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: people have to spy on him a little bit, it's
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: going to definitely make the passing game open up even
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: more for us.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: You talked about your defense stepping up in the fourth quarter.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: There were some big, big plays made. I thought Silas.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: McGurr did a really good job. Obviously, Calvin Van Hoffwagen
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: all year. You can rely on him, but but so
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: many times, I mean, you could, you would hear the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: announcer again on the tackle, Calvin Vanna, like he would
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: actually say again, and he was impressed. You could tell, um,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: there were just so many good things happening back there. Um,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know, Lu, Lucius White is a fantastic tackler, uh,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: which is nice to have in the secondary. A and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: tackling is not kind of the big thing. I think him, obviously,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Matt Steele hits pretty hard.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: So it's really starting to come together.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Inserting Julius at running back for a little bit was
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: another little wrinkle you did. And Aaron Chasse doing some
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: things now that he's, I don't know if he's 100% healthy,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: but he's a force on the line. And so kind
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: of talk about how a lot of those things were
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: coming together there.
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: Well, you hit on all the names, you know, Lucius
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: and Julius and Aaron Shaw, San Diego and D-line. We
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: had Jacquez Love-Rodson back. He was back last week. He
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: was huge coming back in at right tackle and playing
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: some defense. And the one guy that you haven't mentioned
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: who I thought we all thought played awesome at corner
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: was James Button.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: James had a.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: Heck of a game out there and, you know, And
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: then we had Cam Chartier back. And so as we
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: get healthy, you know, we always knew we were not
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: going to be the same team you saw i kind
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: of week one and two and so we are going
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: to get healthy and you know just when we're getting
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: healthy you know unfortunately you know we have a couple
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: more guys banged up this week possibly but i do
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: like the introduction of where we're going um and calvin
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: van hoff like what can you say he's just a
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: tackling machine i mean He's a first-team, in my opinion,
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: linebacker in this conference. And how Matthew Steele is playing
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: on both sides of the ball, especially offense. On our
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: drive home from Laker, we were trying to think of
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: a better– he might be one of the best receivers
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: in the conference right now. He's just absolutely on fire.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: He's very athletic and kind of had me scratching my head.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: I'm like, we should have used him a lot more
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: in offense last year.
• 10:43
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: He's been fun to watch and you know, you've talked
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: about the athleticism, the vertical leap and what's, what's, what's
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: interesting with him is when he goes up to get
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the ball, he stays up when the defender comes down
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and he high points it. The route running has been flawless.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Like we talked about even back in the spring game
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: against Friday Harbor, uh, you know, his route running has
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: been really fun to watch and, and just putting it
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: all together as a senior obviously was a good player
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: as a sophomore and junior, but doing it now both ways, um,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: You love seeing that with seniors, and being able to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: lean on him when you need him is going to be.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Crucial going forward.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And speaking about going forward, this is a short week
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: for you guys to prepare for one of the top
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: teams in the state in Linden.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: What do you know about this year's Lions team?
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: Well, they're like every year's Lions team. They're a tremendous team.
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: They're tremendously well-coached.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: They're physical. They're athletic. They're deep.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: On both sides of the ball and special teams. They
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: just do everything really, really well. They're a team that
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: you can automatically assume are going to be top, you know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: three to five in the state every year. They ran
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: into a heck of a team last week in Ferndale.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: So when we do film study, we're kind of looking
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: at how they played against Lakewood. And, you know, Lakewood,
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: you know, I know the score doesn't show it, but
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Lakewood moved the ball a few guys pretty effectively against Linden.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: And so we're, you know, trying to use that as
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: a blueprint of how we can go against one of
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: the top teams in the state. And this, you know,
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: unfortunately we've got to play on grass. I think the
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: weather's going to be okay, maybe cloudy and it's.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: A short week. So there's some things working against us.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: We have some injuries. So we, you know, we're going
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: to prepare the best we can.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: And it's been a long time since I think the
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: Bayhawks slash Red Raiders were over on the field at.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: Lennon High School.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it has been a while.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I think back in the Ethan Fields days, I do
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: remember him having to play quarterback in a game out
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: at Linden, and it was on the radio. I think
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I was leaving Meridian and getting in my car and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: putting the radio on and hearing that. That's probably the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: last time that's played, so it's been about 10 years
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: or so.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Is there anything different about, I mean, I'm sure there.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Is, but having one less day, what's the biggest difficulty
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: with that?
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: There's a lot of things I had to follow and
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: I had to work with some coaches this weekend. We
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: have two sub-varsity teams. We have a JV and we
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: have a freshman team. We had to postpone the Monday
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: game because we just need, with injuries too, we need
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: guys that are going to be healthy.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: On the short week, it really hurts for guys.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: To play on a Monday and a Wednesday and then
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: try to come play on a Thursday. That right there
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: is some of the logistics of what we had to
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: clean up, but it's just how we practice.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: We get less time for.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: Film review on Monday, more time in pads, longer practices,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: but shorter weeks. So I'm not a big fan of
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: the Thursday games. I know they have to happen, but,
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: and everybody's got to play one or two, but it's
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: our turn to do that. And we're just ready for
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: the challenge. We're excited about where we're coming off this win.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: We feel confident, you know, and now we are going
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: to test it against a very, very good team.
• 13:57
  Speaker 7: Yeah, coach.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I think, I think you're going to love it out there.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: You know, it's been a while since, you know, since
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: you've come, taking over as coach. You haven't had a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: game out at Rolly DeCoster Field, and so I'm excited
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: for you to see the band and the atmosphere.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: They really go crazy out there.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: It's going to be fun, and hopefully it'll get you
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: guys pumped up, and it's going to be a good game.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: So best of luck on Thursday out at Linden, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me on the Gatorade
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Game Day Podcast.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, Tyler. Have a great week.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And I was also able to coach up, catch up,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: coach up. Yeah, he could coach me up. I got
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: to catch up with Coach Van Dalen as well.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I'm now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast by
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Linden Head Coach Blake Van Dalen. Coach, thank you for
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: joining me today.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: How are you doing?
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: Good.
• 14:43
  Speaker 9: I hope you're feeling better and glad to have you
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: back on track.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, things are going okay now. My energy is back
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and feeling good. Last year, I asked all the coaches
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: what their favorite football movie was.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: This time, I'm asking.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite sports movie that doesn't have to do
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: with football?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 15:08
  Speaker 10: See, I teach leadership or I did teach leadership here
• 15:10
  Speaker 10: at Linden.
• 15:11
  Speaker 9: And so sometimes I would do leadership through movies and
• 15:13
  Speaker 9: show them clips and stuff. So Hoosiers was a huge one.
• 15:17
  Speaker 9: There was just so much depth to it and a
• 15:20
  Speaker 9: neat little connection to kind of Linden in a way
• 15:22
  Speaker 9: from back in the day when my uncles used to
• 15:24
  Speaker 9: play in the 60s and whatnot. So there's a kind
• 15:28
  Speaker 9: of a kindred spirit there. But Remember the Titans is
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: probably the one I've watched the most.
• 15:33
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: It's, uh, I mean, Hoosiers, a lot of coaches saying
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Hoosiers and that was, uh, especially, you know, for you,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that movie's coming out when you're probably eighth grade freshmen,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: something like that.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: So that's, that probably really is fun.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And knowing, you know, the history of, you know, how
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the old tournament used to be everybody's in and, and, uh,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean, you just, you just can't go
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: wrong with that.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Um, Last week, it was a tough loss on the
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: road against.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: A great Ferndale team. Both teams battled adversity during the
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: game with, you know, turnovers and different things. But tell
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: us about your perspective of the game.
• 16:13
  Speaker 10: Yeah, for the last couple of years, it's been a
• 16:15
  Speaker 10: week one game.
• 16:17
  Speaker 9: And so with that kind of left out there was,
• 16:21
  Speaker 9: you know, you talk about the greatest improvement.
• 16:23
  Speaker 10: Occurs from week one to week two.
• 16:26
  Speaker 9: And so a lot of the mistakes in those games
• 16:28
  Speaker 9: were first game mistakes. I feel like for both of us,
• 16:32
  Speaker 9: the mistakes that were made on this time were, it
• 16:35
  Speaker 9: was the first time either of us played a high
• 16:38
  Speaker 9: quality opponent.
• 16:40
  Speaker 10: And so there was things.
• 16:42
  Speaker 9: They had done on film that we were hoping to
• 16:43
  Speaker 9: take advantage of, and I'm sure they were vice versa.
• 16:46
  Speaker 9: And that's the first time our kids felt the sting
• 16:50
  Speaker 9: of when you make a mistake, the consequences are much
• 16:54
  Speaker 9: bigger than against a quality opponent that, you know, you
• 16:57
  Speaker 9: can't sometimes overcome certain mistakes as easily as you can
• 17:02
  Speaker 9: against an opponent that maybe you have a decided advantage on.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's, you're right.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And it was, you know, even at the half, I mean,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: it's tied at the half, but you have, you know,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: maybe almost twice as many yards as they do, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: of course they get that score on the, on the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: blocked punt, which is such a huge momentum swing. And,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And just so many different things happening where you recover
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the kickoff. I mean, there's just kind of craziness. And
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: they kind of pull away a little bit. You're able
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to come back and make it a one-score game. I
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: want to talk about one of your seniors, Caden Brown.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I can't remember him having any varsity receptions coming into
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: this season, but he's turning into a mismatch problem for
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: opposing defenses. And he's making plays at his defensive end spot.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: What makes him such a good football player?
• 17:52
  Speaker 9: Yeah, that's been a fun one because I remember seeing
• 17:56
  Speaker 9: him as a sophomore and thinking, boy, if he could
• 17:59
  Speaker 9: ever figure it out, that'd be a weapon we could
• 18:01
  Speaker 9: take advantage of. And part of it was mental. Part
• 18:04
  Speaker 9: of it was physical. He was kind of like a Bambi.
• 18:07
  Speaker 9: He was a big athletic kid who didn't really know
• 18:09
  Speaker 9: his body yet and is kind of a free spirit.
• 18:14
  Speaker 9: And so I think just a few things had to
• 18:15
  Speaker 9: come together for him. over the last couple of years
• 18:19
  Speaker 9: to put himself in a position. And I've talked about
• 18:21
  Speaker 9: this a lot. There was about eight kids I had
• 18:23
  Speaker 9: to call in when we had a few kids leave.
• 18:27
  Speaker 9: And I said, hey, you're going to get an opportunity
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: that you might not have gotten.
• 18:32
  Speaker 10: And he's one of them. And I can tell you
• 18:34
  Speaker 10: he's taken full advantage of it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: He's a matchup nightmare, the way he was going up
• 18:38
  Speaker 9: after those balls and the effort that he gives us
• 18:41
  Speaker 9: at tight end as well as defensive end on the inside.
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: Just a great kid. He's actually a cheerleader in the winter,
• 18:50
  Speaker 9: throwing the cheerleaders around. And so it tells you he's
• 18:53
  Speaker 9: a smart guy there, too. But he's a great kid,
• 18:57
  Speaker 9: great family. And he's waited his turn. And now he's
• 19:00
  Speaker 9: taking full advantage.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: And, you know, every team can talk about this, where
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: they have those seniors that wait their turn, that do
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the scout team stuff. And, you know, you guys put
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a huge emphasis into the scout team. more than any
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: school that I know. And so when kids like that
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: are ready, going against really good players every day at practice,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: when it's their turn, they tend to take advantage of it,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: especially seniors. When they become seniors and they feel that confidence,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and he's turning into one of those guys. And I
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: love it when this happens because that's a kid that
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was not on my radar. I did see him at practice.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: He passes the eye test. I think he's listed at 6'2, but, boy,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: he looks 6'3, 6'4. And he's just, he's a difference maker.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: So you're probably pretty glad you have.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Him on your side.
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: Yeah, we had an interesting moment in a practice where
• 19:53
  Speaker 9: I had to kind of be stern with him and say,
• 19:56
  Speaker 9: I don't think you look at yourself the way we
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: see you.
