Young but experienced Warden team prepares for '24

WARDEN — After seeing 11 seniors graduate from last year’s roster the Warden Cougars bring a team of 28 players into the 2024 season, including several young players who received playing time a season ago. 

“A lot of our underclassmen stepped up last year when there were injuries, when there were discipline issues – they stepped up,” head coach Dallyn McLean said. “We had freshman playing last year as starters, that have three-four games under their belt that are now sophomores. At the 2B level, that’s fantastic.” 

Those incoming and returning young players have already started to make an impact, senior Michael Gonzalez said. 

“They want to win,” Gonzalez said. “They know the history of the program, and they know that we haven’t done too great – they're going to come up and try to do whatever they can to help us. It’s really building our team morale.” 

Team morale and bonding have been key themes during the off-season, McLean said; on top of playing seven-on-seven, traveling to a camp a Washington State University and showing up to workouts in the weight room, players have spent plenty of time with each other off the field as well. 

“You can’t force that type of cohesion, you just get it,” McLean said. “I’m excited for that.” 

The Cougars went 4-6 last fall, with wins coming against White Swan (39-8), Granger (21-0), Mabton (40-0) and White Swan again in the Week 10 Crossover (46-22). However, in losses, the Cougars were outscored by an average of 30.5 points. 

“We dropped our heads a lot when we saw the opponents put numbers on the scoreboard,” senior Malakai Valdez said. “We dropped our heads and kind of gave up when we had a lot more work to do.” 

Warden plans to turn that around this year. 

“This year we’ve just got to keep putting on, keep it rolling and it’ll even out,” senior TJ Visker said. 

Offensively, the Cougars return both starting quarterback Kameron Jensen and running back Elijah Ruiz, the latter of which received honorable mention all-conference honors last fall.  

“We have a pretty solid line, we’ll be running, throwing the ball a lot – we have a solid QB,” Ruiz said. “A freshman last year and a sophomore now, so he can read the field pretty well. He’s pretty good.” 

On defense, three all-league talents return this fall; Visker, Gonzalez and junior Hunter Golladay. 

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are going to push each other on defense, and we’re going to get the best 11 (players) out there,” Gonzalez said.  

McLean also enters his second season as head coach of the Cougars, having previously served as an assistant coach with programs at Moses Lake and Rigby high schools. 

“It’s very different, there’s a lot more responsibility going from a position coach to a head coach,” McLean said. “I had really good coaches around me, and I watched what they did; this year, the biggest thing that I’m doing is I’m taking lessons from every coach that’s coached with me, next to me, above me, and applying the best of the things I’ve seen and adding a little bit of my style.” 

Warden opens the 2024 season with a road clash against Medical Lake at 7 p.m. Sept. 6. 

“Small-town football, you’ve got to fight,” McLean said. “Things don’t go your way, and you give up, which we tended to do last year. This year, we’re going to fight to the end. We don’t want teams to come here and think it’s going to be an easy game.” 

Warden Football Schedule 

Sept. 6 – at Medical Lake – 7 p.m. 

Sept. 13 – vs Mossyrock – 7 p.m. 

Sept. 21 – at Tonasket – 5 p.m. 

Sept. 27 – at Columbia (Burbank) - 7 p.m. 

Oct. 4 – vs River View – 7 p.m. 

Oct. 11 – at Lind-Ritzville/Sprague - 7 p.m. 

Oct. 19 – at Tri-Cities Prep – 6 p.m. 

Oct. 25 – vs Granger – 7 p.m. 

Nov. 1 – League Crossover (TBD) — TBD 

    Second-year Head Coach Dallyn McLean talks with players during team drills at practice on August 22.
  

    Sophomore Kameron Jensen drops back to pass during practice. Jensen started as a freshman in 2023.
  

    Warden senior Michael Gonzalez, in purple, elevates for a reception during practice.