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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 352 - 2025 Blaine Borderites Football Preview · Whatcom Preps Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: This is Blaine junior Peyton Bauma and you're listening to
0:03
Speaker 1: the Blaine football preview on the Walkome Preps podcast by
0:05
Speaker 1: Tyler and No Border Eights Readings and welcome back to
0:14
Speaker 1: the Walkham Preps podcast. This is episode three hundred and
0:18
Speaker 1: fifty two, the twenty twenty five Blaine Borderite football Preview.
0:23
Speaker 1: I am Tyler Anderson of Walkham Preps and I am
0:26
Speaker 1: so ready to be talking football again. It's been a while.
0:29
Speaker 1: It's been almost three months, pretty close to three months
0:34
Speaker 1: since there has been a podcast that has come out.
0:37
Speaker 1: A lot has gone on since then. We'll get into
0:40
Speaker 1: that shortly. I want to give a thank you to
0:42
Speaker 1: Blaine junior Peyton Bauma for the intro. Of course, we
0:47
Speaker 1: will be talking about Blaine football here. Peyton Bama was
0:50
Speaker 1: a big part of the team last year, one of
0:52
Speaker 1: the few returning starters that will see a lot of
0:55
Speaker 1: new faces in orange and black on Friday nights. So
1:00
Speaker 1: we'll get into that in just a second. I just
1:04
Speaker 1: want to give a big thank you to Ryland Spencer.
1:08
Speaker 1: Ryland is extremely busy with Balthel football. He's teaching at Bathel,
1:15
Speaker 1: he's doing PA announcing at Bathel, he's doing the social
1:18
Speaker 1: media at Bathel. He's coaching so much stuff going on,
1:22
Speaker 1: so he is not able to join me on the podcast.
1:27
Speaker 1: He was such an amazing host, knew how to set
1:30
Speaker 1: me up, knew my strengths, knew my weaknesses, made me laugh,
1:34
Speaker 1: and he's been an incredible broadcast partner over the last
1:37
Speaker 1: six years. And I can't thank him enough because he
1:41
Speaker 1: really got me out of my shell and made me
1:45
Speaker 1: comfortable doing these and to the point to where now
1:49
Speaker 1: I feel okay doing it by myself if I have to. So,
1:54
Speaker 1: you know, he got me to get into social media.
1:57
Speaker 1: He said, we have to do podcasts. You have to
2:00
Speaker 1: do you know, you have to have an Instagram account,
2:03
Speaker 1: you have to do this. And I fought him every way,
2:06
Speaker 1: but he was one hundred percent correct with everything because
2:10
Speaker 1: he saw the future and I didn't, and he opened
2:13
Speaker 1: my eyes and he just he you know, he's just
2:19
Speaker 1: he gets it. And he saw what I had and
2:23
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of you know, ring it out and
2:28
Speaker 1: so it could be displayed across Walking County and he
2:32
Speaker 1: did an amazing job with that. So I cannot thank
2:35
Speaker 1: him enough. I'm sure I'm gonna call him every week
2:39
Speaker 1: to ask him questions about certain things and bug the
2:42
Speaker 1: heck out of him. But uh yeah, it's gonna be
2:46
Speaker 1: it's gonna be different, but we're gonna go forward and
2:50
Speaker 1: keep doing these podcasts. And a big sponsor of the
2:54
Speaker 1: podcast back again for another year is Kurt Mayberry Farm. Uh.
2:58
Speaker 1: Kurt Mayberry Farm is a family farm committed to developing
3:01
Speaker 1: innovative agronomic and business practices to grow, process, and market
3:06
Speaker 1: high quality berries. Kirk Mayberry Farm is the Northwest berry
3:09
Speaker 1: supplier of choice. You can check them out at kirkmaberry
3:13
Speaker 1: farm dot com. That's Kirt with A C M A
3:16
Speaker 1: B E r y farm dot com. And I tell
3:20
Speaker 1: you every time I go out there and and and
3:22
Speaker 1: and talk to Matt and everybody, boy, they're just so
3:26
Speaker 1: awesome and and they they they get it as well.
3:29
Speaker 1: And I tell you what I get those strawberries and
3:32
Speaker 1: raspberries from them, and uh, you know, Laura and I
3:36
Speaker 1: are making strawberry shortcake every other night after dinner, and
3:40
Speaker 1: and uh it's amazing. They they really treat me well
3:43
Speaker 1: and they really want to see walkin preps thrive and
3:46
Speaker 1: and has has helped me immensely. So thank you to
3:50
Speaker 1: everybody out at kirk Mayberry Farm, and yeah, so let's
3:55
Speaker 1: let's jump into it. Blame football. I mean, I'm just
3:57
Speaker 1: so excited to be talking about football again. And I
4:00
Speaker 1: up on a post a little while ago about how
4:05
Speaker 1: you know, all this kind of started with me just
4:07
Speaker 1: loving high school football, but it's trickled into all the
4:12
Speaker 1: sports now and it's so much fun. All the schools,
4:16
Speaker 1: all the sports, all the kids, coaches. It's really really
4:21
Speaker 1: exciting for me to be able to do this full
4:25
Speaker 1: time and give everything I have. So and it's yeah,
4:31
Speaker 1: I mean, I know I'm gonna guess about it all
4:33
Speaker 1: the time, but I just want everybody to know that
4:36
Speaker 1: it is really really important to me. How much, you know,
4:44
Speaker 1: positive feelings I get from the rest of the community,
4:46
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. I don't think something like this could be
4:49
Speaker 1: done in other counties, to be honest. I mean maybe
4:52
Speaker 1: in Texas where high school football is just king and
4:56
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but as far as just high school
4:58
Speaker 1: sports in general, really blessed in this corner of the country. So,
5:04
Speaker 1: so let's talk about Blaine football. Last year was a
5:09
Speaker 1: heck of the year. Well, let's talk about the coach first,
5:11
Speaker 1: Andy Olsen. He's in his third year now at Blaine.
5:14
Speaker 1: He's got a ten and ten record overall. That first
5:17
Speaker 1: year he went three and seven, but he actually won
5:19
Speaker 1: coach of the Year in the conference, and then last
5:23
Speaker 1: year went seven and three, so a big, big upswing.
5:28
Speaker 1: He's really changing the attitude, the culture. The weight room
5:32
Speaker 1: numbers are up and that's what's awesome to see. Of course,
5:36
Speaker 1: Andy Olsen, former player at Lindon, won a state championship
5:39
Speaker 1: his junior year, won a state championship as an assistant
5:43
Speaker 1: coach at Lyndon, was a head coach at Burlington, so
5:46
Speaker 1: he's he's kind of seen everything and he's still man.
