Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 439 - Gatorade Gameday Podcast - Week 1 Football Preview

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 439 - Gatorade Gameday Podcast - Week 1 Football Preview · Whatcom Preps Podcast

0:12
Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome into the Whatcom Preps podcast. This is
0:15
Speaker 1: episode 439. It's the Gatorade game day preview for week
0:20
Speaker 1: one of the high school football season. And I am
0:23
Speaker 1: Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps. This podcast is brought to
0:28
Speaker 1: you by Walton Beverage for 95 years. Walton Beverage has
0:31
Speaker 1: been a pillar in our community and will continue to
0:33
Speaker 1: be for the years to come. I want to thank
0:36
Speaker 1: them for being a key sponsor throughout the entire calendar
0:39
Speaker 1: year with Whatcom Preps. They deliver superior quality and commitment,
0:43
Speaker 1: and I plan on doing the very same. So we
0:46
Speaker 1: have 10 games to talk about, and this week will
0:50
Speaker 1: be a little different than it was last year, just
0:52
Speaker 1: this week, as I didn't have time to do interviews
0:55
Speaker 1: with all the coaches, but they'll be back next week.
0:57
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of stuff going on, kind of finalizing,
1:00
Speaker 1: going to all the practices, getting headshots, wrapping up meetings
1:05
Speaker 1: with sponsors, and getting set up for the new show
1:09
Speaker 1: that's going to be happening on Friday night. So there
1:11
Speaker 1: was a lot of stuff going on. I figured I'll
1:13
Speaker 1: give the coaches a break for week one. They have
1:16
Speaker 1: a lot going on too. So I'll just kind of
1:19
Speaker 1: talk about the games because in week one, you don't
1:22
Speaker 1: really know what you have in your opponent. I mean, you, you,
1:25
Speaker 1: you have an idea, but you really don't know, especially
1:28
Speaker 1: if it's a new coach on a team or, You know,
1:30
Speaker 1: if it's a team you don't see very often or
1:32
Speaker 1: you've only seen games from a year ago on film.
1:36
Speaker 1: So I'll try my best to give insights of each matchup,
1:39
Speaker 1: even though in week one that can be a little
1:41
Speaker 1: tough without games already being played. But we have games
1:45
Speaker 1: throughout kind of the weekend, two of them on Thursday,
1:48
Speaker 1: five of them on Friday, three of them on Saturday.
1:51
Speaker 1: So it's kind of spread out a little bit and
1:54
Speaker 1: we're just going to kind of go through them in
1:57
Speaker 1: chronological order. And it starts off with a banger. Franklin
2:02
Speaker 1: Pierce at Linden Christian, six o'clock Thursday night. So when
2:08
Speaker 1: you look at that one, what a tremendous matchup to
2:12
Speaker 1: start the season off. I love it. It's kind of
2:14
Speaker 1: like when you look at the NFL season is going
2:17
Speaker 1: to start off with the Super Bowl rematch. I mean,
2:19
Speaker 1: start it off with a bang. This is a great
2:21
Speaker 1: way to start it off. And I'm going to go
2:25
Speaker 1: with some max preps rankings. That's all I really have
2:27
Speaker 1: to go with now. And a lot of You know,
2:29
Speaker 1: what they do on MaxPreps a lot of the times
2:32
Speaker 1: is when it's a week one ranking and haven't played
2:34
Speaker 1: anybody yet, a lot of it comes from what they
2:37
Speaker 1: did last year. So some of it might be pretty deceiving,
2:40
Speaker 1: but a lot of times it's, you know, it's not
2:43
Speaker 1: too bad. So last year, or I should say this
2:46
Speaker 1: year to start the season, Franklin Pierce is ranked fifth
2:49
Speaker 1: in the Class 2A and Lyndon Christian is ranked third
2:53
Speaker 1: in Class 1A. So both top five programs in their
2:56
Speaker 1: respective classifications. Last year, Franklin Pierce went 9-3. They got
3:01
Speaker 1: to the state quarterfinals. They averaged 46.3 points a game
3:06
Speaker 1: and gave up just 19.3 points per game. Lyndon Christian
3:10
Speaker 1: last year went 10-2, got all the way to the
3:12
Speaker 1: state semifinals, averaged 41.6 points per game, gave up 17.3
3:17
Speaker 1: points per game. These two teams have never played each
3:21
Speaker 1: other before. So when I look at this matchup, you know,
3:26
Speaker 1: the things that stand out are I saw Franklin Pierce
3:28
Speaker 1: last year against Linden and that offense is different. You're
3:34
Speaker 1: not going to see it very often. It's very, very tight.
3:37
Speaker 1: Everybody in the, you know, like all tightly bunched together,
3:41
Speaker 1: usually double tight with three backs that are all next
3:44
Speaker 1: to each other. So they call it like the T
3:46
Speaker 1: formation and it's assignment football on defense against them. So
3:54
Speaker 1: you really, you can't, you can't be really reactive to
3:58
Speaker 1: what your eyes see. As far as if you see
4:00
Speaker 1: something out of the corner of your eye and you
4:01
Speaker 1: think that player has the ball. No, no, no. You
4:03
Speaker 1: have to take care of your gap and you have
4:06
Speaker 1: to tackle everything that comes out. I mean, that's just
4:08
Speaker 1: the way that it is. It's crazy. Um, and they,
4:12
Speaker 1: they will throw it every once in a while. Franklin
4:15
Speaker 1: Pierce will not too often, but when they do, it
4:18
Speaker 1: seems like there's always a guy wide open. So, so
4:21
Speaker 1: the back half of the defense still has to be
4:23
Speaker 1: ready for that. Um, but they do such a great
4:27
Speaker 1: job with deception and all that. A lot of the times,
4:30
Speaker 1: even if you're watching the games in the stands, you
4:33
Speaker 1: cannot tell who has the ball. It's going to be
4:35
Speaker 1: a tough game for the referees because they're really going to,
4:38
Speaker 1: you know, you don't want any inadvertent whistles. And when
4:43
Speaker 1: you prep for a team like this, it's interesting because
4:46
Speaker 1: you might play people kind of out of position on
4:49
Speaker 1: defense because you it's a different kind of offense that
4:53
Speaker 1: you're playing against. You might see, you know, Lyndon Christian
4:56
Speaker 1: traditionally has three down linemen. Well, against a team like this,
4:59
Speaker 1: they might go five down linemen. You might have your
5:02
Speaker 1: outside linebackers getting a three point stance. You just have
5:06
Speaker 1: to fill all those gaps and it's going to be
5:08
Speaker 1: really interesting. Franklin Pierce defensively, they usually go with three
5:14
Speaker 1: down linemen. So if I'm Lyndon Christian against that, I,
5:19
Speaker 1: you know, I go double tight and I run it.
5:21
Speaker 1: I mean, I, you know, there, I do feel like
5:24
Speaker 1: LC can match size with Franklin Pierce, although Franklin Pierce
5:27
Speaker 1: is a much bigger school. And you have that weapon
5:31
Speaker 1: with Chris Koyman. I mean, the battering Ram, I would
5:34
Speaker 1: just do that, shorten the game and take advantage of that.
