Shorecrest Scots
SHORELINE — After winning just five games the previous three seasons, the Shorecrest Scots showed signs of life in 2015, winning three of their first four games.
The Scots appeared to be closing in on a fourth victory in the fifth game of the season, leading Mountlake Terrace 20-0 before eventually falling 30-26. Shorecrest didn’t win another game.
“One of the things that this program has to learn how to do is win those types of games,” Shorecrest coach Brandon Christensen said. “It was a big experience for those kids, not in the position of having had that much success early in the season.”
As a 2A school playing in a 3A league, the Scots still had an opportunity to make the playoffs with a crossover win against Lakewood in Week 9, but the Cougars outlasted the Scots 24-19. After competing as a 2A school the past two seasons, the Scots are once again 3A.
It may seem like a big jump back up, but not much changes for the Scots. Shorecrest will stay in the Wesco 3A South and play many of the same opponents it has played in recent seasons.
“Our goal and our battle cry this year is to redefine ourselves,” Christensen said. “It’s not to take away anything from the other teams out there — I know they’re great — but we’ve been a 2A school battling them so it’s not going to be any different for us.”
Christensen hopes his team can get off to another good start this year, but that it can maintain the pace.
“It was a shot in the arm,” Christensen said. “It was like, ‘We can do this. We can go out there and compete.’ Unfortunately, it was, ‘now what do we do?’ We hadn’t been there for a while. I think that those wins last year and then the way the season ended fueled our seniors-to-be and our juniors-to-be.”
Head coach: Brandon Christensen (6th season)
Key returners: Jack Koss, QB, sr.; Race Treat, WR/DB, sr.; Jake Smotherman, FB/LB, sr.; Nick Kinkopf, RB/DL, sr.; Jackson Jones, OL/DL, jr.; Sadath Aboudou, RB/DB, jr.
Coach’s quote: “We’ve got some senior leaders at some of the key spots — running back and quarterback. So we’ll be looking for our offense to build on a lot of the momentum that it got last year. It was a much better offense. Defensively, we’re going to be young, athletic and fast, but inexperienced. We had a lot of really good seniors that we lost off our defense last year, but Jake Smotherman is an all-league linebacker and he’ll be anchoring that defense. He’s a smart kid and he’s really going to help those inexperienced kids around him.”
—Aaron Lommers, Herald Writer
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