5:50
Speaker 1: He's still young, so I you know, if he's in
5:52
Speaker 1: it for the long haul, that's only going to be
5:54
Speaker 1: a great thing for the border Right community. And you know,
5:58
Speaker 1: if you don't know him, boy, go up and talk
6:02
Speaker 1: to him because it's just it's just a positive feeling
6:06
Speaker 1: you get every single time. I love seeing him at
6:08
Speaker 1: the basketball games, being able to talk with him, always
6:12
Speaker 1: with a smile on his face and so positive. And
6:14
Speaker 1: he's really got these kids believing. Last year was an
6:18
Speaker 1: amazing start. I mean, you know, they started out four
6:23
Speaker 1: to oh for the first time since nineteen seventy nine,
6:25
Speaker 1: and that was the year they came off of a
6:28
Speaker 1: state championship team. So it's really really impressive what they did. Now,
6:33
Speaker 1: there were four non league opponents, but it wasn't like
6:38
Speaker 1: they were beating these non league opponents by single digits.
6:43
Speaker 1: You know, they beat rent In forty two to twenty,
6:45
Speaker 1: beat Cedar Park Christian forty seven to twelve. They shut
6:48
Speaker 1: out Shealan on the road twenty seven zero, and they
6:51
Speaker 1: took care of Grant Falls forty seven to twenty two.
6:53
Speaker 1: I mean, they were putting up a lot of points.
6:55
Speaker 1: And the league schedule was a little different. I know
6:58
Speaker 1: that they know that going in, but you know, they
7:02
Speaker 1: hosted Lynnon Christian and Lynden Christian won twenty eight to seven.
7:05
Speaker 1: But there were some things early on, early on in
7:08
Speaker 1: that game that were just going the links a way
7:10
Speaker 1: and not going the border rights way, and it really
7:12
Speaker 1: shifted the momentum. That game seemed a lot closer than
7:15
Speaker 1: in twenty eight to seven. I believe the Border Rights
7:18
Speaker 1: out gained them in yards and still lost by three touchdowns.
7:21
Speaker 1: So Elsie took advantage of the of the mistakes, and
7:25
Speaker 1: you know, did the right things, scoring when they needed to, took
7:27
Speaker 1: advantage of short fields and did that. They kind of
7:30
Speaker 1: got whacked around a little bit by Knicksack Valley, came
7:34
Speaker 1: came back and beat Freddy Harbor thirty six thirteen, and
7:36
Speaker 1: another non league game, got beat pretty bad by Mount
7:40
Speaker 1: Baker on the road, and then closed the season out
7:45
Speaker 1: in the league schedule anyways, with a win over Meridian
7:48
Speaker 1: and a really really great game. I mean it was
7:51
Speaker 1: it was a little bit tail the two halves where
7:54
Speaker 1: Blaine came back and held on to win twenty seven
7:57
Speaker 1: to twenty two, and then which forced that three way
8:01
Speaker 1: tie for third place. That was played at Blaine High School,
8:05
Speaker 1: and it was blaming against Mount Baker in that first
8:08
Speaker 1: little Kansas type breaker. Mount Baker gets the best of
8:11
Speaker 1: them on that and then that eliminated Blaine at that
8:15
Speaker 1: point from postseason. They still did play a few days
8:19
Speaker 1: later a week ten game against Bellingham where they won
8:22
Speaker 1: thirty three to twenty seven in double overtime, and another
8:25
Speaker 1: thrilling game. You know, it'd gets seven wins. That was
8:29
Speaker 1: that was that was pretty cool. That was a big
8:33
Speaker 1: deal for the for the border rights. They you know,
8:36
Speaker 1: it's been a while since they had seven wins in
8:39
Speaker 1: a season. It'd been since twenty twelve, so it had
8:41
Speaker 1: been twelve years and that was I mean, that was
8:46
Speaker 1: Mariogabato's senior year, and that was a team that was
8:50
Speaker 1: pretty good. But we're just didn't have enough allocations for
8:54
Speaker 1: the state playoffs and had a Week ten crossover I
8:57
Speaker 1: believe against Cedar Park. Christian won that one, and they
9:00
Speaker 1: ended that that year seven and three. They haven't had
9:03
Speaker 1: eight wins in a season since nineteen ninety eight. They
9:08
Speaker 1: haven't won account or like the league championships since nineteen
9:12
Speaker 1: ninety five. I played against that team. That was a great,
9:15
Speaker 1: great battle and we went into overtime and they got
9:19
Speaker 1: us thirteen to ten. So it's you know, Blaine is
9:24
Speaker 1: a team that is heading in the right direction. The
9:28
Speaker 1: one thing is, if you looked at last year's team,
9:30
Speaker 1: most of the guys that you heard about, they've all
9:33
Speaker 1: graduated now. I mean, Jayden Piez, Blake Kuresky, Auto Shelton Zu,
9:38
Speaker 1: Jayden Winslow, Colby Ship, Thomas Cox, Logan Villa Real, Colin Davis, Molloy, Messenger,
9:44
Speaker 1: these guys all graduated. So that opens up a lot
9:47
Speaker 1: of spots. But You're gonna have a lot of new
9:51
Speaker 1: faces and a lot of guys that were on JV
9:54
Speaker 1: last year that are gonna be thrust into a spot
9:56
Speaker 1: where they're gonna, you know, need to take care of business.
10:00
Speaker 1: And it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be really, really tough.
10:04
Speaker 1: If you look at the schedule, it is, you know,
10:09
Speaker 1: pretty much the same as last year, just flipped home
10:11
Speaker 1: and away. The one difference is instead of Cedar Park
10:14
Speaker 1: Christian in week two, they will be on the road
10:17
Speaker 1: against PL Willip of Valley, which is a really strong
10:22
Speaker 1: two B school, and that'll be on a Saturday afternoon
10:25
Speaker 1: at one pm. Their first two games are on the
10:27
Speaker 1: road on Saturday afternoons at one pm. That first one
10:33
Speaker 1: will be at Renton, and you know, you never know,
10:36
Speaker 1: Renton had some really good athletes. I remember that number
10:39
Speaker 1: eighty eight. That receiver was really really good and I
10:42
Speaker 1: think he was younger, so he'll probably be back. This
10:44
Speaker 1: will be a little closer game than it was last year,
10:47
Speaker 1: I would imagine. And then PL in the week two
10:50
Speaker 1: they will be their first home game will be on
10:53
Speaker 1: in week three against Shellanne. That'll be a six pm game,
10:56
Speaker 1: So don't be alarmed with the early star. It's just
11:00
Speaker 1: social lank can get back in time. So a six
11:03
Speaker 1: pm game for their home opener in week three. Then
11:06
Speaker 1: they will host Granted Falls in week four, and then
11:09
Speaker 1: it's onto league schedule where they would go to Linden
11:12
Speaker 1: Christian host Nuiksec Valley. Then they'll go back off the
11:15
Speaker 1: league schedule, go to Friday Harbor. It's a six thirty
11:19
Speaker 1: game so they can get the ferry right back, and
11:21
Speaker 1: then they will host Mount Baker and finish off the
11:24
Speaker 1: year at Meridian. So you look at the top returners
11:29
Speaker 1: from last year, you really got to start out with
11:33
Speaker 1: Pi Kerwin. I mean, he's a wide receiver, defensive back.
