Fun in the Yakima Sun
The post below, is our third and final segment on the Earl Barden Classic football game held last weekend in Yakima In the piece, Jim acknowledges several of the players, coaches and officials that participated in this years contest High School Cover 2 would also like to give special recognition to the six coaches from our coaches panel (coaches that we have done extensive interviews with over the last two years) As a group, they sent seven players to the game this year and had others selected who were unable to attend due to injury and other commitments Finally, a big shout out to all the coaches who give so much of their time and energy to guide and mentor the young men that they coach to enable them to participate in events like this We salute you! If you have never taken in the festivities of the annual 2A, 1A, 2B all-star football game in Yakima, you have been missing one of the greatest shows in the state There is a great deal of difference, in the eyes of most high school football fans, between the big 3A and 4A schools of Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Spokane and the smaller town-schools like Brewster, Chelan, Colville, Colfax, and Concrete That difference is evident when you begin counting In the bigger schools you have more athletesnot necessarily better athletes but more of them As a youngster I played in the small town of Raymond and as an adult I taught and coached in the 4A school of Mariner, and I have seen both sides of that coin What follows is simply one mans collection of thoughts as he sat and watched an almost perfect game being played in a near-perfect venue in near-perfect weather by athletes whose behavior and playing ability was near-perfect and coached by men who coached an almost flawless, near-perfect game:
The final score of 23-14 in favor of the West was in no way indicative of the closeness of the game which was in question until a minute and change remained on the clock,
The game announcer told us before the game that the West would be running the Wing-T on offense I was immediately skeptical because I know how hard it is to get Wing-T basics across to kids when you have the entire season to work with, so to have kids executing well enough to gain 194 yards on the ground was shocking to me The East also was able to gain a very respectable 137 yards rushing, so I was very pleasantly surprised
The man responsible for the whole show is Bill (Alex) Alexander, and he is indeed a driving force Everyone we talked gave him credit for the whole thing So, Alex Alexander, Hall of Fame coach in your own right, you know how to put on a heckuva show Congratulations!
We did not remember the name of the game announcer, and although I tried for the past four or five days to get it, I failed to do so If anyone could let us know his identity, we would like to thank him publicly for his knowledge and his contribution to the game Maybe the best high school announcer I have heard
If you like great sports writing, treat yourself to the columns of Scott Sandsberry of the Yakima Herald Republic I have seldom met any sports writer with his breadth and depth of knowledge of high school football It seems to be a particular passion of his Reading his column you find that there is virtually nothing dealing with sport on which Scott does not have an opinion (usually correct opinion, that is)
One kid Scott raved about before the game was Carlos Ramirez from Toppenish Named the Easts Most Valuable Defensive Player at 5, 8 tall and weighing 177 pounds, there was little reason to believe that Ramirez was all that Sandsberry said he was, but Ramirez showed us Doubting Thomass how wrong we could be One of the best, most active linebackers I have seen at the high school level And, in the game he averaged more than four yards a carry as a running back
Two of the coaches on the West squad, Sid Otton and Bob Ames have a combined 9 state titles and (if my math is correct) a combined 44 state playoff appearances They also have a total combined 574 wins (309 for Otton and 265 for Ames) If they averaged 10 wins a year they would have been winning at that rate for over 57 years I can only say WOW!!
Running backs for the East included the fore-mentioned Ramirez, Hayden Wing from Kiona-Benton, and the diminutive Chance Watt from Riverview who stands 57 and weighs 175 pounds Watt is a quick and strong runner Im tempted to say for his size, but heck, hes a strong runner for any size East running backs also included Dan Feeney of Mark Morris, Kris Cady of Waitsburg, Joey Strehlou of East Valley Spokane, Colby Hanson from Clarkston, and Dylan Delay of Royal
West running backs included Cody Haavick from Sumner, Kyler Howell from Concrete, the MVP Tevin Williams of North Mason, the ultra-quick Ryan Vongmixay from South Bend, hard-running Zach Baldwin of Centralia, along with Brycen Holmes of Toledo, Brennan Casteel of Chehalis, and Roman Reyna of Lynden
West linemen who opened holes to allow almost 200 yards on the ground or helped provide pressure and close holes on defense included Jackson Wargo of Montesano (a kid we watched with interest last year in the playoffs), Zach Phelps of Centralia, the gritty Myron Smith from South Bend, Ryan Newby of Bob Ames Meridian Trojans, Tyler Dotson of KC Johnsons Adna eleven, Dakota Sanchez of Doug Trainors Bellingham team, Wade Huett, a 280 pounder from Stevenson, Steve Elsner of Mount Baker, and the huge and quick Julius Tevaga of Archbishop Murphy
East linemen provided time for East quarterbacks to air it out and creases for the backs to bounce through as well as working to limit the Wests ground game They included the towering (66) Clay DeBord of Asotin, huge Julio Barrera from RA Long, Traven Smith of Lind/Ritzville, Sergio Fuentes of Kittitas, Will Peters of Chewelah, Darren Talleys product- Quin Courtney of Chelan, Nathaniel Deardorff of Zillah, Adrian Garcia of Othello, and Shawn Burton of Deer Park
Quarterbacks for the East were Collvilles Sawyer Bardwell who completed 7 of 15 passes for 129 yards and ran 3 yards for a TD, Brady Arnone of Clarkston, and Alex Teade of Colfax who hit Brendan Barrington of Pullman for a TD)
Their West counterparts were Montesanos Sean McNealley (who also kicked a decisive field goal), Onalaskas Dalton Richey, who completed 7 of 13 passes for 104 yards including two long strikes to Kyle Warner of Tumwater (Warner had been selected as the 2A Player of the Year earlier) that set up McNealleys field goal The third quarterback from the West was Matt Friese who did a little of everything, and did it well He threw a TD pass, caught a TD pass, kept drives alive by willing himself to reach the first down marker, and was everywhere on defense, being named Defensive MVP along with Tevin Williams
Two of the better receivers I have seen in all-star games were Kyle Warner, a kid who seemingly makes a habit of the improbable catch, and Brendan Barrington who has glue for hands and took shots that would cause most young men to cough up the ball They are both extremely tough and talented young kids
I found that the East head coach Mike Morgan is a band teacher That, to me , is fascinating I would imagine that the half-time Homecoming celebration is an Event
I also found that Ed Ashworth, the Brewster head coach is a fellow English teacher I would like to sit and share notes with him some time
The referees for the game donated their time and called an excellent game I could not find their names anywhere, but they deserve an Attaboy for the job they did Jim Olsen
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