GSL foes team up

Jeff Minnerly and Bryan Karwacki quarterbacked their respective Greater Spokane League football teams at Ferris and Gonzaga Prep and will be teammates in the fall at Eastern Washington University.

But they aren’t exactly two peas in a pod. Minnerly and Karwacki are members of the East team that plays the West in tonight’s annual High School All-State Football Summer Classic game at Central Valley High School at 7. One will play offense, the other defense in college.

Last fall in the State 4A semifinals, Minnerly and the Saxons were within a snap of possibly playing for a state title. He will take his quarterbacking talents to EWU.

Before playing quarterback for the Bullpups last fall, Karwacki was a defensive force as a junior linebacker and had a big hand in their semifinal appearance the year before. He will return to defense as an Eagle.

“It’s cool when you have someone from the same league you played with and against,” said Minnerly of their future as college teammates. “The comfort level will be nice with Bryan there.”

Part of an exceptional class at Ferris, Minnerly may have made the biggest improvement of them all between his junior and senior years.

“He absolutely killed us with his runs in the fourth quarter,” said Central Valley coach and All-State game coordinator Rick Giampietri. “We had him stopped in the backfield, he scrambled and it was second-and-2 instead of second-and-14.”

“They had a lot of kids in that class and he was not looked upon as a top guy, but he had a pretty good junior year and a great senior year,” Karwacki said. “It wasn’t a pleasant experience playing against him.”

Minnerly didn’t become the starter and full-time Saxons quarterback until an injury to Shawn Stockton in the third game of their junior season. Last year he accounted for nearly 70 percent of Ferris’ yardage (1,532 yards passing, 317 rushing).

He also scored 11.6 points per game for the state-champion basketball team, doubling his average over the year before. After a year away from baseball, Minnerly hit .333 this spring.

“We all worked really hard between our junior and senior years,” Minnerly said. “I think I had a lot of room to improve and maybe that’s why it looked like I made the biggest jump. I was always given a chance and a lot of things began to click.”

Despite a wealth of quarterback talent at Eastern, including junior incumbent Big Sky MVP Matt Nichols, Minnerly has opted to test himself again.

“It was the highest level I could have played and is probably going to be my biggest challenge,” Minnerly said. “When Nichols goes away, it’s going to be a battle for the spot. I have a couple of years to get to where I need to be. It will be a competition and that’s fun.”

The Eagles play a similar spread offense as he did at Ferris.

The 4.0 student figures to handle it mentally, but said he needs to improve his arm strength for execution’s sake.

His biggest high school regret was fumbling on the goal line of the state semifinal football loss to Bothell, whose coach, Tom Bainter, heads the West team.

“I would have given anything to win state in football. I’d trade almost anything for that,” Minnerly said.

Karwacki also knows what it’s like to lose a heartbreaker.

The Bullpups had their chances in the 14-10 semifinal loss to eventual state champion Oak Harbor when he was a junior.

But then they also had their share of playoff comebacks, including rallying from a 26-10 deficit to beat Moses Lake in overtime on backup rusher Karwacki’s touchdown.

“He gave whatever he had performance-wise,” said retiring Bullpups coach and East mentor Dave Carson. “Everyone knew he was going to score. And when he played quarterback this year, Holy criminy! You had the same feeling he’d get it done.”

Carson said it was a difficult decision to make the position switch. Karwacki gained 1,140 yards, 45 percent of G-Prep’s option offense, split 40-60 rush-to-pass.

“It was a big change from my junior year, just a whole different concept,” said Karwacki. “I did miss defense – you still get to hit people in the option, but it’s different. Flying around on defense is really fun – but offense was still fun and I really enjoyed it.”

Karwacki was a football-baseball guy in high school and at one time figured his future was in the latter. But as college coaches watched G-Prep on tape, he began to attract interest.

“Eastern gave me an offer and a couple other schools, too,” he said. “I had to take that to heart and went with football.”

He said going in he’ll need to get bigger, faster and stronger, and adjust to the routine of college life.

“I could have performed better and ended my senior year a lot better than I did,” Karwacki said. “But all in all I had a good career at Prep and have no regrets.”

Extra points

Although it was 60 years ago, Central Valley All-GSL TE-DE Patrick Mealey learned only recently that his grand uncle, Ned Conley, played in the second all-star game. “That’s a pretty neat coincidence,” Mealey said. “It was cool when I found it out.” Mealey’s mother is Conley’s brother’s daughter. Conley was a two-way guard at G-Prep who blocked for Bud Roffler when the State beat Seattle at the University of Washington in 1948. “There were 23,000 people there,” said Conley, a high school and Pac-10 football official for 35 years. “I knew Patrick was a good player, but lost track and had not gone to any of his games. I felt badly.” But he was at practice Tuesday and will be at the game tonight. … Other East players listed on the EWU fall roster are LB Grant Williams, Rogers (Puyallup), OL Nick Stewart (Columbia River) and DL Evan Cook (Todd Beamer). Receiver Bryant Cameron (Thomas Jefferson) is on the West team and Immanuel Satterwhite, an East lineman from Mt. Tahoma, is headed there. … Players to watch: Moses Lake WR/DB Jarred Walker (WSU); Evergreen QB/P Bobby Cowan (Idaho); Mt. Tahoma WR/DB Geno Munoz and Kelso TE/DE Colin Kelly (Oregon State). … Tickets are $7. The first 200 junior football players and past participants of the game get in free.