11:36
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a free safety, a three yor starter
11:39
Speaker 1: as a receiver. A guy that's been relied upon for
11:41
Speaker 1: a lot of things. Great in the return game, kick returns,
11:44
Speaker 1: punt returns, but a kid that plays so much, it'd
11:48
Speaker 1: be nice to maybe get him off the field for
11:50
Speaker 1: those types of plays, and you know, you sacrifice some
11:54
Speaker 1: playmaking ability. But really in high school football, kickoffs and punts,
11:59
Speaker 1: it's it's really changed where a lot of guys don't
12:02
Speaker 1: kick deep and so a lot of times you don't
12:06
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to make a return. And in the
12:09
Speaker 1: punt game, it's really about catching it. You know, catch
12:13
Speaker 1: the punt. You know, blame plays on turf. If that
12:17
Speaker 1: ball gets behind the punt returner, even bounces in front
12:20
Speaker 1: of the punt returner, it can bound, it can go
12:22
Speaker 1: another twenty twenty five yards because it wasn't caught. So
12:26
Speaker 1: a lot of it is about, you know, the ability
12:29
Speaker 1: to just go go get that ball. Kay Kerwin's a
12:31
Speaker 1: baseball player. You know he can. He's probably used to,
12:34
Speaker 1: you know, playing some center field and just staying back
12:36
Speaker 1: there and making sure he can catch that punt. So
12:39
Speaker 1: he's going to be a very very impactful player. I
12:42
Speaker 1: think they're really going to lean on him. He leads
12:44
Speaker 1: by example, quiet leader, great kid, and so I'm excited
12:48
Speaker 1: for his breakout senior season. Axel Shelton as a kid,
12:54
Speaker 1: is a junior now who really came on last year
12:57
Speaker 1: and found his way in that starting lineup on defense
13:00
Speaker 1: as a sophomore. And maybe I mean I wouldn't say
13:05
Speaker 1: played out of position, but he was playing defensive line
13:09
Speaker 1: because that's what was needed. And coach Olsen likes guys
13:12
Speaker 1: that can get in there and muck it up and
13:14
Speaker 1: make things happen. The thing was, he was making so
13:16
Speaker 1: many tackles and probably realized that, you know, Jayde and
13:20
Speaker 1: Piez and those guys could take a little breather on defense,
13:24
Speaker 1: and so they moved him back to linebacker and he
13:28
Speaker 1: ended up being I think he led the team in
13:30
Speaker 1: tackles as a sophomore. So that's a huge piece too
13:34
Speaker 1: that returns as a linebacker. And you know, we'll we'll
13:40
Speaker 1: talk a little about a little bit later about how
13:42
Speaker 1: the offense is going to be and where he will
13:44
Speaker 1: fit in there. Peyton Bauma, we talked about him in
13:46
Speaker 1: the intro, a returnert wide receiver. In defensive back, Malachai
13:51
Speaker 1: Morillo a three year starter at guard. He's played left
13:54
Speaker 1: guard the last two years. He will be at right
13:56
Speaker 1: guard this year and probably play some nose tackle. We're
13:59
Speaker 1: talking six foot four, three d and thirty pounds. Could
14:03
Speaker 1: be the biggest kid in the one A Northwest Conference
14:06
Speaker 1: for football, and you know, just a mountain of a man.
14:10
Speaker 1: And I'm really excited for his uh senior year and
14:13
Speaker 1: then uh, you know, my and my breakout player is
14:18
Speaker 1: will be Connor Brown, the sophomore. He's gonna start at quarterback.
14:21
Speaker 1: He's going to probably start at cornerback as well. You
14:24
Speaker 1: might see him in the return game. This is a
14:26
Speaker 1: three sport athlete that I'm really really high on. He's
14:29
Speaker 1: a he's a born leader. He is. But you know,
14:34
Speaker 1: you start a soft you know you're when you're a
14:36
Speaker 1: sophomore quarterback and your first time as the starter, there
14:39
Speaker 1: will be some tough points in the beginning. But he's
14:42
Speaker 1: a hard worker. He's a perfectionist. He wants to do
14:45
Speaker 1: things right. And those are all a great, great traits
14:48
Speaker 1: if you're going to have a sophomore starting quarterback that
14:51
Speaker 1: the coach believes in, and I know Coach Olson definitely
14:53
Speaker 1: believes in him. So so let's talk about the positions
14:58
Speaker 1: a little bit. Uh, you know, when you look at
15:01
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna start at the quarterback position. Connor Brown.
15:03
Speaker 1: Last year he played, he did play a little bit
15:05
Speaker 1: of quarterback. He completed nine to fifteen passes for one
15:09
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen yards. And having that varst experience is huge.
15:15
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's a guy that's gonna you know,
15:18
Speaker 1: throw a lot more than fifteen times this year and
15:22
Speaker 1: kind of based on their personnel, you know, I know
15:25
Speaker 1: coach Olsen wants to run the ball, but it's the
15:29
Speaker 1: skill guys on the outside that kind of shows that
15:32
Speaker 1: depth of the team that they're returning. So you might
15:35
Speaker 1: see Connor Brown open it up a little bit and
15:37
Speaker 1: throw a little bit more, and he could definitely do that.
15:41
Speaker 1: Now there might be some packages where Hi Kerwin could
15:45
Speaker 1: come in and play some quarterback. You know, they have
15:49
Speaker 1: no problem doing that as far as and it's not
15:51
Speaker 1: really necessarily even a wildcat, it's it's a it's a
15:55
Speaker 1: threat to throw the ball. If you remember Riley Eyed
15:58
Speaker 1: a few years ago, he was just that guy that
16:01
Speaker 1: was the best athlete on the team and I think
16:04
Speaker 1: there was a game where he scored a defensive touchdown,
16:06
Speaker 1: caught a touchdown, ran in a touchdown, and threw a
16:08
Speaker 1: touchdown all in the same game. And that's a position
16:13
Speaker 1: where Kay Kerwin could do something like that. He's that
16:15
Speaker 1: kind of athlete. So you know, look for him maybe
16:19
Speaker 1: to take a snap every once in a while, but
16:21
Speaker 1: the defense is going to have to respect that he
16:23
Speaker 1: can throw the ball as well. So you know it's
16:26
Speaker 1: going to be a lot of reading the defense deciding
16:28
Speaker 1: after that what's going to happen. So Kai ker Whin's
16:31
Speaker 1: a kid that they're going to use in a lot
16:33
Speaker 1: of different ways, and he could be behind center at
16:37
Speaker 1: times the running back position. I mean last year, Holy cow,
16:41
Speaker 1: you had dudes, right, I mean, Jade and Piez went
16:44
Speaker 1: off for over eighteen hundred yards. Colby Ship was a
16:48
Speaker 1: three year guy at the running back position. Put him
16:51
Speaker 1: over a thousand yards in his career. And so those
16:54
Speaker 1: are big, big shoes to fill and you're looking at
16:57
Speaker 1: a bunch of underclassmen. You know, I look back there,
17:01
Speaker 1: sayhu Kenaji is a sophomore that's not necessarily a tailback
17:07
Speaker 1: by trade, more of a tight end kind of kid,
17:11
Speaker 1: but he's a rugby player. He's really athletic, was great
17:15
Speaker 1: in track and field last year. This year is a sophomore,
17:19
Speaker 1: and he could be that guy that gets the carries.
