VISIT TO LAKES HIGH SCHOOL FALL CAMP

Championship-contending football teams perpetuate that same mindset – and very few programs around the state of Washington exemplify that better than Lakes High School.

With early-afternoon temperatures climbing, practice was not slated to begin until 2:40 on the school’s back practice field. But 90 minutes beforehand, some 20 players were already on the field, stretching, talking – preparing.

As the outset of this season, a few of the veterans say that this has the feel of the 2010 season – a year in which the Lancers carried the next-tier contender torch in Class …

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What do preseason rankings mean?

Not much, at least when it comes to qualifying for the postseason. Rankings still play no part in that process.

But they’re fun to debate — at least in every classification besides Class 3A, right Bellevue? — and, if enough research is done and luck accumulated, can be an accurate predictor of how the season might unfurl.

Take the TNT’s 2011 preseason rankings. We pegged the eventual state champions in 4A (Skyline), 3A (Bellevue) and 2A (Lynden). We ranked the eventual state champs in 1A (Connell) and 2B (Waitsburg-Prescott) second in their respective classifications and pegged the 1B winner (Neah Bay) fourth.

So, take these preseason rankings for what they’re worth — conversation fodder and the impetus for anonymous emails that will clog my in-box — and we’ll update them after each week in the regular season.

Tacoma News Tribune’s 2012 Preseason Football Rankings
(2011 records in parenthesis)

CLASS 4A
1. Skyline (11-3)
2. Bellarmine Prep (11-1)
3. Mead (9-2)
4. Skyview (11-3)
5. Federal Way (10-1)
6. Bothell (6-4)
7. Chiawana (8-1)
8. Issaquah (7-3)
9. Camas (11-2)
10. Wenatchee (5-5)
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Unless you are at Mount Tahoma where preseason football camp opens at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the rest of the schools will start up later – when the sun is up.

The plan right now is for me to hit Curtis High School in the morning to get a look at the Vikings, then rotate around Lakes High, Steilacoom High and finally motor on over the bridge to see Gig Harbor High under new coach Aaron Chantler.

Meg Wochnick, the Olympian sports reporter, will visit North Thurston High School in the morning where a few former Northwest Christian players will join the Rams (Northwest Christian is skipping football in 2012 due to poor turnout numbers).

Here is The News Tribune’s five-subject primer for the opening of camps in the South Sound:

SET UP FOR DEEPEST RUN
With all due respect to Bellarmine Prep, which keeps knocking on the door in Class 4A; Lakes, which has the state’s biggest hurdle to clear – Bellevue – in 3A; and Tumwater and Capital, who now have to tangle with each other in Class 2A and the Evergreen Conference, the area program with the clearest path to a state football title is Cascade Christian in Puyallup.

Coach Randy Davis’ group has rolled to five consecutive appearances in the Tacoma Dome, winning the Class 1A state title in 2010, and falling a step short of repeating last season, losing to Connell.

The Cougars have their own issues to clear up, starting on the schedule. They open with a non-league game at Cashmere, then return to host Southwest Washington powerhouse Montesano the following week.

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Scott Nordi won’t need the moving van to travel very far for his next job.

On Monday, Nordi officially took over as the new Lakes High School athletic director, replacing Joe Keller, who resigned to become an assistant principal in Fife.

Nordi, 48, served as Clover Park High’s AD the past seven years, and was named the West Central District’s AD of the year in 2011-12.

But the AD position at Clover Park became part-time in 2009. That is when school administrators asked Nordi to teach two classes.

“I want to be a full-time athletic director, and this is my …

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With the high school football season a few weeks away, we’re continuing our league-by-league look at the 2012 schedules.

2012 SPSL 3A FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

WEEK 1
Decatur at Wilson
White River at Enumclaw
First-year Hornets coach Mark Gunderson makes his debut
Lincoln at Bonney Lake
Two first-time head coaches make the face off when Abes and Jon Kitna meet Panthers and Jason Silbaugh
Auburn Mountainview at Sumner
Woodinville at Lakes
Lancers’ brutal non-league schedule begins
Bellarmine Prep at Peninsula

WEEK 2
Renton at Decatur
Enumclaw at Central Kitsap
Mount Tahoma at Auburn Mountainview
Lakes at Bellarmine Prep
Early contender for game of the year in Pierce County — not counting playoffs, of course
Gig Harbor at Peninsula
Fish Bowl!
Bonney Lake vs. Sumner
No fish here, but the rivalry is just as heated
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Rhys Gervais is returning to where his high school career began.

Gervais, who attended Lakes as a freshman, has transferred to the Lakewood school from Puyallup High, Lancers coach Dave Miller confirmed.

Gervais, who was a second-team all-SPSL South quarterback last fall, provides a reloading Lakes squad with a run-pass threat at quarterback. Gervais completed 122 of 231 passes for 1,948 yards, 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions last fall, leading the league in completions, yards and touchdowns.
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Lakes High’s Izaic Yorks placed second in the men’s 1,500 meters at the USA Track an Field Junior Outdoor Championships Sunday at the University of Indiana.

Yorks finished with a time of 3:46.67, just behind winner Austin Mudd of Wisconsin, who won in 3:46.50. Here are complete results.

According to Lakes coach Joe Clark, Yorks powered past three runners on the home stretch and secured a spot at the World Championships next month at Barcelona, Spain.
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Lakes High didn’t have to look far to fill its boys basketball head coach vacancy. The Lancers stayed in-building, appointing Nick Jensen, a PE teacher at Lakes, as head coach.

“This is the perfect fit,” Jensen said.

Though he teaches at Lakes, Jensen, 34, has been an assistant boys basketball coach at Bellarmine Prep for the past 11 seasons. This is Jensen’s first head coaching position.

“Being in the school, I know the kids and all the success they’ve had the last five years under (former coach JoJo Rodriguez),” Jensen said. “I don’t know a better job out there to be able to step into such such a successful program.”
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