From the Sidelines

After speaking with Wes Warren today about his move to Montana Western, I posted an updated story on our Web site.

Here’s the full story:

Bellevue’s Wes Warren to Montana Western
By Joel Willits
jwillits@bellevuereporter.com
Bellevue defensive coordinator Wes Warren has accepted a coaching position with the University of Montana Western, an NAIA school in Dillon, Mont.

Warren, who just finished his 12th season on Bellevue’s staff, will be the team’s linebackers/special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

“I kind of realized a couple years ago that I enjoyed coaching so much that if I didn’t make a lot of money in the profession, I’d still be happy,” Warren said. “I told that to Butch [Goncharoff, Bellevue's coach] a couple years ago and decided to do one more year because of the kids.”

Warren, whose younger brother Cam is a wide receiver at the University of Montana, was called by Montana Western after Bellevue’s season ended with a state championship victory over Liberty.

“We talked back and forth and I flew over and spent five days watching them do their winter conditioning,” Warren said. “It just seemed like a great fit.”

Warren, who did not play college football, noted a few area connections on the Montana Western staff. Offensive Coordinator Pohai Lee grew up in Oregon across the street from Liberty High School coach Steve Valach. Defensive Coordinator Travis Domser played at Eatonville under former Skyline coach Steve Gervais.

“They knew that me not playing college football put me as a guy that could have flown under the radar,” Warren said. “This is a great opportunity for me to get my feet wet.”

The Bulldogs, who went 4-6 last year, feature several players from the state of Washington, including three players from Liberty.

Warren is the second area coach to leave for the college ranks following last season. Interlake coach Sheldon Cross accepted a graduate assistant position with Washington State University in December.

Warren said he’ll miss Bellevue, where he was an all-conference linebacker, but he’s ready for the change that Dillon, a city of just 3,700, will bring.

“I just needed a change of pace for life,” he said. “When I saw how the coaches and players interacted at Montana Western, it reminded me of Bellevue in a way. This isn’t a business; I’ll get to maintain that relationship of working with kids.”

Warren will head to Dillon next week to officially begin his recruiting duties.

I chatted with Bellevue athletic director Brian Hercules for a minute last night following the Wolverine girls upset of No. 4 Mercer Island. I asked Hercules if there was any update on the rumored Bellevue-Skyline game next year.

Hercules told me there is still “nothing official” but we should know more next week. That’s when the principals and athletic directors vote on whether or not Eastside Catholic will join the KingCo 3A/2A. The Crusaders have to get 80 percent of the vote.

So basically, we still don’t know whether or not this game will happen. But like I said in previous posts, my sources tell me Bellevue wants this game to happen, so we’ll see.

Just learned that Bellevue’s defensive coordinator Wes Warren has accepted a job with the University of Montana Western to be their linebackers/special teams coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Warren, whose younger brother Cam is a defensive back at the University of Montana, just finished his 13th season on Bellevue’s staff.

Warren was an All-KingCo linebacker for Bellevue in 1997 and is a graduate of the University of Washington. He will be heading to Dillon, Montana next week to officially begin his recruiting duties.

I’ll catch up with Wes soon and get his thoughts on leaving the Wolverines.

Interlake athletic director Art Kuehn just confirmed that Saints star running back Brett Kirschner will sign with the University of Montana on Wednesday.

Kirschner, who helped lead the Saints to back-to-back Class 2A state playoff appearances, was being courted by the Air Force Academy, Washington State University and others before picking Montana.

The Grizzles were the FCS runners-up this season. Kirschner will join Bellevue’s Peter Nguyen, Cam Warren and Sean Conners on the Montana roster.

I’ve had numerous emails, phone calls and questions at events from folks wondering why Sammamish decided to opt-up to 3A, when its numbers would have made it a 2A school for the next two years. Many people have pointed out the success (and some say, school pride) that Interlake has found while playing in Class 2A the past two years, including two-straight trips to the football state playoffs.

Sammamish athletic director Pat McCarthy cleared things up today, explaining just why the Totems elected to opt-up to 3A. Mostly, it has to do with the uncertainty regarding playoff opportunities for the Totems.

Interlake, McCarthy said, is the only 2A school currently in District 2. If the Totems were to become a 2A school, playoff berths would have to be worked out with District 3 – which is currently in the process of adding multiple new teams. That uncertainty is part of the reason Sammamish decided to opt-up.