17:22
Speaker 1: You know, he got a start last year as a
17:24
Speaker 1: freshman at defensive end against Freddy Harbor when Blake Kresky
17:27
Speaker 1: was out, and he's I think he was even in
17:31
Speaker 1: on the pat he was on the edge there and
17:33
Speaker 1: you know maybe in kick return or kickoff, and so
17:35
Speaker 1: he had a lot of varsity experienced last year and
17:37
Speaker 1: he's going to be a dynamic athlete that could be
17:41
Speaker 1: leaned upon to be a main ball career in this offense.
17:45
Speaker 1: So I'm really curious to see what he does. I've
17:48
Speaker 1: never seen him play running back. I've seen him play
17:51
Speaker 1: you know, tight end and different things like that. I
17:53
Speaker 1: even saw him play a little bit on the offensive
17:55
Speaker 1: line last year on as a JV player. So he's
17:59
Speaker 1: a guy that could do a litle little bit of everything.
18:01
Speaker 1: He could be that main guy Jade Johannison. He's a
18:06
Speaker 1: kid that's you know, kind of that shorter, shiftier side
18:09
Speaker 1: to side kind of speed. He could get some carries.
18:12
Speaker 1: He did carry the ball four times last year, so
18:14
Speaker 1: a little bit of firsty experience. Tandy here, he carried
18:17
Speaker 1: the ball three times last year on varsity. And so
18:21
Speaker 1: I mean we're talking these are these guys don't have
18:23
Speaker 1: a lot of varsity experience, and these are and you know,
18:26
Speaker 1: it could be a running back by committee. It could
18:28
Speaker 1: be a thing where you have all these non conference
18:31
Speaker 1: games early and that's where you can figure out who
18:33
Speaker 1: your guy is going to be going forward. And then
18:35
Speaker 1: there's one kid that I'm really interested to see, and
18:38
Speaker 1: that's a freshman named Asher Hagey. You're talking a big
18:42
Speaker 1: time athlete. I was looking at numbers from track and
18:45
Speaker 1: field as an eighth grader. He blew the whole competition
18:48
Speaker 1: away in speed, strength. You know, one hundred meters dash,
18:52
Speaker 1: but a shot put guy, all those things. I don't
18:55
Speaker 1: know how much football he's played, but the straight line
18:58
Speaker 1: speed is there. I went out to practice that first
19:02
Speaker 1: day of pads on that Wednesday out of Blaine High
19:05
Speaker 1: School and and you know, they had these team drills
19:08
Speaker 1: with all these things going on. You guys are all
19:10
Speaker 1: doing that. You know, you guys are the linemen over here,
19:13
Speaker 1: the receivers and quarterbacks are over here. And he was
19:16
Speaker 1: just taking carries over and over and over again and
19:19
Speaker 1: looking at holes and trying to to figure out how
19:22
Speaker 1: to read through blocks and stuff like that. And it
19:24
Speaker 1: was just him over and over again taking carries, and
19:26
Speaker 1: it really made me feel like they're gonna They're going
19:29
Speaker 1: to really show him how to play football. He's got
19:32
Speaker 1: the physical traits and he could be a guy that
19:35
Speaker 1: could make a big, big difference. When you look at
19:38
Speaker 1: the stats from last year, they return a total of
19:41
Speaker 1: negative six rushing yards on varsity, and that's you know,
19:45
Speaker 1: that's kind of the how it is around most of
19:47
Speaker 1: the county. A lot of these running backs from last
19:49
Speaker 1: year were seniors and have graduated, so Blaine is no exception.
19:54
Speaker 1: I mean, ky Kerwin had a couple carries for twenty
19:56
Speaker 1: four yards he led, you know, out of all the returners,
20:01
Speaker 1: and those were probably fly sweeps, and but he could
20:05
Speaker 1: get some carries. He could even play some running back.
20:07
Speaker 1: You never know. He's a kid that they can rely
20:09
Speaker 1: on and they he has the varsity experience. So we'll see.
20:12
Speaker 1: But those four guys, say Hu Kanaji, Jaye Johannson, Tandy
20:15
Speaker 1: Here and Asher Hagey are all gonna probably get carries
20:19
Speaker 1: at some point early on, and then they will probably
20:22
Speaker 1: make a determination on who their guy is. They do
20:24
Speaker 1: a lot of single back so and they want to
20:27
Speaker 1: be able to lean on one kid. And we'll see
20:30
Speaker 1: out of those four kind of who steps up and
20:33
Speaker 1: out of the receivers. Now you got some guys that
20:35
Speaker 1: we know. Obviously Kay Kerwin, he had twenty three catches
20:38
Speaker 1: last year for three hundred and forty nine yards and
20:41
Speaker 1: a touchdown. He will be the main thread on the outside,
20:45
Speaker 1: whether it's in the slot, it could be deep, it
20:48
Speaker 1: could be far outside where you just get him a
20:49
Speaker 1: quick pass and make him make plays or have him
20:52
Speaker 1: make plays, I should say. And I think defenses will
20:56
Speaker 1: probably key on him because that's the kid they know
20:58
Speaker 1: from last year, so he'll have to deal with that.
21:02
Speaker 1: Coaches will make adjustments and if other guys start stepping
21:05
Speaker 1: up and making plays, then it'll force the defense to
21:08
Speaker 1: not do that as much. Peyton Bama he had four
21:12
Speaker 1: catches for seventy eight yards last year as a sophomore.
21:14
Speaker 1: He was used a little bit more on defense, but
21:17
Speaker 1: he brings back some offensive snaps as well, so he
21:20
Speaker 1: will also be on the outside. Little brother Isaac Bauma,
21:24
Speaker 1: you know, good three sport athlete, and he will be
21:29
Speaker 1: out there as well as a receiver. So you know,
21:32
Speaker 1: I was talking to coach Olsen and he said he
21:36
Speaker 1: looks a lot like sophomore Peyton Bama and I smiled,
21:39
Speaker 1: and coach Olsen added, and that's a good thing, and
21:43
Speaker 1: I said absolutely, because sophomore Peyton Bauman was pretty good.
21:46
Speaker 1: So now you've got two Bama's, a junior and a
21:48
Speaker 1: sophomore along with kay Kerwin. That's going to be great
21:53
Speaker 1: for them. Also look for Landon Brown. Of course, we
21:56
Speaker 1: remember Landon Brown from basketball as a center baseball first basement.
22:00
Speaker 1: So you're talking to kids six foot four who's coming
22:02
Speaker 1: out for football now, and he has athletic traits that
22:06
Speaker 1: can lend to him being a great wide receiver. So, uh,
22:10
Speaker 1: maybe you get down to the red zone, throw it up,
22:12
Speaker 1: have him go get it. Very very athletic kid. So
22:16
Speaker 1: really excited when kids that I see from other sports
22:20
Speaker 1: come out to play football, because you know, and he
22:24
Speaker 1: coach Olson brought this up as well, is if you
22:26
Speaker 1: have a kid who's a great athlete, it it works
22:31
Speaker 1: with football. It doesn't necessarily work for other sports. You
22:34
Speaker 1: could be a great athlete, but if you can't hit
22:36
Speaker 1: a curveball, baseball's not gonna work. Football it works. Other
22:40
Speaker 1: than the quarterback position. You can't just be a great
22:43
Speaker 1: athlete and just go right in and play quarterback. You
22:45
Speaker 1: have to have played for a while. But a lot
22:47
Speaker 1: of other positions you can be a great athlete, and
22:50
Speaker 1: it could it could make that difference and you could
22:53
Speaker 1: you could contribute right away, and I think Landon Brown
22:56
Speaker 1: can do that. Another kid that I really like is
22:59
Speaker 1: a sophomore Hunter Candaanosa and smaller kid but likes to hit.
23:06
Speaker 1: You know, you might see him. I mean I could
23:08
Speaker 1: see him kind of like that Colby Ship style where
23:11
Speaker 1: he could be a slot receiver that is looking to
23:16
Speaker 1: just knock somebody out with a with a block as
23:18
Speaker 1: the running back is going outside. You could see him
23:20
Speaker 1: on defense doing kind of the same thing, kind of
23:22
Speaker 1: that strong safety type that Colby Ship was. So I'm
23:24
Speaker 1: really excited about to see him as well. So the
23:27
Speaker 1: receiver room looks really good. And if I was if
23:30
Speaker 1: I was looking at a strength of the team, it
23:32
Speaker 1: might be the receivers of the secondary. It's kind of
23:34
Speaker 1: the same group. But and so that's gonna be fun.
23:39
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a pretty quick team. And uh, Jade
23:41
Speaker 1: and Johannison also had to catch last year coming out
23:44
Speaker 1: of the backfield, so we know he can do that.
23:47
Speaker 1: When you go to the tight end position, Blaine will run,
23:52
Speaker 1: you know, a somewhat traditional tight end. Blake Kuresky last
23:55
Speaker 1: year did that. He was used mostly as a run blocker,
23:59
Speaker 1: big strong k it. I could see where Axel Shelton
24:02
Speaker 1: fits into that perfectly. He kind of has that Blake
24:05
Speaker 1: Kresky mold. He's not two hundred and fifteen pounds like
24:09
Speaker 1: Kureski was. Shelton is about one to ninety but at
24:12
Speaker 1: six foot one, six foot two, strong kid likes to
24:15
Speaker 1: hit and he could fit perfectly into that Shelton. It's
24:19
Speaker 1: really interesting because Shelton, I think we grew up playing
24:22
Speaker 1: running back. Kanaji played tight end, and now they're flipped
24:26
Speaker 1: once they get divsity just because of the skill set
24:29
Speaker 1: and this and the you know, the play calling and
24:31
Speaker 1: the you know, all that kind of stuff, and you
24:33
Speaker 1: just never know. I mean, they could they could go back.
24:35
Speaker 1: You might see Kanaji go back to tight end. We'll
24:38
Speaker 1: have to see. Matt Campion is another kid that's a
24:41
Speaker 1: lot like Shelton where he just likes to hit. He's athletic,
24:45
Speaker 1: the side to side speed is fantastic, So he could
24:49
Speaker 1: be that next kind of tight end where maybe Acxual
24:52
Speaker 1: needs a break for a little bit, Matt Campion can
24:55
Speaker 1: come in and play some tight end. So and they
24:58
Speaker 1: could they could go a series without a tight end,
25:01
Speaker 1: you know, and go split back, so they can go
25:02
Speaker 1: four wide or you just never know, and the Blaine
25:07
Speaker 1: playbook enables that. You know, it's it's it's a lot
25:11
Speaker 1: like Linden's offense, where you know and that's where coach
25:15
Speaker 1: Olsen comes out of and he brought that to UH
25:18
Speaker 1: to Burlington. A lot of these assistants that it's a
25:21
Speaker 1: really really sharp crew that they learned that offense. They
25:25
Speaker 1: brought it to Blaine and they run it there. And
25:27
Speaker 1: now with the this is the third year of running it,
25:30
Speaker 1: I'm sure the terminology and stuff is becoming more familiar
25:33
Speaker 1: for everybody, and you want it to be familiar. You
25:35
Speaker 1: want it to be friendly for a sophomore quarterback. With
25:38
Speaker 1: with Connor Brown, and I did ask coach Olsen about,
25:41
Speaker 1: you know, do you have to kind of ease back
25:43
Speaker 1: the playbook because of a sophomore quarterback and he just
25:46
Speaker 1: kind of said, we got to ease it back because
25:48
Speaker 1: they're all new. You know, you look at the team
25:50
Speaker 1: it has. They have four seniors, that's it, three of
25:53
Speaker 1: which that have played football, So you got a lot
25:56
Speaker 1: of younger guys. The junior class is pretty good, not huge,
26:01
Speaker 1: but you know it has some guys. Sophomore class and
26:04
Speaker 1: the freshman class are pretty big. So there is a
26:06
Speaker 1: good bright future there if they, you know, stick around
26:09
Speaker 1: with football, and hopefully they will, I think it could
26:13
Speaker 1: really happen. The offensive line last year was pretty darn good.
26:18
Speaker 1: And you had one junior on that offensive line that
26:21
Speaker 1: was Malachai Morillo, So we talked about him. The big
26:25
Speaker 1: man will be moving from left guard to right guard.
26:27
Speaker 1: Coach Olson likes his big guys on the right side,
26:30
Speaker 1: big strong guys to run that way. We saw it
26:33
Speaker 1: over and over again with Otto Shelton and Jayden Winslow
26:36
Speaker 1: on that right side, just just a wall clearing it
26:39
Speaker 1: for Piez to go off and have these huge games.
26:43
Speaker 1: So look for Malachai Morillo to he will stand out,
26:46
Speaker 1: literally stand out with this with this group, not a
26:50
Speaker 1: huge offensive line. Marillo is a big kid at right guard,
26:54
Speaker 1: and we'll do we'll get the job down. A three
26:56
Speaker 1: year starter at guard, two years as a left guard,
26:58
Speaker 1: now going to the right side. You look at the
27:00
Speaker 1: rest of the line. Hugo Vecved is another senior. We
27:03
Speaker 1: got Marilla, Kerwin and Veckved. So far that are the seniors.
27:07
Speaker 1: He started that final game at center last year because
27:10
Speaker 1: of an injury or game and a half, I guess
27:14
Speaker 1: you could say, because I think he played in that
27:17
Speaker 1: on that Kansas tiebreaker as well. And you know low
27:21
Speaker 1: center of gravity wrestler got got a little stronger. It
27:24
Speaker 1: is up to about one to ninety now, but he'll
27:26
Speaker 1: probably get moved to left guard. He might end up
27:29
Speaker 1: still doing this the long snapping, you don't have to
27:31
Speaker 1: do a ton of long snapping in their way of punting.
