Snohomish grad takes the reins of Panthers’ football program

SNOHOMISH — It’s still a bit surreal for Joey Hammer.

A little more than two decades ago, he was playing football at Snohomish High School under Hall-of-Fame coaches Dick Armstrong, Mark Perry and Keith Gilbertson.

Now he’s back at his alma mater and embarking on his first season as a high school head coach, following in the footsteps of coaching legends as he takes the reins of a tradition-rich Snohomish program.

“It’s one of those things where it’s almost too good to be true,” Hammer said after Saturday morning’s practice. “I told a coach yesterday (as) I was walking out to practice, ‘It hasn’t sunk in yet.’

“But I absolutely love it. It’s extra special because it’s so much a part of who I’ve been and how it created me to be. And now I get to come back and be a part of it again.”

Hammer, a 1998 Snohomish graduate, is just the program’s fourth head coach in the past 56 seasons.

Dick Armstrong, whose bronze statue stands at the edge of Veterans Memorial Stadium, coached the Panthers for 32 years from 1963 to 1994 and is one of the winningest football coaches in state history. Mark Perry coached Snohomish for the next 18 seasons and was followed by Kai Smalley, who guided the Panthers for the past five seasons before resigning last winter.

“It’s something that Snohomish is all about,” Hammer said of the program’s history of coaching longevity. “They take pride in making sure they bring somebody in that’s invested and not looking to just turn and burn and make his way to the next level.

“It’s the tradition, it’s the richness of this community and it’s serving,” he added. “It’s just all about serving these kids, this school, this community and just being a part of the big family.”

After playing football for the Panthers and a brief playing stint at Whitworth University in Spokane, Hammer spent about a decade coaching middle-school football in Snohomish. He then was a high school assistant coach for the Panthers in 2013 and 2014 before spending the past three seasons as Monroe’s defensive coordinator.

Hammer said his passion for coaching stems in part from his playing days at Snohomish, where he was in the presence of coaches such as Armstrong, Perry and former longtime assistant Gilbertson. All three are members of the Washington State Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.

“The hardest coaches were (also) the coaches that loved you the most,” Hammer said. “They were passionate about building you as a man of character, so you’d understand that things don’t just come easy.

“(They) drove me to become the man I’ve become today,” he added. “They had passion to pour their lives into me, and now they’re a part of me and it keeps going. … Pouring back into kids and getting to be a part of defining who they become is really what I’m passionate about.”

Snohomish senior standouts Carter Cole and Tyler Massena both referenced the infusion of energy and intensity Hammer has brought the program.

“Every workout, every practice, everything is intense all the time,” Cole said. “I know in the past, like in the weight room, we’d kind of go in there and do our own thing. And there was a little bit of intensity, but now it’s all the time. It’s super intense. … I love how excited coach Hammer is to be out here.”

After winning two state titles in the 1970s and being regular state-playoff participants for much of the 1980s and 1990s, the Panthers are in the midst of a 10-year state drought, which included six consecutive losing seasons from 2009 to 2014.

Snohomish has finished .500 or better each of the past three seasons, but lost each time in the Week 10 playoffs to finish one win short of state.

Those three consecutive losses in winner-to-state games have left the Panthers and their strong class of returning seniors eyeing a breakthrough this fall. According to Massena, reaching state is something they think about “every practice” and “every workout.”

“That’s our mindset,” he said. “… (We’re) just taking it that extra yard, going that extra step every day at practice and just really grinding (and) trying to get further this year.”

Hammer repeatedly emphasized the Panthers’ motto of “one heartbeat” — the concept of placing the team above oneself.

“I got to realize when I played here, it was all about the team,” he said. “It was never about an individual. It was all about everybody being on board together, standing shoulder to shoulder and having each other’s back.”

Hammer said that team-first mentality will be key in developing the culture of a program seeking a return to its rich tradition of success.

“That heartbeat is still there,” he said. “It’s just making sure that we understand (we have to) dust it off, clean it up and just pump that baby. … If we can instill and just increase that heartbeat of how strong it is and the value of every person, that’s the culture we want.

“And if we get that from the kids, parents and community,” he added, “this place is going to be rocking.”