Defensive line players hope to be a strength for Huskies

Published 11:40 pm Monday, August 20, 2007

SEATTLESix-foot-five, 265 pounds and an arm full of tattoos.

Just the kind of description you would expect for defensive end.

For a babysitter of a one-year-old girl? Not so much.

It may not be a role Greyson Gunheim ever imagined taking on when he came to Washington on a football scholarship, but the senior from Sebastopol, Calif., is happy to help out when his teammate and good friend needs a hand.

The teammate would be Jordan Reffett, who, as a 23-year-old with a wife and daughter, has earned the nickname “Pops” from his Husky teammates.

“It’s fun,” Gunheim said of his occasional babysitting stints. “It’s definitely not something I thought I’d be doing in college. It’s fun, I love little kids. I couldn’t see doing that every single day.”

Gunheim and Reffett are two of four experienced players who are expected to make the defensive line one of the team’s strengths. Two of the four players on a unit they say feels more like a family than a football team. Which is why it’s only fitting that Gunheim occasionally trades chasing quarterbacks for chasing a toddler.

Gunheim, who has been a starter at defensive end since his freshman year, and Reffett, who started five games at tackle last year, are joined by returning starting end Daniel Te’o-Nesheim and tackle Wilson Afoa.

Gunheim, a running back and safety in high school, is the athletic playmaker of the group. He’s the guy who famously ran down UCLA’s speedy freshman punt returner Terrence Austin to save a touchdown last season.

“Greyson is a great athlete,” said Afoa. “We look at him to give us a boost. He’ll make a play and we’re like, ‘Man, we got to make a play too.’ He’s just a phenomenal athlete. Watching the plays he makes, it’s unreal for a defensive end to make the plays that he makes.”

Reffett, in addition to being what defensive line coach Randy Hart calls a tough, hard-nosed guy who creates chaos, is also the vocal leader of the group. Last season he won the Guy Flaherty Award given to the team’s most inspirational player.

“I think it’s my enthusiasm and trying to get everybody on the same page,” Reffett said when asked to speculate why he was chosen for the award. “Getting guys excited is fun. You’ve got to have some enthusiasm on the field. And I’m the old guy on this team, so I think guys look up to me. I call these guys my sons. They’re all like my little kids.”

Afoa jokes that Reffett is too vocal at times.

“He likes to talk a lot,” said the fifth-year senior from Honolulu. “He runs his mouth a lot.”

The joking between players is just one sign of the chemistry in the defensive line. They go bowling together on Thursdays and have D line-only barbeques. Reffett and Gunheim sport Mohawks at fall camp, and give them outonly sometimes voluntarilyto other defensive players.

“I tell you what, we’ve got a great group this year,” said Reffett. “Everybody’s together. The chemistry in the locker room, it’s amazing.”

Now, the Huskies hope that chemistry can translate into strong play on the field.

“We’re supposed to be a strength, but we haven’t proven we are a strength yet,” said Hart. “We’ve got to do that. After the season, we want people to say, ‘they were supposed to be the strength of the team and they were.’ That’s our challenge.”

Hart says that to do that, he needs Gunheim to be the playmaker he is capable of being. He needs Afoa and Reffett to be the players creating chaos in the middle, and he needs Te’o-Nesheim, who Hart calls an energy guy with a great motor, to up his production.

Te’o-Nesheim, the quiet guy of the group, the guy for whom a big night is going to Taco Bell with Gunheim, thinks the line can help carry the team.

“I think a lot of our success has to come from what we do,” he said. “We need to step up our play and be a strength of the team.”

Even as the quiet one, Te’o-Nesheim still can have a little fun at his expense, as well as his teammates’.

“I’m pretty boring,” he said. “I think I’m the most boring guy on the team except for Reffett. He has to stay home and watch his baby.”

Except, of course, for the times Kendall has a certain 265-pound babysitter with 10 tattoos.

“This group,” says Reffett. “We’re all a big family.”