27:35
Speaker 1: It's just quarterback just steps back a little bit, you know,
27:37
Speaker 1: a few more steps and then just go for it.
27:40
Speaker 1: And then he snapped on Pats, so he might go
27:43
Speaker 1: back just for those plays, but probably the everyday left guard.
27:49
Speaker 1: So you're gonna have your experience at the guard positions
27:52
Speaker 1: and going out going forward from there. At center, I
27:56
Speaker 1: could see Leif Engen taking that that spot. You know,
28:01
Speaker 1: you try out a lot of guys doing that. Coach
28:03
Speaker 1: Olsen played center. He gets it. He knows what it takes,
28:07
Speaker 1: so I you don't trust his judgment. If Lafe's the guy,
28:10
Speaker 1: then that's where that's where it'll be. And then on
28:12
Speaker 1: the outside of the tackle spots, Matt Noah left tackle,
28:16
Speaker 1: he kind of he kind of looks the part, tall kid,
28:19
Speaker 1: long arms. He will kind of protect that left side
28:24
Speaker 1: of the sophomore quarterback, the blind side of Connor Brown.
28:27
Speaker 1: And then on the right side, you know, don't be
28:30
Speaker 1: surprised if it's a freshman Guias Newland, who is workout warrior,
28:37
Speaker 1: you know, probably the most committed to the weight room,
28:40
Speaker 1: and he's an incoming freshman, so I'm really excited to
28:43
Speaker 1: see his progression. He's about five to ten, you know,
28:46
Speaker 1: two hundred and ten pounds and solidly built, extremely strong,
28:52
Speaker 1: and he could get that that edge right off the
28:55
Speaker 1: bat as the starting right tackle now playing next to
28:58
Speaker 1: Malachi Morillo is very help. When you look at him both,
29:02
Speaker 1: you would think that you should switch it guard and
29:04
Speaker 1: tackle just by the body builds. But that's the beauty
29:07
Speaker 1: of high school football is it's not really about that.
29:10
Speaker 1: It's about the scheme. And you know, if you got
29:14
Speaker 1: a strong enough kid at tackle, it doesn't matter if
29:16
Speaker 1: he's five to ten, you put him there. I remember
29:18
Speaker 1: Davis Gatman at Lyndon Christian was five ten and he
29:22
Speaker 1: was a left tackle, you know, and he was awesome.
29:25
Speaker 1: So you just that's the beauty of high school football.
29:29
Speaker 1: You can have the linemen that are under two hundred
29:31
Speaker 1: pounds and be all state. I've seen it over and
29:33
Speaker 1: over again. So that's kind of how the offensive line
29:36
Speaker 1: looks right now. For for a Blaine, it's a lot
29:39
Speaker 1: of uh, you get basically three brand new parts and
29:44
Speaker 1: and you know one that's done it, but in the
29:47
Speaker 1: in the past with vecved and then Marilla, who's the veterans,
29:50
Speaker 1: so they could be leaning heavy towards that right side.
29:54
Speaker 1: We'll have to see we'll switch over to defense now
29:57
Speaker 1: and the defensive line, and you know there it's gonna
30:02
Speaker 1: be a it's gonna be a little different. I mean,
30:03
Speaker 1: we've been used to these guys coming off the edge.
30:06
Speaker 1: I mean, you had Blake Kreskin's zu as the defensive
30:09
Speaker 1: ends coming off the edge, and it was a nightmare
30:13
Speaker 1: for teams where teams combated and they said, you know,
30:15
Speaker 1: the best thing to do is just run it up
30:17
Speaker 1: the middle because we just it's hard to get outside.
30:21
Speaker 1: And it's gonna be a little different this year when
30:23
Speaker 1: you don't have those bodies. You you say, okay, what
30:26
Speaker 1: is our strength. Our strength is speed and you know,
30:30
Speaker 1: flying around and having funds. So let's have five defensive
30:33
Speaker 1: backs and have kind of a three three five with
30:35
Speaker 1: two strong safeties. And that's probably the way it's gonna be.
30:39
Speaker 1: And usually when you have a three man front, those
30:42
Speaker 1: guys are designed to just muck it up and and
30:46
Speaker 1: you know, just cause havoc. Let your linebackers flow, play easy,
30:50
Speaker 1: make tackles. So and so you could see a Malachimarillo
30:55
Speaker 1: right there at nose tackle. Now they're gonna don't They're
30:58
Speaker 1: gonna substitute and get different guys in there, because you
31:01
Speaker 1: want your offensive line to be the same five throughout
31:04
Speaker 1: the entire game. So to give them a break, you
31:07
Speaker 1: you rotate the defensive line and if the if they're
31:10
Speaker 1: playing both ways, so Marillo, we'll get a break. From
31:12
Speaker 1: from time to time. You could see Gavin Zimmerlely playing
31:16
Speaker 1: nose tackle in that spot, played it a lot growing up,
31:21
Speaker 1: and he is a kid that is still learning the
31:24
Speaker 1: game of football but wants to learn, is getting better.
31:28
Speaker 1: And when you look at him, you see you see
31:31
Speaker 1: the big hands, the big feet, You see the projection
31:33
Speaker 1: of a kid just a sophomore, but at about six
31:36
Speaker 1: one two and fifteen pounds where he could keep growing
31:40
Speaker 1: and be a force on that defensive line and just
31:42
Speaker 1: and just make just muck things up right, make things happen.
31:45
Speaker 1: Then you got three other kids that I really like
31:49
Speaker 1: that are perfect for this kind of defensive line. Blake
31:54
Speaker 1: Collins was the JV linebacker last year. That is passionate
31:58
Speaker 1: about football, and I think they he could be a
32:00
Speaker 1: kid that can go against guys a lot bigger than
32:05
Speaker 1: him and make things happen. So you move him to
32:08
Speaker 1: the defensive line spot, and you know, just just cause chaos,
32:14
Speaker 1: Jade and Johannison is another guy like that. You know,
32:17
Speaker 1: it's kind of that mold of Lindon and that again,
32:20
Speaker 1: this is where Andy Olsen comes from. Is where you
32:22
Speaker 1: find backup running backs that are good enough to be playing,
32:27
Speaker 1: so you find a spot for them on the defensive
32:29
Speaker 1: line where it's just a pain for an offensive line
32:32
Speaker 1: to block that kid because he's low, he's quick, and
32:36
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a pain in the neck. So
32:39
Speaker 1: I could see Jade and Johannison being like that. And
32:42
Speaker 1: then they got Reecee Milligan coming out. If you don't
32:44
Speaker 1: know Reee Milligan, if you're a football fan, that's fine
32:47
Speaker 1: because he's never played football. But if you do know
32:49
Speaker 1: the name, it's probably from wrestling. You know, he's the
32:53
Speaker 1: conference champion and he's a senior. So he's that fourth
32:57
Speaker 1: senior and this is a perfect situation where you get
33:00
Speaker 1: a kid who's about I don't know, one hundred and
33:02
Speaker 1: eighty five pounds that's never played football but as a
33:05
Speaker 1: conference wrestling champion, and you put him right there on
33:10
Speaker 1: the defensive line and you just say watch the ball
33:12
Speaker 1: and then get after it. Because when you've played a
33:15
Speaker 1: lot of football, you get so used to things where
33:18
Speaker 1: you get on the defensive line and and you jump
33:21
Speaker 1: off sides because it's because you've played a lot. You've
33:24
Speaker 1: been in that spot a lot, and Reecee Milligan has
33:27
Speaker 1: not been in that spot, so he doesn't he hasn't
33:30
Speaker 1: developed these bad habits. You can put him on the
33:32
Speaker 1: defensive line and he's gonna hear how and that that
33:35
Speaker 1: doesn't mean anything to him. He can watch the ball,
33:37
Speaker 1: get after it and make things happen. I really expect
33:41
Speaker 1: Reese Milligan have a pretty good year as a defensive lineman.
