Puget Sound Concourse

The Perfect Storm to Greatness

Mat Taylor called it the ‘perfect storm’. He was referring to the series of events that turned Kasen Williams into what former Skyline Head Coach Steve Gervais calls ‘one of the all-time best to come out of the state’. “There’s no doubt about it,” Gervais – now Athletic Director at Bishop Blanchet High School in Seattle – would say years later without a trace a hesitation in his voice. Gervais knows a winner when he sees one. Over 30 years coaching in the state of Washington, as well as six state titles from programs ranging from Eatonville to Skyline, means Gervais has earned a lot of credibility when it comes to eyeballing football talent.

Not that it would have taken a trained eye to spot the little kid running up and down the field during little league football in Issaquah. Gervais, as well as Taylor – his receivers coach at the time – liked to check out the lower levels, see who might be coming around the bend at Skyline, then a high school in its infancy.

‘Gerv’ relished the thought of building a program from the ground up. That’s what took him to the Plateau. Taylor knew he was in good hands too, because he wanted to have a future coaching the game. Same could be said for Gervais’ Defensive Coordinator, Chad Barrett.

But this kid running around, he was clearly cut from a different cloth. They would find out later the kid’s name. It was Kasen Williams . “He could run. He was dominant as a runner,” Gervais said. Watching him run was the easy part; getting him to stick around the east side might take some doing, as private schools were always known to look around and do their own little bits of recruiting.

“We just wanted to make sure we could get him to Skyline.” Gervais would say.

Kasen’s family was looking hard at Skyline. They liked the fact that Gervais was having success. The Spartans had already won state titles. Kasen’s mother Rhonda was especially interested in one aspect of Gervais’ program – no freshmen were allowed to play.

“That was a good rule,” she said. “I liked that.”

It wasn’t that Rhonda didn’t think Kasen could handle himself. But she wanted him to be able to learn and grow at the appropriate pace. Kasen’s father Aaron – a former receiver at the University of Washington – had absolutely no problems with this rule either. It just made sense.

Grumblehog: Nothing to do with this Photo II

Today, you get this photo, with some random thoughts on the weather. Seattle is a bit weather-obsessed. People think about the weather, talk about the weather, worry about the weather, complain about the weather, and watch the skies. It's a big topic of conversation around here and I've noticed that it's a big topic of conversation for those of you who want to talk to us about what it's like to have moved here. Everybody wants to know if it's raining every day!! Which is why I tend to mention it a lot in this blog, or take pictures of all the sunny days and beautiful skies to show you. - "Think of [the storm] as a concert at KeyArena. The low pressure center is the big speaker on the stage and the wind is the sound of music. Those in Northwestern B.C. are sitting in the front row, those on the coast are sitting about halfway back, while the North Interior is in the back row. Meanwhile the Puget Sound is out in the concourse -- still within earshot of the concert, but muffled a bit.

Racing pigeon bulletin

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... in Tacoma under its auspices, followed to his last resting place by a large concourse of friends who had known him to be so upright and worthy in life. ...