On Wednesday (when the weather was still beautiful, unlike the cruddy buzzkill we got today) I stopped by Veterans Memorial Stadium and watched the Snohomish High School football team practice.
One of the first things I noticed is Snohomish has quite a few massive linemen who move pretty well. Panthers head coach Mark Perry, beginning his 16th season leading the program, said he is excited about his team’s experienced OLs as well as improved speed throughout the roster, compared to last season.
Here are excerpts from my post-practice interviews with coach Perry, OL/LB Eric Koenig and TE/DE Nolan Shilling.
Mark Perry, Snohomish High School football coach
Interview after practice on Aug. 25
*Impression of practices so far
“We’re looking good. Our line’s strong and (junior fullback) Conner McDonald is running really well. Our defense is a lot faster than in the past. It’s encouraging. Kids are having fun and getting better.”
*Snohomish’s solid player turnout
“We have 82 kids in grades 10 to 12, and 52 freshmen.” The program’s freshman class is impressive and it will be fun to see many of the most talented ones improve the next few years, Perry said.
*Which players are standing out?
“(Senior OG/LB) Eric Koenig and (senior TE/DE) Nolan Shilling are both right now doing a really good job. (OG/DT) Travis Pickett — he’s a junior — is doing a great job on both sides of the ball. Those would be the three most noticeable kids right now.”
Perry also said good things about junior OT/DT Darian Caldwell.
*Who will play quarterback?
Right now it’s a two-man battle between burly senior Blake Fenske and thin junior Stewart Mitchell, Perry said. Fenske is physically impressive but “he’s just inconsistent sometimes. The skinny as a rail guy (Mitchell) is doing a better job of being more consistent right now. If Blake isn’t our starting quarterback, I talked to him (Tuesday) about it and said we need to get him on the field doing something else because he’s 230 pounds. He’s a big kid. We’ve just got to get him to play (like) 230 instead of 160. It’s more mental for him: making the right reads and the right decisions are his biggest (challenge).”
*Summer highlights
Snohomish had its own camp and then went to a camp in Wenatchee for the 11th consecutive year. Near the end of the Wenatchee trip the Panthers always do an activity that Perry called the Name Game. Basically, Perry requires every player to learn each teammates’ name and the Name Game is how the coach tests them. Players sit in a huge circle — 55 kids this year — and one a time players move to the center and take turns pointing to teammates and saying their first and last names.
“For every guy they miss going around a circle, we do 10 pushups,” Perry said.
One year, Perry recalled, the team did more than 500 pushups. But this year, for the third straight year, the Snohomish players didn’t mess up a single name, which meant no pushups and a happy coach.
The Wenatchee trip was great, as usual, Perry said. But there was a major mishap. The afternoon Snohomish was scheduled to get on a bus and ride home, the bus never showed up. Perry soon found out he had ordered a bus for the following day, 24 hours later than they actually needed it.
“I was scrambling fast and hard,” Perry said, laughing.
Fortunately, one of Snohomish’s Wesco North rivals offered to help.
“About 15 or 20 minutes later,” said Perry, “we were on a bus with Monroe heading home. We rode home with Monroe all the way to the top of Stevens Pass and our (Snohomish) bus met us there, and home we came. So thanks to Monroe coach Dave Telford for letting us on the Bearcats bus. It definitely helped us out. Otherwise we would have been waiting there at least another hour. It was definitely a screwup on my part.”
Eric Koenig, Snohomish senior offensive lineman/linebacker
Interview after practice on Aug. 25
*Better team chemistry
“I’m having a lot more fun with this team than I have in the past two years. We’re all jelling really well; the line’s jelling really well. We all work together really well as a team.”
“We’re all bigger, faster and stronger. It’s a cliché but it’s true.”
*Snohomish’s big, strong offensive line
“It’s going to be huge. Any time you have a line that’s big, that helps. And when you couple it with speed and teamwork and friendship, you have a recipe for a pretty good team right there.”
Koenig will play left guard on the OL. He praised the ability of junior Travis Pickett (right guard) and senior Brandon Companion (left tackle). Junior Luke Reinhard is another large, gifted OL but did not practice Wednesday because of a sore knee and sore shin, coach Perry said.
*Who will be Snohomish’s starting quarterback?
“It’s a little up in the air. Everybody’s just got to step it up. (QB candidates Blake Fenske and Mitchell Stewart) are getting reps and somebody will step up, and we’ve just got to go with that.”
*Connections to North rivals Lake Stevens and Monroe
“I have some good friends who play for Lake Stevens, like (lineman) Gunnar Eklund. I’ve known him since I was a little tiny kid. Mine and his parents work together.”
Koenig also has a connection to Monroe High: his mom is a teacher there. “At (Snohomish versus Monroe) games she always has to dress up in a big hood and hat so she doesn’t get recognized by her (Monroe students).”
Nolan Shilling, Snohomish senior tight end/defensive end
Interview after practice on Aug. 25
*Team strengths
“We’re doing really good on running outside. We have a lot of real powerful, young guys inside. Junior (OL/LB) Travis Pickett always works out and lifts more than anyone on the team, practically.
*Improved team camaraderie
“Everyone’s really close. In the past years the seniors have kind of had their own clique. This year a lot of juniors are starting, up with the seniors, and that really incorporates the whole team. Everyone’s important, not just the seniors.”
*Learning to move on after the split with Glacier Peak, the town’s newest high school
“Last year we had a lot of big linemen but a lot of the backs and a lot of the (skill players) moved up to Glacier Peak. We were kind of hurting for speed and running backs. But this year there’s a couple of juniors that have stepped up and we have a lot more speed on the team. Hopefully that translates, as long as the juniors are able to step up and handle the responsibility of playing with the seniors.”
Here is a video clip that exemplifies some of the team-wide enthusiasm Shilling and Koenig described.
Snohomish High School football team conditioning drill
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