With spring practices opening Monday afternoon Eastside Catholic (Sammamish, WA) coach Jeremy Thielbahr knows that he is quickly going to run out of clichés for his team.
A year after downing Bellevue (WA) for the Class 3A title — and finishing at No. 76 in the HSFB100 — the Crusaders enter the new season in front of the line.
He dispensed as much coachspeak as he could right out of the gate.
“Hunter not the hunted; be the wolf not the sheep; brick by brick to get back, I’m sure we’ll use all of it,” Thielbahr said. “I know Bellevue is frothing at the mouth to get back on the field with us. I know O’Dea (Seattle, WA) is loaded, I think Lincoln (Tacoma, WA) could have another special group, and there are some other teams in Washington that belong in that sentence, too.
“In 4A people are already talking about Skyline (Sammamish, WA) being up. Camas (WA) and Bothell (WA) are good and honestly even before we won the title people would get up to play us.”
The Crusaders return most of its skill players and nearly a complete coaching staff.
Putting points on the board figures to be a lock this year.
The team will be lead by quarterback, Harley Kirsch. He will be flanked in the backfield by athlete Brandon Wellington and on the outside Matt Laris is to be counted on to lead the receivers.
Kirsch has an offer from Wyoming but Thielbahr thinks there is more to come for his 6-foot-3, 219 pound passer.
“He is the best quarterback in Washington,” Thielbahr said. “He is the most competitive player I have ever been around. He has helped us win a state title and the intangibles are there. I know recruiting is an inexact science but I have been around a lot of quarterbacks and I coached in the US Army All-American Game. Harley has it.”
Wellington is already committed to Washington but has offers to TCU, Arizona State, Oregon State, and Colorado.
Laris checks in at 6-foot-4, 210-pounds and is considering offers from Air Force, Boise State, California, and Washington coming off of a near 80-catch, 1,500-yard season.
Devin Arbis-Jackson also returns after a 50-catch season as a junior and Hunter Bryant is expected to step up at the tight end position after a solid sophomore campaign that saw him haul in eight touchdown receptions.
Defensively the group will have to replace its entire front seven.
The next couple of spring sessions will be important in finding out what the team will send out to open the season.
“We do our best to put our best 11 on defense,” Thielbahr said. “We are defense primary and then make it happen on offense systematically. We’d love to have 22 guys that can do it but if we only have 20 then some guys will have to go both ways, even though we prefer not to do that.”
One player likely to see time on the offensive and defensive line will be Brody McKnight.
Only Jonathon Webster returns from the teams 10 leading tacklers from last season.
The season will open with an out-of-state contest against Oceanside (CA) in The Honor Bowl.
Getting a victory outside of the boarders of his state is something Thielbahr believes is the next step for the program.
“We have to get one away from Washington,” he said. “Scheduling that game pushed our kids in the offseason. We dropped two games last year away from Washington and I want to get that taken care of.”
Eastside Catholic opened the 2014 season with a loss against Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills, CA) and then closed it with a defeat at the hands of Trinity Christian (Jacksonville, FL) in the Burger King Bowl.
The latter of the two stuck with the coach.
“I put a lot of that loss on myself,” Thielbahr said. “Those guys were as athletic as advertised, they had 11 FBS kids that all played like FBS kids but I think we could have won. Florida speed exists. They had a lot of kids that could run, way more kids than we had that could run, but it was 14-14 at halftime and we were pretty spent.
“If I were to do it again we would have went down earlier and got ready for the heat and humidity. That isn’t to make an excuse because they beat us and we accept that but I think there are things we could have done to change that result and if we are fortunate enough to get a chance to do it again we are going earlier.”
To get the invitation from ESPN and Paragon will require another state title.
Something that Thielbahr thinks can happen.
“We have built this thing the right way,” he said. “The consistency from the younger kids making it to the high school is going to be a strength for us going forward.
“It is cliché, I know, but we have won some games because our kids believe and loved each other. We have a family right now and I think that will push us again this year. Even with the target on our back.”
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