Western, Central take center stage

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, September 25, 2004

SEATTLE – Your kids calm? “No,” laughed Rob Smith, the congenial Western Washington University football coach. “There are a lot of butterflies, a lot of anxious anticipation when you play down here.”

As well there should be. When you’re an NCAA Division II football team, you seldom get to play in the type of atmosphere his Vikings were about to experience.

This afternoon two NFL teams – the Seahawks and the 49ers – will meet at Qwest Field, but Saturday evening it was two small-college teams – Smith’s Vikings and John Zamberlin’s Central Washington Wildcats – taking center stage.

It was the second annual Battle in Seattle, the 93rd meeting between the arch rivals, a series that dates back to 1922.

It may be small-college football, but the play on the field is no less intense than it is between Washington and Washington State in the Apple Cup. Maybe even more so because most of the players were made in Washington and understand the importance of bragging rights than say some Husky or Cougar players from California or Arizona.

Last year, in the first Battle in Seattle, a crowd of more than 16,000 showed up to watch Central win 29-20. The Vikings didn’t go away empty-handed. They took home $100,000 – as did Central – or about as much money as they take in at five home games. In case you’re interested, that’s a huge haul for a D-II school and the game’s even a bigger deal for the kids involved.

“It’s nice for our kids to be placed on center stage for a day,” Smith acknowledged, as he walked on the field two hours before the game. “This makes all that work we put in worth it.”

Last year both teams came to Seattle on game day. This year they came the day before and stayed the night at five-star downtown hotels. Both teams got to visit the stadium Friday afternoon, just to release a few of those butterflies. Not that it did much good.

Truth be told, the Hawks and the 49ers will be a little dry-mouthed when they take the field this afternoon, so you can imagine the effect the stadium had on the Vikings and the Wildcats.

“We let them run around, hoot and holler, and enjoy the place Friday afternoon,” Zamberlin said. “They should enjoy it.” That’s what football should be all about, especially at this level.

Zamberlin experienced the game at the most serious level, playing linebacker seven years in the NFL. A Tacoma native, he played his college ball at Pacific Lutheran. His is the only number (56) ever to be retired by the school.

He seems to have found a home in Ellensburg, as has Smith in Bellingham. Zamberlin is beginning his eighth year at Central, Smith his 16th at Western.

Zamberlin likes the small-town atmosphere for raising kids. And if he wants to run home and have lunch with them, they’re just a few minutes away. He also enjoys the changing seasons.

He didn’t say so, but he doesn’t have to worry about getting his team to a bowl game every year, either, or suffer the wrath of some big-buck alums.

He doesn’t get second-guessed by some know-nothing sports writers after every game, nor does he have to put up with nasty phone calls from unhappy fans.

“I get letters,” he said. “Some don’t sign them, so I don’t know who to write back to.”

He had an opportunity to become an assistant coach in the Big 10 last year, but realized how much he likes where he is.

He referred to his players as “family,” one of the tools he uses when he recruits. In this family, everyone’s the same when he steps on the field. There are no names on the backs of jerseys.

“Someone else wore that jersey who was a good football player,” he reasoned. “The only name that’s important is the one on the front of the uniform – Wildcats.”

Coaches get to know their players in a small-school setting. They can tell you what kind of kid their third-string linebacker is. They might even know his girlfriend’s name.

One player Zamberlin has gotten to know well is his first-string middle linebacker, Blake Walker, who hails from Cascade High in Everett. Walker, a three-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference all-star, went into Saturday’s game needing just three tackles to become only the second Central player with 300 career stops.

“Great player,” Zamberlin said. “Great kid. If you could have a son who turns out like Blake, you’d be a proud parent.”

The 6-foot-1, 234-pound Walker might be someone the NFL is interested in, the coach said. If anyone would know whether a small-school player has what it takes to make it in the NFL, it’s Zamberlin.

All of the kids who took the field Saturday night are good football players, were – in many instances – the best players in their high schools. Few of them are on full scholarship – coaches have to divide up the aid in D-II – and some even have to hold down jobs.

“We’ve had kids go to school, play football, and then work the graveyard shift,” Zamberlin said.

Paul Madison, the venerable sports information director at Western, recalled a Viking player a few years ago who worked the night shift at United Parcel Service.

And players at both schools put in just as many hours in the weight room, watch just as much film and work just as hard on the field as the D-I guys do.

They deserve a center stage like they had Saturday night.