Gorillas Don’t Kiss Off Football Davenport’s State Title Date Caps Revival In Boys Sports

Hours prior to the most important game of their lives, Tyson Deal plotted to kiss Evan Johnson’s girlfriend in front of several spectators.

Team discord brewing, perhaps?

No, just another example of the diversity of Davenport’s senior football players.

At noon Saturday, the fourth-ranked Gorillas’ stage will be the WIAA/U.S. Bank Gridiron Classic State B-11 title game against second-ranked Tacoma Baptist (12-0).

On Thursday night, the stage was Davenport’s auditorium for a production of “Bye-Bye Birdie.” Deal, Davenport’s all-league offensive lineman, linebacker and kicker, played the lead role of an Elvis-like Lothario hellbent on smooching a girl attached to Hugo (played by Johnson).

“(Drama) was the only class open for me this year,” said Deal, one of the team’s free spirits.

Davenport’s seniors have acted their parts since shortly after Deal moved from California in fifth grade.

The group of Deal, Johnson, Marty Parsons, Cliff Swain, Steve Cannon and Jason Schneider has played above its head for seven years.

As sixth-graders, they helped fill spots on the junior high baseball team. When the high school’s junior varsity basketball team needed players, the state allowed the talented junior high schoolers to move up. Also in junior high, the talented crop helped convert the football program from flag to tackle.

As freshmen on the JV basketball team, they watched Davenport’s varsity boys finish 0-20 while the girls won the state title.

“The girls got everything when they were winning,” said Cannon, an all-league lineman both ways. “People would leave before the boys game.”

The following year, the Gorillas made the jump from B-8 football to B-11. They tumbled from competitor to also-ran, with a 3-6 record. During the same season, Davenport’s girls won the state volleyball title.

Yet subtle changes had begun to occur in boys athletics. More and more basketball games went Davenport’s way. The baseball team was shaping itself into the unit that finished 18-3 last year.

Football, meanwhile, was making the jump from pushover to punisher. Davenport tied for last year’s Northeast B title and lost to Waterville in a state qualifying playoff.

The Gorillas (11-1) had a slip-up this year against league champ Reardan, but avoided another playoff Waterloo with Waterville. In succession, Davenport has mowed down Waterville, Tekoa-Oakesdale and Oroville in playoffs. Davenport will play for its first boys state title since 1961, when the basketball team lost to St. John 60-54.

“When I was a little kid we always talked about (playing for a title),” said Swain, an all-league receiver.

“Ever since junior high, people were saying we were the group that could take it as far as it could go,” said Schneider, last year’s third-place finisher at 178 pounds in the A/B regional wrestling meet and a state track participant in the discus.

Schneider, familiar with the Tacoma Dome because of state wrestling, is a rarity among football seniors. Nearly everyone else plays basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.

None would have considered relaxing during the football season. After four summers of football camps at the University of Idaho, something good was sure to blossom.

“It was always in the back of our minds because we could see what the other competition would be in our league,” Johnson said.

“I think what helped us as freshmen and sophomores is there wasn’t a lot of talent, so we got plenty of playing time,” said Parsons, the starting quarterback since ‘93. “Four or five of us all started as sophomores.”

At their last summer football camp, the Gorillas posed for a photo that bears the caption: “Tacoma-bound.”

“The Tacoma Baptist assistant has been calling me all year,” said 12-year Gorillas coach Skip Pauls. “I don’t know why. I guess he thought we’d both be there.”

For the first time during the playoffs, Davenport’s roster of 35 will include seven seniors rather than six. Flanker Mike Goodman, who broke his heel in Davenport’s second game, will suit up.

“I moved from Alaska as a freshman,” Goodman said. “All we had there for fall sports was cross country, so that’s what I did here at first.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo