The Seahawks aren’t the only local football team getting ready to start the fall season, as practices began last week for the Vashon High School (VHS) Pirates varsity and junior varsity (JV) football teams.
In preparation for their home opener on Sept. 4, the team will play in a jamboree this Friday at Franklin Pierce High School under the direction of new head coach Brynie Robinson.
“We have high hopes for the season,” Robinson said, “but the goal right now is for the team to come together as a family.”
Robinson comes to VHS with 10 years of assistant-coaching experience under his father, a veteran coach of 42 years. He and his wife live in Oregon, but they felt a head-coaching job would be worth the weekend commute for the season.
With 46 students currently on the team roster, VHS will be able to field a JV squad for the first time in several years.
“That’s really exciting,” Robinson said. “We didn’t want people who had beards going up against people who can’t grow them yet. This will allow for much more evenly matched physical match-ups.”
Given the sparsity of last year’s roster and a team that saw its athletes playing multiple positions on both offense and defense with no back-up, this sudden explosion of interest seems almost unimaginable.
Cheryl Pruett, mother of two team members and president of the team’s parent support group, the Bounty Club, credited Robinson for this season’s surge in sign-ups .
“He’s done a good job of recruiting,” she said. “He’s brought a level of enthusiasm that feels new.”
Robinson, however, believed most of the athletes were interested before he was in the picture.
“This is much larger than me,” he said.
In addition to the new coach, interest in the team and enthusiasm, there is one more new addition to this year’s program — a female freshman.
“She’s looking to be a linebacker/lineman,” Robinson noted. “She’s handling it well. I think she can hold her own.”
The coaching side of the team has also been the beneficiary of a big boost in public interest, with a total of six signed on for the season, including a dedicated strength coach. None are parents of kids on the team, though assistant coach Jason Butler is a teacher at VHS.
Both Pruett and Robinson said that the biggest goal for this season is to generate more engagement and excitement in the community.
“We want to see more people in the stands,” Pruett said. “It would be great if it weren’t just parents and the band. It would be better for morale, and nice for the kids who stuck it out when there were only 16 on the roster and no one was coming to the games.”
The Pirates will play at home against Forks High School in their season opener at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, at the VHS stadium. (Note: This is before classes begin for the semester.)