33:44
Speaker 1: So that's that is, you know, a nice gem for
33:47
Speaker 1: coach Olsen to have there. They's been He's told me,
33:49
Speaker 1: they've been trying to get him to come out to
33:50
Speaker 1: football for a while. So for senior year he's doing it.
33:54
Speaker 1: So that's really cool. So those are kind of the
33:57
Speaker 1: five names and three spots that I see on the
33:59
Speaker 1: defensive line at the linebacker position. Again, three linebackers, Axel
34:05
Speaker 1: Shelton in the middle. Perfect, He's gonna probably lead the
34:08
Speaker 1: team in tackles. I would not be surprised if he
34:11
Speaker 1: leads the county and tackles. That's the kind of talent
34:13
Speaker 1: that he has. I think the way the offense is schemed,
34:16
Speaker 1: it's can really be or the defensive sorry is schemed,
34:20
Speaker 1: it could be really beneficial for him and he will
34:23
Speaker 1: make plays. He could a really really athletic kid and
34:27
Speaker 1: really excited about you know, the numbers he's gonna put
34:31
Speaker 1: up and how he's gonna lead this defense. Guys outside
34:35
Speaker 1: of him, you could look at Matt Campion and say,
34:37
Speaker 1: who Kanaji Campion is a linebacker that has really really
34:42
Speaker 1: good speed, and Kanaji is a kid that you know
34:47
Speaker 1: was a defensive end, started a game at defensive end
34:49
Speaker 1: last year. I would have thought that he'd be kind
34:51
Speaker 1: of that next with the old scheme coming off the edge,
34:55
Speaker 1: maybe him and Axel Shelton. But based on then you
34:58
Speaker 1: kind of lose your linebackers. So based on that, uh,
35:01
Speaker 1: Kanaji will be kind of more freed up to make
35:04
Speaker 1: plays as a linebacker, and so him and Camping on
35:08
Speaker 1: the outside also look for Tandy here it's kind of
35:10
Speaker 1: built like a linebacker, you know, a short, more squatty
35:14
Speaker 1: body that can, uh, you know, sit down and make plays,
35:18
Speaker 1: make tackles. And Matt Noah, who's got the longer arms,
35:22
Speaker 1: could be like an outside linebacker type. Reminded me a
35:25
Speaker 1: lot of like a Molloy Messenger, especially when Molloy was younger.
35:28
Speaker 1: When he was a sophomore, he was a linebacker, you know,
35:31
Speaker 1: but as he got bigger, he bulked up and played
35:33
Speaker 1: defensive line. Always was on that offensive line of course.
35:36
Speaker 1: So so yeah, so those are the names I see
35:39
Speaker 1: a linebacker. The secondary looks great. I really really like
35:44
Speaker 1: the secondary. On the corners, you can see Isaac Bauma
35:48
Speaker 1: and Connor Brown, a couple of you know, a couple
35:50
Speaker 1: of sophomores. You know, you're gonna say it a lot,
35:54
Speaker 1: Matt Campion sophomore, Say who Kanaji's sophomore, you know, Gavin
35:59
Speaker 1: Zimerly sophomore, or there's it's a it's a young class
36:02
Speaker 1: that you're gonna hear these guys a lot. But I
36:05
Speaker 1: really like those two at corner. Connor Brown actually played
36:11
Speaker 1: there quite I mean he was in the mix right
36:12
Speaker 1: away last year as a freshman and he's very, very athletic,
36:16
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of teams would look at boy,
36:20
Speaker 1: if we have a sophomore starting quarterback, really don't want
36:23
Speaker 1: to play him on defense, and but it's not necessarily
36:28
Speaker 1: even a necessity. He's just that good of an athlete,
36:31
Speaker 1: so it's definitely not a bad thing to play him
36:33
Speaker 1: at corner. It's gonna it's gonna be beneficial for them.
36:38
Speaker 1: And then at the safety spot, Kay Kerwin is a
36:40
Speaker 1: free safety again that center field played back there see things,
36:45
Speaker 1: make things happen. And then the strong safety is Peyton
36:48
Speaker 1: Bama who's grown a lot. Peyton Bama was a corner
36:51
Speaker 1: last year, made some really really good plays and but
36:56
Speaker 1: has gotten bigger, stronger and can be more play in
37:00
Speaker 1: the box a little bit more as a strong safety.
37:02
Speaker 1: And you can look at the other the other spot.
37:05
Speaker 1: You know it could be Hunter Candonosa Uh or Canondoza
37:10
Speaker 1: and uh because he likes to hit. And then Andy
37:12
Speaker 1: Westerhoff is another kid that I believe he's a sophomore
37:17
Speaker 1: as well, that you know, a little on the smaller side,
37:20
Speaker 1: but is just a competitor that is going to find
37:23
Speaker 1: his way on the field. And that's what I love too.
37:26
Speaker 1: Is if you work hard and you you know, you
37:29
Speaker 1: do the right things, and you you know the plays
37:31
Speaker 1: and you know what you're doing, you will find yourself
37:33
Speaker 1: on the field. And Andy Westerhoff probably five seven, one
37:36
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty pounds, maybe it doesn't matter. He will
37:40
Speaker 1: find his way on the field because he's doing things
37:42
Speaker 1: the right way. And you know, and I love that
37:45
Speaker 1: kind of kid. I mean, I was, you know, the
37:47
Speaker 1: smallest kid on the football team when I played, and
37:49
Speaker 1: so I'm always rooting for the little guys. And he
37:54
Speaker 1: is a you know, he could be he could be
37:57
Speaker 1: someone that could open some eyes for some people. You know,
38:01
Speaker 1: I did choose Connor Brown as my breakout player, but
38:04
Speaker 1: you never know with Andy Westerhoff. You look at the
38:06
Speaker 1: numbers from last year on defense, Andy Axel Shelton returns
38:11
Speaker 1: fifty one tackles. That is quite a bit. He had
38:14
Speaker 1: three tackles for loss, one and a half sacks of
38:15
Speaker 1: fumble recovery. Kayker Win had thirty two and a half tackles.
