“You Harbor Guys…”
A Lesson Learned
During the fall of 1975, we were playing Mt. Tahoma on the sand and grit of the Lincoln Bowl. As the sophomore (JV) coach, it was exciting for me to be attending my first varsity contest. Normally, my game night duties involved scouting the next week’s opponent. Hey, Chuck, did you really look at my scouting reports. Oh, well, perhaps that’s another story.
I was excited to be high above the field in the coaches-booth with my phone to communicate to our sideline. At halftime Chuck told me to leave early and put the defensive set/s the Thunderbirds were using on the chalk board.
As the half approached I descended the stairs to the little cement bunker that passed for a locker room at the west end of the bowl and quickly etched the Mt. Tahoma defense on the scared piece of slate which was loosing the battle after years of chalk applications.
Our team had a four touchdown advantage over the normally leather-tough Tacoma eleven and was quite pleased and jovial as they entered the cavernous dressing area. Yikes, do you think anyone ever really showered in that place? Oh, well…
Some of the seniors were even brave enough to sit in the front. From what I had heard, this was not the custom.
Chuck entered the cramped quarters that I swear were older than he. The walls crusted with years of etchings looked like something out of the days of a Neanderthal man.
One could sense that he was not pleased as he surveyed the room. He turned to the board, and his face started to redden. I must add that his three assistants (Bob Izzi, Lane Dowell, and me) were dutifully lined-up a safe distance from Chuck and near the door.
The wily coach then uttered in a voice that could be heard at the top of the Bowl the words I will remember forever. “Arggghhh, and you let him do it. YOU LET HIM DO IT!!! It’s backwards, damn-it, and you guys let him do it. You damn harbor guys are all alike.” All three of us were from Grays Harbor (Dowell and I from Hoquiam and Izzi from Aberdeen) where Chuck had started his coaching career at Aberdeen in 1942.
Then with big sweeping motions, he erased the board and then…chalked it up the same way. I looked quizzically at Izzi and Dowell. Both had a knowing smirk on their faces, however they dared not laugh.
Chuck always wanted the Blue and Gold offense (“O’s”) to be on the top. Not the way I put it up. However, that was not a concern this night, for he put it up the same way I had with the inverted “V’s”, representing the defense on the top.
I later learned that Semancik just wanted to set the mood for the second half. Chuck received the sought-after effect…dead silence. No matter what the score, he always said before we went back out, “Remember, it’s 0-0.” That was the mentality with which he wanted us to approach the last half. This is not what he saw on his team’s faces when he entered the locker room.
Chuck Huhta…Assistant Football Coach West High
