ARLINGTON – The Lakewood football team had a few girls come work out with the Cougars recently and look into joining the football team.
At the start of fall practice only one remains.
Sophomore Sydney Gormley has emerged as a possible extra point kicker for Lakewood early in its season. The club soccer player joined the football team to see what it was like and impressed Cougars head coach Dan Teeter in the spring when she made 34 extra points in a row.
“She came to me in spring and, a few weeks before spring ball, started showing up to the weight room and said, ‘Yeah, I want to play football this year,’” Teeter said. “We actually had several girls from the eighth-grade class that were going to be incoming freshmen who came out and worked out just for awhile and none of them ended up staying with it. But Sydney stayed with it. She’s been coming to workout, she’s gone to camps, gone to team barbeques and she’s been all in all the way.”
Gormley, who has played soccer for 11 years, has the fall off from her club team. Instead of playing soccer at Lakewood she opted for a different sport.
“I’ve always watched (football) since I was a kid and always wanted to try it,” Gormley said. “I usually play soccer during the fall and this is the first year I haven’t. It’s just an interesting sport. You have to be smart, you have to be agile, you’ve got to be athletic, you have to know a lot of stuff to play football. It’s an accomplishment that I want to have.”
The kicker still remembers her first practice with Lakewood last spring. There was one aspect of football that shocked the soccer player.
“It was hot,” Gormley said. “I had a lot of fun. It was a little weird. And I really didn’t know they ran this much.”
Gormley, who says her strategy is to “just get the ball through the uprights no matter what,” was initially worried how the team would respond to her.
It turns out her fears were unnecessary.
“The team is so awesome. I love being out here with them,” she said. “They’ve supported me the entire way. They’re like my brothers now.”
Her new teammates have embraced Gormley and been impressed by her work ethic.
“During some of the workouts she’s out here just tearing up some of the guys. We’re running stairs and she’s way ahead of the pack,” said senior lineman Sean Renfro. “You’re like, ‘What is this?’ She’s staying after for an hour or two after practice kicking field goals just putting in the extra work. … I think it takes a lot of courage for her to get out here.”
“She’s dedicated,” Teeter said. “If I had all the guys as dedicated to what they do as she has been it’d be awesome. She’ll come out and just kick on her own for an hour plus and just has a lot of consistency.”
Gormley is one of several new faces for the Lakewood football team, which graduated 22 seniors from last season.
“We’re excited for new opportunities and to see who rises up,” Teeter said. “But our expectations are still really high.”
There are a few key players back for Lynnwood, including Renfro and fellow linemen Jordan Jira and Billy Main. The trio bring valuable experience — and a lot of talent — to the Cougars’ line.
“We’ve got three experienced, really capable varsity linemen that are back,” Teeter said. “The line should be a strength for us. We’ve got three guys that I think could be playing football on Saturdays in the future.”
Jira, who has been talking with recruiters from Montana, Central Washington, Eastern Washington and Wyoming, is excited to see what the new batch of Cougars can do.
“We’re a young team but we’re working together and I think it’s going to be a good year,” Jira said. “It’s definitely a little bit different because we have less seniors. But we’re still a team. We’ll keep working as a team.”
The senior isn’t sure about his future after Lakewood, but he’s not going to worry about that until after the season.
“Now it’s the time to focus on the team,” Jira said. “I’ll worry about recruiting after.”
Jira, like his teammates, is excited to see what new quarterback Austin Lane can do. Lane spent last year on junior varsity but injured his collarbone early in the season.
“We’ve got Austin Lane, a sophomore, and he’s a stud,” Jira said. “And he’s got a good line in front of him.”
Jira and Renfro will be looked to lead a young Lakewood team that, despite losing several key players from last year, plans on continuing the Cougars’ recent success.
“It’s definitely new for us leading people, especially a younger group of kids,” Renfro said. “But they’re a great group of people. Everyone here works hard. I have no doubt that we’ll do good. As long as everybody does their assignments right and is hustling, I think we can make something happen.”
LAKEWOOD COUGARS
Head coach: Dan Teeter (10th season)
Key returners: Jordan Jira, OL/DL, sr.; Sean Renfro, OL/DL, sr.; Billy Main, OL/DL, jr.; Bobak Hejazi, HB/LB, jr.; David Le, WR/KR/DB, jr.; Tyler Courtney, RB/LB, sr.
Coach’s quote: “We lost 22 seniors, and they were a really solid class with a lot of good football players. They filled up a lot of our depth. We have some talented kids coming in this year but we have a small senior class and a pretty small junior class. There’s going to be a lot of inexperienced guys out there surrounded by a few guys who have played.”
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