• 19:59
  Speaker 10: I think he still thinks of.
• 20:00
  Speaker 9: Himself as that sophomore or that junior who hasn't quite
• 20:05
  Speaker 9: figured it out yet. And I said, as soon as
• 20:06
  Speaker 9: you believe in yourself the way we believe in you,
• 20:10
  Speaker 9: The ceiling's the limit, and so he's starting to believe now,
• 20:15
  Speaker 9: and that's a really neat thing to see a kid
• 20:17
  Speaker 9: go through.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so much of it is mental with high
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: school-aged kids. They have to believe in themselves, and once
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: that happens, boy, that light bulb goes off.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: And things change fast.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, you're right back at it at home. Quick turnaround,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: this time against Bellingham. It's the first time that Lynn
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and Bellingham are playing each other in about 10 years.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: It's got to be nice to have this game back
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: on the schedule for the community.
• 20:43
  Speaker 9: Yeah, the Thursday thing is a curveball, but it provides
• 20:48
  Speaker 9: a fun opportunity. Last night we had our what we
• 20:51
  Speaker 9: call offense and defensive practice. Usually we isolate and do
• 20:55
  Speaker 9: one or the other, but when you lose a day,
• 20:57
  Speaker 9: you just don't have that luxury. So it was fun
• 20:59
  Speaker 9: for our kids too. I said, you know, when you're
• 21:01
  Speaker 9: done playing high school, you remember certain things. You remember two-a-days.
• 21:04
  Speaker 9: You remember the hot days in August. You remember the
• 21:06
  Speaker 9: bad weather game. But you also remember... That one practice
• 21:10
  Speaker 9: that kind of felt like it was never going to end,
• 21:13
  Speaker 9: but was a lot of fun because you literally did
• 21:16
  Speaker 9: everything you could in one day to try to get
• 21:18
  Speaker 9: ready for a game. You know, we watched the same
• 21:20
  Speaker 9: amount of film. We do everything else. We want to
• 21:22
  Speaker 9: get it covered. But it puts things tight. You know,
• 21:27
  Speaker 9: Bellingham has the same thing. um i did tell our
• 21:31
  Speaker 9: kids that i remember a game in 2007 uh we
• 21:34
  Speaker 9: played them in the quarterfinals and the final score was
• 21:37
  Speaker 9: seven zero and so um football is football and each
• 21:42
  Speaker 9: opponent you got to find a way to go one
• 21:44
  Speaker 9: and oh each week and uh that's who our opponent
• 21:47
  Speaker 9: is this week and and excited they get to come
• 21:50
  Speaker 9: to town we're having our homecoming on a thursday that's
• 21:53
  Speaker 9: never been done that I can remember, so that'll be
• 21:55
  Speaker 9: a new experience. And so, just, hey, we call it
• 22:00
  Speaker 9: progressive flexible adjustment. That means we keep going forward, we're flexible,
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: we make adjustments, but no excuses.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Tell us about this year's Bellingham team.
• 22:10
  Speaker 9: It's interesting because we got to play Lakewood a couple
• 22:13
  Speaker 9: weeks ago, and then they actually played each other, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: we've got a couple teams coming that look like them.
• 22:20
  Speaker 9: By that, I mean They throw more than they run.
• 22:24
  Speaker 9: And there's a few teams in our conference that do that.
• 22:27
  Speaker 9: And that's different. Obviously, we just played a Ferndale team
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: that I believe had four yards passing and beat us.
• 22:34
  Speaker 9: So we can't have played two different styles back to back.
• 22:39
  Speaker 9: And so you kind of do have to retrain the brain.
• 22:41
  Speaker 9: You do have to kind of remind the kids that
• 22:44
  Speaker 9: some of the stuff that worked against Ferndale may have
• 22:47
  Speaker 9: to get shelved until we play another power running team.
• 22:51
  Speaker 9: Whereas right now, we got to go back to what
• 22:53
  Speaker 9: did we learn from playing Lakewood? What did we learn
• 22:56
  Speaker 9: from playing, you know, Anacortes in the past and things
• 22:58
  Speaker 9: like that?
• 22:59
  Speaker 10: They got a.
• 23:00
  Speaker 9: Gunslinger of a quarterback, just like Anacortes and a few
• 23:03
  Speaker 9: teams in our conference do. And they've got a really
• 23:07
  Speaker 9: strong running back and skill players. And so, you know,
• 23:11
  Speaker 9: this is a great opportunity for them to have a
• 23:14
  Speaker 9: moment in their program's history. And it's our job to
• 23:18
  Speaker 9: make sure that we have a moment.
• 23:21
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Best of luck on Thursday against the Bayhawks. And thank
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: you so much for joining me on the Gatorade Game
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Day podcast.
• 23:28
  Speaker 10: Have a great day. Thank you, Tyler.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: So that'll be a big game out at Rolly DeCoster
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Field Thursday night, 7 o'clock, and it's homecoming at Linden.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: So be ready for that. Also, same time out at Ferndale,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the Ferndale Golden Eagles are hosting Glacier Peak. Burndale, 3-0
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: on the season. They are ranked 7th in 3A as
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: far as max preps rankings are concerned. And in those
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: same rankings, in 4A, Glacier Peak is ranked 12th. So
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: their record at 1-2, but they lost to really, really
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: strong teams. So Glacier Peak, definitely no pushover at all.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: And here we have Coach Plankovich on the line to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: talk about them. I am now joined on the Gatorade
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Game Day podcast with Ferndale head coach, Jamie Plankovich. Coach,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: How are you doing?
• 24:22
  Speaker 11: Doing great. Thanks for having me.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: You bet.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Last year, I asked all the coaches what their favorite
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: football movie was. This time, how about what's your favorite
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: sports movie that doesn't have to do with football?
• 24:36
  Speaker 11: That's a good one.
• 24:38
  Speaker 12: The one that jumps right up to the top of
• 24:41
  Speaker 12: my head is Hoosiers.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's, I mean, you can't go wrong with Hoosiers, right?
• 24:48
  Speaker 13: Yeah.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: And obviously, kind of, sort of a true story.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: They change a few things, but for the most part,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a true story. And that came out, man, you must have, like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: probably just graduated high school, maybe a little after that,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: so that's just perfect for you.
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:04
  Speaker 11: And, you know, I love an underdog story.
• 25:06
  Speaker 14: Yes, absolutely.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Who doesn't?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: And that's one of those movies, too, that you really
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: don't have.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: To be a sports fan.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: You know, so I do love that. Um, well, three,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you know, on the years so far, things are going great.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Obviously last week you defeated Linden and another amazing rivalry game. Um,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: talk about some of the key moments of that game
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and why you were able to secure the win in
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the second half.
• 25:31
  Speaker 12: Well, just one, as, as I've said many times, what
• 25:35
  Speaker 12: a great atmosphere Friday night to be a part of.
• 25:37
  Speaker 11: Um, Our kids did a.
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: Really good job of handling some adversity in that game.
• 25:44
  Speaker 12: We had some adversity even in pregame with losing Trevor
• 25:49
  Speaker 12: Cutts to an injury in pregame, who's our starting tight
• 25:53
  Speaker 12: end and defensive end. So we were really scrambling out
• 25:56
  Speaker 12: of the gate. And our guys did a great job
• 26:01
  Speaker 12: handling it. Mason Cash stepped in and did a wonderful
• 26:05
  Speaker 12: job with that.
• 26:08
  Speaker 11: In short order with not.
• 26:10
  Speaker 12: Knowing that he was going to be playing as much
• 26:12
  Speaker 12: as he was on the offensive side. And we moved
• 26:17
  Speaker 12: Peace out from defensive tackle to defensive end, and he
• 26:20
  Speaker 12: did a great job in that game. So a couple
• 26:22
  Speaker 12: guys that deserved to be called out for on such
• 26:26
  Speaker 12: short notice of having to scramble. As far as the
• 26:30
  Speaker 12: game goes, again, you know, some key ones, I think
• 26:35
  Speaker 12: we fumble a kickoff after They've tied it in the
• 26:40
  Speaker 12: third quarter. And then, you know, so we had some
• 26:43
  Speaker 12: things kind of the momentum turning the other way. And
• 26:48
  Speaker 12: to get a stop on that drive and keep them
• 26:51
  Speaker 12: from scoring points was absolutely huge. So we talk about
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: being resilient. I think our kids showed that Friday night
• 27:00
  Speaker 12: that we were resilient and made plays when it mattered.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it was– Just a lot of stuff
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: going on back and forth. You know, you mentioned Peace
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: being moved out to defensive end. Boy, he may have found.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: A spot there because he really played extremely well. He's
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: got such– his acceleration off the ball was awesome to see.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: I thought that he played great.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And it's funny, I didn't even think about not seeing
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: number 15 out there, Trevor Cutts, but you're right, he
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't there.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't know he got hurt. in the pregame. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: that's just something that you do not expect.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: You know, you're all week, you're trying, you're working on things. And,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and so for Mason to come in and do that
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: at tight end, it's that's, that's fantastic. And, and still,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: you know, without your, your main, you're starting tight end too.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: So you're going deep in the depth chart and, and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to still pull off the win. I want to talk
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: about another one of your seniors with Brock Hewitt, who
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: played corner for you last year, but he's playing more
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: in the box now and playing some wingback. What makes
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: him such a great football player?
• 28:11
  Speaker 12: He has only one speed, and that's full speed. He
• 28:16
  Speaker 12: does everything you could want from a player. He's willing to, again,
• 28:22
  Speaker 12: he moved for the betterment of our team. We felt
• 28:25
  Speaker 12: like he's playing our nickel position this year. So he
• 28:29
  Speaker 12: had a position change on defense, which can be tough,
• 28:33
  Speaker 12: But he's really jumped in and done a great job there.
• 28:37
  Speaker 12: He's physical on both sides of the ball.
• 28:40
  Speaker 11: He's going to mix it up.
• 28:42
  Speaker 12: He's a great, you know, on offense, he's done a
• 28:45
  Speaker 12: great job at wing. Again, he blocks really well, can
• 28:48
  Speaker 12: run the ball, can catch the ball. So, yeah, he's
• 28:51
  Speaker 12: just one of those guys you really like to see
• 28:53
  Speaker 12: have success because he's been all about what's best for
• 28:56
  Speaker 12: the team.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: And I've talked about this with a few of the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: other coaches recently. specifically this week about how, as that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: your senior year rules on a lot of these seniors
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: start to emerge as, you.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Know, all league caliber type players.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: And it's so great to see because, um, they kind
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of get their moment and for him to, you know,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: do what's best for the team.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: And maybe, and, you know, that's, that, that's even more, that's.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Another step that, um, you know, you're playing in the box,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: you're in the mix with everything, and you might not
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: get that special one-on-one play that that people see anymore.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: And, um, so it's, it's really cool that he's doing that. And, and, um,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: you know, a shout out to him too, because.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: He came out and helped out at the youth football
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: camp that, that for the walk and preps, um.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: You know, youth football camp. So that's just, that's just a,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a great kid all the way around. Um, All right, well,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Thursday night, it's coming right up.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: You're back at home again, this time against Glacier Peak
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: in your final non-league game of the season.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know anything about them. What can you tell us?
• 30:10
  Speaker 11: Well, their record is very deceiving.
• 30:13
  Speaker 12: They've lost to Bothell and Skyview, who are traditionally two
• 30:17
  Speaker 12: very good 4A teams. They can really throw it around
• 30:23
  Speaker 12: a lot.
• 30:23
  Speaker 11: They've got a kid that plays tight end and slot receiver.
• 30:27
  Speaker 11: They move him around. That's accepted a scholarship at the
• 30:31
  Speaker 11: University of Washington.
