Taking offense

It seemed like a small thing at the time.

Centennial Middle School hired a new eighth-grade football coach, Cory Aitkin. Craig Whitney, the varsity coach at West Valley High School, offered him the Eagles’ offensive playbook.

Fast forward.

A new season started and Whitney watched as a freshman stepped into the varsity huddle and began running the football like a veteran.

“That was Dylan,” Whitney said of senior running back Dylan Ellsworth. “He had a real knack for running the ball up inside. I pulled him aside and told him. He said ‘But coach, I ran these plays all last year!’

“I guess that makes Dylan my dividend. And he’s been an awfully good dividend for this program.”

“I felt comfortable running those plays,” Ellsworth said. “I had a lot of confidence and for a running back, confidence is important.”

Ellsworth earned the starting tailback job that fall, helping lead the team to a 7-3 season in the Great Northern League. A year later he helped carry the Eagles all the way to the State Class 2A championship game in the Tacoma Dome. After missing a big portion of last year’s 3-6 season with a broken leg, Ellsworth once again helps lead a West Valley team with a direct shot at the postseason with two games to play.

“Even when he was a freshman and a sophomore, everyone looked to him to make plays for us,” Whitney said. “Even the seniors looked to him and believed he would make plays.”

Not always by carrying the ball, either.

“We had a game where one of our other backs was getting a little success and Dylan went up to the coach with a suggestion.

“He came over and said ‘Coach, I have a real good read on where my man is and what he’s going to do. Let’s keep doing what we’re doing because I know I can make my block.’ ” Whitney said. “That tells you about what a team player Dylan is. He’s very unselfish.”

And, the coach insists, he understands the situation his team is in with keen insight.

A week ago, reeling from a stunning loss to Deer Park in their homecoming game, the Eagles rolled into East Valley for a battle of the league’s top two running backs.

“We knew it was a big game for us, but as coaches we don’t like to make any one game more important than any other to our players,” Whitney said. “Even though this was our rivalry game, we didn’t want to make an overly big deal out of it.”

“We all knew it was going to be an important game for us, especially if we want to meet our goal of getting back to the playoffs,” Ellsworth said. “We talked about it as players and we decided to look at it as a playoff game.”

Adam Talley of the Knights rushed for 246 yards and three touchdowns, but Ellsworth turned in a big game of his own, carrying 36 times for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns and hauling in a 21-yard pass for a third as West Valley carved out a 42-26 victory.

“It was a great battle of two great backs,” Whitney said. “The Talley kid is a special talent and he made some great runs for them. He’s the kind of back who can break one any time he touches the ball – and he had some long ones against us.

“Dylan is a different kind of a runner. We have backs who are good at running outside and we have backs who are good at running the ball inside. Dylan is kind of our hybrid. He can get outside and he can run well inside. He can slash a little and he can break off a long one, but most of the time he’s going to get you 5 to 10 yards at a shot and that’s great.”

“Any time you see a guy like (Talley) making run after run like that, it inspires you,” Ellsworth said. “I think maybe we inspired each other. I even had a couple long runs.”

Ellsworth feels much better than he did a year ago at this time, watching the final three games of the season from the sideline with his foot in a recuperative boot.

“It was excruciating,” he said of watching from the sidelines. “I only got to play in two league games. More than that, I put on weight while I was recovering and got up as high as 220 pounds (on his 5-11 frame) and that was just too much for me. I decided that I needed to eat better and get myself into the weight room for my senior year.”

Ellsworth didn’t just hit the weight room. He made sure he took his teammates with him – calling them over the summer to make sure they were hitting the weights as well.

“I lost 32 pounds from last year,” he beamed. “I did speed training with (assistant coach) Vic Wallace and that helped, too. I’m stronger and I’m faster. I may be lighter, but I don’t think I lost anything at all running inside.”

Whitney agrees.

“If anything, I think he may actually hit harder,” he said. “Dylan always had a little baby fat on him before. Now he’s all muscle.”

And, he added, he’s been a integral part of West Valley’s resurgence in football.

“So far, Dylan Ellsworth has been part of 29 victories in this program,” Whitney said ahead of Friday’s showdown with Pullman. “That’s a pretty incredible accomplishment, especially when you look at where we were before he came along.”

Playing a role in the program’s success has earned Ellsworth a small voice in the team’s playbook.

“Dylan is a real student of the game – he understands the game of football so well that he’s always offering little tweaks to plays that he runs,” Whitney laughs. “He’s always coming over and saying ‘Coach, what if we do this? Or what if we do that?’ ”

“I love the game of football and I’m always thinking about it,” Ellsworth said. “I love to watch film and I love thinking about plays. I would love to coach someday – I really would.”

That day could come sooner than he thinks.

“We listen to what he has to say,” Whitney said. “Sometimes we take his suggestions, too. And I have to admit, there are a few times we didn’t take his suggestion and then wish we had.”