With experienced offensive line returning, Gig Harbor wants to be more physical in 2018

Thinking less and reacting more.

As Gig Harbor coach George Fairhart closed out his first season with the football program last year, this was the biggest stride he saw from a program that was months removed from new coaches, new schemes, new everything.

However, by the end of the 2017 season, Fairhart saw glimpses of what Tides football looked like beyond all the new, abrupt changes. And he likes it. After a 5-5 run last year, Gig Harbor opened the 2018 season last Thursday, and they did so without key staples like all-league wide receiver Kellen Gregory and quarterback Ryan Baerg. But, ahead of that first practice, it wasn’t about what the program lost, it was all about the progress the Tides continue to show.

“I think there’s a lot that looks and feels differently already,” Fairhart said. “Everything is much farther along than a year ago. There’s less thinking and more reacting going on. Both the kids and coaching staff are at a point where they are comfortable with the system, and everything is so much farther along.”

Despite so many changes within the program, one constant for the Tides is the offensive and defensive lines. With guys like senior left tackle Nick Belarde, junior left guard Brenden Rivera, senior center Jake Flynn, right guard Malik Livingston and junior right tackle Samuel Peacock all returning, Gig Harbor appears to have one of the most imposing offensive lines in the 3A South Sound League.

For Fairhart and the Tides, having both lines all but locked in for the upcoming season is important. The league itself has been a competitive one for quite some, and the 2018 should be no different.

And, with everything beginning to click under the Fairhart regime, Gig Harbor isn’t thinking about how good its league is, it’s implementing a plan of action to stay with it.

“This is a competitive league,” Fairhart said. “One where everybody’s good. But I think we are in a good place with the kids and coaches that we have, and, with a year under our belts, we can compete with the Timberline’s and Peninsula’s that have always been impressive.”

Fairhart said there’s no special formula or playbook that will get or keep the Tides at or near the top with those other teams.

“The reality is that we can’t worry about what they do,” he said. “We have to do what we do and be confident in it.”

That is what 2018 Gig Harbor football is all about. Making strides forward from a year ago. Thinking about last season much less, if not at all, and reacting to what it has and is doing this season.

A part of that feeling out process is the game plan for the offense. At times last year, the Tides relied heavily on passing, and getting the ball to Gregory. At other times, they saw the Wing-T and deception with the run game.

The question for Fairhart and Gig Harbor this season is whether it can produce a more successful balanced-type offense with these schemes in mind.

“I think we’d definitely like to run the ball more,” he said. “But, we’re going to pass the ball, too. Doing what we know is not a bad thing, it’s about taking what may not have worked and making it better so that it does this time around.”

Gig Harbor has barely begun preparing for the 2018 season, but Fairhart has already seen so much.

From the final games of last season to the demeanor of his players entering this season. The strides and improvements the Tides have made just in preparing for the upcoming season speak volumes, according to Fairhart.

And, if Gig Harbor football continues to think less and react more, he has no doubt the results will speak for themselves.

“These guys are already mentally and physically tougher than they were a year ago,” Fairhart said. “Yes we want that, yes we’ll work hard for it because that’s how you move on to the playoffs, and that’s where we want to be.”