2012 Earl Barden Classic

The annual Earl Barden Classic, the 2A/1A/2B/1B all state game, has announced it’s 2012 nominated rosters.  The game will take place on June 23, 2012, 1:00PM at Zaepfel Stadium in Yakima.

Head coach for the East is Jeff Bartlow of Waitsburg-Prescott, and Nooksack’s Robb Myhre is the West coach.

Players are nominated to the game by their respective leagues, typically as part of all-league teams.  Only seniors are eligible.  Those nominated players are then selected to the Earl Barden teams by the East and West side coaches, with the West selections taking place at the Washington State Football Coaches Association clinic and the East at a separate meeting.

You can get more on the game from the Earl Barden Classic Facebook page.

The Earl Barden Classic is a great event that puts a premium on providing the players a great experience.

Thank you to Coach Bill “Alex” Alexander and Tom Sanchez for providing the information.

Rosters below the jump.  Players are listed with their position as nominated to the Earl Barden Classic.  Please note that this is the roster as nominated.  The final team that takes the field is always different as some players are unable to attend and alternates come in.

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This past Saturday, the Washington State Football Coaches Association inducted four coaches to the state coaching Hall of Fame.  I had the privilege to attend and took a few pictures and some video of the event.

The dinner was held at the Bellevue Hilton and was the closing of the WSFCA Winter Clinic.  Attendees filled the main hotel ballroom.

And now for the 2011 Hall of Fame Class

John Hook

John Hook, Lewis & Clark

John Hook was a starting guard for WSU in the earlier 1970s.  After beginning his coaching career in California, Hook moved to Spokane in 1983 to become the head coach of Lewis & Clark.  In 17 years at L&C, Coach Hook had a record of 94-58-2, won 3 league titles, and made 6 trips to the state playoffs.

He is now the principal at Mt. Spokane High School.

Phil Pugh

Phil Pugh, North Mason

Phil Pugh began his coaching career at Woodbrook Junior High in the Clover Park district.  In 1974, he was hired at the head coach at North Mason, retiring in 2001.  In 2004, he came to coach North Mason again.  In total, his North Mason teams made 8 playoff appearances, 4 semifinals, and a state title in 1982.

Phil Zukowski

Phil Zukowski, Cashmere

Phil “Coach Z” Zukowski’s Washington coaching career began at Adna in 1984, followed by Rochester.  In 1996, Coach Z accepted the head coaching position at Cashmere, where he is currently.

Coach Z’s team have made 20 playoff appearances, nine semifinals, and two state championships, and an overall record of 227-79.

Bob Ames

Bob Ames, Meridian

Bob Ames played football, rugby and track at Western Washington University in the 1960s.  His coaching career began at Mount Si high school, before taking the head coaching position at Meridian in 1974.

In 38 years at Meridian, Ames has a record of 280-127, 3 state titles and 2 second-place finishes.

We have also have some video excerpts of each coach and their introductory speaker. The video quality and camera angle is admittedly poor, but hopefully that doesn’t get in the way of appreciating these coaches achievements.  The dinner was also more professionally taped and we understand the WSFCA will make a DVD available to inductees.

The Seahawks concluded their Coach of the Week/Coach of the Year awards prior to Monday Night Football this past week.  Each Coach of the Week was invited to a dinner and presentation prior to the game, and an on-field recognition just before kick off.

Lynden’s Curt Kramme was named as Coach of the Year.

Seattle Seahawks 2011 High School Football Coach of the Year, MeridianFootball.com photo

RENTON, Wash. - The Seattle Seahawks and Sterling Savings Bank announced head football coach Curt Kramme from Lynden High School as the Jim Ennis Award for Coach of the Year. He was honored during a pre-game ceremony at the Seahawks versus Rams game on December 12 at CenturyLink Field. Coach Kramme will receive a $2,000 cash grant.

Throughout the high school football season, 20 coaches were named NFL Coach of the Week. Each coach received a $500 cash donation for their football program from the Seattle Seahawks and a $225 Sports Authority gift card, coach’s kit and Seahawks jacket from Sterling Savings Bank.

Coaches recognized as “2011 NFL Coach of the Week” are listed below.

The WIAA announced earlier this fall that it would be live streaming state semifinals and finals games for all classifications.

WIAANetwork.com is now live, and you can check out the upcoming game listings.  First up is Morton vs. White Pass in the 2B semis.  However it looks like only Westside Tacoma Dome games are up, so we’ll miss out Bellevue vs. Kamiakin.

Dirk Knudsen at NorthwestPrepReport.com is going wall-to-wall with the Bellevue vs. Lakes quarterfinals game (Friday, Nov. 18th, 7:30PM at Lakes) pre-game coverage.  And tomorrow night, WashingtonSportsNetwork.com and NWPR will be webcasting the game live.  Beginning at 6:30 tomorrow night, go here or here to watch the game.

The Lakes Football Twitter account says that as many as 3,500 tickets have been sold for the Lakes crowd.

