April 3, 2008

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - With important personnel decisions to be made on both sides of the ball and a number of new assistants joining the coaching staff, the Western Washington University football team begins spring practice Saturday (11:15 a.m.) with a no-pads session at Viking Field on the Western campus.

It is the first of 15 practice days scheduled for the Vikings. Included are three scrimmages, all to be held at Bellingham's Civic Stadium. The first is Saturday, Apr. 19 at 10 a.m., the second on Saturday, Apr. 26 at 10 a.m. Spring practice concludes with the final scrimmage, the Blue-Silver Game at Civic Stadium on Saturday, May 3 at noon.

Third-year Western coach Robin Ross said the focus this spring will be on getting back to basics.

"In evaluating last year, I thought at times we did a bit too much in the spring," said Ross. "We're a young team, we need to be fundamentally better.

"Defensively, we need to work on not giving up the big play. On offense, we need to do better in the red zone, and get the ball there more often. And we need to do a better job of winning field position on special teams. We can accomplish a lot of those things by going back to basics."

The Vikings return 45 lettermen from last season, including 17 starters.

On offense, senior starter Adam Perry (Longview/R.A. Long) returns at quarterback. He passed for 1,587 yards and was intercepted just four times in nine games but missed the last contest with a shoulder injury that required off-season surgery.

Pushing Perry are Chris Bolt (Lynden), a 6-foot-5 redshirt with a powerful passing arm, and senior Tony Gardiner (Bothell), who made the final start last year.

Standout running back Craig Garner has been dropped from school for academic reasons. He ran for 1,644 yards over the past two seasons and was a two-time, second-team all-North Central Conference pick.

A top candidate to replace Garner is 5-10, 205-pound junior transfer Randall Eldridge (Lynnwood), who was a second-team Gridwire.com Junior College All-American and Offensive Most Valuable Player of Golden Gate Conference at Chabot (Calif.) Junior College in 2006. There he had a league-leading 1,277 rushing yards (5.6 yards per carry) in 10 games and scored 12 touchdowns. Eldridge will face competition from redshirt freshman Kevin Sampson (Seattle/Rainier Beach).

Three talented transfers enrolling spring quarter are senior defensive end Ami Faalevao (American Somoa/Samoana) from Fresno City (Calif.) College, 295-pound junior offensive guard Travis Pierce (Redmond) from Reedley (Calif.) College and junior tight end Nathan Waltman (Monroe), who played basketball at Everett CC.

Junior Tyler Roberts (Friday Harbor) moves from running back to outside linebacker where he will compete with junior Steve Davis (Kennewick/Kamiakin), who missed last season with injury after starting the two previous years.

On defense, the key departure is the graduation of linebacker Shane Simmons, an honorable mention D2football.com All-American who led the North Central Conference in tackles. But there's great competition for spots at that position, with junior Caleb Jessup (Kenmore/Inglemoor), who had 60 stops last year, and sophomore Andre Davis (Seattle/Franklin) being the leaders.

There's also a big battle at cornerback, where five players with starting experience are competing, led by senior Anthony Rosso (Walla Walla), who had four interceptions last year.

Jessup and Rosso are two of five returnees who earned honorable mention all-North Central Conference honors last year. The others are junior kicker Josh Lider (Bellevue/Sammamish), senior wide receiver Travis McKee (Bothell), and senior offensive lineman Dan Trask (Aberdeen). Safety Allan Denton (So., Los Angles, CA/Upland), a starter last season, has been put on academic probation and will not take part in spring drills to concentrate on class work.

"We've had a good winter, we've told the players the next step is to continue developing as a team," Ross said. "We're three-deep across the board, we should have good competition at every position."

Five coaches have left since the end of the season, the most notable being recruiting and special teams coordinator John Bowers, who just became the head coach at Ballard High School last week. Also gone are Mark Konopka (tight ends), Mawuli Davis (linebackers), Adam Fallert (wide receivers) and Jason Rimkus (secondary).

Joining the staff are Torrey Myers (tight ends), graduate assistant Ahmed Zarrugh (pronounced Zah-roo) (linebackers) from Oregon State and graduate assistant Casey Clifton (secondary) from Whitworth University.

Myers, who played at Western New Mexico, helped out with the Vikings last fall as part of a graduate program at the University of Washington. Zarrugh assisted at Oregon State last fall and Clifton just completed an all-star career as a linebacker at Whitworth.

The Vikings were 2-8 last season and 1-7 in their second and final year in the North Central Conference. With the demise of the NCC, the Vikings return to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, where they won league championships in 2001 and 2003.