Meadowdale High School’s football team, like others around the state, wants to do whatever it can to help Marysville Pilchuck heal after last week’s tragedy.
That includes giving the Tomahawks a great football game.
The Mavericks will be on the opposite sideline Friday night when Marysville Pilchuck plays its first football game since a deadly shooting on its campus on Oct. 24. The game will be on MP’s home field, Quil Ceda Stadium.
“We talked about it with our kids and kind of what we decided as a group was, we have no control over the situation,” Meadowdale head coach Mike Don said. “Our job is to do what their community needs. … And if they feel like they need to play a football game, then our job is to go up there and give them a football game.”
Meadowdale’s players realize the bulk of the fans — both those in attendance and the many around the country who have become MP supporters over the past week — will be rooting for the Tomahawks.
“We definitely feel like we’re, in some sense, the bad guys here,” Meadowdale senior running back Rory Spillum said. “It is very weird going up there and playing them. It’s going to be pretty weird, pretty eerie, pretty hectic. It’s going to be an awkward environment.”
Added Mavs junior lineman Spencer Stark: “Obviously, we can’t even fathom what they went through. It’s understandable that everyone is supporting them and I can see where everyone else is coming from. But we’ve just got to do what we do.”
Aside from being a rallying point for the Marysville community, the game is for the Wesco 3A championship — and the No. 1 playoff seed that comes with it.
“It’s a huge game for us,” Stark said. “It kind of determines who we play in the playoffs. We’ve got to go do what we need to do to win that game.”
Stark said the best way for the Mavericks to honor the Marysville Pilchuck team is to give the Tomahawks everything they’ve got.
“We can’t just roll over. I feel like that would be unfair to do to them, to just quit for them and just give it to them,” Stark said. “Both teams have been working really hard so we’ve got to go out there and show what we got. Obviously, with the situation it’s going to be harder, but they’re a really good team.”
The Meadowdale players didn’t have school last Friday and learned of the shooting from the news and social media. They said the Tomahawks players have been in their thoughts and prayers ever since.
“When I found out, I was shocked,” Spillum said. “I couldn’t believe that really happened so close to home.”
The off day meant Don didn’t get a chance to address his players until right before the Mavericks’ game last Friday against Shorecrest. Meadowdale won 48-0.
“We just kind of heard stuff that was going on and the first time we really got to talk to our kids, besides a few of them texting and asking, was at our team meeting before our game,” said Don, who reached out to Marysville Pilchuck head coach Brandon Carson through email. “It was different. We didn’t really get an opportunity to brief about it too much. It was just an odd day in general.
“You really put football on the backburner,” Don continued. “I really didn’t spend much time thinking or prepping for our game. Up until it came to game time it was listening to the radio trying to figure out what’s going on and seeing how everybody up there was doing.”
At Friday’s game the Mavericks will wear “MP” decals on their helmets and the Meadowdale cheerleaders will give flowers to the Tomahawk cheerleaders.
Meadowdale (6-0 league, 7-1 overall), the Wesco 3A South champion, is trying to win its first league title since 2011 — when the Wesco 3A teams made up one nine-team league. The Mavericks have won seven consecutive games after a 28-21 season-opening loss to Lake Stevens.
“It’s a pretty big game for us,” Spillum said. “… We want to be champions and we know we have to go out there and play a hard football game.”
Marysville Pilchuck (4-0, 5-1) is the Wesco 3A North’s top team, thanks to Oak Harbor (4-0, 6-1) giving up its claim to the title in a show of compassion for the Tomahawks. Last Friday’s game between the two teams would have determined the champion but was canceled because of the shooting.
Don and the Mavericks know that football-wise, they are going to have their hands full.
“The big thing is we’ve got to get physical with them and we’ve got to play fundamentally sound,” Don said. “They’ve got big-time playmakers on the field and they’ve got some scary backs and some strong, physical offensive linemen and defensively they come hit you in the mouth. They’re a really good football team. You just have to show up and play good football against a team like that.”
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