The Playoffs...Where They Belong

We have heard it time and time again:  "He doesn't rebuild; he reloads".  The phrase is so over-used, so cliched, that it is virtually meaningless now, but in the case of Lummi Nation's Jim Sandusky, it is possibly more true now than it has ever been.  He has a 29-man squad representing his school in the 8-man football classification, twice the number of players of his wednesday opponent Crescent High School.  Playing in the 1B classification, the smallest of the small schools, he actually has more players than a number of schools in the 2B classification, and even some in the 1A classification (one of Wesco's 4A teams tried to make it through the year with only 25 players, but after a strong start, they fell victim to the numbers game and ended up with a losing record).  So, we know Sandusky can recruit.  And then, we found that 23 of his 29 kids were really kids, not young men.  He only had 2 seniors on the team and 4 juniors.  The rest were 8TH, 9TH, and 10TH-graders!  What?!!!  Run that by again!  23 of his 29 players were in grades 8, 9, and 10!  That blows my mind.
 

In particular it blows my mind because I have spent the past 38 years coaching eighth and ninth-graders, and I deluded myself into thinking that this was an area that I knew a great deal about.  I have had a few 9-0 seasons, but those were balanced out by the last two seasons in which we won one game.  Lummi's playbook seems complicated, but at the same time these young kids seemed to run their plays to perfection.  The final score of 65-20 was reached by halftime, and the "mercy rule" mercifully ended the onslaught.  The idea of a final score of 130 to 40 was something that no one wanted to contemplate.  From sophomore Deion Hoskins, a 240 pound, bull-strong starter at running back for three years (actually, he could line up anywhere in the backfield, at tight end, or in the slot as a receiver) to his hiccup-quick younger brother, a shorter, stocky version of himself, the Blackhawks look to be a power for years to come.

I still don't quite understand how Lummi's younger kids seem to have such high football IQ's.  We have had kids who could physically compete with the ones we saw on Wednesday, but mentally and emotionally...no way.  Our kids have a hard time remembering simple blocking rules (and we only give them a couple of them).  Maybe the older players become de facto coaches on the field, showing the younger players what to do by setting game-day examples.  Sandusky is a big believer in downfield blocks as critical components of his high-octane offense.  His two seniors, Jesse Cooper and Robert Scott, put on a downfield-blocking clinic for their younger teammates when their timely blocks paved the way for the Blackhawks' first touchdown by Jared Tom.  Explaining to a reporter from the Bellingham Herald, Cooper said that he looked and chose a guy to hit and "just laid him out."  What he didn't say was that the guy he chose couldn't have been any bigger.  He was their QB and linebacker, stood 6'3" and weighed 225 pounds, and, yes, Cooper did lay him out.  It was one of the biggest hits seen on a high school football field.   Scott was busy making hits of his own to help spring Tom.  It may not have been as brutally pleasing,but it was effective.  That, younger players, wraps up the lesson of the day, the importance of downfield blocking as demonstrated by your resident seniors.

As someone once told me, "anyone can make a simple thing complicated, but it takes a touch of genius to make complicated things simple".  With his 13 years of playing experience in the CFL, his creation of the receiving glove, his winning record at Lummi, and especially his work with the Blackhawks' "Kiddie Corps", it is safe to say that Jim Sandusky has that touch of genius.  Jim Olsen