• 30:32
  Speaker 12: They're very, very talented on offense. They're going to be
• 30:37
  Speaker 12: a real challenge for us on defense because they spread
• 30:44
  Speaker 12: the ball around, make you defend the whole field. Like
• 30:49
  Speaker 12: I said, it's going to be a challenge to keep
• 30:51
  Speaker 12: them in front of us and try to keep big
• 30:53
  Speaker 12: plays from happening. Defensively, they're very active. They run a
• 30:59
  Speaker 12: similar scheme to us in that it looks like mostly
• 31:02
  Speaker 12: a 4-2-5. I imagine we're going to see eight guys
• 31:06
  Speaker 12: in the box with what we like to do. So
• 31:09
  Speaker 12: we're going to have to do a good job again
• 31:12
  Speaker 12: up front trying to control the line of scrimmage and
• 31:15
  Speaker 12: hopefully slow the game down a little bit with our
• 31:18
  Speaker 12: run game.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's what you have to do. And
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: obviously you want to try to get a little bit
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: of a lead early and then and just kind of
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: stay on them and run some clock and get, they'll
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: keep their offense off the field. You know, as soon
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: as you brought up that kid, that's a, that they
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: like to move around in a tight end slot.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: And different things.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: It made me think of that kid they had when
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: you guys played them in 22, Trey Lechner, I believe
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: his name was, is there, is there some comparisons to him?
• 31:49
  Speaker 11: Yes, definitely. Uh, he's very athletic and yeah, thanks for
• 31:53
  Speaker 11: bringing that one up. I was trying to forget that. Um,
• 31:57
  Speaker 11: but yeah, he's a matchup problem.
• 31:59
  Speaker 12: Um, he's got good speed and size, um, that he
• 32:03
  Speaker 12: can play both on the inside and outside. So, uh,
• 32:06
  Speaker 12: we got to count for where he's at, but like
• 32:09
  Speaker 12: I said, they do a good job of not just
• 32:10
  Speaker 12: focusing on him. They, they spread the ball around on offense. So, um,
• 32:15
  Speaker 12: We've got to know where he's at lined up in
• 32:17
  Speaker 12: their sets, but at the same time, we can't just
• 32:20
  Speaker 12: have a total focus on him because he'll go elsewhere
• 32:23
  Speaker 12: with the ball.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Good coaches will always figure that out and see that,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: and then you're right.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: They will make the appropriate changes.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Best of luck Thursday against Glacier Peak. Thank you so
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: much for joining me on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
• 32:38
  Speaker 11: Thanks a lot for having me.
• 32:40
  Speaker 15: You bet.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: So that wraps up the Thursday night games.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: We move on to Friday and we'll go in chronological
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: order as the first game kicking off on Friday night.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: We'll be at 530 as Muckleshoot Tribal will be.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: At Lummi Nation.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: So again, this is a 530 kickoff. So, you know,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: get there early and be ready. And Muckleshoot Tribal comes
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: into the game ranked 42nd in 1B with an 0-2 record.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Lummi Nation ranked 7th in 2B. with a 2-0 record,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: so it looks like the Blackhawks are heavily favored here,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and we're going to catch up with Coach Layton right now.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I am now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: with Lummi Nation football coach, Watiko Layton.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Coach, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: Feeling pretty good.
• 33:27
  Speaker 16: Thanks for having me, Tyler.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you bet.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Last year, I asked all the football coaches what their
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: favorite football movie was, and This year I'm asking, what's
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: your favorite sports movie that doesn't have to do with football?
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: Oh, wow.
• 33:49
  Speaker 16: I mean, it's just a... I feel like it should
• 33:51
  Speaker 16: be everyone's favorite sports movie, but The Sandlot.
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 33:56
  Speaker 16: I really love The Sandlot, especially growing up. It was
• 33:59
  Speaker 16: really fun to watch.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: You know, what's funny about that was... I think everybody
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: can kind of relate to that. You know, as a kid,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: you have your group of kids that you play sports with.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: And that movie came out when I was probably about 14.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: So I was a little bit past that, but it
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: still hit me, right? And I think every kid usually
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: watches it when they're a kid and it really gets
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: them good and they'll always remember it. So that's definitely
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: a good one.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Last week you went down south, played a phenomenal game,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: shutting out Northwest Christian 48-0.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: What impressed you more, your offense or your defense?
• 34:41
  Speaker 16: I would just say all the kids around. We had
• 34:46
  Speaker 16: a lot of moments where we had to be resilient,
• 34:49
  Speaker 16: but also our execution on just both sides of the
• 34:51
  Speaker 16: ball was a big– Big plus compared to last week.
• 34:59
  Speaker 16: Or week one when we played against them. Just kids
• 35:03
  Speaker 16: fighting back and executing their jobs was the nicest thing
• 35:06
  Speaker 16: about that game.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you just said, you had a week
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: off in week two. It seemed like your players were
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: pretty ready to play in an actual game, huh?
• 35:16
  Speaker 16: Yeah, they were really eager to play this game. Especially
• 35:19
  Speaker 16: this was a... They're a solid team. They shut out their...
• 35:22
  Speaker 16: Not shut out, but.
• 35:25
  Speaker 16: Racked up 68 and 66 points the last two games,
• 35:29
  Speaker 16: you know, so they're really nice offensively and allowing only
• 35:33
  Speaker 16: the most 20 points in those.
• 35:34
  Speaker 7: So they're pretty solid.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you put that stuff together and it
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: kind of spells for you guys to have a pretty
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: good year, it.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Seems like, as the way things are going. You know,
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: I was put on the spot.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: On the radio last week where they asked me which
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: football team in Whatcom County is going to make the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: biggest jump this year, and I immediately said I mean
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: nation do you feel like there's pressure on you to
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: do that or do you or do you welcome it
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: and say yeah I think this is kind of the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: year for us to.
• 36:01
  Speaker 16: Do this um you know we still want to stay
• 36:04
  Speaker 16: humble and stuff it's just been three weeks of the
• 36:06
  Speaker 16: season we got a lot of couple good teams in
• 36:09
  Speaker 16: our league that are coming up um but you know
• 36:12
  Speaker 16: I feel like these seniors deserve it they've been like
• 36:15
  Speaker 16: I said previously in uh interviews these kids been starting
• 36:18
  Speaker 16: since they were freshmen yeah like 0-8, 1-7 season, they
• 36:21
  Speaker 16: were just freshmen and sophomores playing against seniors and juniors,
• 36:27
  Speaker 16: heavy on varsity. So I feel like these kids deserve
• 36:30
  Speaker 16: that shine and to see their growth from those previous seasons.
• 36:36
  Speaker 17: Absolutely.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about one of your seniors, Landon LaFontaine.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: We've seen what he can do on the basketball court.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: He took a year off from football last year, but
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: now he's back at quarterback this year. How great is
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: it to have him back out playing football?
• 36:51
  Speaker 16: It's really nice to have him out here. He's a
• 36:54
  Speaker 16: natural leader. He likes to compete. When it comes to pressure,
• 36:58
  Speaker 16: for some reason, he just ignores it all. But there's
• 37:04
  Speaker 16: a lot of times where he's thrown some amazing passes,
• 37:07
  Speaker 16: made some good reads, even running the ball. He's improved
• 37:12
  Speaker 16: a lot. But also on the defensive side, as a DN,
• 37:15
  Speaker 16: as an edge rusher, he's real controlled and disciplined, but
• 37:20
  Speaker 16: still that feisty, aggressive kid. So it's been really nice
• 37:23
  Speaker 16: to have him back for this year.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: And then Friday night, you'll be hosting Muckleshoot Tribal at 5.30.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: It's an early kickoff. Is that so they can get
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: back home at a decent hour?
• 37:35
  Speaker 16: Yeah, I believe when we played down there, too, we
• 37:37
  Speaker 16: started at 5.30 just so we can get the kids back,
• 37:40
  Speaker 16: not at a late time.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: What can you tell me about Muckleshoot and what to
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: expect from them?
• 37:46
  Speaker 16: So kind of just like this, they're a basketball school,
• 37:48
  Speaker 16: so they got a lot of their basketball athletes on there.
• 37:52
  Speaker 16: But it also transfers to football, so they're a really nice, quick,
• 37:56
  Speaker 16: and physical team that likes to air it out more.
• 37:58
  Speaker 16: So we're going to be looking forward to their air
• 38:02
  Speaker 16: raid this Friday.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: And when you play against a team like that, do
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: you feel like, you know, you got some athletes too
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: that play some basketball, so do you feel like you
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: match up well against them or is it, or does
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: it make it, um, a little bit more of a
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: struggle maybe?
• 38:17
  Speaker 16: No, I feel like we have enough athletes this year
• 38:20
  Speaker 16: to match up man to man. Um, I feel like
• 38:23
  Speaker 16: our kids can hang with these other students. You know,
• 38:26
  Speaker 16: they've been, they've been playing against these, um, kids at
• 38:29
  Speaker 16: Muckleshoot their whole lives. So they know their, their speaking style. Um,
• 38:34
  Speaker 16: so I, I believe, and I, I know they believe
• 38:37
  Speaker 16: that they can hang with, um, their receivers.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Awesome, Coach.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Best of luck on Friday against the Kings, and thank
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: you for joining me today on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you for having me, Tyler.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Next on Friday's schedule will be a 6 o'clock kickoff
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: out at OMAC High School. Mount Baker Mountaineers will travel
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: east to take on the OMAC Pioneers. This should be
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: a really, really good matchup as they're both ranked decently
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: well in 1A as far as max preps is concerned.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Mount Baker at 2-1. is ranked 10th. OMAC also 2-1-1.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: They're ranked 16th. So this should be a really good
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: barometer for two teams with aspirations to make the playoffs.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: And we have Coach Lepp on the line to talk
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: about it. I am now joined on the Gatorade Game
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Day podcast by Mount Baker head coach Ron leper coach
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today how are you.
• 39:31
  Speaker 8: Doing i'm doing well and welcome back tyler missed you
• 39:34
  Speaker 8: last week although bartle did give it the old college
• 39:37
  Speaker 8: try so i mean i don't know if we you
• 39:39
  Speaker 8: know he his shirt wasn't quite as as flamboyant as
• 39:42
  Speaker 8: yours but he uh he made the effort so it
• 39:45
  Speaker 8: was good.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: He absolutely gave the effort. It was awesome to see,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: and we thank him for that.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Last year I asked all the coaches what their favorite
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: football movie was. This time, what's your favorite sports movie
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: that doesn't have to do with football?
• 40:02
  Speaker 7: Oh, man, that's a tough one.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Vision Quest?
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: No, I'll be honest.
• 40:08
  Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, one I find watching it, probably multiple
• 40:14
  Speaker 8: times during the year at different times is miracle.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: That's been a lot of, that's been the answer for
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of coaches. And I think part of that
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: might be as a coach, right?
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: With her Brooks.
• 40:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a, are you a hockey fan at all?
• 40:29
  Speaker 16: Yeah.
• 40:30
  Speaker 7: Yeah. I like hockey.
• 40:31
  Speaker 8: I was actually, when I was in school up and
• 40:33
  Speaker 8: up in Canada, there was part of a hockey fantasy
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: league and stuff. And we, that was our thing on Saturday,
• 40:40
  Speaker 8: Saturday after we recovered from Friday night, We'd put some
• 40:44
  Speaker 8: chili on in the afternoon, then we'd watch Hockey Night
• 40:46
  Speaker 8: in Canada before we went out and did whatever on
• 40:48
  Speaker 8: Saturday night. But that was a thing at the house
• 40:50
  Speaker 8: that we'd all sit there and watch Hockey Night in Canada.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, that brings me back because up here we're close
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: to Canada, obviously, so you get the Canadian stations and
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: you get the Labatt's Blue Hockey Night in Canada on
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Channel 2.
• 41:04
  Speaker 8: John Cherry, you're not quite at his level yet, but
• 41:07
  Speaker 8: if you keep working on the outfits, you'll be there.
• 41:09
  Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, Miracle's just great because.
• 41:12
  Speaker 8: You know, obviously I was– And high school during that
• 41:17
  Speaker 8: time when that happened and, you know, remembering all the
• 41:20
  Speaker 8: kind of stuff that goes on there and just to
• 41:22
  Speaker 8: watch how they, you know, how you work the kids and,
• 41:24
  Speaker 8: you know, the athletes and brought them together and stuff. And, yeah,
• 41:27
  Speaker 8: that's just one I just, if I start, if I
• 41:29
  Speaker 8: see it on or if I click on it, I'm
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: not getting away from it.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: did get, I mean, I was a year old when
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: it happened. So I, you know, but I know the story.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people think that was the
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: gold medal game.
