Saturday, July 29, 2006
I moved to Bremerton in the middle of my 8th grade year so the first time I saw Chuck was when I showed up for practice as a freshman.
The varsity was already practicing and I remember hanging around the practice field behind the high school and watching this guy I'd heard so much about in the short time I lived here. Chuck, wearing white t-shirt, was like a bear on the prowl, growling and barking the whole time. I witnessed my first short, swift, soccer-style kick to the butt that day. My eyes bugged out. Chuck (never Coach Semancik, always Chuck) had kicked a player in the butt.
While I was in school, I never realized what a great motivator he was. But he did it his way. Chuck approached me towards the end of my junior school year and quietly said, "Stark, you know I've never had a bad fullback." Then he turned around and walked away, letting him stew on those words all summer.
Years later, as a reporter at the Bremerton Sun, I was covering the playoff game against No. 1-ranked Sumner in which star running back Tony Boddie was knocked out in the second half with an injury. He took a cheap shot while fair-catching the ball against Sumner. Tony, who would go on to play in the NFL, was clearly hurt. But Semancik never liked injuries ("Cripes, why'd you do that," he ask players after spraining ankles or blowing knees, as if they wanted to). Anyway, Semanick railed on Boddie, asking him if he could play. He wanted to make sure the kid was hurt. As he turned away from Tony, he spotted me on the sidelines and winked. Some might have argued with the method, but old Chuck knew what he was doing.
I always got a kick out of Chuck calling three-year starter and all-state player Jim Spencer "Smitty." And while teaching a P.E. class on basketball, he taught the "bowling ball pass." Yeah, he actually rolled the ball full court like a bowling ball, as if it was a key fundamental to playing the sport.
I remember going to Husky football games with him on Saturdays. We'd jump on the ferry and join a bunch of other high school coaches and players in this room near Husky Stadium. Husky coaches would come in and out to talk prior to their game and it wasn't unusual for Semancik to tell the Husky coaching staff what they should be doing and what they were doing wrong.
I can still see Chuck driving his Buick Wildcat into his parking spot behind the school.
Chuck Stark,
West High, class of 1971
