Centralia's Joe Finch, W.F. West's Elijah Johnson, Toledo's Taylor Hicks, Napavine's Chase Van Wyck and Tenino's Thomas Pier pose for a photo at Centralia's Tiger Stadium.
From left, Centralia’s Joe Finch, Tenino’s Thomas Pier, Toledo’s Taylor Hicks, Napavine’s Chase Van Wyck and W.F. West’s Elijah Johnson pose for a photo at Centralia's Tiger Stadium.
From left, Centralia’s Joe Finch, Tenino’s Thomas Pier, Toledo’s Taylor Hicks, Napavine’s Chase Van Wyck and W.F. West’s Elijah Johnson dive for a loose ball.
Who better to quiz about football than the players themselves?
In anticipation of the 2015 prep football season, The Chronicle’s sports staff took the opportunity to chat with five of the top seniors in the Greater Lewis County area’s gridiron scene about their work, their memories and their expectations for their last season.
The Players
Joe Finch, Centralia: Finch is a team captain for the Centralia Tigers. Lining up everywhere on offense and at linebacker, he’s the defensive heart of a physically-improved Hub City squad.
Elijah Johnson, W.F. West: Johnson is the latest in a line of seniors starting at quarterback for W.F. West with a year of experience under their belts. The last three — Ben Ternan, Mitch Gueller and Tanner Gueller — leave big shoes to fill.
Thomas Pier, Tenino: Pier, a gritty running back, put up gaudy numbers for the Beavers before an injury shortened his season in 2014, though he still earned a first-team All-League nod.
Taylor Hicks, Toledo: Hicks, last year’s Chronicle All-Area MVP and the Central 2B League’s Offensive MVP, led Toledo to the State 2B semifinals and ran for an eye-popping 387 yards in a first-round state playoff win over Concrete.
Chase Van Wyck, Napavine: Van Wyck, an all-state linebacker, spearheaded the defense for a state runner-up Napavine team and earned the Central 2B League Defensive MVP in the process.
Joe Finch, Centralia (OL/LB)
How have you improved since last year? Just lifting weights and conditioning a lot. A lot of team building and stuff. I think we have a lot better chemistry this year than last year.
What’s your best high school football memory? Probably beating Kelso last year. That was a lot of fun, taking it to coach (Steve) Amrine.
What are your team goals? I think we want to work hard as a team, and we want to be more physical this year than we were last year.
What are your individual goals for your senior year? Dont mess up. (Laughs) I don’t know. I want to make it to the playoffs, for sure, this year.
What game are you most looking forward to? Chehalis. They’re our rivals.
Thomas Pier, Tenino (RB/DB)
How have you improved since last year? Just working hard in the weight room, doing extra stuff, doing little things to get better. Running hills, footwork, eating a lot. I’ve put on 10-15 pounds since last year.
What’s your best high school football memory? Either playing with (brother) Devante (Harris) my freshman year, and getting off to that 5-0 start, and just the connection everybody had, or my sophomore year, when we came back and beat Hoquiam. I had three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
What are your team goals? Just win the league, and get on to state. Once you get in to state it’s all open, and anything can happen.
What are your individual goals for your senior year? I’d like to win MVP. Last year I thought I should have won it, but first-team all-league is still pretty good. But definitely win MVP or Offensive MVP.
What game are you most looking forward to? Probably Eatonville, just because they won league last year. They’re good, and went to the Dome. We’ve got a lot of new developments in our offense and defense that look good. I think we can hang with them.
Elijah Johnson, W.F. West (QB/DB)
How have you improved since last year? Just getting more consistent; being able to help the team more and just do my job.
What’s your best high school football memory? Probably beating Woodland last year, and getting to state.
What are your team goals? Go farther than we did last year. Just keep getting better every week.
What are your individual goals for your senior year? Help the team out, any way I can.
What game are you most looking forward to? The first one. Just to get out there and strap it back up again.
Taylor Hicks, Toledo (RB/DB)
How have you improved since last year? I’ve dropped my 40 time, dropped my 5-10-5 agility, my pro agility. I lost a few pounds, but I made up for it in speed. That was my goal this summer, was just to do a lot of resistance training and stuff.
What’s your best high school football memory? I would say going to the Dome, but (Napavine’s Chase Van Wyck) is here, and he probably beats me out, so I’ll say probably that 387-yard game (against Concrete in the first round of the 2014 State 2B playoffs).
What are your team goals? Just take it as far as athletically possible. Yeah, there’s going to be a team out there that’s going to be more physical, bigger than us, and there’s nothing we can do about it, but if there’s a fighting chance I think we’re going to go for it.
What are your individual goals for your senior year? I mean, just try and keep up with last year. Try and stay impressive, I guess.
What game are you most looking forward to? Probably either my senior night, that’d be fun; playoff games would be fun; and playing (Napavine) would be fun, playing PWV; those’ll be fun games.
Chase Van Wyck, Napavine (TE/LB)
How have you improved since last year? I’ve improved by working hard on and off the field, when people see me and don’t see me. I’ve improved my speed and strength and just overall physical, football IQ.
What’s your best high school football memory? I’ve got a few of those, but just to be able to play every night, starting and all that, just competing and just playing every night.
What are your team goals? One, make it back to the Dome, and two, just get everybody on cue and working hard, like we have been.
What are your individual goals for your senior year? Probably to get at least 10 tackles per game, and to make first-team all-state again.
What game are you most looking forward to? Toledo, probably, honestly. We played them twice, and beat them twice, and my senior year, we’ll play them one last time and see how that goes.
