In his fourth year as the football coach at Stadium High School, Jess Nelson has established a feeling on the practice field, in the locker room, in the weight room and in the classroom among his players that they can achieve a winning record this 2010 football season. Now, the interesting thing is, nobody among his coaching colleagues who would have winked at his well-known optimism in past seasons are disagreeing with him this time.

Throw out the suggestion of a six-win season for the Tigers and not one coach at this summer’s passing league camp balked.

“They are going to be a good football team,” one rival coach said.

“They’ve got some good things going on over there,” another said. “That quarterback looks impressive.”

Under Nelson, two seasons with 1-9 records were followed with a four-win season last year, beginning with a big upset against Foss in week four. The perennial Bambi of the Narrows League seems to be getting tougher.

And that quarterback? That would be junior Tyler Stumph, a dedicated gym rat with a 3.7 grade-point-average, who did not play organized football until two years ago. Stumph is also the starting third-baseman, who hits about .400 for the Tigers’ baseball team and the sixth man on the Tigers’ basketball team.

Stumph kind of typifies the renaissance that is occurring with the football team, and in this, the Year of the Tiger, he and his teammates are looking forward to a special season. Among the highlights will be the 100th anniversary of Stadium Bowl with a Sept. 17 game against Bellarmine Prep.

“It’s a very exciting time. We’ve been working hard toward this season. There’s a lot of enthusiasm – and a fair amount of confidence that we can be a competitive team and win a bunch of games,” Stumph says.

Winning a bunch of games is a new idea for Stadium football in recent years and with a brand-new turf re-do on the 100-year-old bowl, what better year to make that happen?

“Last year, after three close losses, we came into that game against Foss. All we talked about all week before that game was, ‘finish.’” The Tigers had lost in the previous two games 32-29 to Lincoln in the last minute of the game and 28-25 the previous week late in the game against Wilson the second week of the season, the game in which Stumph found himself running a huddle in a real game for the first time in his life.

“I got thrown in right when Cameron Robak got injured during the Wilson game. I really wasn’t thinking too much, I was just going in and playing and listening to Cameron’s advice while he had his foot in the ice bucket. I really wasn’t nervous until my actual first start the next week against Lincoln, because I had a lot more time to think about it.”

Growing up, Stumph, who is now 6-3, 215 pounds, kept encountering problems with getting on a youth football team.

“Well, the youth football program that was in my area went by size as opposed to age/grade. I’ve always been one of the bigger kids my age and it would have forced me to play up with older kids, when I was much younger than they were. Once I reached middle school they did not have football, either. Even though I was not playing on a team, I would watch football and play in the yard with my buddies, so it wasn’t like I didn’t know the game. I always planned on starting football as a freshman at Stadium.”

Teammates say Stumph had command of the huddle right away.

“I have a pretty direct style in the huddle and if a guy makes a mistake I don’t yell or anything. I just try to get him to focus on making the play the next time,” Stumph says.

Last season Stumph competed 71 of 131 attempts for 1,167 yards and 10 touchdowns in eight starts.

He ran for three more scores. He also threw nine interceptions and that is the stat that sticks with him.

“I just hate making a bad play,” he says.

Coach Nelson says Stumph is very coach-able, an attribute that has already yielded big improvements in his quarterback skills.

Last winter, and again this summer, he attended the Taylor Barton Football Academy and worked on his throwing mechanics and footwork.

Stumph says he appreciates the good coaching he has received, beginning in the backyard with his father and on up to the former Husky quarterback Barton, as well as his own high-school mentors.

“He (Barton) is big on having me follow through more and keeping my upper body ‘silent’ while my lower half stays active and balanced – keeping the ball up and not moving it so much. Also my position coach, Dan Coen, has some creative drills that I do during the season to keep my footwork up to speed and everything else where it needs to be to get better. Coach Nelson also reminds me a lot to follow through after I throw a pass, which is what I have trouble doing the most. Our two offensive coaches, Ross Stewart and Cory McBride, make sure I carry out the plays correctly and make the right reads.”

Stumph will have some other players around him, starting with senior running back Kendall McNeil, who will give the Tigers some firepower.

McNeil, the team’s leading rusher last season, has a quick burst and excellent change of direction. He also put on about 20 pounds and will be tough to deal with catching passes out of the backfield.

“We have some guys who have been here for the past three years with coach Nelson and are good leaders. I think they are so committed to this system that it really helps the younger guys,” Stumph says.

Some of those leaders, according to Nelson, are Desi Morrow, who will play left tackle and nose guard; Conor O’Loughlin, running back and outside linebacker; Martin Camacho, inside linebacker and tight end; Andrew Duchesne, center and defensive end; and Chase Hillis, receiver and defensive back.

They went through the one-win seasons and were there to chase down four victories last season.

“We finally experienced a win against a good team (Foss) and that proved that we could compete with anybody. Coming into this season that’s how we feel, but we’ll know for sure after the first game,” the quarterback says.

Coaches Nelson and Stewart, who both played on national championships teams three years apart under Frosty Westering at PLU, have patiently brought a new culture (of “hard work, team unity, family, really,” Nelson says) to the Tigers football program. It is now not considered undesirable to be part of this family. This season players from the lacrosse and soccer teams will be on the roster.

There are still realities to deal with, and their names are South Kitsap, Central Kitsap, Olympia and Gig Harbor, schools that have year-after-year built teams with bigger numbers of kids and developmental systems.

“The thing we’ve got going for us, is that every guy on this team just loves to compete and the coaches foster that and it makes it fun,” Nelson says. “And that competitive attitude is one reason we have improved. But when we come up against schools with guys that are bigger and faster, our schemes are going to have to be good and our execution is going to have to be perfect.”

And how does he feel about the player who is leading the Tigers this season?

“He is as competitive as they come. He is a 10. No, he’s higher than a 10. He’s off the charts.”

Note: The Tigers will be wearing new uniforms this season. They will also have on the backs of their helmets a small decal of the pink ribbon symbolizing the fight against breast cancer, a disease that two mothers from the team (Stumph’s mother, Mary Stumph, and John Stokes’ mother, Christine Dampier) are battling.  

 

Contact the writer at rwalter@tacomaweekly.com.