5:40
Speaker 1: Both great, great programs. I love this matchup. Like I said,
5:43
Speaker 1: they've never played each other before. So this is really,
5:46
Speaker 1: really cool. I always love when that happens. take advantage
5:49
Speaker 1: of Franklin Pierce early. That's a long bus ride coming
5:52
Speaker 1: up from Tacoma. Um, so they're going to have their
5:55
Speaker 1: bus legs going for a little bit. So if Linden
5:57
Speaker 1: Christian can, you know, what I would do if I
6:00
Speaker 1: was LC is if, if you win the toss, I
6:02
Speaker 1: would want to receive because you can get, if you
6:06
Speaker 1: can get them early on that, uh, that would be huge. And,
6:10
Speaker 1: and because again, if you're playing Frank, a team like
6:13
Speaker 1: Franklin Pierce and they're down like two scores early, uh,
6:16
Speaker 1: They're not set up to throw the ball and try
6:19
Speaker 1: to come back. So that's another big reason to probably
6:22
Speaker 1: take the ball early and try and get down there
6:24
Speaker 1: and score. So we'll have to see what happens. I'll
6:28
Speaker 1: probably be out there for at least the first quarter,
6:33
Speaker 1: maybe quarter and a half. And then I'm going to
6:35
Speaker 1: buzz out to another game and then a volleyball game
6:38
Speaker 1: after that. So I'm going to be kind of going
6:39
Speaker 1: around quite a bit on that Thursday night. Uh, Friday nights,
6:43
Speaker 1: I will not be going out to games. I will
6:44
Speaker 1: be in, in a studio doing a live show on YouTube,
6:48
Speaker 1: kind of documenting all the games going on at the
6:51
Speaker 1: same time, almost like an NFL red zone feel. Um,
6:55
Speaker 1: I'll be talking about that here in a little bit, but, um,
6:57
Speaker 1: some people know about it. Maybe, maybe you're hearing it
7:00
Speaker 1: for the, for the first time and hopefully you're excited
7:02
Speaker 1: about it. And, uh, we'll, we'll get into that in
7:05
Speaker 1: a little bit. So that, that first game, um, you know,
7:08
Speaker 1: like I said, there's 10 games. That's one of the
7:11
Speaker 1: best ones. It's definitely in the top three out of
7:14
Speaker 1: the games this weekend. So that's one that I'm really,
7:17
Speaker 1: really excited about. It's hard to give a favorite in
7:22
Speaker 1: this one. I wouldn't be shocked if either team wins.
7:26
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a really close game.
7:29
Speaker 1: We'll just have to wait and see. You know, I
7:30
Speaker 1: know a lot about Linda Christian. I don't know a
7:32
Speaker 1: lot about Franklin Pierce. I don't know if they graduated
7:34
Speaker 1: a ton of guys. I know they had a really
7:38
Speaker 1: good tight end last year. I think he was a senior,
7:40
Speaker 1: so he might be gone. I did see some of
7:42
Speaker 1: their jamboree. They were still running the same offense, so
7:46
Speaker 1: I'm assuming it's going to be a lot of that
7:48
Speaker 1: same type of stuff, running the ball 90% of the time,
7:51
Speaker 1: and good luck trying to find out who has the ball.
7:54
Speaker 1: They carry out their fakes extremely well, so you've got
7:57
Speaker 1: to be ready for that. So the linebackers of Lyndon Christian,
8:00
Speaker 1: which is– they're very, very good. They will have to
8:03
Speaker 1: go and– They have to focus in on a certain
8:06
Speaker 1: guy and go and tackle him if he has the
8:08
Speaker 1: ball or not. The only problem is if it ends
8:11
Speaker 1: up being a running play. I mean, I'm sorry, a
8:13
Speaker 1: passing play and a guy runs and he comes out
8:15
Speaker 1: of the backfield and you tackle him and he's an
8:17
Speaker 1: eligible receiver. That could be a defensive holding. So you
8:20
Speaker 1: got to kind of watch out for that. So you
8:21
Speaker 1: have to read the lineman as well. If they're in path,
8:24
Speaker 1: if they if they go and pass pro right away, then,
8:26
Speaker 1: you know, it's a pass. And hopefully the sideline guy,
8:29
Speaker 1: you know, the guys on the sideline for Linda Christian
8:31
Speaker 1: are yelling out pass because it's not going to happen
8:34
Speaker 1: very often. But like I said, when it does happen,
8:37
Speaker 1: it could be a crucial play to kind of catch
8:40
Speaker 1: LC off their toes. Linda Christian, of course, though, have
8:43
Speaker 1: great defensive backs, great athletes back there. So they have
8:46
Speaker 1: to read and react to that and maybe try to
8:50
Speaker 1: cause a turnover on a pass play, you know, thinking
8:53
Speaker 1: that Franklin Pierce doesn't throw a whole lot. So that's a,
8:56
Speaker 1: that's a good chance to do it. So, it'll be
8:58
Speaker 1: an interesting game. Like I said, I'll be out there
9:00
Speaker 1: for at least the beginning of it and super excited
9:03
Speaker 1: about that. The other game on Thursday night will be
9:06
Speaker 1: Archbishop Murphy at Bellingham. That will be at Civic Stadium,
9:11
Speaker 1: seven o'clock. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going
9:13
Speaker 1: to try to be out there for the beginning of
9:15
Speaker 1: that one as well. Coming from the earlier game, we'll
9:20
Speaker 1: just have to wait and see how much of it
9:21
Speaker 1: I'll be able to catch because then I'll have to
9:23
Speaker 1: buzz out to a volleyball game and those all start
9:26
Speaker 1: at seven as well. So, Hopefully I'll be able to
9:28
Speaker 1: find one in town. And I think Squalicum. I believe
9:32
Speaker 1: Squalicum is playing a home volleyball game on Thursday night.
9:35
Speaker 1: So I'll be able to buzz out there and catch
9:38
Speaker 1: maybe the second and third set of that. So it's
9:41
Speaker 1: going to be a busy night for me, but that's
9:43
Speaker 1: how I like it. Let's talk about this football game. Obviously,
9:46
Speaker 1: Archbishop Murphy, they are ranked number one in the state
9:50
Speaker 1: at the 2A classification. Bellingham is ranked 33rd in the
9:54
Speaker 1: 2A classification. So there's a big discrepancy there. Archbishop last
9:58
Speaker 1: season went 13-0. They were the state champions. Everybody knows
10:01
Speaker 1: about their pedigree and the athletes that they have. So
10:05
Speaker 1: there's no surprises there. Last year, they averaged 51.8 points
10:08
Speaker 1: per game and gave up 10 points per game. Last season,
10:12
Speaker 1: Bellingham went 5-5. They averaged 15.4 points per game, gave
10:15
Speaker 1: up 31 points per game. They have played each other
10:21
Speaker 1: four times in the past. Archbishop Murphy has won all four.
10:25
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what. Look at the Archbishop Murphy
10:30
Speaker 1: Wildcats schedule last year. They went 13-0. They dominated everybody.
10:36
Speaker 1: They won the state championship. Only in one game out
10:40
Speaker 1: of all 13, only in one game did an opposing
10:42
Speaker 1: team score four touchdowns on them. And it was Bellingham
10:46
Speaker 1: who did it. And this was at Archbishop. So there
10:48
Speaker 1: might be something there. I tell you, when they played
10:51
Speaker 1: two years ago, that was a tremendous second half. That's
10:55
Speaker 1: when they made the change with Ben Leonard at quarterback
10:57
Speaker 1: to put him in. He throws a couple deep touchdown passes,
11:01
Speaker 1: and they do really, really well. And so that tells
11:05
Speaker 1: me a lot. Ben Leonard has a lot of experience
11:09
Speaker 1: at the quarterback position now. But it's going to be
11:12
Speaker 1: a tough one. Bellingham is without a lot of key
11:14
Speaker 1: players in week one. due to some injuries and maybe
11:18
Speaker 1: not enough practices and different things. And so they're going
11:21
Speaker 1: to be going into it with a lot of their
11:23
Speaker 1: younger guys. And we'll just have to wait and see
11:27
Speaker 1: kind of how that goes. I mean, Archbishop Murphy is
11:29
Speaker 1: going to be as favored as a team can be favored.
11:33
Speaker 1: But hopefully Bellingham can put up a fight. Hopefully they
11:36
Speaker 1: can do some good things. Even though it's a conference game,
11:42
Speaker 1: it might be a game to try some stuff out
11:44
Speaker 1: as well. I mean, you just don't know whether if
11:46
Speaker 1: they're working on a onside kick or if they're working
11:49
Speaker 1: on this or that, it might be one of those
11:51
Speaker 1: kinds of games. And, and, but it, you know, it's tough,
11:56
Speaker 1: but you gotta, you know, you gotta play who's in
11:58
Speaker 1: front of you. And, you know, you might look at it,
12:00
Speaker 1: you know, a team like Bellingham might look at it
12:02
Speaker 1: and say, it's nice to play them week one, just
12:05
Speaker 1: kind of get it out of the way. You know,
12:08
Speaker 1: I think Linden plays them in the final week of
12:10
Speaker 1: the season. you know, do they look at that and say,
12:13
Speaker 1: we like it, that it'll be the last game. You know,
12:16
Speaker 1: every team is going to have a different outlook on
12:17
Speaker 1: the schedule and kind of how it goes. So, so
12:20
Speaker 1: that'll be an interesting one as well. Like I said,
12:23
Speaker 1: I'll be out there, I think for a big chunk
12:26
Speaker 1: of the first quarter and, you know, hopefully Bellingham can,
12:30
Speaker 1: can get, you know, put together some first downs and
12:33
Speaker 1: do some good things early. It's going to be tough
12:35
Speaker 1: against the defending state champions and, who is one of
12:39
Speaker 1: the most dominant teams I'd ever seen at the high
12:41
Speaker 1: school level last year. And so those are the only
12:46
Speaker 1: two games on Thursday night. And then Friday, there will
12:50
Speaker 1: be five games. One starts at six. The other four
12:53
Speaker 1: start at seven o'clock. And if you're not going to
12:59
Speaker 1: a game or even if you are and you want
13:01
Speaker 1: to check up on the live scores from around the county,
13:04
Speaker 1: Gatorade game day live with Wacom preps. That's how you
13:07
Speaker 1: do it. Go to YouTube, subscribe to the Wacom preps channel,
13:12
Speaker 1: and then be sure to tune in this Friday at
13:14
Speaker 1: 6 PM. So we'll do a pregame show for an hour.
