by Paul Moseley

The 2014 West Seattle Wildcats football team has the makings of a party crasher. They start the year with a healthy, more mature varsity squad, a bumper crop of sophomores from last year's freshman team, and one of the toughest schedules for a Metro League public school.

Coming off a rebuilding year, Head Coach Tom Burggraff starts his 2nd season back (he was head coach for 15 years before taking a break) with cautious optimism. "We had a good camp, with 14 scrimmages. There's a lot of excitement and a lot of turn-out. You just don't know until you start playing games".

The investment in the freshman team last year seems to have paid off. "We had a great freshman program [last year]" said Burggraff. "We have about 25 of them coming back". In addition, the Wildcats have a stronger stable of varsity players with experience. They only lost 3 seniors from last year, so most of the starting team is intact. "Last year, we had 61 players in the whole program - Freshman and Varsity. This year, we have about 61 varsity players. I spent all our money on new equipment...we ran out".

And they are healthy. Last year, 12 starters went down to injury over the course of the year. Most painful were the injuries at quarterback. "We had 6 quarterbacks last year", said Burggraff. "We're a more cohesive team this year." The cohesion starts with a new QB this year, Senior Robert Harrelson who, according to Coach Burggraff, will likely be going to the air a bit more. One of his favorite targets is likely to be Jamie Maples, who moved from QB to wide-out this year.

Mental toughness and on-the-field leaders? Check. All league linebacker Bailey Wyatt and W/DB Carter Golgart top the list.

So what is there to worry about? The schedule for starters. The Wildcats will start with a road trip this weekend to Alaska with a limited roster to play Juneau Douglas - ranked in the top 10 in their state. Once back home they will have a non conference game against the struggling Washington (Tacoma), then they get down to business with division play. The new Metro Valley division, in addition to West Seattle, is the toughest division for publc schools and includes Roosevelt ("120 kids, made the 4a playoffs a couple years ago"), Garfield ("Twice as many kids as we have"), Cleveland ("2nd in the league last year) and Rainier Beach ("A lot of athletes and a new coach").

Of course, it all ends with the big one against Chief Sealth, led by Coach Carr who is building a strong football program south of the Junction...but no one's really thinking about that game, right? Burggraff says he isn't. "We take one game at a time, nothin' lofty, just trying to get better every week".

West Seattle 2014 Football Schedule (via MaxPreps)

09/06 8:00p
Juneau-Douglas (Juneau, AK)
Game Details: Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park

09/12 7:00p
Washington (Tacoma, WA)
Location: West Seattle High School

09/19 5:00p
@ Garfield (Seattle, WA)
Game Details: Memorial Stadium (Sea)

09/26 7:00p
Rainier Beach (Seattle, WA)
Game Details: SWAC {Southwest Athletic Complex}

10/03 7:45p
@ Roosevelt (Seattle, WA)
Game Details: Memorial Stadium (Sea)

10/10 7:00p
Cleveland (Seattle, WA)
Game Details: SWAC {Southwest Athletic Complex}

10/17 7:00p
@ Chief Sealth (Seattle, WA)
Location: Chief Sealth High School