“We’re talking about a question of, if we make the playoffs, what is that going to look like?,” McCarthy said. “When you ask that question, there is no answer yet. We elected to, instead of not knowing what’s going to happen, not knowing what it’s going to look like, we elected to not go that way.”

McCarthy noted that it was a “really difficult decision” but said the Totems are happy to be in 3A.

“We at Sammamish have always been a 3A school,” McCarthy said. “We’ve always wanted to be a 3A school and that is where we have decided we fit best.”

Newport baseball coach Brian Fischer will not return to the Newport baseball program, according to Knights athletic director Gill James.

Fischer, who led the Knights to state titles in 1997, 2001 and 2006, has the opportunity to return to the team in 2011. Newport has hired Hal DeBerry to take over this spring. DeBerry spent last season, when the Knights reached the 4A state semifinals, as an assistant coach.

Here’s the full release from Gill James:

Newport high School baseball will be without the services of Brian Fischer this coming Spring 2010 season.  For personal reasons Coach Fischer will not be at the helm for the first time in 15 years.  The door has been left open for a possible return by Coach Fischer in the spring of 2011.  Newport has hired Assistant Coach Hal DeBerry to lead the Knights during the 2010 season.  Coach DeBerry brings and extensive baseball background along with having been on staff last year at Newport.

Under Coach Fischer the Knights won three state titles (97, 01 and 06).  Coach Fischer not only continued the success established by Coach Bob Albo before him but developed the Newport facility to one of the finest high school baseball field in the state.

I always appreciated Brian’s hard work and dedication to his sport.  Newport not only won a lot of games, but more important they won them the right way.  Coach Fischer has always had the highest expectations both on and off the field for players and coaches.  You can never replace a coach like Brian Fischer.  As an athletic director it is people like him that make my job so much easier.

I’m sure some of you have heard the rumors that Bellevue will play Skyline in 2010. Rumblings are flying around the web that the teams will play a non-conference game in September of next season.

Today I spoke with Bellevue athletic director Brian Hercules, who confirmed to me that there is no official game between the two schools as of right now. Hercules cited the possible flucuation of KingCo (with Lake Washington dropping to 3A and Eastside Catholic petitioning to join KingCo) making it impossible to schedule any non-conference games right now, since Bellevue won’t know how many slots it has to fill.

“We have to wait and see what happens, who falls to 3A, who goes up to 4A, because that will affect our plans,” Hercules said. “We’ve been hearing about a Bellevue-Skyline football game for almost three years. It’d be a great thing to happen, but nothing is done right now.”

That confirmation was echoed by Skyline athletic director Kevin Rohrich, who was reached by Issaquah/Sammamish reporter Kevin Endejan. Rohrich had this to say:

“There is no truth to the rumors. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but nothing has been booked for any non-conference games. There are too many variables in place preventing the scheduling of non-conference football games for the 2010 season.”

Rohrich went on to say it’s “impossible to finalize anything until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

My sources tell me Bellevue is definitely interested in this game, so we’ll see if it happens once everything gets finalized. The last time the Spartans played Bellevue was in 2007, when Skyline went on to win the state title. In that game, Skyline QB Jake Heaps’ first high school start, the Spartans won 6-0.

This would certainly become one of the most anticipated games if it in fact does get done.

Just received this press release from Newport coach Travis Whitaker regarding the Knights Kay Yow night. Full release below:

KingCo ticket prices are as follows: $6.00 for adults and students without ASB

$4.00 for children K-8^th grade; non-Newport high school students with their ASB cards

Pre-schoolers – Free

Seniors – 62 and over – Free

NHS students with their ASB cards – free for home games

I was so caught up in getting the news out about the Interlake coaching hire, it’s been a few days since I’ve been able to get this post out. When I spoke to former Sammamish and Western Washington University kicker Josh Lider last week about his experience spending a year on the team at West Virginia, he had tons of extra information that didn’t make the article. Here’s some of what Lider had to say.

Moving from Bellevue to Morgantown, W.V.: “I moved with two bags. It was nice, Fellowship of Christian Athletes were there to really help me settle in. My parents ended up driving across the country with my stuff, so I spent two weeks with just two bags in an apartment. It was amazing, you basically live at the stadium. The cafeteria is there, you watch film there, you can even study there.”