13:18
Speaker 1: Also at six, there will be a game going on.
13:21
Speaker 1: So we'll be kind of, you know, catching you up
13:23
Speaker 1: on what's going on with that. That's myself and Jim bring,
13:27
Speaker 1: we'll be bringing you all the action from around the County.
13:31
Speaker 1: We'll have a, we'll have a screen for us, a
13:33
Speaker 1: monitor for us, where we're looking at every single game
13:36
Speaker 1: scores will be updated on the spot. And that's a
13:40
Speaker 1: really fun thing. I mean, if you're at a game
13:42
Speaker 1: on Friday night and let's say you're at the Mount
13:45
Speaker 1: Baker game, but you want to know the score of
13:47
Speaker 1: the Meridian game, all you got to do is just,
13:50
Speaker 1: just check out the live feed and the scoring will
13:53
Speaker 1: always be updated for all the local games. And I
13:56
Speaker 1: think that's the big key is, you know, people want
14:00
Speaker 1: to know what the scores are all the time. And
14:03
Speaker 1: you could just, you know, keep your phone on it.
14:05
Speaker 1: You could be in your pocket if you want, and
14:07
Speaker 1: you could check it every few minutes and see what
14:09
Speaker 1: the score is from different games. And then for you
14:13
Speaker 1: players that are playing on Friday night, when you're done
14:15
Speaker 1: with your game and you want to, you know, go
14:17
Speaker 1: and watch it, not necessarily watch the game, but watch
14:21
Speaker 1: how everything was covered, we will show highlights of games.
14:25
Speaker 1: We just can't show games that are on NFHS. We
14:28
Speaker 1: can't show them live. but we can show a highlight
14:31
Speaker 1: a few plays later. If a big play happened, we
14:33
Speaker 1: can clip a highlight, show it. And it's going to
14:37
Speaker 1: be fun kind of giving it that NFL red zone
14:40
Speaker 1: feel to Whatcom County. And if this becomes a big thing,
14:44
Speaker 1: then hopefully year in and year out, this could be
14:46
Speaker 1: the way it's going to, it's going to go. I mean,
14:49
Speaker 1: who knows this might be a studio show that'll happen
14:52
Speaker 1: for multiple sports. I don't know where this is, where
14:55
Speaker 1: it's going to be headed, but I'm really, really excited
14:58
Speaker 1: about it. So that's going to be a big thing
15:00
Speaker 1: on Friday night. If you're not at a game and
15:02
Speaker 1: you just are staying home, maybe you played the night
15:05
Speaker 1: before with Lyndon Christian or Bellingham and you want to
15:07
Speaker 1: see these other games, that's a way to do it.
15:12
Speaker 1: If a game is live on Huddle Fan, we'll be
15:16
Speaker 1: able to show that live and talk about it and
15:19
Speaker 1: call the action as it's happening. NFHS, we can't. But
15:22
Speaker 1: like I said, if a touchdown happens, we can clip
15:25
Speaker 1: it and show it. So that's really, really exciting. I'm
15:27
Speaker 1: still learning how to do the directing of it. And
15:31
Speaker 1: so that's something that I'm a little bit nervous about.
15:34
Speaker 1: But I'm really, really excited. It's going to be the Gatorade.
15:37
Speaker 1: It's called Gatorade Game Day Live with the Wacom Preps.
15:41
Speaker 1: I love that Walton Beverages jumped on and sponsored this
15:44
Speaker 1: show to be able to allow us to do it.
15:49
Speaker 1: And I'm really excited about the studio and all the
15:51
Speaker 1: cool things that is going to come with it. So
15:53
Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's talk
15:55
Speaker 1: about those Friday night games. The first one being a
15:59
Speaker 1: six o'clock kickoff out at Bob Tisdale Field as Port
16:02
Speaker 1: Angeles is in town to play Mount Baker. Port Angeles
16:06
Speaker 1: is ranked number 41 in the state in class 2A.
16:11
Speaker 1: Mount Baker is ranked number five in the state in
16:13
Speaker 1: class 1A. And it's been a familiar opponent the last
16:17
Speaker 1: few years. They've been able to play each other in
16:20
Speaker 1: week one the last couple of years. So it's cool
16:22
Speaker 1: that they're going to do it for another two years
16:24
Speaker 1: with this new cycle. And, you know, I like it
16:28
Speaker 1: when they, you know, they agree to that and maybe
16:31
Speaker 1: there'll be a thing for years to come. I mean,
16:32
Speaker 1: it seems like Nooksack Valley and Kings play each other
16:35
Speaker 1: every year, not necessarily week one, but they've been doing
16:38
Speaker 1: it for a long time. They can kind of, you know,
16:40
Speaker 1: but they're both looking for opponents to play. So they
16:42
Speaker 1: just play each other. It could become that way with
16:45
Speaker 1: Port Angeles and Mount Baker. So that's really cool to see.
16:49
Speaker 1: Port Angeles usually typically runs. a lot of shotgun, but
16:53
Speaker 1: like inside handoffs and misdirection type stuff. So again, you
16:57
Speaker 1: gotta be ready for everything on defense. Mount Baker returns
17:01
Speaker 1: a lot of defensive starters. And so they've, they've seen
17:05
Speaker 1: it all deep run in the playoffs last year, Port
17:08
Speaker 1: Angeles last season went two and seven. Uh, the average
17:11
Speaker 1: 14 points a game gave up 30.8 points per game.
17:15
Speaker 1: I don't know for sure, but I think they might
17:17
Speaker 1: have a new head coach. So you might see a
17:19
Speaker 1: different different type of offense, different type of philosophy. We'll
17:22
Speaker 1: have to wait and see. They might show up and
17:25
Speaker 1: run the Franklin Pierce offense. I have no idea what
17:28
Speaker 1: to expect. Mount Baker last season went 10-2. They were
17:31
Speaker 1: a state semifinalist, one of the best years in school history.
17:35
Speaker 1: They averaged 37.3 points per game and gave up 20.3
17:40
Speaker 1: points per game. I said earlier this will be the
17:42
Speaker 1: third game that they've played each other in in a row.
17:46
Speaker 1: Mount Baker has won the last two games. typically scoring
17:51
Speaker 1: in the 40s in both of those games. So we'll
17:54
Speaker 1: have to wait and see how that happens here. You know,
17:56
Speaker 1: a six o'clock game out at Deming is going to
17:59
Speaker 1: be beautiful. It's going to be awesome. The sun might
18:03
Speaker 1: be in your face a little bit early on in
18:05
Speaker 1: the game, but then once it gets down there behind
18:07
Speaker 1: the old Deming Dome and the lights come on, it's
18:11
Speaker 1: just going to have that that tremendous feel. Um, I
18:15
Speaker 1: want to bring you guys back really quickly. I want
18:17
Speaker 1: to tell a story about the first time I ever
18:19
Speaker 1: played a varsity game. I was so nervous. Um, it
18:23
Speaker 1: was at Mount Baker high school and we were hosting
18:25
Speaker 1: Lakewood and I was, yeah, I was really, really nervous.