38:19
Speaker 1: He also had three tackles for loss, so he come
38:22
Speaker 1: up in the box a little bit. Those A lot
38:23
Speaker 1: of those could have been as a corner disrupting plays.
38:26
Speaker 1: In the backfield with a quick out pass. He also
38:30
Speaker 1: had four passes defended and two interceptions, so and Peyton
38:34
Speaker 1: Bama also had two interceptions, so they return all the
38:37
Speaker 1: interceptions from last year. Thirteen tackles and one tackle for loss,
38:42
Speaker 1: two passes broken up by Peyton Bauma. Sahu Kanaji, who
38:46
Speaker 1: played a little bit of a defensive end last year,
38:48
Speaker 1: like I talked about, he had eight tackles and one
38:51
Speaker 1: and a half tackles for loss. So those four are
38:53
Speaker 1: really the ones that returned the most excuse me, experience
38:57
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the ball, Connor Brown had
38:59
Speaker 1: some tacks. Jade Johannison, Blake Collins, Matt Campion, Tandy Here,
39:03
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys that I've been talking about,
39:07
Speaker 1: but you could see, you know, so it's a lot
39:11
Speaker 1: of these guys are gonna get those get those chances.
39:13
Speaker 1: I got to see a couple of JV games last year,
39:15
Speaker 1: and you know, I really liked what some of these
39:18
Speaker 1: guys did, you know, Blake Collins and and Tandy Here
39:22
Speaker 1: and Jade Johannison, Gavin Zimmerly Is you know, I I
39:27
Speaker 1: love that they're gonna get that opportunity pretty early on
39:33
Speaker 1: you know a lot of other schools that might not happen.
39:35
Speaker 1: It might not happen till next year, but these kids
39:37
Speaker 1: are gonna get it this year. So that's that's a
39:40
Speaker 1: really really exciting thing. You look at special teams, you know, kicker, Yeah,
39:45
Speaker 1: I talked to these coaches pretty early on and so
39:47
Speaker 1: a lot of them don't have kickers set. You know,
39:49
Speaker 1: Logan Villa Rial did it last year with Pats Blake
39:52
Speaker 1: Kureski kicked off, so you gotta fill it right. And
39:56
Speaker 1: he says he's got a freshman, Ben Cotton Air that
40:00
Speaker 1: you know, he might be the guy to do it. Now,
40:03
Speaker 1: this is a third freshman that we're talking about. It
40:05
Speaker 1: might get a lot of playing time. And then as
40:08
Speaker 1: at hunting, you know, they just kind of stayed with
40:11
Speaker 1: their offense and Logan villa Real would kind of come
40:14
Speaker 1: in motion and then he would take the snap. So
40:17
Speaker 1: it could be Connor Brown. He did have one punt
40:20
Speaker 1: last year, so it could they could just rely on
40:22
Speaker 1: him to just take a few more steps back and
40:24
Speaker 1: punt it away. He is that kind of athlete that
40:27
Speaker 1: can do that. So you know, nothing lost there when
40:31
Speaker 1: you looked at kickoff returns, punt returns. You know, Kay
40:35
Speaker 1: Kerwin had over three hundred yards total when you combine
40:38
Speaker 1: the two, plus he had the first punt return touchdown
40:41
Speaker 1: that's Blaine has had in almost twenty five thirty years.
40:45
Speaker 1: So he is an electrifying kid back there. But again,
40:49
Speaker 1: sometimes you want to give that kid a break. You
40:51
Speaker 1: could see Connor Brown back there, Hunter Canandoza, Jane Johannison,
40:55
Speaker 1: Peyton Bama. You never know, so we'll see who is
40:58
Speaker 1: back there. Heck, I would be really intrigued to see
41:01
Speaker 1: Asher Hagen back there with his speed and it's a play,
41:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's you know, it's a couple of plays
41:07
Speaker 1: a game where if he catches the ball right and
41:10
Speaker 1: you just say just just run, just go, he could
41:13
Speaker 1: break one. You never know. And I and I that's
41:16
Speaker 1: kind of the fun part of high school football is
41:18
Speaker 1: these new faces. And you know, every year, I'm always
41:22
Speaker 1: kind of like, I'm always like, man, it's gonna be
41:24
Speaker 1: weird next year because I'm not gonna know anybody, And
41:26
Speaker 1: it is weird for like thirty seconds, and all of
41:28
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm out there getting headshots. I'm seeing these
41:31
Speaker 1: kids eye to eye, face to face, and then it's
41:34
Speaker 1: like I feel like I know them and now I
41:36
Speaker 1: can't wait to see them. So you know, when when
41:40
Speaker 1: you know you NFL fans are watching the NFL Draft,
41:43
Speaker 1: you know when you draft these players, you're like, I
41:45
Speaker 1: can't wait to see them because you kind of know
41:47
Speaker 1: them from from college. Same thing if you're you know,
41:51
Speaker 1: a college football fan and you recruit these players out
41:54
Speaker 1: of high school, you kind of know these kids. It's
41:56
Speaker 1: a little different for high school because these kids are
41:58
Speaker 1: coming up from JV or Junior HI and there's not
42:02
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know that much about him, and
42:04
Speaker 1: so it's it's such a mystery. So it's really exciting.
42:08
Speaker 1: You know. I think Blaine, it's gonna be tough this year.
42:12
Speaker 1: I mean, they probably lost the most as far as
42:16
Speaker 1: just you know, overall seniors that did the most for them.
42:21
Speaker 1: They bring back twelve points from last year. Guy Kerwin's
42:24
Speaker 1: two touchdowns, that's it. All the other points came from seniors.
42:29
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be tough, especially in the beginning. But
42:34
Speaker 1: uh man, I got all the trust in the world
42:36
Speaker 1: and coach Olsen to do things the right way, and
42:40
Speaker 1: I'm just so glad that he's back in this county
42:44
Speaker 1: because it makes my job easier, it makes the county easier.
42:48
Speaker 1: Blaine is gonna love it. So yeah, very very exciting.
42:52
Speaker 1: So once again that's the you know, that's kind of
42:56
Speaker 1: the breakdown for this year's Blaine Borderright football team. I
43:00
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed it. Head out on the road. The
43:03
Speaker 1: first game will be at Renton and week one on
43:07
Speaker 1: that Saturday afternoon. There will be a podcast later on
43:13
Speaker 1: where you know, we'll talk about week one and and
43:17
Speaker 1: go over all that and uh but anyways, thank you
43:21
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Uh. Later on today there will
43:25
Speaker 1: be another podcast. It will be the Meridian Football Preview.
43:28
Speaker 1: We'll we'll talk about the Trojans and who they have
43:30
Speaker 1: coming back, and we'll get into all that. So but
43:34
Speaker 1: for now, thanks again to Kurt Mayberry Farm for for
43:38
Speaker 1: sponsoring the Walker Crafts podcast and I will talk to
43:44
Speaker 1: you in a few hours later today. Thanks everybody,