Tides have youngest team in a decade

Two transfers look to help team compete in Narrows League

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

Gig Harbor High School football head coach Darren McKay said his 10th year will be his most challenging.

The Tides have advanced to the Class 4A state playoffs nine years in a row. But McKay said this year will be the biggest test, considering the team will return just 10 seniors.

It’s the least experienced team McKay has had in his career at Gig Harbor.

“It will really be a junior-dominated team,” he said.

The Tides lost 31 seniors due to graduation. Some of their key losses on offense include quarterback Chet Thompson, running back Nico Youngren, and wide receivers Louis Lanza and Drew Burghardt. Defensively, they will be without safety Tanner Davis, linebackers Jim Dahl and Dalton Darmody.

The list goes on.

Last year, the Tides finished second in the Narrows League behind Olympia and advanced to the Class 4A state preliminary round.

Despite not having a senior-laden team this year, Gig Harbor still has a group of players with considerable talent.

Tides junior Austin Seferian-Jenkins is catching the attention of many Pac-10 schools and other NCAA Division I recruiters.

McKay said Jenkins, a 6-foot-7, 258-pound tight end and flex receiver, has 12 scholarship offers, including one from every Pac-10 school except Southern California.

The Tides ran a spread offense last year, a formation that was new to the program. Traditionally, They ran a modified wing-T, which consisted of a running play more than 75 percent of the time.

McKay said the Tides will continue to use the spread. As of now, two quarterbacks could share duties. Perhaps the most appealing is Barrett Schmidtke, a 6-2, 225-pound senior who will transfer from Life Christian Academy, a Class 1A school in Tacoma.

Schmidtke had started at Life Christian since he was a freshman and has thrown for nearly 5,000 yards and 30 touchdowns.

Senior Troy Castle will be Gig Harbor’s more elusive quarterback. He can play a number of different positions, including slot receiver and punt returner.

The team’s other transfer is Jessy Leifi, a 5-10, 290-pound sophomore from Mount Tahoma who will play nose guard.

McKay said Leifi caught a deflected pass during practice last week and ran it in for a touchdown. He proceeded to do a “Samoan rumble dance” that sparked some excitement.

Still, it will be difficult to replace Thompson, who both rushed and passed for more than a 1,000 yards.

And Gig Harbor’s defense was ranked No. 3 in Class 4A in terms of points allowed — 7.0 per game, including four shutouts.

“We’re having to tone it back,” McKay said of the teaching tempo. “It’s back to teaching again. What the team lacks in experience, we get back in effort. It’ll be the last time I’ll have such a small senior class.”

Two of Gig Harbor’s first three games will be against 4A state playoff teams, including Olympia and Central Kitsap.

Reach sports reporter Marques Hunter at 253-853-9246 or send an e-mail to marques.hunter@gateline.com.