His reception upon arriving: “The craziest thing before the season even started was the people who wanted to interview me. I didn’t expect anyone to care I was even there and a bunch of people wanted to know how I got out there. That was fun. It took a little while for the specialists to warm up to me…I became good friends with a couple of the guys.”

On the competition to kick: “There was an open competition for everything, just to see who did better. The punt job was probably the most set in stone when I got there. I knew I was going to be an insurance policy. They put me in for kickoffs to bring in the freshman [Tyler Bitancourt] as smoothly as possible. It worked out well, Tyler had an amazing season. They had him do a few kickoffs to kick a little deeper.”

On wanting to punt: “I would have loved to have done punting, but I only had one season of it. That’s what I feel like I excel the most at. Even just doing kickoffs, I loved every minute of it.”

On being benched: “I was benched three times. I kicked one out of bounds at East Carolina and sat the rest of the game. I kicked another out of bounds in Tampa and sat two games for that. I was benched at the end of the Gator Bowl, because the kick didn’t go as we had hoped.”

Preparing for doing kickoffs: “It was kind of tough. I had to also prepare for punting and field goals, if i had to go in. We’d watch film and we’d watch what the other teams did. It was a kind of week-to-week deal.”

On his brother Chris, a linebacker and all-conference kicker/punter at Sammamish: “I’ve been working with him. I think he’ll play college. We switched him over to kicking off of the ground. He was getting the ball up pretty quickly. We’ve started the recruiting process, trying to get some letters out. I’ve done this twice now (laughs). He’s got the leg strength, the biggest thing is his form. I feel like if we can clean up his form, he’ll go to kicking camps, I think he’s got a shot, especially in Div. 1-AA.

On playing UConn a week after Huskies player Jasper Howard was killed: “It was a tough game to play. We had guys on our team who knew Jasper; I didn’t know anything of him. It was eerie preparing for the game because he was a strong return man and I had to watch him on film. I’ve done that with injury before, but never with death. The coolest thing was seeing how Mountaineer nation responded. They cheered UConn into the stadium. I really grew a lot of respect for them after that.”

On the leadup to the Gator Bowl: “We found out right after Rutgers when the Gator Bowl board came out. We were just esctatic for it. We were jumping and dancing around. It was a weird process to prepare for. We went from finals and school, to just focusing on football. For me, Florida State had a returner named Reed, No. 5, that we basically decided it came down to just kicking. Then everyone goes home for Christmas, then all of a sudden you have to head back to Jacksonville. The week we got to spend in Jacksonville was amazing. I got to see the 17th hole on Sawgrass.”

More on the Gator Bowl: “The only thing that surprised me was that Florida was cold. I was fully expecting to buy some sun screen. As soon as I ran out on the field, I felt and knew, this was an away game. There was a lot of Seminole red. There was a bit of yellow. We definitely knew that it was going to be a home game for them.”

On playing Florida State and coach Bobby Bowden in his final game: “Coach [Bill] Steward put it perfectly in the pregame. FSU is 6-6, but they have the emotion and the athletes…it is like plaing an undefeated team. They were very tough. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would play Florida State or play Bobby Bowden, or be a part of history.”

When playing this level of football really hit him: “The time it really hit me was the first game against Liberty when I ran out on the field at West Virginia. That was sensory overload. The band was playing towards us as we ran out of the tunnel, I didn’t even hear them. I was just going to make sure I didn’t trip.”

Was this even a dream for him, did he even think it was a possibility?: “Not at all. When WWU cut the program, I thought it would be Div-2 football. My dad and I laugh about it. My expectations coming in were very low. It makes me crious what my path is. Just doing kickoffs doesn’t look great for professional football. I didn’t have the greatest of stats coming out of high school though and I ended up getting there. I’m expecting another crazy path.”

On being asked to speak at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast alongside Bobby Bowden: “FCA is a group for anyone, but primarily for athletes at the school. Basically its a youth group that meets once a week, plays some games, has some dinner and then the leaders will pick a passage or topic that we’ll go through. To bring athletes to Christ I led a bible study at Western. The chaplin at WVU really liked my attitude on getting guys towards Christ, trying to be a leader. I became a leader with FCA and used my story about getting to West Virginia, how it was all God. There is no way I could have planned that out. To share that story, I was honored to be able to do that. I felt like I wanted to thank everyone else that I was able to get that opportunity. The breakfast had two athletes from both teams and the coachs. Coach Stewart talked about leading by example, not by words. Coach Bowden’s main point was his story of not knowing where your path leads until you’ve taken it. That really spoke to me.”

