It sometimes feels to Archbishop Murphy football players as if coach Terry Ennis has about 40 sets of eyes. One pair to scrutinize each of them.
“That’s good,” Ennis said with a slight chuckle. “That’s a nice little fantasy we can keep promoting.”
Fantasy? Don’t believe it for a minute. The players don’t.
They can feel Ennis’ eyes bearing down on each and every one of them on each and every play.
They say he doesn’t miss a thing. On the field or anywhere else.
They can be watching film of the last game and agree that the play they just saw appeared perfect.
To everyone but one person, that is. Ennis might grade them down for breaking from the huddle wrong.
It’s the meticulous attention to detail that has been a trademark of Ennis-coached teams for more than 35 years, making him one of the most successful high school coaches in the state.
His Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy team, which meets Lakewood today in a clash of Cascade Conference unbeaten heavyweights, is riding a 35-game winning streak that includes two Class 1A state championships, though if you ask the players how many games they’ve won in a row, you’ll get blank looks all around.
A referee did just that before a game this season. “You guys have a pretty big winning streak,” he said. “How long is it?”
The players shrugged. “We’re probably better off not knowing,” lineman Nick Pettinger said.
The only thing Ennis wants them thinking about is the play they’re about to run. If they don’t take care of the business at hand, there’ll be no streak.
That’s why any practice Ennis conducts is like an intense, well-organized, efficiently-run classroom. There’s no messing around, no wasted motion, no idle chatter. Players who aren’t in on a play had better be watching closely what’s going on or they’ll hear about it.
The all-seeing eyes of the head coach pick up on this stuff, as one player found out at practice this week when he wasn’t paying attention.
“I’ve actually gotten better about the yelling,” Ennis said as he sat in the team’s training room later that evening. “A voice teacher back in the 70s told me I was going to ruin my vocal cords if I kept yelling like that.”
If he isn’t yelling, a player feels left out. If he’s on your case, you know he cares, he’s trying to make you better. It’s almost a compliment to be criticized, one player said.
What these kids might not realize is that they’re receiving the kind of instruction that’ll benefit them enormously if they go on to play college football. Just ask Austin Matson, who starred for Ennis at Cascade High then lettered four years as a defensive end at Washington State.
Matson, who now serves as an assistant coach at ATM, says the preparation he got in high school “put me ahead of the best athletes on the field” in college.
I spent a season watching a Cascade football team that was favored to win a state championship. I went to practices two and three times a week and attended every game.
Every practice was like a clinic. Every game like a final exam.
The pregame locker room was as quiet as a church congregation in prayer. Everything was very business-like. Poker-faced teenagers came in, got dressed, sat waiting silently to go on the field with their specialty groups.
Things apparently haven’t changed much. Game faces. No music. Little chatter.
“If there’s a lot of casual talk going on, that’s usually an indicator that they’re not ready to play,” Ennis said. “Sometimes when they’re talking quietly about assignments, that’s probably more positive than sitting in silence.”
Routine is important to football coaches and they’re concerned when anything disrupts it. Ennis recalled that the bus which was to take his Cascade team to Everett Memorial Stadium didn’t show up at the high school one night, so the players piled into their cars and drove themselves to the game. “That could have been a disaster,” he said, “but we went down, played a good game, and beat Kentridge in the playoffs.”
The concentration wasn’t broken despite the interruption.
While it’s understood that the pregame locker room is quiet, Ennis encourages discussion at halftime. He wants input from his players about why a certain play isn’t working or what they think will work in the second half. “It’s like a big brain-storming session,” Matson said.
“We ask them to make a lot of decisions and to recognize a lot of things,” Ennis said. “They’re out there playing. They’re the guys who should give us good feedback. A two-year senior lineman should be able to see more than what’s happening just in front of him.”
It’s when his team regresses for a moment that Ennis sometimes questions whether he’s reaching his kids. “Here we are in the 10th week and we’re teaching things we started in week one,” he said. “That’s frustrating.”
His players have done something right this season. In winning all nine games, they’ve outscored opponents by an average of 46-8, and have usually had them dazed, if not knocked out, by halftime.
Yes, Ennis might say, we’ve had our moments, but … and then he’d point out a 5-yard penalty that stalled a drive by the third-team offense with a minute to go in the fourth quarter.
He complimented his players on a practice the other day, but reminded them that they rehearsed well last week and didn’t play all that well in the game. All they did was beat Nooksack Valley 33-7.
His vocal cords were working overtime this week as the Wildcats prepared for today’s home game against Lakewood. At various times, you could hear him yell good old-time football admonishments. “Awright, somebody better knock somebody down.” “Don’t take any plays off.”
The Wildcats will thank him on game day.
“If you create enough intensity during practice, kids will be relaxed and confident during games,” Ennis reasoned.
So far, nothing much has fazed ATM over the last three years.
The streak keeps getting longer and nobody on the team pays it any mind, including the coach. “I couldn’t tell you what it is,” Ennis said.
There are more pressing issues at hand. Are the kids’ minds right for today’s game. Has the field dried out from the rain? Will the good practices result in another not-quite-up-to-par performance? Are they good enough to beat Lakewood?
Before every game, each player writes down what he wants to accomplish and gives it to his most trusted friend on the team. “It makes you more accountable for someone else to read it,” Ennis said.
Then it’s game day.
As the ATM players leave the locker room for the opening kickoff, they’ll touch a sign that reads: Play like a champion today, a slogan that Ennis borrowed on a visit to Notre Dame a few years ago.
The ‘Cats have lived up to it exceedingly well.
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