‘We’re all ready to go’: Stanwood football prepared to prove the underdog story is true once again

The Stanwood High School football team accomplished several feats during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

In 2021, the Spartans earned their first state berth since 1996, ending a 25-year drought. It was also the third state berth in school history, the first record having arrived in 1973. En route to returning to state for the second consecutive year in 2022, which was a historic mark all in itself, Stanwood also beat archrival Arlington to secure the team’s first Stilly Cup trophy since 2009. The victory also snapped the Eagles’ opportunity to clinch their 13th consecutive trophy.

Though the Spartans were ousted at state in the first round and quarterfinals, respectively, back then they had a 5-foot-10 bulldozer named Ryder Bumgarner who rushed for a school-record 2,486 yards and 25 touchdowns his senior year in 2022. Taking the 2021 and 2022 seasons combined, he accumulated 4,201 yards from scrimmage and 46 offensive touchdowns.

But what legacy does Stanwood have now? The Spartans are, however, coming off a 2023 season where they tallied 2-5 league and 4-6 overall records, including a loss to Arlington in the Stilly Cup.

Senior linebacker and running back Cruise Swanson said the team’s mentality is on the same track to those of the 2021 and 2022 squads in that they’re “all ready (and) hungry … to see where (they) can take it.”

“They went on the field, and they didn’t care about anything,” said Swanson about the motivation of players on the state-bound squads. “They just wanted to win, so they had a different mindset than most teams did that year. … We’re a hard-hitting team, and I feel like we’re somewhat similar to that team.”

In addition to Swanson, Bumgarner’s younger brother, Canyon, who plays safety and running back, along with 2023 All-Wesco first teamer and senior offensive and defensive lineman Elijah Fleck, will all step onto the gridiron one last time as Spartans this upcoming 2024 season. All three were witnesses to the historic treks made by the 2021 and 2022 players, and they believe this is their year for their own accolades.

“They worked together. They knew what they wanted to do,” said Fleck about the previous Stanwood teams. “Only one of them is playing college football right now; it’s Ryder. They all came together and decided, ‘We’re going to play, and we’re going to win this.’ They came up short, but other than that, they came together as a team and beat pretty much everyone in the league.

“I really believe we have a great team because this is the same team from my freshman year that pretty much dominated this whole league up and down,” he continued. “What we need to do is just stay together as a brotherhood. It’s trusting each other and just knowing we can compete with anyone and not beat ourselves up.”

Jeff Scoma, who enters his fourth season as Stanwood’s coach, said there are 10 starters on both offense and defense returning this year, giving the Spartans much experience in various positions and a good chance at a postseason run.

“I think the goal for these kids is creating a new leagcy,” Scoma said. “That team a couple years ago had their own legacy. This team I think can do things even above and beyond that.”

Fleck expressed his appreciation for Scoma’s work with the culture at Stanwood.

“I remember sophomore year, he was pretty strict, but it was very reasonable,” Fleck said. “He kind of eased up on like super strict stuff. I think he’s realized you kind of got to play more for the players, not just to win. And once you play for the players, they’re going to win together. Wins will come, instead of just focusing just on winning. And taking those strides as a coach is big. I think it helped out our mentality as a team.”

When Stanwood upset then No. 8 Lincoln to reach the state tournament in 2021, there was a three-word meme spreading like wildfire over social media: “Shock the state.”

“That’s kind of what we’ve been living by the whole time,” Canyon Bumgarner said. “You’re going to be the underdog a lot of the games, and especially when we go and play Spanaway Lake (on Thursday, Sept. 5), we’re probably going to be the underdog because they’re a bigger school. That’s kind of how it works, but you just got to shock the state. That’s what we like to do.”

The Spartans’ path back to the district and state tournaments will first go through the Wesco 3A North sector, which will look different this year.

Arlington and Marysville Pilchuck, two successful teams from the past several years, have vacated their spots. The Eagles moved up to Wesco 4A and the Tomahawks down to Northwest Conference 2A. Sedro-Woolley, which comes from 2A, and Snohomish, which competed in Wesco 3A South the past few seaons, will fill the gaps. The Cubs have experience playing state-level squads on a regular basis due to having Lynden and Anacortes as conference opponents. And the Panthers have expereince playing Monroe, which has won the past three Wesco 3A South titles. Both Sedro-Woolley and Snohomish will be on the list of challengers awaiting Stanwood and trying to block the Spartans’ path to the postseason.

“I think we’re all really on board this year. We all have a different commitment level and our adversity was kind of crazy since we’ve gotten to high school,” Canyon Bumgarner said. “We had a new coach, new offense and then we’ve had three new coaching staff. It’s a little hard, but I think that is just going to push us in the tight games where we need it the most. I feel like it’s just a different type of mentality this year, and we’re all ready to go, and we’re all bought into the program and what the coaches got for us.”

What’s on every Spartan’s mind?

A red banner with white lettering hung in the entrance of the locker room says it all: Beat Arlington, Ferndale and be Wesco champion.

And it’s possible since Stanwood faces both those teams on back-to-back Fridays (Ferndale on Oct. 4 and Arlington on Oct. 11).

“I want to come out with a bang, do better than my sophomore year,” Fleck said. “I want to leave an understanding this is what I expect to see when I come back from like college. I want to see this is my expectation of Stanwood football. And I’ve worked through this program all my life. We played really good youth football together, and it kind of like doubled out in high school. I just know we have good athletes, and we can make those state playoffs and hopefully make that state title run. I want to make a standard, ‘This is what we need to do. We always beat Arlington.’ We need to change that around.”