• 41:44
  Speaker 7: It wasn't.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: And stuff like that. But I love that movie too.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And just to explain to, you know, the listeners, winning
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: that game is equivalent to, you know, what in high
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: school football, a 2B team beating a 4A team, maybe
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: something like that.
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: Or somebody beating Royal right now.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: Well, there you go. That's a good call. Uh, last
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: week it was a road wind against 4A Kamiak.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Uh, boy, that's a team of athletes that likes to
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: put the ball in the air a lot. Like you
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: said last week, they, they used the whole field. Um,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: but I really, what I feel like happened in the
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: second half is you were able to kind of keep
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: coming at them and wear them down.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: How did you see that game against the Knights?
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 42:30
  Speaker 8: I mean, you know, um, obviously, uh, you know, speed,
• 42:33
  Speaker 8: they had that, they got athletes there. Um, So we
• 42:38
  Speaker 8: knew that. I think we gave up some plays on
• 42:42
  Speaker 8: third down that we could have got off the field
• 42:44
  Speaker 8: and didn't.
• 42:44
  Speaker 7: So they go down and score.
• 42:46
  Speaker 8: But we were forced to come right back and then
• 42:48
  Speaker 8: finally get a stop and then come back and score again.
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: They tied it up. And then after that, I think
• 42:55
  Speaker 7: just not being.
• 42:56
  Speaker 8: Used to seeing some of the stuff you can do
• 42:58
  Speaker 8: with our offense and misdirection and hiding the ball a
• 43:01
  Speaker 8: little bit. You know, then we were able to kind
• 43:03
  Speaker 8: of start pounding there. And then we went on a
• 43:04
  Speaker 8: little streak there where we were able to put the
• 43:06
  Speaker 8: ball in the end zone twice, you know, late in
• 43:08
  Speaker 8: the second half to go ahead, you know, 28-14 at halftime.
• 43:12
  Speaker 8: Then come out and got the ball first and put
• 43:13
  Speaker 8: another couple on the end zone to get up there.
• 43:15
  Speaker 8: And then, you know, they hit a big pass play.
• 43:17
  Speaker 8: You know, like I said, using that speed, you can
• 43:20
  Speaker 8: watch this. It's like we were watching it, you know,
• 43:22
  Speaker 8: on Monday and it's about angles and so forth. And
• 43:24
  Speaker 8: then I liked how we responded back with a big
• 43:27
  Speaker 8: pass play of ourselves to kind of, you know, kind
• 43:30
  Speaker 8: of just put it back say hey we're still in
• 43:31
  Speaker 8: charge here and then um you know finished out the
• 43:33
  Speaker 8: game playing well but yeah you know they threw the
• 43:36
  Speaker 8: they had i think they ran 30 or so more
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: plays than we did but uh you know we were
• 43:41
  Speaker 8: able to um you know get them off and and
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: get a couple stops when we had to during that
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: strip that stretch where we kind of took control of
• 43:47
  Speaker 8: the game.
• 43:49
  Speaker 13: Yeah definitely and it was it was good to see
• 43:52
  Speaker 13: kind of that mount baker football again i you know
• 43:55
  Speaker 13: and All those running plays and, like you said, the
• 43:57
  Speaker 13: misdirection and the double play action, the deep pass, everything.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Things were kind.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Of flowing a little bit, as they tend to do
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: once you get into the season a little bit. And
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about one of your seniors, Andrew Monteith.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: It might be hard to believe, but he scored his
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: first varsity touchdown last week. In fact, he scored three
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: of them. And as a sophomore, he stood out on
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: special teams. Last year, he played great defensively for you.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: And this year, he's getting his turn at running back.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: what makes him such a good overall football player?
• 44:27
  Speaker 8: No, he's just a tough kid. He's a Mount Baker kid,
• 44:29
  Speaker 8: you know, kind of the prototypical we look for. You know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 8: he doesn't worry about his size. I mean, you know,
• 44:35
  Speaker 8: he's just tough. He gets back in there, wants to
• 44:38
  Speaker 8: do well, you know, and sometimes he can be his
• 44:40
  Speaker 8: own worst critic. So we're just trying to get him
• 44:44
  Speaker 8: to understand mistakes can happen. So when you come back
• 44:46
  Speaker 8: next play, I know, like, I think in one of
• 44:49
  Speaker 8: the series there, he had a chance for a tackle
• 44:51
  Speaker 8: for loss and, you know, wasn't able to make the tackle.
• 44:54
  Speaker 8: you know, kind of, you know, bungled the play up
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: a little bit and we rallied two of it. Then
• 44:58
  Speaker 8: the next play came through and got one and, you know,
• 45:01
  Speaker 8: came right back and got after it. And so he
• 45:03
  Speaker 8: runs hard, you know, again, he's not going to, you know,
• 45:05
  Speaker 8: outrun anybody. And like you've mentioned before, you know, sometimes
• 45:09
  Speaker 8: he comes through the line and it's kind of hard
• 45:10
  Speaker 8: to see sometimes he's not necessarily the tallest guy on
• 45:13
  Speaker 8: the field, but, you.
• 45:14
  Speaker 7: Know, he just plays hard.
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: And so, Right now, we're kind of rotating some running
• 45:20
  Speaker 8: backs through, which is good, and he's in that mix,
• 45:22
  Speaker 8: and he runs hard, and we expect him to get
• 45:26
  Speaker 8: positive yardage every time and keep us moving down the field.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you bring up a Mount Baker kid,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the first thing I think of is someone that.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: You know will give it their all. You can depend
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: on them.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: And when things don't go well, that you can get
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: on them a little bit, and they will turn things around.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Is that fair to say?
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: That's fair to say. Yeah.
• 45:47
  Speaker 8: You know, and, and, you know, I've also had the
• 45:50
  Speaker 8: opportunity to coach him in wrestling and he's a, he's a,
• 45:52
  Speaker 8: he's a, you know, he's an above average wrestler.
• 45:54
  Speaker 7: And, and so, you know, just that, that mentality.
• 45:57
  Speaker 8: And, and like I said, we, we really try to
• 45:59
  Speaker 8: stress that in, in, even though we might lack some
• 46:02
  Speaker 8: things physically, it may not, you know, might not be,
• 46:05
  Speaker 8: don't have necessarily some of the speed or size at times,
• 46:08
  Speaker 8: but we're going to play hard and, and that's what we,
• 46:10
  Speaker 8: you know, we focused that was one of the things
• 46:11
  Speaker 8: we want to, you know, at the end of the game,
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: you know, did we look at each other and say,
• 46:14
  Speaker 8: you know, we gave everything we had and we played,
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: we played to our best for our ability.
• 46:17
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Uh, Friday night, you're back on the road this time
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: against OMAC for a six o'clock kickoff start. This will
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: be the fourth time playing them in the last two
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: and a half years. Uh, tell our listeners what to
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: expect out of this batch of the pioneers.
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: Uh, it was good probably for what we've seen on film, uh,
• 46:34
  Speaker 8: what we saw last year and the year before, you know, they're, they're,
• 46:36
  Speaker 8: they're tough kids, you know, kind of like us over there. Uh,
• 46:39
  Speaker 8: You know, they're well coached. They're physical. They like to
• 46:42
  Speaker 8: play physical. You know, you're going to have to be
• 46:45
  Speaker 8: ready to go for a full game. You've got to
• 46:46
  Speaker 8: bring your lunchbox and get ready to go to work
• 46:48
  Speaker 8: all day. You know, so from that point, it's kind
• 46:52
  Speaker 8: of the same there. You know, different kids in the
• 46:55
  Speaker 8: lineup this year, as it always is every year.
• 46:57
  Speaker 7: You have some turnover.
• 46:58
  Speaker 8: But, you know, they had a really close game and
• 47:02
  Speaker 8: came out on top against Liberty Bell, which is one
• 47:04
  Speaker 8: of the top two A teams or two B teams
• 47:06
  Speaker 8: in the state.
• 47:07
  Speaker 7: So we know we're going to have our hands full
• 47:08
  Speaker 7: on the road.
• 47:09
  Speaker 8: Again, navigating that trip and making sure that we're ready
• 47:13
  Speaker 8: to show up and get ready for a physical football game.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Liberty Bell, I got to see them
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: against Meridian, and boy, that little quarterback, he plays at
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: a different speed. When you have that at the 2B level,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: that's really something. And Omak, you know, Omak has had
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: some guys over the years with that left-handed quarterback, that
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: defensive player that makes all the tackles, that big fullback,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: and they are just tough every year. And, and you know, it's,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: have you developed this relationship with them where maybe you
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: can look to them to try to schedule every year?
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Or is it just one of those hopeful things?
• 47:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, it worked out.
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: We weren't sure, but you know, I know that, you know,
• 47:51
  Speaker 8: they've only got two league games that they play because
• 47:55
  Speaker 8: of how teams have moved around out of there. So,
• 47:58
  Speaker 8: you know, they look for that and we're able to
• 47:59
  Speaker 8: make that work. We weren't sure if we're going to
• 48:01
  Speaker 8: be able to get it on the schedule and, and,
• 48:03
  Speaker 8: Then they contacted us and said, hey, are.
• 48:08
  Speaker 7: We still available to play? We said, yeah.
• 48:10
  Speaker 8: And so we got that hooked up. And so, yeah,
• 48:12
  Speaker 8: like you said, you know, it's the third time in, what,
• 48:15
  Speaker 8: the last six games we played, you know, against those guys.
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: And then, you know, and so it's almost like it's
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: a league game, you know.
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: But, you know, again, Bill will play a quality program.
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: So, you know, it's just it benefits both sides.
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: And then, you know, I think it's going to be
• 48:33
  Speaker 7: a pretty good ballgame on Friday.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, Coach.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Best of luck on Friday at OMAC. And thank you
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: so much for joining me today on the Gatorade Game
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Day podcast.
• 48:41
  Speaker 7: Anytime, Tyler.
• 48:43
  Speaker 8: Glad to have you back and have fun this weekend.
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: Covering some football.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: I will try my best. Thanks, Coach.
• 48:49
  Speaker 7: You're welcome. Thank you.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Now we move on to the 7 o'clock games, and
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: we only have, this is kind of crazy, this might
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: be the only time this year, we only have three
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: games kicking off at 7 o'clock on a Friday night.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: The first one we're going to talk about is Meridian
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: going on the road to take on Onalaska. This will
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: be the big pass versus the big run, and we'll
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: see kind of how that shoots out. Meridian is ranked
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: 17th in Class 1A with a 1-2 record. Onalaska, the
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: law they are the real deal they are 3 and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: 0 on the season and they are the top ranked
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: team in 2b right now in the max preps rankings
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: and we have patrick ames the head coach of meridian
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: on the line to give us a little insight on
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: this game.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: I'm now joined on.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: The Gatorade Game Day podcast with Meridian head coach Patrick Ames. Coach,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: How are you doing?
• 49:42
  Speaker 17: I'm doing well, thanks.
• 49:43
  Speaker 7: How are you?
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: Doing all right.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Last year, I asked all the football coaches what their
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: favorite football movie was. And this time I'm asking, what's
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: your favorite sports movie that doesn't have to.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Do with football?
• 49:59
  Speaker 17: Are there other sports movies?
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I was just going to say, you're about as football-centric
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: as it gets.
• 50:05
  Speaker 17: Although you do coach track. Yeah, yeah. So I guess
• 50:10
  Speaker 17: it would be The World's Greatest Athlete. Do you remember
• 50:12
  Speaker 17: that old Disney movie?
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 50:15
  Speaker 7: Oh, okay.
• 50:15
  Speaker 17: Yeah, you'll have to look that one up. I don't
• 50:17
  Speaker 17: know if that's it.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: That's what comes to mind? Hey, I'll go with that.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: I will have to look that up now. And it's
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: a Disney movie, you said?
