Two for the Knights
Football coaches are particular about the plays they design. They like to see them executed in all their intricate glory.
Which is why, heading into the 2006 high school season, East Valley coach Adam Fisher was adamant about using two quarterbacks.
“The quarterback we had the past couple of years was a great athlete, but if the play was designed so that it could go deep, he was going to throw deep no matter what,” he said. “Sometimes that’s not the best option on the play. I was tired of having someone out there who wouldn’t do what he was coached to do.”
Fisher installed senior Russell Woodworth, last year’s backup quarterback and the team’s starter in its playoff loss at Ferndale a year ago, as the Knights’ starter, but made it clear that junior Lonnie Quirk would share playing time.
“Russell has been the starter and Lonnie has seen a good deal of playing time,” Fisher said. “Lonnie got dinged up there for a while and Russell got more playing time. But he’s back and he’s done a good job whenever we put him in there.”
The signal-calling pair forged a solid working relationship, helping each other in the film room while pushing each other on the field.
“One of the things we do on this team is try to groom our own replacements,” Woodworth said. “Last year, Jye Lanphere was the starter, but I got into every game. We’re doing the same thing this year. I know this team is going to be in good hands next year when Lonnie is the starter.”
“I’ve learned so much from Russell,” Quirk said. “We work together. If I see something, I point it out to him and if I have a question about something, I can always go to him and he’ll help me figure it out.
“In a lot of ways, it takes a lot of the pressure off. I know that if I get in trouble or if I have a question about something, I can always turn to Russell and I know he’s going to be there. It’s like having an extra coach.”
Fisher, himself a quarterback in high school, understands the disappointment that comes from sharing a job.
“I’ve been there – I was a quarterback, too,” he said. “You want to be the guy. Would each of these guys want to be that guy? Sure, but they’ve also done a great job of adapting.
“We have two guys who go out there and do what we coach them to do.”
The tandem has been effective running the Knights’ powerful rushing attack. Woodworth is the No. 3-ranked quarterback in the Greater Spokane League, completing 65 of 106 passes for 772 yards and five touchdowns going into Friday’s game with Camas. Quirk is 14 of 24 for 198 yards and three touchdowns.
What’s more, the Knights are 6-2 heading into the final weekend of the regular season, sewing up a first-round playoff game at East Valley Nov. 4 against a Columbia Basin League Class 3A opponent to be determined in a Kansas tie-breaking playoff Halloween night among Southridge, Kennewick and West Valley-Yakima.
East Valley’s third consecutive playoff season comes from its ability to run the football.
“Our offense is all about running the football down your throat,” Woodworth said. “If you can’t stop our running game, we’re going to keep running it at you all night, every play. When teams come up to stop the run, that’s when we’re going to bootleg, roll out and throw the ball deep.”
“We have a good variety of running backs,” Quirk said. “We have Ryan Campbell, who’s a small, speedy guy. We have Caleb Gillespie and Tanner Hamilton, who are just powerhouse backs who can really slam the ball, and a couple other backs who can all come in and run the ball effectively.”
Both Woodworth and Quirk learned a good deal in last year’s final game, a disappointing loss to eventual state champion Ferndale and its record-setting quarterback, Jake Locker, now a highly touted redshirt freshman at the University of Washington.
“I learned a lot watching (Locker),” Quirk said. “He was so poised and so calm the way he ran that offense. He was so smooth. I would love to be able to play like that.”
“I went up to him and shook hands with him after the game,” Woodworth said. “I think that stadium was the loudest place I’ve ever tried to play a football game.
“I want to have that same experience playing on our home field. We can go deep in the playoffs and that’s the way our home field can be.”