From the Sidelines

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.”