• 50:27
  Speaker 7: It is, yeah.
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: Oh, wow.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Um, last week you had your first home game of
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: the season. You defeated Colville in a great back and
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: forth game, 43 to 36. Uh, you did some good
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: things at the end of the first half to get
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: that little lead. Uh, they, they have that two point
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: conversion kind of out of nowhere and then you match
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: it and then, you know.
• 50:49
  Speaker 7: Take the lead late.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Talk about what you liked in that game.
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: I thought we were, um, resilient enough in the second
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: half to deal with the momentum swing that started the
• 51:04
  Speaker 6: third quarter that we ended up finishing the first half
• 51:07
  Speaker 6: really well. And then we gave up a drive to
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: them to open the third quarter. They kicked an onside kick,
• 51:13
  Speaker 6: which they executed and recovered and went down and got
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: another score. And before we'd even touched the ball, a
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: two point or a two score lead for us had.
• 51:21
  Speaker 17: Vanished and we were down by a point.
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: And, and one of the things that it actually, it
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: validated for us is, we celebrated the 20 year anniversary
• 51:30
  Speaker 6: of one of our state championship teams. And when I
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: talked to our guys about pregame was when you play
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: in a program like ours, like you do in a
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: lot of the other programs around the county, you end
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: up sharing some DNA with the groups that come before you.
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: And I use the example from that 2006 team and
• 51:51
  Speaker 6: season with our guys pregame and said, one of the
• 51:53
  Speaker 6: things that you share with them right now is, Our
• 51:57
  Speaker 6: highs are never too high and our lows aren't too low.
• 52:00
  Speaker 6: And there's a certain level of consistency of approach there
• 52:03
  Speaker 6: that allows you, hopefully, to perform in the second half
• 52:08
  Speaker 6: of games when things go against you. And I use
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: the example of in 2006, we trailed in the second
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: half of all four of our state playoff games and
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: came back and won them all.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: And.
• 52:22
  Speaker 6: It didn't look like at halftime that that was maybe
• 52:24
  Speaker 6: the trajectory of Saturday's game as we had a two-score
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: lead in the locker room, and then we blink and
• 52:28
  Speaker 6: we're down in the second half. And then we validated
• 52:32
  Speaker 6: the observations pregame that, okay, this isn't anything outside of
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: the realm of our control as long as we stay
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: fundamentally sound and committed to what we had worked on
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: this week and were able to execute, that we should
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: be able to come back and answer questions Their two
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: score onslaught there at the start of the.
• 52:53
  Speaker 17: Second half, which we were able to do.
• 52:56
  Speaker 6: So as far as, you know, even more so than
• 52:59
  Speaker 6: individual plays, which we had a great number of key
• 53:03
  Speaker 6: plays that our guys made, being able to come back
• 53:07
  Speaker 6: and win that one after the momentum had swung back
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: in their favor was really validating the approach right now
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: that our team has.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: And as a coach as well, there's always things to
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: work on. And I'm sure you witnessed a few of
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: those things on Saturday.
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: Yeah. Yep.
• 53:24
  Speaker 6: That team executed in their passing game better than they
• 53:28
  Speaker 6: had all season.
• 53:29
  Speaker 17: And so.
• 53:31
  Speaker 6: We know that we've got a challenge in front of
• 53:34
  Speaker 6: us this week. And I know we'll talk a little
• 53:36
  Speaker 6: bit more about on Alaska, but to your point about
• 53:39
  Speaker 6: things that we need to work on, they are a
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: run centric team, the Colville group that we played. And
• 53:44
  Speaker 6: And yet it was the plays they made in the
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: passing game that ended up driving their offense on Saturday.
• 53:50
  Speaker 6: And we're going to face the same kind of team,
• 53:53
  Speaker 6: at least a team that's going to be really run
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: heavy in Onalaska this week. But making sure that we
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: can stay eye-disciplined and assignment sound on defense so that
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: we can defend the things that they want to do
• 54:05
  Speaker 6: in the passing game to complement their very strong running
• 54:07
  Speaker 6: offense is something that's not lost on us in our
• 54:11
  Speaker 6: preparation this week.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: You know, one thing that really.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: I guess it's not shocking anymore. You see it more
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and more is you think back to when we played
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: in the 90s and, you know, you didn't see any
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: really 300 pounders at the 1A level. You know, you
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: saw some guys 240, 250. and Colville was big and
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: you saw them up close and personal. And there was
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: a time when they were driving on that first drive
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: and they got inside the five. I was standing behind
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: the end zone and I heard them yell, jumbo, jumbo.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: And I thought, jumbo, well, you got more beef coming
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: in now. I mean, it was so, it's so weird.
• 54:47
  Speaker 17: That was a big football team.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: But that's the way of it.
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Like teams or players just are bigger than they used
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: to be. And it's just, that's just kind of the
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: way it is. And it's, it's, it was amazing to see.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: And another thing that was amazing to see, I shouldn't
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: say thing, but player is one of your seniors Sawyer Strunk. Um,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: even though he played a lot of nose tackle for
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: you last year, he's really stood out this year and
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: he had another big monster game on Saturday. He's not
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: your typical nose tackle build. He's more tall and wiry, uh,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: but he's a wrestler. What makes him excel at that position?
• 55:19
  Speaker 6: Uh, Sawyer just has a, uh, a really good, um,
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: mental makeup, uh, to play, uh, in the box on,
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: on defense. Um, and it, I don't think it would matter,
• 55:33
  Speaker 6: you know, what his physical dimensions are. Um, when you've
• 55:39
  Speaker 6: got a kid like that, that, you know, isn't afraid to,
• 55:41
  Speaker 6: to mix it up with people.
• 55:43
  Speaker 17: Smaller, bigger, older, stronger. Um, and it's just going to play,
• 55:47
  Speaker 17: you know, really.
• 55:48
  Speaker 6: Hard and, and physically, um, you end up finding spots
• 55:53
  Speaker 6: for guys like that on defense.
• 55:55
  Speaker 17: And we realized really early last year that, yeah.
• 55:59
  Speaker 6: He could be a really impactful box player for us
• 56:03
  Speaker 6: with his hand on the ground, probably more so maybe
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: even at linebacker, just because of, you know, the attitude
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: that he plays and that, and that he brings.
• 56:13
  Speaker 17: So we actually, you know, just based.
• 56:14
  Speaker 6: Upon the, the, the sets that, you know, that, team
• 56:18
  Speaker 6: was showing, you mentioned their, their jumbo package. We actually
• 56:21
  Speaker 6: moved him out to the edge so he could go
• 56:23
  Speaker 6: and collision that 300 pound fullback that they put in,
• 56:27
  Speaker 6: who was an offensive guard by trade. Um, because Sawyer
• 56:31
  Speaker 6: is the guy that we have on our team who's
• 56:32
  Speaker 6: best suited to, to do that play after play after play. Um,
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: so yeah, he, he brings a, a physicality and, and edge, uh,
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: to our group on defense, um, that really, um, showed
• 56:45
  Speaker 6: up on, on Saturday, uh, as we had to defend
• 56:48
  Speaker 6: their run. And, you know, with his, um, with his
• 56:51
  Speaker 6: relentless play ended up being really impactful, uh, in there
• 56:56
  Speaker 6: and in our past offense as well, as he was
• 56:58
  Speaker 6: able to get to the quarterback a few times.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: And I, you know, there's always, and you, you know,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: this better than anybody. There's always those kids that when
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: they become seniors, they just, there's something that clicks and
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: they become like all league caliber kids all of a sudden. And, and,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: You know, you really hit it last year with Daniel Larson,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and I really think Sawyer Strunk is on his way.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: He's just really making an impact early. Friday night, you'll
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: be back on the road once again, this time on Alaska.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: They've been pretty amazing so far, and their offense is
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: a little different than most have seen.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: And before we talk about.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: What to, you know, how to stop them or all
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: that stuff, can you explain to our listeners what they
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: do on offense?
• 57:44
  Speaker 6: They're going to run it 50 to 60 times if
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: they can help it. I know Nooksack played them last year,
• 57:50
  Speaker 6: and Mount Baker, I believe, is going to play them
• 57:53
  Speaker 6: after we do. And I know Coach Bartle up at
• 57:57
  Speaker 6: Nooksack and Coach Lepper out at Mount Baker, their assessment
• 58:02
  Speaker 6: is going to be largely the same, that they're going
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: to run it first down, second down, third down, and
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: then try to surprise you maybe, maybe once a quarter
• 58:11
  Speaker 6: with a well-timed play-action pass.
• 58:12
  Speaker 17: But they are big.
• 58:14
  Speaker 6: Strong physical football team that is, is built to play
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: in Southwest Washington where they're going to be playing on,
• 58:22
  Speaker 6: on grass fields, you know, probably.
• 58:25
  Speaker 17: Every game this year.
• 58:27
  Speaker 6: And we expect it to be a, probably maybe a
• 58:32
  Speaker 6: little bit wet down there on Friday. And I'm sure
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: they're just salivating over the opportunity to put their run
• 58:37
  Speaker 6: first offense out there on the.
• 58:39
  Speaker 17: Field in, in, in maybe, you know, wet conditions.
• 58:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they're a really impressive football team. And I know
• 58:46
  Speaker 6: in the 2B ranks, there are a lot of people
• 58:48
  Speaker 6: who are looking at them as maybe the best 2B
• 58:51
  Speaker 6: team in the state.
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, after beating Napa Vine the way they did,
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: and Napa Vine.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: Year in and year out is kind of one of
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: those teams that you can pencil in and say they're
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: probably going to go pretty deep in 2B. When I
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: saw them last year at Nooksack Valley, I was, again,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: standing behind the end zone and at the end of
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: that I saw with their alignment, I mean, you would
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: see all the– you'd see guys– close to each other,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden the right guard and right
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: tackle are two yards apart from each other. It was
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: just really unique to see, and it looks like a
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: single wing, I mean, just pound the football, and you've
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: got to kind of tackle everybody that comes through.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: Is that kind of the mentality there?
• 59:31
  Speaker 6: Well, to your observation about the splits, they are really
• 59:33
  Speaker 6: unique in that one side, one half of their lines,
• 59:37
  Speaker 6: is going to be foot-to-foot splits, not unlike what you
• 59:40
  Speaker 6: would see from a team that is going to be
• 59:43
  Speaker 6: power T or double-wing base, not to get too technical.
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: And right now, as we prepare for them on defense,
• 59:49
  Speaker 6: we're calling that the power side, where they're going to
• 59:51
  Speaker 6: run power plays with pulling linemen and multiple blockers at
• 59:56
  Speaker 6: the point of attack. And then on the other side
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: of the line, the right side of the line, that's
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 6: their option side, their veer side, And the places they
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 6: run to that side are going to be triple option plays.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 6: And also to your point about being disciplined and you've
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 6: got to tackle everybody to that side, the quarterback included.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 6: And then they run a really slick, quick pitch play
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 6: to either side, depending upon where guys are set.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 17: So yeah, they present some really unique challenges.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 6: It's preparing for two systems at the same time in
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 6: one formation on any given play.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: It's incredible.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: And You know, the first team I really saw in
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: person that was somewhat like this would have been that
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: 0-3 LeCenter team that you guys played in the semis.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: Really, really good team. I saw them in the first
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: round against Mount Baker.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: A little, I guess a little different, but still that
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: football in the phone booth, going to throw it twice
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: a game. Is there similarities to like what LeCenter did
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: back then and to 9-0 recently, Franklin Pierce?
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: Or is it a little different?