18:30
Speaker 1: I knew that I would be kicking extra points and
18:32
Speaker 1: field goals in the game. And, and coach Preston was
18:36
Speaker 1: the head coach. Coach Lepper was an assistant coach at
18:39
Speaker 1: the time. And coach Preston, I think he knew that
18:44
Speaker 1: I was nervous. And it was a non-league game against
18:46
Speaker 1: against Lakewood. And we went out first drive and we
18:49
Speaker 1: were we were driving down the field like it was nothing.
18:52
Speaker 1: But we stalled out at about the 20. And on
18:57
Speaker 1: fourth down, he yells out field goal. So it was
19:00
Speaker 1: like a 37, 38 yard field goal attempt at something
19:03
Speaker 1: like that. And the year prior on JV, I had
19:07
Speaker 1: made a 40 yard field goal. But the varsity high
19:10
Speaker 1: school record for distance at that time was like 30,
19:14
Speaker 1: like 37, it was around 35, 37 yards. And this
19:19
Speaker 1: would have either tied it or broke it like right
19:21
Speaker 1: off the bat. And I couldn't believe we were going
19:24
Speaker 1: for it for a field goal. And I ran out
19:27
Speaker 1: there and I just, you know, I tried to kick
19:32
Speaker 1: it as hard as I could, which is the wrong
19:34
Speaker 1: thing to do. It's like when you're up at the,
19:36
Speaker 1: you know, you're like when you're teeing off and instead of,
19:39
Speaker 1: form you're just going for power and it just you
19:42
Speaker 1: hook it and that's what I did I hooked it
19:44
Speaker 1: it was wide left it was more of a line
19:47
Speaker 1: drive and I came off the field and coach Preston,
19:52
Speaker 1: you know, kind of said, are you nervous now? Are
19:55
Speaker 1: you nervous anymore? And I said, no. And he goes, good.
19:58
Speaker 1: And I knew exactly what he was doing. He, you know,
20:00
Speaker 1: he knew that if I just get that first one
20:02
Speaker 1: out of the way, he wasn't expecting me to make it,
20:04
Speaker 1: but if I get that first one out of the way,
20:06
Speaker 1: then I'll feel good the rest of the game. And,
20:08
Speaker 1: and he, you know, he nailed it on the head
20:10
Speaker 1: and I felt great the rest of the game and
20:12
Speaker 1: had a good season. And, and, um, but I remember
20:15
Speaker 1: it like it was yesterday because it's the first game
20:18
Speaker 1: of the year. It's not dark yet. You know, when,
20:20
Speaker 1: when it, you know, the lights aren't quite on, uh,
20:23
Speaker 1: because it's, you know, it's early September and it's not
20:27
Speaker 1: getting dark until a little bit later. And it was, um,
20:31
Speaker 1: he wanted to get all that out of the way,
20:33
Speaker 1: not have it be under the lights, you know, to
20:36
Speaker 1: make it more nervous for me. And I really appreciate that.
20:39
Speaker 1: And Coach Preston's always been one of my favorite coaches
20:43
Speaker 1: for any sport I've ever had growing up. And I
20:46
Speaker 1: just have so much admiration for him. And he's the one,
20:49
Speaker 1: he's the one responsible for bringing Coach Lepp into the
20:52
Speaker 1: Mount Baker School District. So it's a lot of kudos
20:57
Speaker 1: goes to him. But I just wanted to tell that
20:59
Speaker 1: story because there might be a first time varsity player
21:03
Speaker 1: that's going to be playing this weekend and you will
21:07
Speaker 1: be nervous and you will be excited and you'll be
21:11
Speaker 1: playing in front of more people than you've ever played
21:12
Speaker 1: in front of before. And you just have to, there
21:16
Speaker 1: has to be a moment where it's that welcome to
21:18
Speaker 1: Friday night moment where that gets past you. And then
21:21
Speaker 1: after that, you're good to go, you know, listen to
21:24
Speaker 1: the upperclassmen, do your job, listen to your coaches and
21:27
Speaker 1: have fun. It's, it's just, it's the best thing in
21:30
Speaker 1: the world. So have fun with that. It's going to
21:32
Speaker 1: be fantastic. Mount Baker looking like the big favorite in
21:35
Speaker 1: this one against Port Angeles. And we'll have to see.
21:39
Speaker 1: We'll have to see because last year it was Toga Tigalow,
21:42
Speaker 1: Bryce Cooper, Camden Moa, and Jet Ross. And this year
21:46
Speaker 1: it's going to be four different guys that are going
21:48
Speaker 1: to be handling the ball most of the time. So
21:50
Speaker 1: we'll find out in this game who those guys are
21:53
Speaker 1: going to be, and we'll go from there. So that
21:56
Speaker 1: is going to be the first game on Friday night.
21:58
Speaker 1: It's a 6 o'clock kickoff. At 7 o'clock, we have
22:00
Speaker 1: four different games. We're going to start off with Meridian
22:03
Speaker 1: at Liberty Bell. I really think this is going to
22:06
Speaker 1: be a pretty good game. Meridian, they're ranked 13th in
22:10
Speaker 1: the 1A division. Liberty Bell is also ranked 13th in
22:13
Speaker 1: the 2B division. So it's still B football, but it's
22:17
Speaker 1: not eight-man football. And there's some really good schools in
22:20
Speaker 1: that area over there. Talk about Okanagan, stuff like that.
22:24
Speaker 1: Really good teams that we've seen a lot of. We've
22:26
Speaker 1: seen Okanagan in the last few years. and we're going
22:28
Speaker 1: to see them again this year. This game has a possibility. Now,
22:33
Speaker 1: I'm recording this on Tuesday, so there's a possibility that
22:37
Speaker 1: it does get moved to Saturday at Meridian. That's only
22:41
Speaker 1: if the air quality is not good over there. As
22:44
Speaker 1: far as I've heard, everything's still on track, so we're
22:47
Speaker 1: just treating this as it will be a Friday night
22:50
Speaker 1: game out at Liberty Bell, which is in Winthrop. So,
22:54
Speaker 1: kind of get the idea of how far away it is.
22:57
Speaker 1: Not as far as you'd think, probably getting on Highway
23:00
Speaker 1: 2 and heading over there. Meridian last year, 7-3, just
23:05
Speaker 1: missing out on the state playoffs. They averaged 25.5 points
23:08
Speaker 1: a game, gave up 19.5 points per game. Liberty Bell
23:12
Speaker 1: last season went 8-3, got to the state quarterfinals in 2B.
23:17
Speaker 1: They averaged 43 points a game. But they gave up 32.7
23:20
Speaker 1: points per game. So they had a lot of high-scoring
23:23
Speaker 1: affairs for both teams. Meridian, you know, they had a
23:28
Speaker 1: lot of low-scoring affairs. So, you know, we'll see how
23:32
Speaker 1: this matchup works. They've never played each other before. So
23:36
Speaker 1: that's another interesting thing. But I'm really high on Meridian
23:40
Speaker 1: this year. You know, on paper, they look tremendous because
23:44
Speaker 1: you recognize so many of the names. A lot of
23:47
Speaker 1: returning starters. obviously you start the year relatively injury free.
23:52
Speaker 1: So that's good. Cause that was a big thing for
23:54
Speaker 1: them last year, a lot of injuries. And I just
23:59
Speaker 1: think that they're poised for a big season this year.
24:03
Speaker 1: Now for them to make the playoffs, they got to
24:06
Speaker 1: knock off one of the big three. That's been going
24:08
Speaker 1: to every single year, the main, you know, top three
24:10
Speaker 1: ahead of them. They have to knock off one of
24:13
Speaker 1: those schools. And I don't know who it's going to be.
24:15
Speaker 1: It could be any, I could make a case for anyone,
24:18
Speaker 1: any of them. So, Um, we'll just have to wait
24:21
Speaker 1: and see. I saw Meridian and their Jamboree. They looked fantastic.
24:24
Speaker 1: They dominated, uh, both sides of the ball and they're
24:28
Speaker 1: very senior heavy. I just think that when, when those
24:33
Speaker 1: things happen on those things line up, uh, it looks really,
24:36
Speaker 1: really good for them. I couldn't tell you anything about
24:38
Speaker 1: Liberty Bell. I watched a little bit of film. Uh,
24:41
Speaker 1: I think it was a game from last year. So
24:43
Speaker 1: I don't know how much that really tells me, but
24:45
Speaker 1: it looked like they, they're in shotgun quite a bit.
