When Skyline senior quarterback Max Browne announced he would continue his football career and education at the University of Southern California after graduating from Skyline in 2013, he and head coach Mat Taylor sat in front of a projector screen as highlights from the senior’s career played in the background.
Scenes of a much younger, slightly built Browne slinging touchdowns in the Skyline junior football system gave a clearer picture into the foundation of one of the nation’s top quarterbacks. Taylor has had an inside-view of that construction project.
“My first memory of him is just being Mitch Browne’s little curly haired brother,” Taylor said. “He was always on the field, running around.”
Max’s elder brother Mitch was part of the first class of seniors to graduate from Skyline after it opened in 1997 and also won a state title in his senior year, setting the program’s string of state titles in motion.
In 2012, it will again be little brother’s turn to add to the legacy of a program that now includes six state championships and a host of Division I quarterbacks, of which he may be the best yet.
“The year you remember most is your senior year,” Browne said. “Leaving a legacy is something we’re focused on, and it means going out and winning games and winning a state title.”
While the nation’s top-rated signal caller in the class of 2013 and the rest of the offense are expected to once again hit the ground running, the defense is more of a question mark with new additions to the staff and lingering concerns from an up-and-down 2011.
Opponents averaged only 15.5 points per game in four state tournament games last year, but difficulties against the run played a role in losses to Bellevue and Lake Oswego (Ore.), when the Spartans allowed six touchdowns to one Laker running back.
Don Bartel, the head coach at Enumclaw last season and a longtime friend of Taylor, will resume the defensive coordinator duties and Maui Borden, an assistant at rival Eastlake in recent years, also comes to the defensive staff.
“It’s going to be a totally different defense with a totally different energy,” Taylor said. “Our whole emphasis is defense and special teams.”
Bartell is surely excited to have the services of senior linebacker Peyton Pelluer, a Washington State commit who reinforced Taylor’s mantra of forging an identity for the defensive unit.
“We just want to focus on speed and flying to the ball,” Pelluer said. “The difference I’ve seen is the speed and tempo of the defense.”
That unit will be tested extensively in the non-conference, as Skyline opens the year against Bothell and its three-headed running attack before traveling to Murray, Utah to face Cottonwood and then the Kibbie Dome in Moscow for a showdown with last year’s 5A Idaho state champions from Coeur D’Alene.
Pelluer is confident the group will rise to the occasion after the strong finish to last season and the knowledge that this is the last time the group of more than 30 seniors will play together.
“We’ve been with each other through it all, through thick and thin,” he said. “We’re all such a tight-knit group. It’s a real cool thing.”
“When you have expectations, you have them for a reason and it builds confidence and a swagger to the kids.” – Mat Taylor, Skyline head coach
8/31 VS Bothell, 7 p.m.
9/7 @ Murry-Cottonwood (Utah), TBD
9/14 @ Coeur D’Alene @ University of Idaho Kibbie Dome, Moscow, Idaho
9/21 @ Roosevelt (Seattle Memorial Stadium), 5 p.m.
9/28 VS Garfield, 7 p.m.
10/5 VS Ballard, 7 p.m.10/12 @ Newport, 7 p.m.
10/19 VS Issaquah, 7 p.m.10/26 KingCo Crossover Game