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 6: You know, actually, the most similar team that maybe we've
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 6: played in the last two decades, we played a cashmere
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 6: team in 2013 that ran two different line splits to
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 6: either side of the formation. And it was triple option
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 6: one way, and it was power base the other way.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 6: And that team also was fullback-centric. To the triple option side,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 6: it's flex-boned. like a service academy, you know, you would
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 6: expect to run. And that's, I guess, probably the most
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 6: akin approach to anybody that we've played recently was that really,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 6: really good cashmere team that we lost to in the
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 6: state playoffs in 2013.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 17: The foot-to-foot splits, you're right.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 6: It's not unlike the straight T, the power T teams
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 6: that are running it.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 17: Right now or like that La Center group that we faced.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 7: Way back.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 17: And that's been the center at their core, right?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 6: The backfield might change a little bit year to year,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 6: but they're going to run tight foot-to-foot splits all the time.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: They've been putting up a lot of points and it's
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: really easy for me to ask, what can you do
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: to slow down that offense? But really it's about discipline
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: and doing your job individually.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: Am I right on that?
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 17: No, you're absolutely right.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 6: Making sure that every player on defense is not, not
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 6: only dialed into their keys and where they need to
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 6: show up with aggression and speed play to play, but
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 6: then playing with enough heart and passion and effort to
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 6: tackle the superior ball carries that they have. Um, yeah,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 6: it's one thing to, to match them, you know, scheme
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 6: wise on, on the, on the whiteboard, but then to
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 6: actually bring down the guys that they're going to have
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 6: carry the ball is, is a challenge in and of itself.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: Oh man, it.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: Sounds like it's going to be a heck of a
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: game and, and Whatcom County will get to see them
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: two weeks in a row.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: As like, as you said, they will.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: Be coming into town to Deming next week to take
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: on Mount Baker. Best of luck on Friday at Onalaska.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me today on the
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Gatorade game day podcast.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 17: Always a pleasure, Tyler. Thank you.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: Another game on Friday night will be Lakewood coming to
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: town to take on the Sehome.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: Mariners as the, Mariners are.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Back at home now at Civic Stadium looking for their
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: first win, but also Lakewood. The Cougars are also looking
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: for their first win, and the rankings aren't too far
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: apart as Lakewood is ranked 50th in 2A, Seaholm 39th.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: Both are 0-3 on the season, and it's going to
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: be really interesting to see what Seaholm does here because
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of teams against.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: Lakewood, they like to go run heavy against them as
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: Lakewood has.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: A lot of athletes on the perimeter, so they try
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: to attack with the with the heavy dose of running
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: the ball. And so you might see, see them do
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: that here. You know, they like going double tight. They
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: were missing one of their tight ends last week and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: Devin Bankson, if he's back, you could see them probably
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: going double tight and then, you know, feeding whether it's
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: cash Barnes or Nikki Smith or Evan Hadsall or whoever
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: the ball multiple times to try to establish that run game,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: get that first one of the season, which will be
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: crucial and doing it at home would be.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: A great thing as well. The passing game has done
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: pretty well, though. Gunnar Andersen and Nicky Smith and Colin LaPlante,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: those guys have been putting up numbers, catching the ball,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: and Jack Geiger getting them the ball.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: So they have that if they start stacking the box,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: them being Lakewood, that is. The big thing will be
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: how Seaholm's defense will be able to, how they're going
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: to be able to react against Lakewood's spread offense with
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Malik Armstead at quarterback, because he's one of those quarterbacks
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: that if you're just playing backyard football, that's the guy
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: I want. He keeps plays alive. He scrambles around, he'll
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: take off and run, or he'll throw it 50 yards
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: down the field. And he makes your defense run around
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: a lot. And Lakewood plays their best when they don't
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: use Malik Armstead on defense. So if they're just playing
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: them on offense, he will have that ability to keep
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: doing that on every possession, and it might wear Seaholm
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: down late in the game. We'll just have to see
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: how that will affect later on. Look for a player
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: like Ollie Johnson, the sophomore, to maybe just go wherever
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Armstead goes.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: Try to run him down if he needs to. I
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be a really good matchup. I
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: think it'll be a.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Close game, and of course we're hoping Seaholm can get
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: a win here. But Lakewood is so much improved from
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: last year, and they're still winless too. So they're as
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: hungry as ever. And last year's game was a little
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: crazy as far as the score goes. You don't see
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of wins by that much. And so Lakewood
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: might have it in them too. They remember last year
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: a lot more than Sehome does. But now coming to
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: Sehome's place, going to Civic Stadium, it's going to be
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: a battle and it's going to be one that we
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: will follow closely on our Gatorade game day live show
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: on YouTube. And we'll be able to show you highlights
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: from that game as they happen. Next up will be,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: and I love this matchup. This is the squalicum storm
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: heading out East to go to Sid Lambert field to
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: take on the Nooksack Valley pioneers. The first time these
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: two teams have ever played each other. Really excited about
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: that squalicum. It's been an interesting year for them. Starting
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: off the year extremely strong. They hit the injury bug
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: in week two, and then they got up to a
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: really bad start early on in the game against Burlington,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: but was able to right the storm and even out
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: with the Tigers for the last three quarters. And they
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: find themselves at one and two with rank 30th in
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: class 2A.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: So I think they're better than their record indicates. And
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: if guys are going to start.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: Getting healthy again, that's really going to help them going forward.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: Nooksack Valley is on a tear right now, 3-0 on
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the year. Max Preps has them ranked third overall in
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: Class 1A.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the one thing you could look at
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: what they did maybe in the first two games, and
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: the one thing that they were still kind of hoping
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: to get is a consistent run game to go with
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: that passing game.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: And they got it last week against Kings. They also
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: intercepted four passes last week against Kings. So a lot
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: of all the phases are working right now. And I
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: really like where the pioneers are headed going into league
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: play coming up in a little bit.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: And this is a great, this is a great test
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: for both teams. I'm really excited about that.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: And we're not able to catch up with coach Lucy
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: to talk about the game, but, do have craig bartle
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: standing by and here is his interview i am now
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: joined on the gatorade game day podcast with former seahome
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: quarterback youth ice hockey legend baylor university dad walk-in preps
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: reporter and nooksack valley head coach craig bartle coach.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining me today how are you doing.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 7: Thanks for having me.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: Thanks for all that pressure too.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for doing what you did last week.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: It was unsolicited. You stepped up and got a hold
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: of the coaches and did it all yourself. And so
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for that because it kind of
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: kept this train going i don't want things to fall
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: off and and uh i was you know did you
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: learn anything new did you have fun did you were
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: some of these guys maybe you didn't know him as well.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: You know him a little better now. How did that
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: all go last week?
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: I think all the above.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 17: I mean, it was a blast.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: Um, you know, there's some coaches that I've talked to,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: but I really haven't talked to, I guess.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 3: And so it was, yeah, it was fun to get
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: to know certain coaches. It was fun to, just to,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: just to be in a, in a atmosphere that's, relax
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: and you just talk and have fun. And, um, you know, we,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: we do it for the kids and we appreciate what
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: you do. And so if we, and we all, when
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: I sent the email out to all the coaches, it was,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 3: it was, uh, 100%, like, absolutely. Let's help Tyler out
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: in any way we can. And it just shows kind
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: of what you mean to the coaches and what you
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: mean to the players and just, you know, in football,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: but in all sports, um, So we really appreciate you
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: and anything we can all do to help you, we
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: will always do.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It really, it just, I couldn't believe it. You know,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: I was, you know, I was telling people about it
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: and they just shook their heads. Like, I can't believe it.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: I was like, I know it's crazy. I, I don't
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: know what to say. And I, I guess it, I
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: guess I just got to keep doing it. That's how
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: I look at it. So, and I love doing it.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: So it's a good thing.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to feel a little better this week and
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: have more energy. So I, I'm excited to get this
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: ball rolling.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to go right off the bat here.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: Last year I asked you what your favorite football movie was.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: This time, what's your favorite sports.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Movie that doesn't have to do with football?
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: It's got to be the gold medal hockey miracle.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's probably my favorite.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 18: Just– just to hear the old school Herb Brooks and
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 18: how he compiled his team of college kids to go
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 18: take on the Russians and just the process that he
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 18: went through.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 7: With his teams.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, you can't do that anymore, but he broke
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: those guys down and then built them back up. And
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, that pregame speech, I don't know if it's...
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: I'm sure it's pretty accurate, but.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: That will be a legendary speech forever. And just, I mean,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: people don't understand now how big an accomplishment that was.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 17: Right.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 3: For a bunch of college kids to go and beat,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: you know, the Russians who had just, they were that good.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 3: And incredible story. So, yeah, that's my favorite.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to think of something equivalent
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: what that would be. You know, it might be like
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: you guys, you know, taking down Graham Kapowsin or something,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: you know, in football. I mean, it's just such a
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: disparity of.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: What happened. And you might have been, what, seven, eight
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: years old when that happened? Do you remember that?
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: You know, I remember it a little bit. I remember
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: sitting around on the couch with my mom and dad
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 3: watching it.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I was.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: Probably seven, seven, eight, somewhere right around in there.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I do remember that, you know, watching that.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: And I actually had an opportunity down the road, like
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: middle school age. We actually got to play in a
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: tournament in Lake Placid. And just made it on that
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 3: sheet of ice that they played. Used the locker room
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 3: that USA used. And so, you know, when you're a kid,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: you think, wow, this is really cool. But then when
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: you get older, you look back and you're like, man,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: those are some pretty incredible memories that, you know, I
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: can look back on and be thankful for now. But,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 3: you know, at the time, it was really, really cool.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: And just to look in the stands and go, gosh,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, it was like five, six
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: years later. And just to think back, gosh, you know,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: what was this, what this place might've been like.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: So pretty cool. That's incredible. I didn't know that. That's
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: such a, that's man, that really hits. That's such a
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: neat thing.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: And that's why I love asking these kinds of questions
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: because you get to know about these coaches and kind
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: of what, you know, I want people to understand that
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: they're not just football coaches. They're people that do things
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: and have a history. And I love learning about these things.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: And so, That's really, really cool. Last week you went
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: down south and defeated Kings 51-21, but it was 14-0
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: with less than three minutes played. How did you convey–
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: you were down, I should say, 14-0 with less than
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: three minutes played. How did you convey to your players that, hey,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of game left?
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, I called the timeout, and it was
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: just a reminder to the players to trust the process. And,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, that sounds, you know, cliche, I guess. Um,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: but it really, that's what it is. It's, it's, you
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: have to break it down and forget about what just happened.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: And it's, it's take one play at a time. And
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 3: so the message was when one play, when the, when
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: this play and then when the next play and then
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 3: when the next play, and then if you keep winning
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: plays and if 11 guys keep winning plays, then pretty
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: soon we're moving in the right direction. And pretty soon
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: we're not worried about the score. You're just worried about
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 3: winning plays. And, um, at the end of the day,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: if everybody does that, then you look up at the
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: scoreboard and see the results that we had. So that
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: was the big message was just take a deep breath
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: and focus really on the next play at hand.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what you guys did.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was, it was a little fluky with
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: some turnovers early on. And so you think to yourself,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: that's not indicative of how the game's going to be played,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: you know? And so, But when you're dealing with teenagers,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to get their brain to just
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: go that just move past that. That was really weird
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: that happened. And you just have to go forward. And
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: of course, winning the next play, like you said, it
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: is cliche, but it is correct. That's what you have
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: to do. And when you all get together and play
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: like that. It shows what happens as it was 51-7
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: for the last 45 minutes of the game. So you
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: did obviously win some plays. And although the first two
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: weeks of the season you had some decent run plays
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: here and there, I really feel like in the game
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: against Kings that the running game as a whole was
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: more consistent and how you'd like it to be going forward.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: Do you agree with that?