24:48
Speaker 1: But then I saw some other formations where they had
24:50
Speaker 1: a full house backfield. And so it might be a
24:53
Speaker 1: lot like Meridian where you never know what formation they're
24:56
Speaker 1: going to be in from play to play. And the
24:59
Speaker 1: Trojans have been showing us that for 50 years. But
25:03
Speaker 1: I am really excited about this game as well. I
25:07
Speaker 1: think it's going to be a really close one. Liberty
25:09
Speaker 1: Bell will provide a good opponent for Meridian. We'll just
25:13
Speaker 1: have to wait and see if it actually will be
25:15
Speaker 1: played on Friday night. Like I said, it kind of
25:17
Speaker 1: looks like it will be. So, so that'll be a
25:19
Speaker 1: good thing. Um, and we'll be able to, you know,
25:22
Speaker 1: talk about it. Hopefully if they, if they show it
25:25
Speaker 1: on huddle fan or, uh, NFHS, if you know, we
25:29
Speaker 1: might be maybe a, maybe a Meridian parent in the crowd,
25:33
Speaker 1: we'll be able to, to, to, to capture plays from
25:37
Speaker 1: the game. I know there are parents that do a
25:39
Speaker 1: lot of that, especially for Meridian. And, uh, we might
25:42
Speaker 1: be able to show updates live as they happen from that. So, uh,
25:47
Speaker 1: We'll have to wait and see. It's going to be,
25:51
Speaker 1: this week one of the show is going to be
25:53
Speaker 1: a learning experience for all of us behind the scenes
25:57
Speaker 1: and how it's going to be formatted and displayed to
26:01
Speaker 1: the audience. And we're really excited about it, but it's
26:03
Speaker 1: a lot of hard work and a lot of logistics involved.
26:06
Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait and see if there will
26:09
Speaker 1: be something that we can see from it. And hopefully
26:13
Speaker 1: that will be the case with all the technology these days.
26:16
Speaker 1: I think it I think it will be. It'll be great.
26:20
Speaker 1: Then there's going to be a handful of games in
26:22
Speaker 1: Whatcom County as well that start at 7 o'clock. One
26:25
Speaker 1: of them, Everett at Ferndale. Everett comes in ranked number
26:29
Speaker 1: 51 in the Class 3A. Ferndale is ranked 15th in
26:34
Speaker 1: Class 3A. Everett last season went 5-5. They averaged 23
26:39
Speaker 1: points per game, gave up 26.7 points per game. Ferndale
26:44
Speaker 1: last year went 5-6, but they were a state participant,
26:47
Speaker 1: averaging 21.3 points per game, giving up 29.5 points per game.
26:53
Speaker 1: They have played each other twice before. That was back
26:56
Speaker 1: in 08 and 09. Ferndale won both of those games.
27:01
Speaker 1: So it's been, what, 17 years since they've played each other,
27:07
Speaker 1: which is kind of interesting. I remember seeing Everett play
27:10
Speaker 1: Seahome a few years back. I want to say that
27:12
Speaker 1: was like 2010. eight 2019 something around there um and
27:19
Speaker 1: i remember watching that one it was like a saturday
27:21
Speaker 1: game i think jacob kaepernick threw for six touchdowns like
27:24
Speaker 1: in the first half or some some crazy thing like
27:27
Speaker 1: that um but everett traditionally um you know not the
27:33
Speaker 1: most not going to be super high up you know
27:37
Speaker 1: a really tough classification in 3a uh don't recall them
27:41
Speaker 1: being in the playoffs a ton. Ferndale has a really
27:44
Speaker 1: strong tradition. So I believe the golden Eagles will be
27:47
Speaker 1: favored here. They'll be at home. And I'm really excited
27:52
Speaker 1: about the golden Eagles this year. They bring back some
27:56
Speaker 1: big time key players, especially linemen. And when the golden
28:01
Speaker 1: Eagles return linemen, that is scary for the rest of the,
28:05
Speaker 1: of the, of the conference. And Elliot Lenson is as
28:09
Speaker 1: fleet of foot as it gets in the backfield and
28:12
Speaker 1: So those returning linemen with him getting the ball, look out.
28:16
Speaker 1: So that's one thing I'm going to have to be
28:19
Speaker 1: on the lookout for when I'm scanning all the games
28:21
Speaker 1: is you never know with that home run threat of
28:24
Speaker 1: Lenson if there's going to be a touchdown. It could
28:26
Speaker 1: be an ADR touchdown. It could be a kick return
28:28
Speaker 1: for a touchdown. It could be a pick six. So
28:31
Speaker 1: what I'll be doing is this might work out really
28:33
Speaker 1: well because whenever I see the light show happen on
28:36
Speaker 1: one of the screens, I'll know something good happens because
28:39
Speaker 1: every time Ferndale scores a touchdown at home, then they
28:42
Speaker 1: do the light show and everything. And so that might,
28:44
Speaker 1: that might really help me for the show. Cause then
28:46
Speaker 1: I'll be able to clip the highlight and go from there.
28:48
Speaker 1: But I, I really feel like Ferndale should be able
28:50
Speaker 1: to take care of business in this one. But you
28:54
Speaker 1: never know from here to here again, week one, you
28:56
Speaker 1: just never know what, what's going to be there with
29:01
Speaker 1: the opponents that we're not as familiar with. So we'll
29:05
Speaker 1: just have to wait and see, but I think Ferndale's,
29:07
Speaker 1: you know, if they play their game and control the
29:10
Speaker 1: ball and, and swarm on defense, they should be primed
29:16
Speaker 1: for a win for them to start the season at home.
29:20
Speaker 1: The next game is a conference game at the 2A level. Sultan,
29:24
Speaker 1: who is a new team to the Northwest Conference in 2A,
29:27
Speaker 1: they will be traveling to take on Linden. This game
29:30
Speaker 1: will be at Linden. And so, you know, you've got
29:34
Speaker 1: to look at it being, okay, the Lions are pretty
29:36
Speaker 1: heavily favored here. Sultan ranked 37th in Class 2A. Linden
29:41
Speaker 1: traditionally one of the top 2A teams. They are coming
29:43
Speaker 1: into the season with the max preps ranking of 4th
29:47
Speaker 1: in the state at 2A. Although Sultan last year went 6-4,
29:50
Speaker 1: I believe that was an independent schedule that they played
29:54
Speaker 1: last year. They averaged 24.2 points per game yesterday. gave
29:58
Speaker 1: up 23.4. I did see them last year against Mount
30:02
Speaker 1: Baker last, I believe the last couple of years. Um,
30:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's, it's, it's a team that we've, we've
30:08
Speaker 1: kind of been used to for us old timers. You know,
30:11
Speaker 1: they were in the North Cascades conference for a while
30:14
Speaker 1: playing the, the, the Meridians and Blaines and Nooksack valleys,
30:17
Speaker 1: Lindy Christians and Mount Bakers, um, every year, uh, in
30:21
Speaker 1: multiple sports. Now they're back in the conference, but now
30:23
Speaker 1: they're two way, uh, And we're all those teams that
30:26
Speaker 1: I just mentioned are all 1A now. So they're going
30:29
Speaker 1: to start developing battles with all the 2A schools now.
30:36
Speaker 1: And so that'll be interesting. Linden last year went 9-3.
30:41
Speaker 1: They were a state quarter finalist. They averaged 30.4 points
30:45
Speaker 1: per game, gave up 18.5 points per game. This is
30:48
Speaker 1: the seventh matchup all time between the two schools. Lyndon
30:52
Speaker 1: has won five. Sultan did win one. That came in
30:56
Speaker 1: the 1979 Class A state playoffs. So the year before
31:01
Speaker 1: they won their first state championship. So that was a
31:05
Speaker 1: long time ago. I would have been, what, seven months
31:09
Speaker 1: old when that happened? And I'm old. So that tells
31:12
Speaker 1: you that it's been a while since Sultan has beat Lyndon.
