Huddle up: Now would be a good time for Peninsula to win the Fish Bowl

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

If you ask me, it’s never too early to start talking — or in this case, writing — about high school football. It’s the sport around the Gig Harbor area that attracts the biggest crowds.

The Fish Bowl has the best tradition in town: It packs Roy Anderson Field with fans of all sorts.

I had a chance to speak with both Peninsula and Gig Harbor high school coaches this week, and I must say, just having a conversation about high school football prior to the summer seemed a bit premature.

I don’t remember practicing this early when I was in high school, but I admire the commitment of the players who have been training year-round, waiting for another opportunity to run out onto the field and crack some helmets.

When it comes to schemes and the overall mental side of football, it’s never too early to begin reading the playbook and understanding your role and responsibilities on the team.

I’m sure Tides head coach Darren McKay and the Seahawks’ Ross Filkins are excited to begin another year.

Maybe this is year the Seahawks will win the Fish Bowl. Now would be a good time to do it.

It’s hard to predict how a team will do, especially in high school sports. But I have a strong feeling the Peninsula Seahawks will have a much better chance of competing with the Gig Harbor Tides this year after Gig Harbor won in a 33-0 route last year.

High school is all about the turnaround. You get a good bunch of kids, develop them, and they become a cohesive unit by the time they’re seniors.

Such was the case when Gig Harbor had one of the best defenses in the state and a dynamic quarterback in Chet Thompson who ran the spread offense wonderfully.

I’m still scratching my head, wondering why they were unable to advance to the Class 4A state tournament with a team that featured 31 seniors.

This year may be different, especially for the crosstown rivalry.

Look at it this way: Peninsula will return more players than Gig Harbor. The Seahawks have retained their starting quarterback and still have Darrian Creamer — he bulldozed a South Kitsap player during a recent scrimmage — and the quickness of Al Rasmussen.

What I’m not quite sure of, though, is Peninsula’s wide receivers. The Seahawks lost their two best flankers — Jacob Pasion, who was their speedster, and Tony Lewis, who was their possession guy.

Regardless of what happens when the season begins, meeting a bunch of Peninsula kids in the film room and having the coaches instruct them on the dos and don’ts is a pretty cool sight to see.

On the flip side, the Gig Harbor players were hard at work at the school’s upper field. I’m interested to see how the Tides’ two transfer students mesh on offense and defense. Barrett Schmidtke’s arm looked pretty good. And I’m sure it’ll get stronger as the season gets closer.

About all he needs to do is lob it up to his 6-foot-7 flex receiver, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, and let him come down with it.

Schmidtke’s track record speaks for itself. He’s thrown for nearly 5,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career. However, Class 1A football is not the same as 4A. That’s like playing the Madden ’09 video game on the pro skill level vs. the All-Madden difficulty: The speed of the game is much quicker.

One clear difference between the two local teams? Gig Harbor still looks bigger, but the gap isn’t as wide.

If the Seahawks are going to earn crosstown bragging rights with a Fish Bowl win this year, they will have to spread the field and use their speed and agility on both sides of the ball.

With all this talk now, I’m keyed up to see what happens between the two teams. Why can’t the season start next week? I guess I’ll just have to wait — and you will, too.