EVERETT -- Quarterback Nick Baker is known for his outstanding footwork, but this week his feet attracted attention for a different reason.
Baker of Lake Stevens High School is on the West team, which plasy the East team today in the 2009 East-West All-Star Football Game at Everett Memorial Stadium.
East-West players stayed at the Holiday Inn Downtown Everett this week. One morning when Baker headed down for breakfast at the hotel, he decided to go barefoot. The reason: Baker developed half a dozen nasty blisters after completing a few practices with the West team; he hadn't worn his stiff cleats for several months and they were killing his feet. Going shoeless for awhile would be a nice break, he figured.
As Baker strolled through the hotel lobby to the breakfast buffet, a surprised hotel employee said to him, "Uh, can you go and put shoes on?"
Baker immediately apologized and tried to explain. Said Baker, "Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't know that I was supposed to (wear shoes). I've got blisters on my feet."
"She just kind of looked at them," Baker said, "and was like, 'Eww. You need to go put your shoes on.'"
The goofy incident came up at the end of the West team's next practice. In addition to telling players they needed to be better about tidying up after using the hotel pool, a coach reminded the athletes that -- in case they didn't already know -- they should ALWAYS wear shoes to breakfast.
Montana-bound buddies
Baker, The Herald's 2008 All-Area Offensive Football Player of the Year, will play for Montana Tech in Butte. One of his West teammates, Everett High's Jake Frauenholtz, is also headed to Montana. Frauenholtz, a multi-talented receiver/defensive back, plans to play for Carroll College in Helena. The campuses are about an hour apart. Baker and Frauenholtz developed a friendship this week and hope to meet up once in awhile in the Big Sky State. "I really think me and him are going to end up hanging out on the weekends over there," Baker said.
Meet the captains
West team head coach John Ondriezek and East team head coach Greg Kittrell announced their game captains Friday. For the West they are Meadowdale's Nasser Kyobe, Issaquah's Dillon Reagan, Lindbergh's Zack Nielsen and Skyline's Grant Engel. The East's are Enumclaw's Connor Elder, Lakes' Tuiasosopo Niusulu, Central Valley's Blake Bledsoe, Heritage's Steve Forgette and Lewis & Clark's Chris Mastin.
Just for kicks
If the East-West Game is close, kicks could determine who wins. The East team plans to use Curtis High's Stan Langlow at placekicker and both Sean Barber (Puyallup) and Vaughn Kapiko (Lewis & Clark) at punter. Langlow, a defensive back/receiver, was a backup kicker at Curtis. The West team's placekicker, by default, is Auburn's Jeff Gouveia, who volunteered for the job. Gouveia is a running back/defensive back who didn't kick much at Auburn. He has an old-school, straight-ahead kicking style, coach Ondriezek said. Everett's Frauenholtz and Lindbergh's Jacob Allie will punt for the West.
Hard-hitting strummer
Mariner High's Jaren Saga, a defensive lineman on the West team, could have his own variety show. In addition to being a football all-star, Saga plays the ukulele and dances. Saga was part of a ukulele band that recently performed during Mariner's graduation ceremony at Comcast Arena. Saga and some Marauders teammates started strumming ukuleles nearly three years ago in between two-a-day football practices. Now quite a few other kids at the school play the instrument, said West team assistant coach Tom Myhre, who coaches and teaches at Mariner. "It's really turned into a fad," Myhre said.
Northwest versus South
Before joining the Mariner football coaching staff about 10 years ago, West team assistant coach Jim Campbell coached in Georgia and Arkansas, where he grew up and went to college. Asked to compare the quality of football in the South with the Northwest, Campbell said schools and towns tend to hype up the sport in the South. But there are good, longstanding rivalries in both regions; he cited the Mariner-Kamiak and Arlington-Stanwood rivalries in this area. The biggest difference though, he said, is "there's bigger kids here, but faster kids there. The speed of the game is faster there."
Quick adjustment
Coach Ondriezek praised Inglemoor's Paul Ena, who is slated to start at linebacker for the West team. "He moved from inside linebacker to outside and he picked it up in about one day," Ondriezek said. "He's got great football sense. He's always in the right place. His technique is outstanding, as most of these kids are."
