SEQUIM — Ask Sequim football coach Erik Wiker whether he considers the Wolves a run-first or pass-first team, and he’ll probably answer that his offense adjusts to what the opposing defense gives it.
A 2-7 season such as Sequim had in 2012 also can cause a coach to adjust, especially considering the Wolves been a consistent winner during Wiker’s tenure.
With a senior-laden team last year, it was safe to assume Sequim would continue the trend.
The Wolves opened the season with a 42-0 loss to eventual Idaho class 3A state champion Shelley and a 34-0 loss to River Ridge (which happens to be Sequim’s opponent on Friday).
Their next four games were against the top four teams in the Olympic League, and they lost all of them to fall to 0-6 on the season.
Sequim avoided a winless season with wins over Klahowya and Port Angeles, before finishing the season with a 28-6 loss to North Mason.
Wiker evaluated everything during the offseason, including himself.
“I wanted to take responsibility for what I did wrong coaching last year, and I wanted to improve upon that,” Wiker said following Sequim’s 35-20 loss to New Westminster, B.C., last week.
“And I think one of the things I’ve done with that was more unity stuff, more positive stuff — body language, team work and just getting back to my basics. We always tell the kids to [get back to basics]; I did, too.
“You know, the last couple of years, I started getting into the Xs and Os too much, instead of the actual coaching high school football — you know, demeanor, all that other kind of stuff.”
“And it slowly got away from us, and that’s my fault that I allowed it to happen.”
Wiker was far from disappointed after the Wolves season-opening loss on Friday.
In fact, he said was happy “because of body language, how they played, that they played hard the whole time — all those things that were my goals, we achieved.”
Neah Bay’s new game
Does anybody want to play Neah Bay?
For the second straight week, the Red Devils were forced to find a new opponent after Cusick canceled the matchup set for Friday between the perennial 1B 8-man football powerhouses.
The Panthers started the season with a low number of players, and that problem was exacerbated by injuries received during their 50-14 loss to Wallace (Idaho) last week.
As he did for the season opener, head coach Tony McCaulley was able to arrange another game.
This time, with Odessa-Harrington.
And this time, Odessa-Harrington called him to set up the game, so McCaulley wasn’t forced to do the scrambling to fill the schedule.
The game will be played in Odessa on Friday night.
The Titans opened their season with a 46-28 loss to Touchet.
They were also Neah Bay’s 1B state semifinal matchup in 2011, when the Red Devils won the state championship.
“They’ve got a good program, and they’re well-coached,” McCaulley said of Odessa-Harrington on Tuesday.
The game with Cusick was to pit the 2012 1B state runner-up Red Devils against the state-semifinalist Panthers in a potential preview of this year’s state title game.
Both teams lost to Liberty Christian, and McCaulley told the Peninsula Daily News last month that he thought Cusick played the state champs better than did Neah Bay.
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Sports editor/outdoors columnist Lee Horton can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