Prior to Blaine‘s play-in game last night against Cedarcrest, I thought that Blaine needed to win in order for Mario Gobbato, with 2,283 yards through 9 games, to have a shot at Matthias Wilson‘s 11-man season rushing record of 2,678.

Blaine lost, 35-24, and Gobbato did not break the record, but it was so very close.

The loss ends Blaine’s season with a 4-6 record, while Cedarcrest moves on to face No. 1 Lynden at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, for the right to move on to the 2A State Playoffs.

Blaine running back Mario Gobbato gave Matthias Wilson’s single-season rushing record of 2,678 yards from 1997 a run, but came up just 9 yards short of tying the mark. Gobbato rushed for a season-high 386 yards on 36 carries, as he surpassed 300 yards for the fifth time this season. The Borderites had won the previous four times he reached the plateau, but they fell 11 points short on Tuesday.

We have Gobbato at 2,651, a little less than what the Herald has him at, but we’ll try to get that reconciled in the off-season.

Mario Gobbato in a Bellingham Herald photo from Blaine's game against Sehome

Blaine ran 41 plays last night, and Gobbato had 36 of those on four days rest (Blaine played Thursday last week).

All is not lost for Gobbato and the record book.  He’s just a junior, and furthermore Blaine will likely drop to 1A next year.

As close as Gobbato came to the record, Johnie Kirton came within 3 yards of the record in 2003.  Jonathan Stewart also broke the 2,600 barrier in 2003.

And in 8-man football, Joe Campbell rushed for 3,477 yards in 2006 for Tri-Cities Prep (1B).

After, oh, about 2 years of off-and-off work, we finally have a much improved Player Profile page.

We’ve tried to better organize and better harness player information and stats into four sections under navigation tabs—Profile, Career Summary, Career Detail, and Awards.

Under Career Summary, we now have nice charts on a player overall production, including versus opponents where available.

Please have a look.  If you notice any goofiness, let me know at statewidestats@gmail.com.

Here’s some examples to look at:

• Mario Gobbato—current 2011 rushing leader.
• Joe Campbell—3477 yards rushing for 8-man Tri Cities Prep in 2006
• Kellen Moore—Heisman Trophy contender of present, record-breaking Prosser QB of the past
• Jake Locker—A Titan, and player #4 entered into the database.
• Matthias Wilson—Washington’s season rushing record holder.
• Randy Honcoop—1972 rushing leader for Lynden.
• Manford Romero—Foster’s starting QB in 1984.

An exciting press release this morning from the WIAA for Washington football fans:

RENTON, Wash. - The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), When We Were Young Productions (WWWYP), and PlayON! Sports announces the launch of the WIAA Network, a new cross-platform endeavor that will deliver television and web coverage of WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington/Les Schwab Tires State Championships.

WWWYP/PlayON! Sports will produce and distribute content for the WIAA Network, which when fully implemented, will feature over 200 state tournament and championship events each year.  Beginning this fall, the WIAA Network will bring highlight coverage of the Boys and Girls Cross Country Championships along with live coverage of 3A/4A Girls’ Soccer, Girls Swimming and Diving, and Semifinal and Championship Football.  All of these events will be available for viewing, live and archival, free of charge on the WIAANetwork.com broadband portal.

“This is a very exciting time for the Association and its member schools,” WIAA Executive Director Mike Colbrese said.  “We recognize the necessity to offer live video webcasts to gain more exposure for our events, the member schools and the student-athletes. This agreement keeps the Association at the edge of the technology movement.”

The WIAANetwork.com online portal is schedule to launch in late October and future announcements on television coverage are forthcoming.  In addition to airing live events, the portal will also be host to numerous “classic” state championship events and highlight packages from previous years.  There will be no subscription fee to view any content on the portal.

“We are very excited to enter into this new partnership with the WIAA. Our goal is to deliver broader levels of coverage and exposure to all WIAA activities within the framework, mission, and values of the Association and its members,” When We Were Young President Tim Eichorst said.

For more information on which contests will be broadcasted during the 2011-12 academic school year, please check back to www.WIAA.com.

H/T to the Kitsap Sun Preps Blog.

Congratulations to Bonney Lake QB Chris Brown who was named as the West regional Player of the Week by ESPNHS.

A 5-foot-11, 165-pound junior, Brown is the reported passing leader in Washington and may have had his best game yet in Friday’s 49-6 victory against Decatur (Federal Way, Wash.). He set a school record with seven touchdown passes while completing 17 of 35 throws for 394 yards. There also were no interceptions. For the season, Brown increased his totals to 2,581 yards and 30 touchdowns in seven games. He had earlier outings that included five touchdowns rushing in one game plus 42 of 69 for 478 yards and six touchdowns in a victory against White River (Buckley, Wash.). Brown’s team has suffered two defeats on the season, however, and in two weeks will be hard-pressed going up against unbeaten and state-ranked Lakes (Lakewood, Wash.).

Brown has indeed had a remarkable season to date.  He way well have already set state records for attempts in a game for the aforementioned White River game.

Chris Brown game stats:

Chris Brown, #10, thebonneylakepanthers.com Photo

Here are the WA state rushing, passing & receiving leaders through week 6.

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