PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend captain David Sua leveled his gaze directly on head coach Nick Snyder.
Snyder, whose level of excitement for football and for his players calls to mind Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, had done it again.
He’d interrupted his quarterback/fullback/linebacker in mid-speech during Port Townsend’s traditional postgame end zone meeting after last Friday’s 51-8 win against Bellevue Christian.
Sua, who’d just played his final home football game at Memorial Field, was in the middle of an emotional speech.
He was describing how he’d played the game with his fellow seniors at that field “since we were babies,” and how much the experiences they’d shared mattered to him.
But Snyder thought a pause for effect was the end of Sua’s heartfelt talk.
“I do that to him all the time,” Snyder said with a laugh.
“I could feel him shooting daggers at me right as I started to speak.”
Snyder’s interruptions are about the only thing stopping Sua, a hulking 5-foot-11, 215-pound bruiser, this season.
And like The Hulk, you don’t want to make Sua angry.
Opposing teams have learned that the hard way this season as Sua has helped guide the eighth-place Redhawks to a 10-0 record and a first-round 1A state playoff game at third-place King’s at 7 p.m. Friday.
Sua was the Olympic League 1A Offensive MVP last season after running for 782 yards and seven TDs on 98 carries as a running back.
He switched to QB to start this season and has helped Port Townsend continue to find balance between the run and the pass.
“I decided to go with the guy who I thought was the best leader,” Snyder said in preseason camp.
Sua has completed 46 of 80 passes for 595 yards with five TDs and two interceptions.
“He completes [nearly] 60 percent of his passes,” Snyder said.
“That’s a great number for a high school QB, and it really helps us to have that passing option.”
He’s also run for 659 yards and seven TDs on 67 carries.
Defensively, Sua has 40 tackles, including nine tackles for loss for a Redhawks defense that has pitched shutouts in five of their 10 games.
“He was all business and he was just competing,” Snyder said of Sua’s performance against Bellevue Christian.
“It’s what he always does. He’s so dependable for us.”
Sua was back at QB in that game after starting two games at fullback due to season-ending leg and knee injuries suffered by fellow senior Wesley Wheeler in a game against Klahowya.
As Wheeler was being loaded into an ambulance, Sua busted through the Eagles’ defense for a 55-yard TD run on his first carry at fullback.
“He ran over to the ambulance, they were just loading Wesley into the ambulance, and he said, ‘This one’s for you,’” Snyder said.
Sua continued his tribute the next week, when he wore Wheeler’s No. 44 jersey and rushed for 145 yards and two TDs on seven carries during a 63-12 pasting of rival Chimacum.
He’s also the unquestioned leader of a Port Townsend team that is low on numbers but high on character.
Sua’s leadership has even changed the way Snyder, known for his fiery pregame speeches, has coached.
“I’ve cut way back on my pregame stuff,” Snyder said.
“I haven’t had to get after these guys because I can see that they are ready to play.”
With the clock ticking before kickoff, most teams are huddled around a coach, getting some last-minute advice or encouragement.
Not these Redhawks.
“In the locker room before the game, [Sua will] say it’s time to get focused up and it will just go silent,” Snyder said.
“That’s their time. I don’t go in and do any pregame stuff.”
That focus stems, Sua said, from a desire to fly farther than last year’s Redhawks squad that lost in a stunning upset in the district playoffs. “Us as seniors, we were a big part of that team,” Sua said.
“We realized that things had to be different.
“Focus, effort, commitment — we had to show that from day one.”
Snyder could tell a difference before the first game of the season, a 49-0 drubbing of Port Angeles.
“We go from the football field [at the high school] to the stadium, and we used to go in and do that pregame speech for 15 minutes and then get in the vans.
“These guys, I realized it right off the bat with the first game, they were already in the vans wanting to get down to the stadium.
“They were so excited to get out and play.”
And if Sua and his teammates can pull off the upset in a true road playoff game on Kings’s home field, Snyder will let Sua talk for as long as he wants postgame.
“I’ll let him go,” Snyder said.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
