Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

Friday night lights in June

Steve Graff ambled off the Lampson Stadium turf, shook my hand, and a smile creased his face.

"Let's go sit down," the Pasco ... errrrr ... I mean Chiawana football coach said. "I'm tired."

Guess that's 25 cents in the fine jar for me. But Graff's been guilty a few times himself during the spring of using the name of the program he headed up for 12 seasons.

"I've said, 'Pasco, get out there on offense,' " he said after we finally sat down to watch the next set of scrimmages at Friday's finale of the second annual Tri-Cities Team Football Camp. "Coach (Don) Hogue is in charge of the fines. He's the judge."

Graff in Chiawana blue and white wasn't the only strange sight at Lampson. There were four other new coaches walking the sidelines -- or in this case, behind the teams scrimmaging from the 35-yard lines toward each end zone -- including two more in the CBBN: Dustin Lamb, Graff's replacement at Pasco, and Scott Biglin, who's taking over for Craig Beverlin at Kamiakin.

Lamb, 32, and Biglin, 28, are taking over established football programs, one advantage they have as young head coaches in the CBBN. Another is that each has been a head coach before -- Lamb at Ilwaco and Grandview, Biglin at Kiona-Benton.

"I would definitely encourage any coach with head coaching aspirations (in the CBBN) to do it," Biglin said of being a head coach at a smaller school. "Either that, or get in the hip pocket of the head coach to learn what it's about."

Marc Yonts doesn't feel like a grizzled ol' veteran coach -- that is, until you point out to the Walla Walla head man that he is the second-longest tenured coach at one school in the CBBN (Moses Lake's Greg Kittrell, at 15 years, has Yonts beat by one year).

"You just don't see someone stick around at one place like you did with Craig anymore," Yonts said, referring to Beverlin's quarter-century with the Braves. "There's a lot more turnover."

But the young pups who're taking over CBBN programs, like the young coaches who seem to be filling NFL vacancies with more frequency, aren't babes in the woods.

"It's a deal where there's so much coaching going on in the spring now, you can get seasoned pretty quick," Yonts said, adding he doesn't expect either Lamb or Biglin to struggle in their first years in the league.

"You look at where they are, those are quality programs with a lot of tools to work with. They have a lot of talent, and you look at their staffs -- Kamiakin still has (defensive coordinator Tim) Maher, for instance. Even though they're at a different level, there's not a lot that's new."

The one question I did ask all the coaches with whom I spoke Friday was, "What was the No. 1 question you hoped to have answered at camp this week?"

Here are a smattering of the answers, in order of when I spoke to them ...

YONTS: We were a real junior-laden team last year, and you hope to see them mature, and they did just like we hoped. The kids were playing like the seniors they are.

ROB ORAM, HANFORD (also camp director): We wanted the kids to compete, to execute and to play good football, and we managed to do that.

MIKE NEIDHOLD, RICHLAND: We want to run the football better this year. Last year, we flipped it out to Jamison (Rowe) and he ran it. This spring, our goal was to figure out how to run it better, and a lot of that is figuring out the puzzle of the offensive line. We had a whole new group that we plugged in there. We're hoping to find some kids who can mix it up.

LAMB: Our offensive line. We don't have one guy returning as a starter on the line, but it's starting to kicking in gear now.

CHARLIE HOBBICK, KIONA-BENTON: I wanted to find out if they had the heart to play this game, and I think they do. We found that heart this week. These kids want to play and win for Ki-Be.

RICH HARRIS, COLUMBIA (BURBANK): Just to see if our kids could compete. How would they do in this kind of scrimmage situation? We had to show that we could compete with some of these schools.

WAYNE RINER, CONNELL: We have a few holes that we needed to fill, and I wanted to see which kids grew up this week, which seniors would step up. I always think, 'Gosh, how are we going to replace this kid?' And we always find seniors who step up. Dyrel Whitby is one who caught my eye a little bit this week.

BIGLIN: We wanted to find out who are guys are, who's going to be the gamers. You can catch balls and block guys in practice, but the true warriors come out in competition. We got those questions answered this week.

BILL TEMPLETON, KENNEWICK: We knew we had some guys coming back on offense, guys like (K.C.) Hooper, (Tyler) Morfin, (Drew) Loftus, but we wanted to see who will be the supporting cast. The surprise of camp was (quarterback) Trent Brown. I thought he did a good job last year, but he's matured physically, and mentally, he went to a couple of camps over the winter, and he's shown a lot more poise in the pockete.

ANDY TROXEL, SOUTHRIDGE We lost some great skill kids, so while I felt pretty good about the guys up front, I wanted to see who would step up and be a playmaker. We've got a transfer, Dallin Palmer (a junior from Idaho Falls), a running back who's shown flashes of Shawn O'Malley. I know those are big shoes, but we've got three running backs who we call Earth, Wind and Fire. And he's the wind.

GRAFF: Our top priority was to get better and to find out who's ready to play at this level and who isn't. Our O-line kids, we rotated in and out of there. Bottom line, up front is the key, and we've got a lot of little, scrappy guys who work hard.

DAN WHITSETT, TRI-CITIES PREP: We're going to play one 11-man game this season (Week 3 vs. Waitsburg-Prescott) ... and I didn't want my seniors graduating and not having a little 11-man experience. They know the differences now. The other thing, the kids want to see where they match up athletic-wise (against the big-school kids). They often wonder, but they never had the opportunity until now. (Coach Oram) didn't have to let us in, but he did, and it was everything we hoped for.

Here's some things to watch when teams reconvene in mid-August:

The chemistry between Wa-Hi QB Michael Weisner and WR Gary Winston Winston didn't play this week as he fulfilled basketball commitments (he's verbaled to the University of Idaho). The two clicked late last football season, and Yonts praised Weisner's work in spring ball. If the two play like stars, Wa-Hi could push for its first league title in a decade.

These quarterback battles Brenton Griffin vs. Cameron Wagar at Hanford to replace all-leaguer Travis Chalk; Corey Hutchison vs. Drew Oord at Kamiakin -- can Hutchison keep the job?

Big QB shoes to fill Stephen Garcia taking over for Andrew Mendenhall at Southridge ... Josh Morris for Carlin Andrew at Pasco ... a sophomore, Matt McCallum, hopefully solidifying the position at Ki-Be.

Can Chiawana develop an O-line? In G Nick Vincent, the Riverhawks have a good building block. And in QB Luc Graff, WR/DB Miquiyah Zamora and OLB Jordan Downing, who'll likely play some on offense this year, they have some good skill players. If the line comes through, Chiawana could sneak into the district playoffs (emphasis on could).

Til next time ...