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, yeah.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, that was the emphasis the last two weeks of, hey,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: we've got to get our run game established. Um, and
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 3: so they tried to do some stuff defensive just because
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 3: we have had success throwing the ball. And so they, they,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 3: they moved to safety over and tried to double up
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 3: Tyler Martin, which then created some openings for some other people.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: And so, um, you know, that's the nice thing about
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 3: having a couple athletes out there that we hopefully, you know,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: the defense has to have to spread themselves out, which
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: opens up other things. And so we are real happy
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 3: with the way our line played.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 14: Last week.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 3: And I think both running backs will tell you that,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: you know, their success is because of the line. And
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: so the line really stepped up. And our racks, you
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 3: got to see stuff a little bit better, you know,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 3: last week. So as we go, they're starting to be
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: patient and understand what the blocking schemes are.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and once it all comes together, it's kind of
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: nice having all these non-conference games early.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: And then you can get into conference later, like the
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: 2A conference.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: A lot of them had to jump right into it
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: week one, playing conference games, and that's tough. Although you
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: only have four conference opponents, which makes it tough for
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: other things, scheduling different things, at least you have those
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: games where those little things, the gelling. The offensive line
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: is so much of a gelling thing, and then it
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: goes to the running backs and finding the holes and everything.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: Speaking of the offensive line, I do want to talk
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: about one of your seniors in Owen Buttonshawne. Yeah, 6'2,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: 220-pound right tackle. Talk about under the radar, especially for me,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: because I try to really get to know, watch these kids.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: I try to see late in games when sophomores come
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: in and make a difference. And he's a guy that's
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: been under the radar for me, I'll be honest. But
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: he really played well this past week. What have you
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: liked about his game so far? Yeah, he's been consistent.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: And he's, it seems like every year, you know, we,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: not just a we, but you know, I'm sure it's
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: across the county, but you get a player who's a
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: senior who's played the scout team for three years and
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: has battled through, you know, the, the, you know, do
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: I keep playing? Do I not keep playing? Is this
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: fun anymore?
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 3: And when they come to their senior year, all of
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 3: a sudden they have a breakout year or he's been
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: really consistent and he's playing and, Back when we played,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: that's what it used to be. Some areas get... I
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 3: don't know the right word for it, but you have
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: freshmen and sophomores who think, I should just automatically play.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 3: That's not how it's supposed to be. You're supposed to
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 3: mature and get to a certain level, and then you
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: play a little bit of varsity your junior year, and
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: then your senior year, you play. Owen is a testament
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 3: to just the resilience that he has, and And, you know,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: just wanting to be a part of the team and
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 3: being a part of the team and working his butt
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 3: off for three years to get to where he is
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 3: at right now. And so every year we try to
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 3: highlight a guy like that. And then, you know, in
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: the spring when we have spring or first part of
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 3: practice in the fall, you know, we have guys like
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 3: everybody else says, it says, you know, Hey, I don't
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 3: know if I want to come out. And then we
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 3: use examples of Owen and, and just Thomas Abel from
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: a few years ago, Lance and I mean, we use
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 3: examples of that. Like, Hey, if you do, if you
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 3: give us what you have and you do go through
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 3: the process and you do if you just become part
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: of our family, this is what could happen your senior year.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 3: And he's been a great surprise. Actually, he hasn't been
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: a surprise for us, but it's been great to watch
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 3: him grow into that role.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said, I mean, back in the day,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: you really had to wait your turn, you know, and
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: that was just kind of the way it was, unless
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: there was just a super, super, superstar.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 2: But it was.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: you know, and you could not wait until your senior
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: year and, you know, parents night.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: And all those things.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: And it was just, it was, it was, it was
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: kind of a different feel back there, but Nooksack Valley,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty old school.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: And I, and, and so it's, it's fun that, that
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: he's getting his chance.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: You know, I think of like a Caleb Visser last
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: year or Jackson Hester last year, Thomas Abel, like you
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: just brought up.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, Lance Van Berkham, these are.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: Guys that, go from scout team guys to all league
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: kind of guys.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: And so, uh, that's, what's really cool about this. And that's,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: what's fun for what I do is I get to
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: see these new athletes all the time and, and.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: Just go, this is great. Look at, look at what
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: he's doing. And so that's a lot of fun. Um,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to move on to this upcoming Friday night. Well,
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: you'll be hosting squalicum and a really fun matchup for
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: walking County. Tell us about this year's storm team there.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're big, uh, They– we're trying to figure
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 3: out because they played a couple players that were different
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: last game than the first game, first couple games. It
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 3: looks like they had some guys on the sideline that
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 3: were maybe injured. But they're big up front. They have
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: some really good skill position guys. I don't know if
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: their quarterback is going to be coming back or not.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 3: But they're just– they're dynamic. And I know they have
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: a new offense, and they're really starting to– pick up
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 3: what that offense is supposed to look like. And so, yeah, they're,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: they're dangerous and defensively they're, they're aggressive. And so the, they,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 3: they're going to present a big challenge for us.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 2: Traditionally on defense, they like to be fast.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: They, they will put running backs on the defensive line
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: and try to slant and, and.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 2: Be quick and make it. So linemen have to move
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 2: their feet and be, and be ready for all that
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff. So, Um, is it, is it kind of,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: When you're practicing this week, you know, the emphasis on,
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: you know, a team that's that aggressive, you know, do
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: you try to put in things that are just a
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: little different because you can use their aggressiveness against them?
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 2: Or is it just kind of, Hey, we got to
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: play our style of football. We'll, we'll be all right.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 3: I think we just, I mean, this goes back to
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: what I was talking about earlier. We just focus on ourselves.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 7: And so we, yeah.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: We know what they're going to do. And so we
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: just need to get better at that. Kings was an
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: aggressive team as well in a different way. So that
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: gave us a little bit of a, and we got
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: to practice that a little bit last week, but things
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: just have to happen faster in our minds.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, as.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: The season goes on and you prep your kids well enough,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: then when they can stop thinking about what to do,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: then they start playing faster. And so that's our goal
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 3: is just to get them to feel confident that what
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 3: they're doing is what they're supposed to do. And so
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: we take that thinking part out of it and they
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 3: just go play. And so that's going to be kind
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 3: of our focus this week.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: That's a great point because a lot of, you know,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know if a lot of fans or even
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: parents knows that part of it so much to where,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you see other teams when you see just
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: how fast they are, but so much of it is,
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: how well do they react? Like if you're watching film
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: and you have it paused in the pre-snap and then
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: you go forward a little bit and you see certain
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: guys move, you know, a lot more than other guys,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: those are kids that are probably experienced and have gone
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: through it and it's getting the reps and it's getting
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: them to know just they see this, so do this
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: and they don't have to think.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: And that's a great point. So I'm glad you brought
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: that up for people to kind.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: Of understand that you know, I, when I talked to
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: coach Terpshire earlier today, he was talking about that Bellevue.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: Team being just so fast, you know, and, but you know.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: It's just part of it is just, yeah, they're great athletes,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: but knowing where to go when they see what they see.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: And that's, that's a big, big part of it. So
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: best of luck on Friday against the storm. And thank
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: you so much for joining me on the Gatorade game
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: day podcast.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 7: You bet. Thank you. And go pioneers.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much coach.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: And of course, Coach Bartle pulling double duty last week
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: is not just coaching his team during the week, but
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: also putting on his Whatcom Preps hat and interviewing the
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: coaches last week, which is pretty amazing. And that is
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: the final game for Friday. There are two games on
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: Saturday in the afternoon, both of them in Whatcom County.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: The first one will be at 2 o'clock as La
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: Center comes to town to take on Linden Christian. It's
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: LC versus Alassie, and this is a great one-day matchup.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: Two teams that are great, great programs, both ranked high
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: in 1A. Linda Christian is ranked fourth. LaCenter is ranked seventh.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: Linda Christian, of course, dropping their game last week against Bellevue.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 2: They are 2-1. LaCenter is 3-0 on the year. And, boy,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: year in and year out.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: These are two programs that have huge aspirations in the
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: state tournament. So I really, really enjoy this matchup because
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, however it turns out at the end,
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: It's going to I think it'll have a lot of
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: impact based on seeding, you know, if both these teams
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: make it to the state playoffs. And so having a
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: game like this is huge. And we have Coach Terpstra.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: On the line.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: I am now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: with Linden Christian coach Greg Terpstra.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: Coach, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 15: Hey, nice to have you back, rather than that hack
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 15: from last week.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, it was great for him to
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: step in, and I was a little worried watching his
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: game because he got down 14-0 early, and I thought, oh, no,
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: did he take too much time doing the interviews and
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: not enough time coaching during the week?
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 15: Whether he did or not, he'll probably blame you for it,
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 15: so yeah.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: That's fine. Last year, I asked... all the coaches what
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 2: their favorite football movie was.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: This time I'm asking what your favorite sports movie is
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: that doesn't have to do with football.
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 15: Miracle on Ice.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that's a great one. Why that one?
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 15: You know, honestly, I spent six years in Minneapolis after college.
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 15: My wife went to law school there. I taught there.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 15: And we were six years there before coming back out
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 15: to Linden. And I fell in love with hockey. Honestly,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 15: had I grown up with hockey, I don't know which
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 15: one would have been my favorite between hockey and football.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 15: Just the speed and all that kind of, yeah. I
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 15: just fell in love with it. We'd play drop-in hockey
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 15: in the neighborhoods. You know, there'd be a 60-year-old guy
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 15: that would show up, a 14-year-old girl, and, you know,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 15: three 20-year-old guys, and we would just have a ball. Yeah,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 15: it was a great time. So I love that movie.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: That's pretty cool.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: And I, you know, and obviously being a coach, it's
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: a great movie for a coach, right?
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 2: That's a, that's a fantastic one.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: Um, last week you went down South to take on
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: one of the top teams in the state and Bellevue, uh,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: hung with them for two and a half quarters.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: You have to be really proud of how your team played.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 15: Yeah, we, we really are. Honestly. Um, I don't think the,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 15: the final score is indicative of how, um, how it
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 15: went and maybe the spread between the two squads. I mean,
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 15: they're obviously awesome, you know, going both ways as we
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 15: all do in one, a catches up with you. Uh,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 15: their team speed was overwhelming, um, offensively and defensively, especially defensively.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 15: They just got to, got to their spots so quick and, um,
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 15: just hats off to them for, for, for playing us, honestly.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 15: I mean, you know, not a lot of three A's
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 15: are willing to do that, let alone two A's and, and, uh,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 15: they're willing to, and, We had a great time there.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 7: They were great hosts.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 15: And our kids, I think we got better, and that
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 15: was the goal. And, yeah, I can't say enough about
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 15: our line. I mean, there are times that we just
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 15: really reestablished the line of scrimmage and just pulled out
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 15: some nuggets out of that game that we just really
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 15: feel proud about. You know, guys like Jackson Yoon stepping up, hey, coach,
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 15: I'd like to receive kickoffs. I'm like, what? I don't know, man.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 15: You're like a really good kicker. Don't get hurt. And just,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 15: you know, some guys just sort of grew up. And
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 15: we had a couple injuries and guys stepping in. And, yeah,
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 15: we just, I don't know.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 7: It was a great night.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 15: And the kids were really good about it. You know,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 15: none of us like to lose. We all hate losing.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 15: But afterwards, I think they all recognized how this helps us,
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 15: you know, gain one more step towards where we.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 7: Want to go.
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: And you knew going in the Wolverines were really good
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: and they could run the ball and all that stuff.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: But did anything in particular stand out or even surprise you?
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: you while coaching on the sidelines seeing them in person.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 15: Um other than the speed i think their execution um
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 15: so it's not just the speed but it's um almost
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 15: kind of militarily um how they huddle, they break the huddle,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 15: they get to it, they shift, they motion. It's just
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 15: very well oiled and it's impressive to watch. I'll give
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 15: Coach Bauma a lot of credit. I thought the defense
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 15: held up really well until they broke away a couple,
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 15: and then at the end against our number twos and
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 15: so on. But I thought, you know, when we forced
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 15: them to punt the first time, we were just like,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 15: you know, hey, we can hang here. So, yeah, I
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 15: just thought the game plan was really good. And, yeah,
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 15: Wing T's a tough stop.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: And I want to talk about one of your seniors,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: Justin Kiewik. Here's a guy that was an offensive lineman
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: for you last year. He's made the transition to tight
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: end this season. He's playing well as an outside linebacker.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: Tell us about Justin and how he's made a difference
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: for your team this season.