31:16
Speaker 1: They haven't played each other since the 2013 playoffs. They
31:20
Speaker 1: usually have a crossover play-in game against each other based
31:23
Speaker 1: on where they were, and Linden would take care of
31:26
Speaker 1: business in those games. And I look at this one
31:29
Speaker 1: saying Linden's heavily favored, but I've seen a lot of
31:34
Speaker 1: games when they're heavily favored, but then the score doesn't
31:37
Speaker 1: necessarily reflect what they could have done, meaning You know,
31:42
Speaker 1: I remember seeing a game where they were up like
31:44
Speaker 1: 38 to 0 in a game. And it would be
31:48
Speaker 1: at the half where they would be up 38 to 0.
31:52
Speaker 1: But then in the second half, they know how to
31:55
Speaker 1: really take it easy, play the younger players, and just
31:58
Speaker 1: kind of go from there. And they do not run
32:02
Speaker 1: up the score on teams ever. And so if that's
32:05
Speaker 1: the case... The great thing about this is it is
32:08
Speaker 1: a conference game. You want to get the win, but
32:10
Speaker 1: there's a lot of younger players that they might rely
32:13
Speaker 1: on later in the season. And if they have a
32:16
Speaker 1: decent lead at the half, I would imagine that those
32:18
Speaker 1: players will, a lot of those sophomores will take over
32:21
Speaker 1: in the second half, kind of give them some runs,
32:24
Speaker 1: see what it's like. with the big crowd, the band
32:27
Speaker 1: underneath the lights, Friday night, you know, I think that
32:31
Speaker 1: that will be really beneficial for those players. But you
32:35
Speaker 1: got to take care of business in the first half
32:37
Speaker 1: to make it work in the second half. And, you know,
32:40
Speaker 1: the way that it's all lining up, I would imagine
32:42
Speaker 1: that that's going to be the case. But again, I
32:44
Speaker 1: can't stress more that in week one, you just never
32:48
Speaker 1: know what to expect. So I did see a little
32:52
Speaker 1: bit of Sultan in, at the Jamboree at Meridian. I
32:55
Speaker 1: was more focusing on what Meridian and Blaine were doing.
32:59
Speaker 1: But I, you know, and I saw Linden in their
33:01
Speaker 1: Jamboree as well. And Linden looked like Linden. They're big,
33:06
Speaker 1: they're physical, they're well coached, they play the right way.
33:10
Speaker 1: So much talk has been about all the players that
33:14
Speaker 1: transferred out. But I've heard a lot of talk about
33:17
Speaker 1: this really, really good sophomore class. So, you know, you
33:22
Speaker 1: kind of, you kind of get what you get and
33:24
Speaker 1: you don't throw a fit and there it is. And
33:26
Speaker 1: that's what Linden's going to have this year. And I
33:29
Speaker 1: think it'll be a pretty good year. I'm excited to
33:31
Speaker 1: see Gordie Bedlington take on that number one role at quarterback,
33:35
Speaker 1: but I'm also excited to see what Austin Postma does
33:37
Speaker 1: in the backfield, whether if he gets a rep or,
33:40
Speaker 1: you know, a series here and there at quarterback, or
33:42
Speaker 1: if he's, he's playing a little bit of running back,
33:44
Speaker 1: he's a powerful runner. Um, so there's a lot of
33:47
Speaker 1: things I'm looking forward to in that game. And, um, yeah,
33:51
Speaker 1: we'll be bringing you the action on Friday night on
33:54
Speaker 1: the walk and preps YouTube channel. So be ready for that. Uh,
33:58
Speaker 1: also on Friday night, this is a big one. The
34:01
Speaker 1: only one that's walking County versus walking County. This to
34:04
Speaker 1: me is kind of the game of the night for
34:07
Speaker 1: Friday night. Uh, really excited about it. It's squalicum against
34:10
Speaker 1: see home at civic stadium, seven o'clock. I think, uh,
34:15
Speaker 1: I think walking County as a whole is really excited
34:17
Speaker 1: about this one. It is a conference game right off
34:19
Speaker 1: the bat to start the season. And it could mean
34:22
Speaker 1: a lot for Week 10, meaning the winner of this
34:28
Speaker 1: one could determine a lot of playoff ramifications later on
34:34
Speaker 1: in the season. Squalicum seems to have these early on
34:37
Speaker 1: in the year. They've played Burlington in Week 1 the
34:39
Speaker 1: last couple years. And when you look at the conference
34:43
Speaker 1: top to bottom, you look at that game and say,
34:46
Speaker 1: that's going to determine who that last team is to
34:48
Speaker 1: get in. And it did. And it could be that
34:50
Speaker 1: same way again. The max prep rankings right now for
34:54
Speaker 1: Squalicum going into the season is 13th in the state
34:57
Speaker 1: at the 2A level. Sehome is ranked 7th in the
35:00
Speaker 1: state at the 2A level. But again, I don't know
35:03
Speaker 1: how much max preps knows about all the seniors that
35:06
Speaker 1: Sehome lost. So we'll just have to wait and see.
35:08
Speaker 1: They're going off what they've done the last few years.
35:10
Speaker 1: They've played great the last few years. It's going to
35:14
Speaker 1: be hard for them to replicate that with so many
35:16
Speaker 1: new varsity starters that And Squalicum, they lost some big
35:20
Speaker 1: time varsity starters as well. But it's, you know, people,
35:24
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talk about what are they going
35:26
Speaker 1: to look like this year? Who's going to be the quarterback?
35:29
Speaker 1: The defense is always fantastic. They are very opportunistic on defense.
35:35
Speaker 1: Seems like every year they score three or four defensive
35:38
Speaker 1: touchdowns every year, which is really hard to do. But
35:41
Speaker 1: Squalicum always seems to find a way to do that.
35:45
Speaker 1: And so I think it's a great, great matchup. It's
35:47
Speaker 1: a rivalry game. Last year went six and four. They
35:50
Speaker 1: averaged 30.9 points per game. They gave up 19.7 points
35:55
Speaker 1: per game. They were just one game away from making
35:58
Speaker 1: it to the state playoffs and they knocked off Anna
36:00
Speaker 1: Cordes last year. So you know that they have that
36:02
Speaker 1: kind of talent that they could, you know, make some waves, uh,
36:06
Speaker 1: see home last season went seven and five. They were
36:09
Speaker 1: a state quarter finalist for the second year in a row.
36:12
Speaker 1: They averaged 37.8 points per game, gave up 22.9 points
36:13
Speaker 1: per game. Uh, this is the 25th matchup all time
36:20
Speaker 1: between the two schools. So that's a really cool thing.
36:23
Speaker 1: They've been playing each other every year for a while now.
36:26
Speaker 1: Squalicum has won 13 of them. Sehome has won 11,
36:30
Speaker 1: but Sehome has won the last four in a row.
36:33
Speaker 1: So the kids playing at the high school level, the
36:36
Speaker 1: kids playing for Squalicum, there's, they're looking around saying we
36:39
Speaker 1: have never beat Sehome at the varsity level. Like, Those kids,
36:43
Speaker 1: those specific kids have not. And it's a fun one, too,
36:47
Speaker 1: because Coach Nick Lucy and Coach Brian Young, they used
36:50
Speaker 1: to coach together at Squalicum. You know, Coach Young, he
36:54
Speaker 1: teaches at Squalicum, and he's the head coach for Sehome.
36:57
Speaker 1: So this is an interesting week for him, you know,
37:00
Speaker 1: hearing things and stuff like that. Coach Chalfant, the defensive
37:05
Speaker 1: coordinator at Squalicum, he teaches at Sehome. So there's so
37:11
Speaker 1: much of this, you know, they know each other so well.
37:15
Speaker 1: The kids know each other. They played youth football together.
37:17
Speaker 1: So this is a really fun game with a lot
37:21
Speaker 1: of those, you know, background things in the mix. And
37:25
Speaker 1: it's one I'm going to definitely keep an eye on.
37:27
Speaker 1: And we'll be talking about a lot on the Gatorade
37:31
Speaker 1: Game Day Live with Wacom Preps on YouTube on Friday night.
37:34
Speaker 1: So that's one we're going to be following quite a bit.
37:37
Speaker 1: Really excited about that matchup. And like I said, the
37:41
Speaker 1: winner in that game, kind of has the upper hand
37:44
Speaker 1: as far as maybe one of those final playoff spots.
37:48
Speaker 1: So it's a very, very important game for both schools.
37:54
Speaker 1: But again, week one, man, you never know what to expect.
