Coming into last season, the Inglemoor High Vikings were pumped and optimistic for a breakthrough year. They had a slew of seniors like running offensive and defensive lineman Brandon Thurston that were vocal leaders, along with a highly touted quarterback in Todd Campbell.
After a 2-2 start and a devastating collarbone injury to Campbell, however, the Vikings were soon on the outside looking in. Despite losing its last two games of the season including a 14-13 upset at the hands of Redmond, Inglemoor still snuck into postseason play with a 5-3 record in 4A Kingco. And after two low-scoring, one-possession victories against Rogers and Mariner, the Viks were only three games away from winning it all.
Although eventual state champions Lewis and Clark put an end to the Vikings’ Cinderella story by routing them in the state quarterfinals, making a deep run in the postseason while not even being able to field one of the state’s best high-school quarterbacks was quite a feat, one that head coach Frank Naish believes his team can repeat. But in the constantly changing world of prep football, it’s best to take it one game at a time.
“What’s happened has happened, especially in high school — it’s a whole new team,” Naish said. “The wins last year were sweet, but they don’t give us a seven-point advantage this year. So we’re just trying to focus on beating Juanita right now.”
Leading the Viking attack against the Rebels on opening day (7 p.m. Sept. 5 at Juanita) will be an experienced team with 10 starters returning, six on offense and four on defense, which includes all three linebackers.
“We return a couple really good Kingco kids — Paul Ena, who’s probably one of the better linebackers in the league … and Andrew Kienast, who’s a linebacker, offensive lineman who started all last year both ways,” said Naish of his star players. “(Kienast) is a veteran, he’s been out there, done it and seen it.”
Naish also admitted that the rest of his team is fairly young, but is very pleased with the development of running backs Austin Terry and Zach Pattison, who should get plenty of carries. The veteran coach also has a trio of sure-handed young men that will look to be prime targets for Campbell’s solid arm.
“Our three receivers I’m really pleased with,” Naish said. “Austin Heuter, Ben Nystrom, they saw a lot of time last year, and Craig Jacobson, those three are going to be factors.”
As for weaknesses, Naish said the big question mark as the season begins is his offensive line, as to which his only comment was,
“I’ll tell you more about it after the Juanita game.”
A crafty veteran
When Naish began coaching in 1978, gas was 0.63 cents a gallon, and the president at the time was Jimmy Carter, someone that the kids on his current roster may only have heard about in U.S. History class. For the longtime coach, it’s his players and the nature of the game that keeps him coming back year after year.
“The kids keep me fired up. You’re out there with them … the relationships with kids, I really enjoy that,” Naish said. “My best friends in my life are the assistant coaches on this staff — tonight we’re going to go to one of our houses and watch the Seahawks game.”
Naish, who is also Inglemoor’s athletic director, believes that football is in a constant state of change, unlike other sports.
“I think as a coach what makes football very special is that it’s an ever-evolving sport,” Naish believes. “Baseball doesn’t evolve. How you turn a double play is the same thing you learned when you were 3 years old.”
Naish said that he’s continually experimenting with different offensive and defensive formations, remembering that he started out as a “wishbone guy” before trying the “Wing-T,” and now the Vikings are a spread team.
“That constant evolution lets you be creative … I can kind of see a guy that’s coached baseball for 30 years getting stale, and football doesn’t let you do that,” Naish said.
“Same thing when you’re defending people, because they’re throwing new stuff at you, too, so you’ve got to stay up to speed.”
No league
like home
With the revamped 4A Kingco now including teams like the nationally ranked Skyline, Issaquah and Newport, the Vikings know they have a tough hill to climb and look to feed off last season’s success and give themselves another shot at the playoffs.
“I think we’re very good, (because of) Campbell and those kind of guys … but any time you come off a winning season, that’s always good and the kids feel good about it,” Naish said. “The new 4A Kingco, there’s no league in the state like it. When I first started coaching for the first 12-13 years, this was the Kingco league. We did play Issaquah and Newport and all those guys, and it was a (more fun) league because it was so darn tough.”
If there’s one thing that all the coaches agree on, it’s that whoever can rise to the top and advance to the playoffs out of 4A Kingco has a very good football team and a legitimate shot to go deep into the playoffs.
“You look at your schedule and it’s kind of like the Huskies … you ask ‘where’s the soft touch here?’ But if I’m a fan, I think watching Kingco, there’s going to be some great games,” Naish said.
