SEQUIM — After five league titles in six years, the Sequim Wolves’ reputation precedes them.
Even with several key players gone from last year’s 10-2 team — including four of five offensive linemen — the Wolves enter the season as the Class 2A/3A Olympic League favorites, according to league coaches.
The Wolves finished atop a preseason coaches’ poll conducted by the Peninsula Daily News and Kitsap Sun, joining No. 2 North Kitsap as the leaders entering the league’s inaugural football season.
A surprised Erik Wiker didn’t know quite what to think about the development, given that his team is replacing seven starters on offense and six on defense.
“It might be a political ploy,” said Wiker, who has a 53-14 overall record at Sequim. “Head games.”
Added an incredulous Wiker, “I think we should beat most of the teams [in league], but that’s what I always think.”
The fact is, none of the coaches really knows what to expect in the new football alignment.
Class 3A Bremerton and the former 3As (Port Angeles, Olympic and North Kitsap) have never seen some of its new 2A rivals (Sequim, Kingston, North Mason and Klahowya), and vice versa.
And while seven of eight teams are now 2A, there’s a sizeable difference in enrollment between the biggest (Olympic at 1,079.35 students) and smallest (Klahowya at 572.95) schools.
How much of an advantage will the bigger schools have on the field? Does Sequim’s dominance continue despite the fact it is no longer one of the big dogs in its league?
These are the sorts of questions nobody knows the answer to.
Whatever the case, the coaches have to wait until Week 3 — when league games begin — to find out.
The first two weeks will be spent building the league’s reputation in nonleague action.
Following is a rundown of tonight’s Week One games involving North Olympic Peninsula high school teams.
Sequim at Forks, 7 p.m.
FORKS — Sequim starts its season by revisiting what was once a house of horrors two years ago.
The Wolves, fresh off a near miss at state against Tumwater the year before, came in to Spartan Stadium with a bevy of returning starters in Week One of 2008.
Waiting for them for an experienced but unproven Spartan team led by senior running back/safety Luke Dixon.
Facing a defense that was flying all over the field, the Wolves turned the ball over six times — five on fumbles — and eventually lost 19-0.
It was just the second shutout defeat of Wiker’s career, and one that catapulted Forks to a dream 9-2 season in which it visited state for the first time since 2000.
The Wolves weren’t shutout again until last year’s 31-0 loss to eventual 2A champion Lynden in the state quarterfinals.
Of course, many of the players from that 19-0 game are gone on both sides.
Just like their 2A counterparts, the Spartans enter tonight’s game with several inexperienced starters.
They also come in with a new head coach in Andrew Peterson.
The former NFL offensive linemen was given the job less than two weeks before the first practice.
Now he must go up against a perennial power with just six seniors on the roster.
“It’s going to be a test right off the bat against Sequim the way they spread the ball out and throw it, and with how young we’ll be in the secondary,” Peterson said.
It’s the first of two tough nonleague games for the Spartans, who face 2A Port Angeles next week at Civic Field.
Port Angeles at Chief Sealth, 7 p.m.
SEATTLE — The Roughriders look to snap a 12-game losing streak and give first-year head coach Tom Wahl his first victory when they visit the Seahawks tonight.
Port Angeles is coming off an 0-10 campaign under since-departed head coach Dick Abrams.
In Chief Sealth (3-7 in 2009), it faces a 3A Metro League squad that hasn’t won more than three games in six-plus seasons.
Port Townsend at Coupeville, 6 p.m.
COUPEVILLE — The Tom Webster era starts off with a game at the 1A Wolves of the Cascade League.
Port Townsend fell 22-14 to Coupeville when the two teams met to begin last season. Now, the Redskins come in with an almost entirely new offensive and defensive lineup.
Chimacum at Kingston, 7 p.m.
KINGSTON — Two teams with high hopes for the playoffs meet when the Cowboys visit the artificial turf of Buccaneer Field.
The 2A Buccaneers are coming off a 1-9 season in which four of their losses came by a total of 16 points.
They return a number of key players, including four offensive linemen.
The 1A Cowboys are coming off a redemptive 5-5 season under first-year coach Shawn Meacham and return several skill position players.
Neah Bay at Lummi, 7 p.m.
BELLINGHAM — Talk about a grudge match.
After meeting three times last season, the two Northwest Football League rivals begin the 2010 campaign with a nonleague tilt.
The Red Devils won the season series in 2009, winning two of three on its way to a Pacific Coast League title.
Yet it was the Blackhawks who took the most important one, claiming their 1B state semifinal in the Tacoma Dome 64-36.
No doubt the Red Devils, young but experienced, are looking for revenge.