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 15: Yeah, he's kind of anywhere and everywhere. He's listed as
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 15: a tight end and H-back, but he also plays receiver. He,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 15: you know, D-line, O-line, outside backer. And Yeah, there's not
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 15: many he hasn't played. Maybe we'll let him take snaps
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 15: here pretty quick. You know, he's also– we have a
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 15: lot of very spirited, edgy, you know, rambunctious players, which
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 15: I love. And Kiewik is maybe a little bit more
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 15: of the calm in the storm as well and just
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 15: kind of being a seasoned senior and has seen a
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 15: lot of stuff and just– Yeah, a good, solid guy
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 15: that you can count on. So just really appreciate his leadership.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 17: Absolutely.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon, you host La Center at 2 p.m. It
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: seems like year in and year out, they're a really
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: strong team, always making the playoffs.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 2: It just seems like it's been that way for like
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 2: 20 years. What do you know about this year's team?
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 15: Real good size and their speed.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 7: They got good.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 15: They've shown two different quarterbacks. One's a lefty, throws the
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 15: ball really well. And then another one's just an oozing athlete.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 15: You know, the play breaks down, he can run all
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 15: the way around the opposite way around the field and
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 15: score a touchdown. So it looks like they've got a
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 15: bit of a two-headed monster there. Defensively. They've traditionally been
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 15: a 3-3, and now they've introduced a 3-4, which maybe
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 15: for the common person doesn't seem like a huge deal,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 15: but it's a vastly different defense. And so they've got
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 15: both of those for us to prepare for. So, yeah,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 15: they're going to be a tough test. And, again, that's
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 15: why we scheduled them.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: It seems like when there's a lot of things to
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: plan for, like you said, another defense, two different quarterbacks.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 2: It's kind of nice having that extra day.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, it is.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 7: And we used it.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 15: We didn't just say, hey, day off, study for your
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 15: next chemistry exam. What we did yesterday is we focused
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 15: all offense, and today is going to be all defense,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 15: and then we're going to go to our offensive real practice,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 15: our defensive real practice, and then our night practice, and yeah. No,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 15: we're definitely using it.
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Coach, it's going to be a great one.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: You'll be back at home.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: I'll try to make a cameo really quickly and check
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: out what you got.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: I'm excited for this year's team.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Best of luck on Saturday against the Wildcats, and thank
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: you for joining me on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 11: Again, appreciate all your work.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 15: Nice having you back.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: And our final game of the weekend to talk about
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: are the Blaine Borderites back at home hosting the Kings-Knights.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: Blaine just 2-1 on the season, but picking up their
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: last win via a forfeit, they're ranked 25th in 1A.
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: Kings dropping their first game of the week last week
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: against Nooksack Valley. They are also 2-1 on the season,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: but they are ranked 12 spots higher at 13th in 1A.
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: This is another really good matchup. I remember back in, boy,
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: what year was it? I think it was 95 when
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: they played twice during the year.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 2: They played each other to open up the season again.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 2: and it was something like a.
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: 3-0 game, but then they played each other in the
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: state playoffs, and Blaine got them back.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 2: These are two teams that have.
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: Played each other a lot, but haven't played each other recently,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: and this will be a great test for the Board
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: Rites because Kings is very, very balanced. They do everything
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: the right way. They're really well coached, and.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 2: Blaine.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: has had, you know, they played the smaller school, they
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: go down there, they beat up on them pretty bad.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: Then they play the much bigger school and they hang
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: with them for two and a half quarters, but then
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: it gets away a little bit. And this is more
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: of a, a really good barometer for them because if
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: they can play with Kings or even beat Kings, that
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: shows a huge step up from where they've been. And
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: that shows me that that'll, that this conference is for real.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: And Blaine has just moved into the.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: Teams that other teams are going to have to look
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: for in 1A.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait and see what happens in
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: that one, but we do have Coach Olson.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 2: To talk about it.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: I'm now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast with
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: Blaine coach Andy Olson. Coach, thank you for joining me today.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: How are you doing?
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 14: I'm doing great, Tyler. Thanks again for having me.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: You bet.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Last year I asked what your favorite football movie was.
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: This time I'm asking what's your favorite sports movie that
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't have to do with football?
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 14: Sports movie that doesn't have to do with football.
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 19: Well, I grew up in Linden, so Hoosiers is always
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 19: close to my heart because there's some parallels there.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 14: So probably Hoosiers.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: You know what's funny is with baseball movies, there's a
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: lot to choose from, it seems like. In basketball, it's
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: kind of that's the one that everyone just kind of
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: goes right to. I don't know if it's because it's
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: just so amazing or it's really hard to replicate good
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: basketball in a movie.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 14: They set the bar pretty high pretty early with that one.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: All right, last week's game at Bellevue Christian was canceled.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: Tell us how that affected your week. When did you
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: find out? How did you tell your players? And then
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: how did you pivot your game plan?
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 14: Yeah, so it was supposed to be a Saturday game, so.
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 19: just by the nature of that, we're always kind of
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 19: off by a day in kind of our normal game
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 19: day routine. So I found out actually Wednesday night after practice,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 19: our athletic director.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 14: Gave me a call to let me know that that
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 14: was happening.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 19: So, yeah, we kind of had a pivot there for
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 19: Thursday and our Friday plans a little bit.
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 14: But it ended up being okay. We ended up using
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 14: this as time.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 19: To slow down and kind of focus on skill development
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 19: for a couple days there. while it feels like a
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 19: little bit of a gut punch because you want to
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 19: go play football. Maybe it's a blessing. It's a chance
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 19: to get a little bit healthier and to focus on
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 19: some things that maybe we wouldn't have had the time
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 19: to do. Now we've got to fight the complacency a
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 19: little bit and make sure that we're ready to go
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 19: come next Saturday.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: You had an injury in that game against Meadowdale. You
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: had another key player that wasn't available during that game,
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: so I'm hoping things are starting to kind of come
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: together for you. I do want to talk about one
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: of your seniors, Matt Noah. He's been your left tackle
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: for a little while now, but he got into that
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: game against Meadowdale on defense because of an injury and.
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 2: Played pretty well. What have you liked about his performance
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 2: so far this season?
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 19: Yeah, Matt has always been a good football player, and
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 19: he's kind of that Swiss army knife on our defense
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 19: this year. I told him, hey, I want you to
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 19: be able to do multiple things, whether it's play linebacker, inside,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 19: outside linebacker, or defensive line. Um, he had played some
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 19: D line for us actually in week one as well,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 19: but sometimes that's a little bit less glorious. You don't
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 19: really fill up a stat sheet playing D tackle with
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 19: the way we do it. Um, but yeah, he stepped
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 19: into that role.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 14: He was excited.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 19: He, and he's in great shape too. He has, he's
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 19: gotten such good shape since his sophomore year. Um, each
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 19: year getting stronger and faster and now he's got the
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 19: foot speed underneath him where he can go play outside
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 19: a little bit too.
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 14: Um, so he did such a great job.
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 19: Um, every week we kind of have like the, the
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 19: do your job award that we give to a guy
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 19: that just steps up and gets a winning effort regardless
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 19: of the outcome. And he was ours in week two
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 19: because he just stepped into a role and was willing
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 19: to go and he performed at.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 14: A high level.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: You know, I was when, you know, when your linebacker
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: went down and I, I was thinking what's who's.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 2: Going to go in there.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: And when I saw Matt in there, I just kind
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: of smiled because I was like, Oh, that's a guy
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: that's going to do.
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 7: The right thing.
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: And, you know, a three-sport athlete and just one of
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: those guys that you can depend upon. And he was
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: making play after play, and it was so fun to see.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: After having to wait an extra week to play, you'll have.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 2: To wait an extra day as well.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: As you host Kings on Saturday, how do you settle
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: your team maybe from being a little overly hyped to
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: play in a game since it will have been so long?
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of every team's different.
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 19: And, you know, that's kind of your job as the
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 19: head coach to be that thermostat to gauge where are
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 19: we at? Do we need to be ramped up? Do
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 19: we need to be toned back down? As of right now,
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 19: we seem to be doing a pretty good job. Every
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 19: day we set kind of some morning targets and some
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 19: goals to build on because, you know, it's still also
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 19: that extra day week, right? You know, we're filming this
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 19: on a Tuesday morning, and in many ways it feels
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 19: like it's a Monday morning for our normal game week routine.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 19: So we've been doing some different things, too, and challenging
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 19: them mentally to keep them kind of occupied on the
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 19: process instead of, like, the outcome-based, like, let's go.
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 14: Play a game.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 19: So that part's been really great. I think it might
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 19: be a blessing, too, to have it be a Saturday
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 19: afternoon game after not playing for a couple of weeks,
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 19: just because Friday night kind of has a different vibe
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 19: to it, too. Or Saturday afternoon kind of feels a
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 19: little bit more like, hey, let's go businesslike and go
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 19: take care of what we need to take care of
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 19: and go perform at a high level.
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 14: So that could be a blessing as well.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: That's a good point.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about that because you're right.
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 2: Friday night.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: You know, the band's playing and it's under the lights
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: and it's a little more. And so that first play
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: on defense, you might jump off sides just because.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 2: You're so overly hyped. When a day game, it's kind
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 2: of like, yeah, this is like practice.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: Let's just go beat them. And that's a great point.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about that. You went down there on
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: Friday night to go see Kings. Tell us about the night's.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 14: Yeah, one, unbelievable campus.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 19: I had only been to Kings at night, so I
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 19: kind of missed the whole, like, wow, it looks like
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 19: a college campus down there. So that was pretty fun, too.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 19: Me and the staff went down because we have the
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 19: benefit of, like, we play Kings this week, and then
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 19: we play Nooksack next week, and with our game being canceled,
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 19: it only made sense to go watch the game.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 14: Kings does some really good stuff. I mean, obviously, they're
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 14: really well coached.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 19: Coach has been there for 30-plus years or something like that.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 19: um they have athletes they're fast they have a great
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 19: lineman who'd be an all-league guy up here and uh
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 19: number 50 i think his last name's steen so he's
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 19: a physical player he's about six foot four and has
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 19: a good frame on him and likes to hit and
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 19: has some nasty in him so it should be a
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 19: really good test for us um they like to do
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 19: some different things and spread the ball out to get
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 19: it to their playmakers which i can appreciate um so
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 19: yeah we're gonna have to be.
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 14: Ready to go perform at a high level if we
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 14: want to go be competitive.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, year in and year out, Kings just seems to
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: always have a good program. They seem to always be
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: very balanced. They seem to have big kids. They kind
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: of have a little bit of everything. And this year,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: I think you guys kind of have a little bit
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: of everything too. So I think it's going to be
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: a good matchup. Is there any way that you can
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: gauge a performance, meaning since a like opponent So, like,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: playing how you did against Kings, can you put that
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: towards your next game against Nooksack at all, or is
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: that something you're not really concerned.
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: With at all?
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 19: You know, we talk about, you know, competing against ourselves,
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 19: and we know what our best looks like, and when
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 19: we're giving our best, what that feels like and sounds like, too,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 19: from our own culture perspective.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 14: And it's about how we play. It's not about who
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 14: we play.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 19: I mean, we could go play a team from the
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 19: middle of nowhere in a sandbox, and if we're not
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 19: performing at our best level, then that's not acceptable by
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 19: our standards. We really focus on us, and each week
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 19: it's a new opponent, and it's my job to make
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 19: sure that we get ready and I have a game
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 19: plan in place and our coordinators have a game plan
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 19: in place to go help us be effective. But at
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 19: the end of the day, we know executing at a
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 19: high level and what that looks like for 48 minutes
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 19: of playing football.
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 14: Absolutely.
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: Best of luck on Saturday against Kings, and thank you
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: so much for joining me on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 7: Thanks, Tyler.
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 14: Take care.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: And that about wraps it up for this episode 448.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: the week for Gatorade game day football preview. I am
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: Tyler Anderson of walk and preps, and I hope you
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: all enjoy this slate of games. Be sure to tune
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: in on Friday night at six o'clock on the Watcom
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: preps YouTube channel, where we'll have a live scoring updates
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: of all the games going on. We'll have a scroll
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: on the bottom with live up-to-date scores constantly throughout the night,
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: and we'll keep you up to date on everything going.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 2: In Watcom County high school football. So, Until then, I
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 2: will talk to you next week.