When most people around Washington State think about Metro League football, one name comes to mind: O’Dea. If Eastside Catholic quarterback Trey Reynolds has his way, the Irish will soon have some company.
After winning conference player of the year honors on offense in 2011, Reynolds is back with a host of experienced receivers to take another run at dethroning last season’s Metro Champs and 3A state runner-up and earning only the second state semi-final trip in school history.
“It’s all coming together this year,” Reynolds said. “It just feels good.”
The Crusaders reached the first round of the state tournament last year before falling to eventual champion Bellevue. But one week prior, Eastside came from behind to defeat Oak Harbor on the road in the defining game of the season.
Thielbahr and Reynolds both said that performance was a sign of things to come and indicative of the attitude inside the program headed into 2012.
“We just learned we can finish tough games,” Reynolds said. “It was that moment we kind of peaked as a team and realized, we would have a shot.”
Washington State University commit Markell Sanders will be one of the primary targets for Reynolds this season after what his coach called an outstanding offseason.
Peter Kimball will provide another experienced pass catcher while Henry Jarvis takes over Chevy Walker’s former spot in the backfield and should give the Crusaders a more physical presence than the departed Walker, who ran with more of a slashing style.
“With our offense, it’s more of a downhill offense,” Thielbahr said. “We think we could be even improved in that area.”
But more than personnel or even scheme, continuity is the main theme for the Crusaders in 2012 after having a complete season to digest the expectations of the current coaching staff.
This year, the focus has shifted to fine tuning the details in an effort to take another step in the building process.
“Before, we were working on a lot of things,” Reynolds said. “Now, we’re perfecting them.”
One of the first points of emphasis for Thielbahr was improving the level of competition during the non-league schedule, which this year means dates with Liberty and Eastlake.
When conference play begins, it will likely be familiar rivals in Seattle Prep and O’Dea standing in the way of a top seed and Metro League championship game berth.
“We want to start a tradition of Eastside being that team,” Reynolds said. “By starting off beating O’Dea and Prep, if we can do that, it sets that standard for Eastside.”
Thielbahr said regaining the upper hand in the traditional rivalry games will undoubtedly be a measuring stick for the program, but added that keeping the focus in-house is still of the utmost importance.
“The kids get excited to play them,” he said. “But it’s more about us and how we play, making sure we are doing things the right way.”
“Overall, we made some strides last year and we hope we can pick up where we left off. We have some good senior leadership and hopefully that can take us to the Tacoma Dome.” – Jeremy Thielbahr, Eastside Catholic football head coach
8/31 VS Liberty, 7 p.m.
9/7 @ Eastlake, 7 p.m.
9/14 VS Centennial (British Columbia)
9/21 VS Bainbridge
9/28 VS Seattle Prep
10/5 VS Rainier Beach
10/12 @ O’Dea (West Seattle Stadium)
10/20 @ Blanchet
10/26 Metro League Crossover Game
