PORT ANGELES — North Olympic Peninsula high school football teams from Neah Bay to Quilcene opened preparations for the 2017 season sans pads and in some cases helmets, for the first day of practice Wednesday.
Team-by-team previews of the area squads will begin Tuesday in the Peninsula Daily News.
Many of the teams are looking to recapture the form that led them to the postseason in 2016.
Last season, six of the nine area teams made it to the playoffs, highlighted by Neah Bay winning its fourth Class 1B state championship in six seasons in a 64-34 romp over Odessa-Harrington in the Tacoma Dome last December.
Here’s a sampling of the questions teams will try to answer before the first games kick off Friday, Sept. 1.
Can Neah Bay reload?
The Red Devils finished 11-1 last season and hoisted the golden football, the state championship trophy, with their family and friends in a cozy corner of the Tacoma Dome last season.
But many of the big-time playmakers on that team graduated, including Cole Svec, Cameron Buzzell (the hero of the state title game) and Kenrick Doherty Jr.
Neah Bay does have one ace up its sleeve: Rweha Munyagi Jr., the Associated Press Class 1B State Player of the Year, returns for his senior season at quarterback.
Munyagi threw for 1,105 yards, 18 touchdowns and only two interceptions last year through the air. He also ran for 770 yards and 18 TDs and caught six passes — all of them touchdowns — for another 196 yards.
Sequim line play
The Wolves are expected to return Olympic League 2A Division MVP Gavin Velarde and third-year starting quarterback Riley Cowan, the league’s Offensive MVP as a sophomore.
Velarde, the 2016 All-Peninsula Football MVP, does everything for the Wolves on offense, defense and special teams, and has good chemistry with the strong-armed Cowan.
But with the majority of the team’s linemen lost to graduation, will Sequim have the time for Velarde to get open and for Cowan to get him the ball?
Replacing Hill in PT
The run-pass option worked wonders for Port Townsend last season, guided by senior quarterback Berkley Hill. Hill, the Nisqually-Olympic League MVP, ran for 1,554 yards and 22 TDs and threw for 817 yards and 13 TDs.
Hill has graduated, so the ball will likely be in the hands of sophomore Noa Apker-Montoya, an All-Peninsula selection at defensive back after bringing in a school-record 12 interceptions as a freshman.
Apker-Montoya is no stranger to quarterback having played the position in middle school and little league.
He should have senior wrecking ball running back Detrius Kelsall (916 yards rushing, 11 TDs) back to help carry the load.
A similar situation exists in Forks, where the Spartans hard-charging running back/tight end/defensive lineman Jack Dahlgren graduated. Forks did develop some of its younger backs last season and is expected to return many players who picked up valuable game experience as underclassmen over the past few seasons.
Answering the call
Quilcene and Crescent each made the Class 1B Quad-District playoffs last season on the strength of senior-heavy squads. Those graduation losses leave some large holes to fill for the eight-man teams.
And Chimacum also will have spots to fill at many different positions.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles quarterback Brenden Roloson-Hines, front, catches the snap while running back Riley Gale awaits a handoff during the first day of high school football practice Wednesday. The Roughriders had 50 players turn out on day one.
Lonnie Archibald/for Peninsula Daily News Members of the Forks football team jump for joy as they go through conditioning during the first day of practice Wednesday at Spartan Stadium.
