Players go from rivals to roomies

Published 9:58 pm Friday, June 29, 2007

EVERETT – Respect has the power to turn enemies into pals.

It’s the driving force behind an unexpected friendship that has blossomed between one-time foes.

The West team, which plays the East unit at 1 p.m. today in the East-West All-Star Football Game, features two players from Oak Harbor High School (quarterback Marshall Lobbestael and lineman Will Hunter) and two from Bothell High (linebacker/tight end Taylor Hudson and defensive end/fullback Luke Jones).

In December, the four outstanding athletes clashed in the Class 4A state championship game. The Oak Harbor guys prevailed over Bothell, winning 21-14 in a highly competitive battle at the Tacoma Dome.

Nearly seven months later, the former opponents have developed close ties as teammates on the West team.

It started Monday when Lobbestael and Jones found out they would be roommates at the team hotel in Everett. The foursome clicked at the first few practices and began hanging out. They shared adjacent bowling lanes Wednesday during a party at Evergreen Lanes.

It shows there’s more to the East-West experience than winning and losing.

“It’s an interesting bond,” said West head coach Dave Ward, who coached Oak Harbor to the state title. “There’s a mutual respect that came out of that championship game because it was so close and so well-played. They know they were in a memorable situation together (and) it was something they’ll never forget.”

The foursome of stars will likely remember this week forever, too.

“They’re good guys,” Hunter said. “Everybody here is a good guy. We’re all getting along really well.”

Time helped ease the raw emotion stirred up in the title game, Bothell’s Hudson said.

“It was weird at first, but now it’s just fun,” he said. “If we had done this like a week after or a month after (the state championship game), it would have been hard.”

Instead, it’s been easy. The way they horsed around at the bowling alley and crack jokes at practice, it’s as if the Bothell and Oak Harbor standouts have been lifelong friends.

“It was funny. It’s something I didn’t expect,” said Ward, “but I understand how it’s all transpired. It’s nice to see.”

Believe the hype: One of the East-West game’s most acclaimed players is East QB/defensive back Kellen Kiilsgaard, an Auburn High graduate headed to Stanford University. The 6-foot-2, 217-pound Kiilsgaard deserves all the praise he’s received, East head coach Bob Lucey said.

“He’s been everything he was billed as a quarterback and an athlete,” Lucey said. “He’s just an impressive young man. He’s going to Stanford for a reason.”

Kiilsgaard, who considered scholarship offers from eight Pacific-10 Conference programs, had 23 rushing touchdowns and 13 passing TDs as a senior, propelling Auburn to the 3A state title game.

Stay cool: The generally mild weather this week has been much cooler than last year, and that’s fine with Ward, the West team head coach.

“We didn’t want to come out here in 80- (or) 90-degree weather and get cramps. We’re taking a lot of water breaks. The guys are getting their bodies in shape to perform and the heat would have just been another element to deal with.”

The forecast for today is a high temperature in the low 70s and mostly cloudy.

Snore wars: Marc-Avery Airhart is a loud dude, even in his sleep. Taylor Hudson, teammates with Airhart on the West team, roomed with the boisterous Airhart this week. Even at night, Airhart commands attention. Said Hudson, “He snores like a bear. We all go to sleep before he does.”

That’s nothing, said Airhart of Kennedy High. During high school wrestling trips, Airhart and teammate Kevin Freitag had epic snoring battles, to the dismay of everyone in earshot.

“We had to sleep in the same hotel and it was bad,” Airhart said. “(Freitag) and I would have snore wars.”