SHS success builds foundation for future

Published 3:44 pm Monday, November 8, 2010

rAfter Saturday’s 28-21 postseason loss to Port Angeles, Sumner High coach Keith Ross called the 2010 Spartans a “team I’ll never forget.”

“It was a great season,” he said. “This was a great team, one of my favorites. That’s the saddest part. I don’t get to spend another week with them.”

Against the Roughriders, quarterback Aaron Clark put the Spartans on the board first with a 1-yard run at Silverdale Stadium. David DeVries tacked on the point-after for a 7-0 SHS lead.

Port Angeles owned the second quarter, racking up three TDs. Spartan Cody Haavik kept the Spartans in the game as he and Clark combined on a 28-yard pass play. DeVries knocked in the PAT to make it 21-14 Port Angeles at the half.

SHS tied the game in the third on a 6-yard Haavik run and DeVries kick, but that would be it. Port Angeles posted the final TD in the fourth quarter for the win.

“It was a great season. We accomplished the three things we wanted to accomplish,” Ross said. “We beat Bonney Lake. We won the league. We went to the playoffs. We’re disappointed it ended that way.”

Dropping to Class 2A, the Spartans started the season with a win over 3A Auburn Mountainview and a double-overtime victory of the Panthers. They posted a 5-2 record to earn the team’s first league title since 1994. It was the first time since 2006 SHS football had seen postseason play.

The Spartans will lose a number of seniors including Haavik, who along with junior Tyler Salisbury, rushed for 100 yards each in the Spartans’ 275-yard total against the Roughriders.

Sumner returns several skill positions, but will suffer its biggest loss to graduation in the offensive line, where five holes will be left around returner Derek Horn.

“The young kids saw what it took to be competitive,” Ross said. “We finally have a foundation to build.”