Establishing accountability
Soap Lake junior Alex Bustos carries the ball along the sideline during the Soap Lake homecoming game on Friday.
COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The Soap Lake Homecoming Court takes the field during the homecoming game on Friday.
Soap Lake junior Kaleb Weaver tackles an Entiat player near the goal line during the Eagles’ homecoming game on Friday.
SOAP LAKE – First-year head coach Garrett Devine and the Soap Lake Eagles have encountered several roadblocks during the 2022 season, but the lessons will help to improve the program in the future.
“It’s been a tough year, it’s been a growing year though,” Devine said.
Soap Lake, 0-4, entered the season with many 2021 starters having graduated the year prior.
“We had no continuity on offense really, because we didn’t have any returning starters in the same positions,” Devine said. “The one guy that we did have coming back into a starting role had a season-ending injury.”
Many of the Soap Lake starters this season are freshmen and sophomores, and after injuries, their roster is down to nine players.
“We got some bright spots, but our problem right now is numbers,” Devine said. “We finished the game (last week) with nine (players).”
Their most recent game was on Friday, a 76-14 loss to Entiat on homecoming. The Eagles had trouble against an experienced Entiat quarterback Landon Crutcher, according to Devine.
“Against Entiat, we just couldn’t get a stop to save our life,” Devine said. “They have a really experienced senior quarterback who has been solid for them for a few years.”
The Eagles opened the season with 14 players on the roster, but have lost players to what Devine called “accountability.” The first-year coach said that instilling a culture of accountability will be what leads to successful seasons in the future.
“It’s the accountability now that I believe will carry us through the future to where we can have sustainable, good numbers in our program,” Devine said. “I’m really focused on middle schoolers, freshmen and sophomores and just trying to build for the future.”
Throughout the remainder of the season, Devine said he will be looking for a no-quit attitude which several players have already shown through the first four games.
“There’s a lot of grit and toughness on our team, it’s not showing up on the scoreboard right now, but that’s what’s coming up right now,” Devine said.
Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.
