EVERETT — There were moments during his sophomore season when Archbishop Murphy High School running back Jevin Madison wondered if football was still for him.
He loved the game he’d played most of his life, but the once-great Wildcats went 0-8 that 2022 season, losing by an average score of 37-8.
Madison stuck with it, and he’s quite happy with that choice. Two seasons later, Madison and his fellow Wildcats are preparing for a Class 2A state playoff semifinal. Archbishop Murphy (10-1), the No. 5 seed, will face top-ranked Tumwater (12-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Tumwater District Stadium for a spot in the state championship game.
“The couple of down years we had, our school spirit went down pretty significantly,” said Madison, who has rushed for 1,668 yards this season. “There wasn’t anybody going to the games. Everybody was saying ‘You guys are going to lose again, so there’s no point in even coming.’ All the grind and everything that we put in — all the hard work, all the 5 a.m. lifts — to have our football season being successful again feels great.
“It’s not even just football. It feels like our whole school is coming together as a community.”
The Wildcats suffered a few lean years in the win column recently, but their football program has seen its share of success.
Both Archbishop Murphy and Tumwater boast impressive football histories with legendary coaches in their past who ran the old-school, run-heavy Wing-T offenses to a T.
Tumwater has been to the state playoffs 33 times since 1977. The Thunderbirds’ trophy case holds six state championship trophies from their 12 state title games. Tumwater finished second last season, losing in the championship game to Anacortes — the same program the Wildcats defeated on Oct. 11 when the Seahawks were ranked No. 1 in Class 2A.
Archbishop Murphy won a state title in its first full season of football in 2002 under coach Terry Ennis. From 2002-19, the Wildcats went to six title games and hoisted the championship trophy three times.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the private school in Everett saw its attendance decrease, which directly impacted the number of students turning out for football. This year’s senior class has 88 students — approximately 30-40 fewer than usual. Eight of them are on the football team.
The school hired Everett native Joe Cronin after Madison’s sophomore season, and he’s restored competitive football along with Madison’s love of the game. The team went from 0-8 to 6-4 in his first season. In his second year, the Wildcats are one of the last four teams still standing in Class 2A.
While 2019 — the year of the school’s previous state football appearance — is fairly recent, Archbishop Murphy was far enough removed from football success that some families had to cancel travel plans for this weekend. After all, high school football is over for most teams well before the turkey’s in the oven.
Cronin, previously an assistant for legendary coach Monte Kohler at O’Dea, is used to practicing this time of year.
“It’s been fun,” said Cronin, an Everett High School graduate. “It’s been a cool turn-around. We don’t have a ton of bodies, but the kids just play hard and find ways. They’re scrappy.”
For the 2023 season, Cronin’s team had 25 players combined in the sophomore, junior and senior classes — a number that has nearly doubled this season. Cronin expected a sharp incline in victories when he took over, but the semifinals were not something he thought much about for the 2024 season.
“We’re kind of a year ahead of where we expected to be, which is awesome,” said Cronin, who has eight players who regularly line up on both offense and defense during games. “The kids have gotten so much better through the year. They’re coachable. We’ve got a good (coaching) staff and they work hard.”
“There’s an uncanny belief that they can win games, which goes a long way. It’s kind of that ‘respect all, fear none’ thing. They’re pretty fearless.”
One of the reasons the team has gone this far is that Cronin keeps calling run plays for Madison. Now a senior, it’s not unusual for the 5-foot-10, 190-pound fullback to carry the ball over 30 times in a game. He pounds the middle relentlessly, and then wingback Marcus Gaffney throws the defense changeups with outside runs. A pass play from quarterback AJ Bombach is almost akin to a trick play. When Madison gets the ball, though, there’s nothing fancy about it. While he will do damage in the open field, his job is to keep getting enough yards for Archbishop Murphy to force the sideline crew to move the chains after first downs.
“He’s incredibly tough,” Cronin said. “He just gets beat up every game running between the tackles. He gets banged on, and he hits the hole incredibly hard — and he’s shifty.
On Saturday, Madison will carry his rediscovered love of the game, along with the thoughts of doubters who have labeled his team “underdogs all season” while he totes the football.
He believes the Wildcats have a chance, and he’s ready to carry it on every play if that’s what Cronin calls.
“It’s one of the best feelings, to be honest,” Madison said. “My teammates all count on me — they all know what I’m capable of. They all put their trust in me. What am I going to do with their trust?
“I can take plays off, or I can give every play a hundred percent — and that’s what I do.”
The picks
Prep Sports Weekly Co-host Steve Willits has taken the Prep Picks lead this season at 154-39, ahead of KRKO’s Tom Lafferty (145-47) and Daily Herald Sports Editor Aaron Coe (152-40). The Thunderbirds looked like a machine in their state quarterfinal, taking a 51-0 second-quarter lead over Sehome en route to a 70-7 victory. Archbishop Murphy beat Sehome, a fellow Northwest Conference team, 56-14 on Halloween. Lafferty and Willits are taking Tumwater. I believe the defenses will be the story in this matchup of Wing-T teams, and the difference will be Archbishop Murphy kicker Kyler Phillips. His long field goal will lift the Wildcats, 13-10.
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