37:58
Speaker 1: It's going to be crazy. Those are the five Friday
38:00
Speaker 1: night games. So we're going to jump into Saturday now.
38:03
Speaker 1: There are three games on Saturday. It's going to start
38:06
Speaker 1: off at 1 o'clock, Lummi Nation at Crescent. Now for
38:11
Speaker 1: the 1B schools, the max preps does not have rankings
38:16
Speaker 1: for them. So that's a thing to look at. And
38:21
Speaker 1: I think it's just because not a ton of kids.
38:24
Speaker 1: And so from year to year, you could see big
38:26
Speaker 1: changes happen. Crescent last year was extremely dominant, a great,
38:31
Speaker 1: great team. Lummi Nation had a big jump up from
38:35
Speaker 1: last year where the previous two years combined, they only
38:37
Speaker 1: had one win. Last year they went 4-5. They were
38:41
Speaker 1: a game away from getting to the state playoffs. So
38:43
Speaker 1: a big improvement for them. They averaged 24.2 points per game,
38:48
Speaker 1: gave up 29.7. So it's going to be really interesting
38:53
Speaker 1: to see how this game goes. It's a road game
38:56
Speaker 1: for Lummi Nation. Crescent, like I said, traditionally one of
38:59
Speaker 1: the more powerful teams. So this will be a big,
39:02
Speaker 1: big test right off the bat. Really excited to see
39:05
Speaker 1: what DeAndre James does. He is just a force as
39:09
Speaker 1: a defensive end and as an offensive lineman. Saw some
39:12
Speaker 1: great things out of Gregory Hawk last year as a
39:14
Speaker 1: running back, a converted lineman to play running back. You
39:18
Speaker 1: got the big center, Hooper Toby Williams, who also kicks,
39:22
Speaker 1: which is fun. But they have to replace their quarterback,
39:26
Speaker 1: who did a lot for them last year and at
39:30
Speaker 1: the eight-man level, it's a lot about if you have
39:34
Speaker 1: a dude that's just faster than everybody and you get
39:36
Speaker 1: him on the outside, that can cause a lot of problems.
39:40
Speaker 1: I mean, it's football meets a track meet sometimes because
39:44
Speaker 1: they're playing on the same size of field, but there's
39:48
Speaker 1: six less bodies out there. So because of that, there's
39:51
Speaker 1: a lot more real estate out there to work with.
39:55
Speaker 1: And if you have a player that just is dominant
39:58
Speaker 1: over other players, that could be the biggest difference. And
40:02
Speaker 1: Lemon Nation has some great athletes. So if they could
40:05
Speaker 1: take advantage of that, break off some big runs, look
40:08
Speaker 1: for Gregory Hawk to maybe score a couple touchdowns, get
40:11
Speaker 1: involved with some two-point conversions. And DeAndre James, if he
40:16
Speaker 1: can make a play in the backfield, sack a quarterback,
40:19
Speaker 1: force a fumble, that could go a long way as well,
40:22
Speaker 1: getting turnovers, and especially against a team that's that good.
40:28
Speaker 1: If they can pick up a win here, that shows
40:30
Speaker 1: me a lot for what they can do for the
40:32
Speaker 1: rest of the season. So we'll be rooting on the
40:34
Speaker 1: Blackhawks there. That'll be at Crescent at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
40:39
Speaker 1: At 2 o'clock on Saturday, Blaine travels down to take
40:43
Speaker 1: on Ilwako. And if you're saying Ilwako, Il-what? You know,
40:48
Speaker 1: it's a team we haven't seen a lot of. It's
40:50
Speaker 1: a 2B team. And think about it like this. Blaine
40:55
Speaker 1: is to the northwest corner of Washington, just like Iluwako
40:58
Speaker 1: is to the southwest corner. And over the summer, Ms.
41:02
Speaker 1: Walkenpreps and I went on a little vacation where we
41:05
Speaker 1: went to Seaside, Oregon. And we drove there and we
41:09
Speaker 1: went kind of the way where you drive, you know,
41:12
Speaker 1: you head west once you get past SeaTac. And you
41:17
Speaker 1: go to, you know, you go to, like, kind of by, like,
41:20
Speaker 1: Ocean Shores and Long Beach and stuff like that. And
41:24
Speaker 1: the last city there was before we crossed that big
41:27
Speaker 1: bridge into Astoria, Oregon, was Ilwaco. And I remember seeing
41:32
Speaker 1: that going, wow, this is where Blaine's going to play
41:34
Speaker 1: that week one game on the road. That's where they're
41:37
Speaker 1: going to have to leave at, like, 6 a.m. for
41:40
Speaker 1: a 2 p.m. game. So the tough thing for the
41:41
Speaker 1: Borderites is, again, I brought this up earlier, it's going
41:44
Speaker 1: to be the bus legs. So it's going to be
41:47
Speaker 1: tough off the first quarter. They're going to have to
41:50
Speaker 1: hold off the fishermen. They are the Owako fishermen. I
41:53
Speaker 1: love it. They're going to have to hold them off
41:57
Speaker 1: early and try to get through that. And then hopefully
42:02
Speaker 1: they can lean on some of their guys later on.
42:06
Speaker 1: I'm sure Coach Olson will have them ready as far
42:09
Speaker 1: as conditioning goes to play all four quarters. And once
42:12
Speaker 1: they get their legs under them, that's when they could
42:14
Speaker 1: take advantage. Blaine right now is ranked 28th at the
42:18
Speaker 1: one a classification. Ilwako is ranked 24th in the two
42:21
Speaker 1: B classification. So this should be a pretty close game.
42:25
Speaker 1: I do expect Blaine to pick up the win here,
42:27
Speaker 1: even though it's a long road trip and it's going
42:29
Speaker 1: to be a long day leaving the school at 6
42:32
Speaker 1: AM and getting back by who knows what time late
42:37
Speaker 1: at night. So it's going to be, it's going to
42:38
Speaker 1: be a long day, but how exciting is that? You know,
42:40
Speaker 1: those long bus rides where you're building team cohesion with
42:44
Speaker 1: each other, um, you know, it's not a big senior class,
42:47
Speaker 1: but when they're looking around saying, this is it, this
42:49
Speaker 1: is where we, you know, this is our last year
42:51
Speaker 1: of doing this. This is where you can, you, you,
42:55
Speaker 1: you build these memories that you're going to remember forever.
42:58
Speaker 1: I mean, I still have tremendous memories of bus rides, long,
43:01
Speaker 1: long bus rides and stuff like that. I mean, it is,
43:05
Speaker 1: it's really, really cool. And that's what they're going to
43:07
Speaker 1: be building. Blaine last season went two and eight. They
43:10
Speaker 1: averaged 20.8 points per game. gave up 36.9 points per game.
43:15
Speaker 1: That's a lot of points to be given up. I
43:17
Speaker 1: don't think that's going to be the case this year.
43:20
Speaker 1: Coach Olsen is really excited. He's taking over the defense,
43:23
Speaker 1: calling the defense for the first time since he's been
43:25
Speaker 1: at Blaine. So there's a little few wrinkles there, and
43:29
Speaker 1: they have some great players on defense. So I would
43:32
Speaker 1: expect that's going to be a big improvement on their end.
43:35
Speaker 1: Ilwako last year went 4-5, very even defense.
43:38
Speaker 2: Team.
43:39
Speaker 1: They averaged 22.3 points per game. They gave up 22.3
43:42
Speaker 1: points per game. So it's about as even keel as
43:46
Speaker 1: it gets. Blaine's, you know, Connor Brown back at quarterback.
43:52
Speaker 1: He looks the part. I'm really excited to see what
43:55
Speaker 1: he can do. Put up huge numbers last year as
43:57
Speaker 1: a sophomore, and then they get him again next year too,
44:00
Speaker 1: which is just crazy. He's going to be a great one.
44:05
Speaker 1: And so kind of seeing what he can do, I
44:09
Speaker 1: really hope they're able to establish a running game. You know,
44:12
Speaker 1: it kind of seemed like all season long they've tried
44:14
Speaker 1: different players at running back and just nothing really stuck.
