SILVERDALE BAPTIST ACADEMY SEAHAWKS
Head coach: Al Rogers (41-34 in seven years here and overall)
Returning starters: 8 offensive, 9 defensive
Key players: FB/LB Curtis Dearing (5-9, 200), FB/LB Sawyer Junkins (6-0, 205), OL/DL McCaulley McGuire (6-3, 235), TE/LB Nick Ray (6-4, 185), OL/DL Jacob Vanzant (6-1, 190).
Team strengths: The offensive line returns all but one starter and has good size.
“The one new kid is also picking things up really quick, so I feel like that’s the group where we could be pretty tough,” Rogers said. “We only have one returner in the backfield, but those new kids are already confident just because of how well the line is playing in front of them.”
Team concerns: SBA is one of the smallest schools in its classification, and that lack of depth showed up last year, its first in Division II-AA.
“I’ll be honest, I knew what type talent we were going to see, but I think it was an eye-opener for a lot of other people around our program to see for themselves what we’re facing in this league,” Rogers said. “We’ve got decent numbers, but our backups are inexperienced, especially in the secondary.
“The big thing for us is avoiding injuries. Last year we had 17 of our 33 players who missed at least one game because of injury.”
Newcomers to watch: There’s a three-way battle for the starting quarterback position involving juniors Wade Jewell and Jordan Sanders and sophomore Brian Hartnert. It likely will come down to the two 11th-graders, and they have different skill sets – Jewell is a prototype pocket passer and Sanders is more mobile.
Season outlook: Optimism for a better season comes from the amount of experience returning throughout the roster, but much of that is from player who will have to contribute a lot on both sides of the ball because of a lack of depth.
“Our first-team guys can play and make us competitive with anybody in our league,” Rogers said. “Where we ran into trouble last year was the injuries and because we didn’t have the type depth some of those top teams had. They don’t drop off much when they put in their younger players, and that’s where we’re working to get to.
“When you have that many guys returning, not only does it help them, it also brings along the young kids faster because they can learn a lot by watching and listening to those older kids and the example they set. Our guys saw how much harder they had to work to catch up last year, and they’ve been doing that. I believe our future is bright here again.”