Anything unique about the year: “Travel. We had a police escort that wouldn’t stop until we got to the stadium. We had a guy who would run alongside the bus with a West Virginia flag.”

Did the level of play surprise?: “The speed was the biggest difference. My first kickoff, they got through and got to me. I thought I had the angle down. The first one, I missed, I got my arm around his legs and he was gone. I got him a few yards later.”

Knowledge of WVU beforehand: “I’m really glad I didn’t know much about West Virginia. That made a big difference. I felt like my brother had more hype about it, he knew more guys than I did. I didn’t have to deal with that. I knew and respected their athleticism, but I got to know them as individuals first besides just looking at their stat books.”

Wishing he had another year: “There were some stereotypes on me. This guys going to come in and steal my job; this guy is a strong christian who is going to judge me. It takes a year to get past those stereotypes. I wish I just had one more season where I could hangout with these guys.”

On coach Bill Stewart: “I thought he was an amazing individual. His coaching style…he wants you to be a great player but also a great person. That was his big thing. He’ll made you a good football player, but also a gentleman. He treated everyone the same.”

The fan exposure/support compared to Western: “The biggest shock I had was my friend emailed me a random tweet from a WVU student saying “I just saw Josh Lider riding his mountainbike. By far has the best beard on the team.” I couldn’t stop laughing about that.

How he felt overall: “I’m very happy. I fel tthat I got to see Division-I football at its best. I got to play in venues I would have never gotten to play in, like Auburn in front of 87,000 fans. I would never have thoght in my wildest dreams I would play in front of a crowd that big. I wish I would have gotten to do punts, maybe a couple field goals, but besides that I’m escstatic on how the season went.”

By now I’m sure you have all heard the news that Jason Rimkus has been named the new head coach at Interlake High School.

I heard from a source this morning that Rimkus has been picked and quickly shuttled my attention from a feature and a column to that news. Once I’d confirmed he’d been picked, I posted the story online and tried to get more information from Interlake.

After speaking with both Interlake AD Kuehn as well as Rimkus, I had plenty of info that didn’t make the article. Here’s some extras from those conversations.

Art Kuehn, Interlake athletic director

On why Rimkus was selected: He’s a quality person, first of all. He comes from a quality program and has been around quality programs his whole life. He has a great mentor in Tom Bainter from football.

It was difficult because it came down to two finalists; one person with some head coaching experience and Jason, who didn’t have any. Jason has enthusisiam and he has a plan.

Jason Rimkus, new Interlake football coach

On his relationship with Bainter: I’ve known Tom for close to ten years now. There’s a lot of things I’ve learned from him. Most of it is how to be a good man, how to treat others and how to treat people. Football is a secondary thing, that’s how it should be in high school. The experience is the No. 1 thing. Tom treats everyone like their No. 1 and that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. I’m a Tom Bainter disciple.

On his familiarity with the team: I notice their quarterback comes back. They run quite a difference offense so there might be some changes there. Coach Cross did a great job here, going 7-4 and going to the playoffs.

On why he chose to apply for the position at Interlake: I had met Art [Kuehn] before and he’s such a great person. He’s a big, big part of it. To be able to work with him day in and day out is really important. I know Luke Huard and coach Cross and they were both stand up guys and had nothing but grea things to say about the school. There was not one negative thing that they said. To me, it comes down to the people, who the people are that I’m working with. Everytime I spoke to someone from Interlake, it was just a blast.

What schemes will they run: I can tell you one thing that will happen is that there will be 11 guys running to the football. The best thing I think coaches can do is evaluate your talent to fit the scheme. I can’t be too specific yet but we will practice and we will play with a speed and an effort that is top in the league. I hope the community will appreciate that.

On playing in KingCo: That’s another intriguing part. If you coach in the Pac-10 or SEC, that’s where you want to be. You want to be playing the top teams every year. You can be tested so many times. I’m excited looking forward to it.

–

One other note: I was trying to reach Kuehn when I first heard about the hire but he was unavailable because the AD’s were meeting for Eastside Catholic’s proposal to join KingCo 3A/2A. Kuehn said it will be awhile until that’s decided for sure, but having the Crusaders in the league would certainly add another dimension to the conference.