TENINO — Football in a phone booth. Smash-mouth football. Trench warfare.
No matter the conditions this season in Stone City, the Tenino football team isn’t going to change a thing after a banner, 10-2 season a year ago that saw the Beavers make a state quarterfinal run, and break numerous program records.
Even without the massive Takari Hickle — who rushed for over 2,000 yards a season ago at 6-foot-3 and over 250 pounds and is currently suiting up for the Beavers of Oregon State — Tenino coach Cary Nagel said absolutely nothing would be different for the Beavs this season.
“We do what we do,” he said. “There’s no variations. We’re going to line up and see if you want to play football in a phone booth. We’re going to do the same thing on defense.
“For us, obviously Takari is a special player. There’s no if, ands, or buts about that. But we’ve done a fantastic job in the weight room and we feel like we can go further this year than we did last year. It’s going to look exactly the same, we’re going to be tough and physical on both sides of the ball and we’ll see what happens after that.”
It took until last season for Nagel and the Beavs to see the fruits of their hard work, but while last season was satisfying in a lot of ways, Tenino is hungry for more.
Returning nine starters on both sides of the ball, including 1,000-yard rusher Dylan Spicer, all-league middle linebacker Randall Marti and four starters on the offensive line, the Beavers think they can do even more damage to the 1A this year.
“It felt great that we made it to the quarterfinal, we had a rough couple of years so making it felt great, but it sucked losing,” Spicer said. “It always sucks. We won’t lose next year.”
Tenino also did some shuffling around in its backfield, with new guys stepping in to fill Hickle’s shoes in new roles. Cody Strawn, after some injuries held him out the past two seasons, is back and will provide an outside run threat at the quarterback spot. Kysen Knox, who played QB last season will move to fullback, and Marti, who played on the line last season will head to the backfield to get some touches as a rusher.
Despite a stacked league, featuring 1A runner-up Eatonville and consistent power Montesano, the Beavers’ mindset hasn’t changed. A year removed from being unafraid of those teams, and earning their respect after a win over the Bulldogs and a narrow defeat to the Cruisers, absolutely nothing is going to change in Stone City.
“It’s just what we do,” Spicer said. “Dominating is what we do, it’s nothing new to us now.”
