All Grown Up: Mercer Island Football Looking to It's Seniors for Success

Much has been said about Mercer Island senior quarterback Jeff Lindquist. One of the top QB prospects on the West Coast, Lindquist has already committed to play for the University of Washington and was recently featured on the “Elite 11” quarterback competition on ESPN.

But, as Lindquist will quickly tell you, he’s not the only senior on the Mercer Island roster KingCo opponents need to worry about, In fact, he’s not even one of ten.

Mercer Island returns 20 seniors from the 2010 team that went 5-5, the programs best record in five years. In that group are Lindquist, all-KingCo receiver Conor Bernal and offensive/defensive line terror Josh Skelly, as well as multiple other top contributors. With that core in place, the Islanders are riding high on veteran leadership.

“Guys have been there, done it," Mercer Island head coach Brett Ogata said of his seniors. "They really push the more inexperienced players and push them through the hard times. The seniors are a great group and they are doing a great job of leading this team and getting us to the goals we want to get to.”

The optimism surrounding the team is high heading into 2011. With an explosive offense that scored 96 points over the final two games of 2010, the Islanders are expected to make some noise in a tough KingCo league that features perennial powerhouse Bellevue and 2010 state tournament-qualifiers Liberty and Juanita. Heading into its season debut on September 3rd against Seattle Prep at Century Link Field, Ogata likes what he's seen so far out of his team.

“It’s looking good," Ogata said. "In terms of where we’ve been as a program, the practices have been pretty good.”

At the helm of that offense is Lindquist, the star recruit who chose UW over Stanford during the summer. Going into a senior year where the scrutiny surrounding his performance is bound to increase, there is a natural concern that the hype and attention could affect his play. But the always-grounded Lindquist said he only feels pressure from wanting to win his senior year.

"Senior year, that’s kind of pressure, but in terms of beyond high school, I’m not focused on that right now," Lindquist said. "It’s all about Mercer Island right now, so that’s the only thing in my line of vision.”

While the offense seems a safe bet to put up its fare share of points, the defense was a major concern for Mercer Island last season. Mercer Island surrendered at least 28 points in six games last year under first-year defensive coordinator Shane Keck. But Ogata said he expects the defense to actually be the teams' backbone in 2011.

“Last year was the first year with our defensive coordinator," Ogata said. "Last year was the first year of his defense and I think the terminology and all that, it was a process. Right now, the defense is really dialed in, they are ready to go...I think our defense is probably going to be the strength of our team. As much as we are going to talk about Lindquist and the offense, I really think you are going to see a bunch of all-league players on our defensive side.”

Leading that defensive unit are outside linebacker Blake Johnson and safety Kyle Reitinger. Ogata described that duo as the "heart and soul" of the unit, along with a strong inside linebacker group and a player Ogata thinks will take KingCo by surprise in cornerback Milan Gallevo.

“He’s going to surprise really a lot of KingCo, he really surprised us, to be honest with you," Ogata said of Gallevo. "Last year, he was a special team guy only, where he is now probably one of the bets corners in the league and he might even be one of the best wide receivers in the league.”

Mercer Island has not tasted success in the state tournament since it's run to the semifinals in 1988. With arguably its most talented group in the past eight years, expectations are high, but Ogata stressed that the success of the season may not end up being defined in wins and losses.

“I like where we’re going with this thing," Ogata said. "In terms of predictions, I don’t know that I can really make a prediction., We can go as far as these guys want to go. The tough part is predictions, we have probably have four or five teams in the top ten in our league and only three teams go to the playoffs. On any given night we can win, on any given night we can lose. If we get out of the league, we’ll be fine."

If the Islanders do plan on getting out of the league, the brunt of the work will probably fall on the score of seniors on its roster. And if listening to players like Lindquist and Bernal is any indication, that group is prepared to go out on top.

“We know it’s out last year, so we’ve been playing together for all of high school and we want to go out on a good note," Bernal said. "We’ve kind of just got a sense of family and because of that we’re going hard all the time.”

  * Non-Conference Game  

— Information from Mercer Island Football