44:18
Speaker 1: And if they can find something that sticks this year
44:21
Speaker 1: and go with it, but, I mean, the strength is
44:26
Speaker 1: in that receiving core as well. And hopefully because of that,
44:30
Speaker 1: that can help the run game and open things up
44:33
Speaker 1: for Tandy here, Asher Hagee, you know, Rashawn Piaz, different
44:38
Speaker 1: running backs, whoever is going to be getting, getting the ball.
44:42
Speaker 1: And I just, I think that that could turn into
44:45
Speaker 1: a really good thing for the, for the border rights
44:47
Speaker 1: as they can pick up some wins perhaps in the
44:49
Speaker 1: non-league schedule and gain that confidence going into the league schedule.
44:53
Speaker 1: So that'll be two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, Blaine at
44:57
Speaker 1: Ilwaco to take on the fishermen. The final game of
45:01
Speaker 1: the weekend will be a seven o'clock kickoff on saturday
45:05
Speaker 1: night nooksack valley at cascade christian and this is this
45:10
Speaker 1: is the to me this is the big game for
45:12
Speaker 1: saturday night so the three big games i look at
45:14
Speaker 1: franklin pierce at linden christian that's thursday friday's squalicum at
45:18
Speaker 1: seahome and then saturday's nooksack valley at cascade christian as
45:23
Speaker 1: far as max preps right the rankings are concerned These
45:27
Speaker 1: are both top 10 teams in 1A. They got Nooksack
45:30
Speaker 1: Valley at number 6, Cascade Christian at number 9. So
45:33
Speaker 1: a great, great matchup to start things off. Nooksack Valley
45:36
Speaker 1: last season went 6-5. They were a state tournament team.
45:41
Speaker 1: They averaged 31.4 points per game, gave up 27.3 points
45:43
Speaker 1: per game. Cascade Christian last year went 8-2, averaged 39.4
45:46
Speaker 1: points per game, gave up just 17.2 points per game.
45:49
Speaker 2: So You look at that and you go, boy, Cascade Christian.
46:00
Speaker 1: You know, they're probably going to be favored here. They're
46:03
Speaker 1: playing at home. But, you know, you just never know. Again,
46:08
Speaker 1: with the bus legs and stuff like that, it's not
46:10
Speaker 1: as far of a trip. I want to say Cascade
46:12
Speaker 1: Christian is in Puyallup, something like that. I've never been
46:15
Speaker 1: to a game down there, so I don't really have
46:18
Speaker 1: it in my head. But it's the 10th matchup in history.
46:21
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. Nooksack Valley has only won two
46:24
Speaker 1: of them, though. They won the first time they played
46:26
Speaker 1: each other. That was in 2001. And the last matchup
46:30
Speaker 1: they had, which was in 2023 in the playoffs, the
46:34
Speaker 1: other seven middle games, Cascade Christian won all those ones.
46:38
Speaker 1: So Cascade Christian, always traditionally a very, very good team
46:43
Speaker 1: that spreads the ball out, scores a lot of points.
46:46
Speaker 1: And there's been multiple years where they were in the
46:49
Speaker 1: regular season undefeated. and then get to the state playoffs
46:52
Speaker 1: and things don't go as well. So I'm not quite
46:55
Speaker 1: sure about the teams around them, uh, in, in, in
46:58
Speaker 1: their league. So I'm glad they're scheduling a game like this. They,
47:01
Speaker 1: they probably love it being able to play a program
47:04
Speaker 1: like Nooksack Valley to show, Hey, maybe our league isn't
47:07
Speaker 1: the best, but we scheduled tough non-league games. And it's
47:10
Speaker 1: a great one for the pioneers as well, who those
47:13
Speaker 1: are one of those teams that just we'll, we'll strap
47:16
Speaker 1: it up against anybody. I mean, playing Tumwater the last
47:18
Speaker 1: couple of years. I mean, my goodness, that's, uh, That's
47:21
Speaker 1: a tall task. They seem to play Kings every year,
47:24
Speaker 1: which is always a prominent program. And obviously the league
47:28
Speaker 1: is well put together as well. So this is a
47:30
Speaker 1: great game for both teams. Again, Nooksack Valley is that
47:35
Speaker 1: team I keep talking about where I have the most
47:38
Speaker 1: question marks, meaning I just, I do not know what
47:41
Speaker 1: to expect from them. You know, I... I wouldn't be
47:47
Speaker 1: surprised either way. It's just one of those things. They
47:50
Speaker 1: brought in some really, really top-end assistant coaches this year,
47:54
Speaker 1: which I think is going to be great. They had
47:57
Speaker 1: some crazy injuries last year. Some younger players came in
48:00
Speaker 1: and showed what they could do. So now they're going
48:03
Speaker 1: to have more experience for this year. But this is
48:09
Speaker 1: the first time they're not going to have a quarterback
48:11
Speaker 1: behind center that is not last name Brown. uh, since
48:16
Speaker 1: before COVID. I mean, they've always had, you know, whether
48:19
Speaker 1: it was Joey Brown or Evan Brown, uh, quarterbacks that
48:23
Speaker 1: you kind of knew what to expect. I mean, you
48:25
Speaker 1: get the ball and great arm and athletic and, and
48:29
Speaker 1: this year it's going to be a little different. Will
48:30
Speaker 1: it be Ty Barron's, um, the six, four junior, or
48:34
Speaker 1: will it be Lucas Woodridge who the really athletic sophomore
48:38
Speaker 1: that we saw in the baseball field as a freshman. Um, again,
48:42
Speaker 1: like I said, they play things pretty close to the
48:44
Speaker 1: vest and, So we'll just have to wait and see.
48:46
Speaker 1: And then the next week they get to unveil the
48:48
Speaker 1: new turf at their stadium, which is just crazy to think.
48:53
Speaker 1: I have a lot of great memories at that stadium.
48:55
Speaker 1: The first time I ever covered a game in my
48:58
Speaker 1: life was for the Bellingham Herald in October of 99.
49:01
Speaker 1: It was at that stadium. I've played on that field.
49:06
Speaker 1: And to go there this year at some point and
49:09
Speaker 1: see that it's going to be turf, it's just going
49:11
Speaker 1: to be an eye-opener for a lot of us. And
49:13
Speaker 1: especially for me and yeah especially if you're a former
49:18
Speaker 1: pioneer that hasn't been to the stadium in 20 years
49:21
Speaker 1: it'll be really eye-opening for you if you go there
49:23
Speaker 1: and check it out because it's going to be a
49:25
Speaker 1: big big change but it's going to be that's going
49:28
Speaker 1: to be a really great matchup and I think like
49:30
Speaker 1: I said Nooksack Valley is the team that I know
49:33
Speaker 1: the least about I feel like it's the hardest team
49:36
Speaker 1: for me to predict for this year but I think
49:38
Speaker 1: after this first game it's going to open up. It's
49:41
Speaker 1: going to answer a lot of questions that I have.
49:44
Speaker 1: So I'm really, really curious about that one. Uh, Saturday
49:47
Speaker 1: is going to be an interesting day for me because
49:48
Speaker 1: I'm going to be writing a lot about the games
49:50
Speaker 1: that happened on Friday night, but on a screen off
49:53
Speaker 1: to the side, I'm going to be having these games
49:55
Speaker 1: on and being able to watch and see kind of
49:57
Speaker 1: what happens. So, uh, really excited about it. So great
50:01
Speaker 1: to be back on this Gatorade game day preview podcast
50:04
Speaker 1: to talk about, uh, you know, all these teams again.
50:08
Speaker 1: And it's going to be a little different next week
50:10
Speaker 1: and going forward. I will have the coaches on to
50:13
Speaker 1: discuss the games. You don't want to just hear me
50:16
Speaker 1: blab on for an hour. You want to hear it
50:18
Speaker 1: from the actual coaches. And so we'll be able to
50:20
Speaker 1: do that starting next week. So I'm really excited for that.
50:23
Speaker 1: It seemed like it was a really positive thing last year.
50:26
Speaker 1: Coaches were all cool about it. So we'll be able
50:29
Speaker 1: to continue that tradition next week. But until then, You've
50:33
Speaker 1: been listening to episode 439, the Gatorade game day preview
50:37
Speaker 1: for week one of the football season. I am Tyler
50:40
Speaker 1: Anderson of Walkin' Preps, and I'll talk to you in
50:42
Speaker 1: a couple of days when we recap all of the
50:45
Speaker 1: games that happened Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Talk to you then.