Peninsula male athlete of the year: Two-sport standout Nolan Casey caps career with state wrestling title

By 6 a.m. during football season, Nolan Casey was in Peninsula High School’s weight room, working.

It was zero hour for the football team, all preparing for the week’s game. After the early-morning workout, Casey attended classes until another afternoon practice. He’d head home to work on homework, eat dinner, and prepare to repeat his schedule the next day.

A consistent routine for the senior linebacker was what helped the Class 3A South Sound Conference defensive MVP get the most out of his training.

“He never wavered,” said Peninsula football coach Ross Filkins. “He never got too high or too low. He’s just a great competitor in that he gets the most out of every day. He’s just a great practice player. For him, he was just so consistent for us every single day.”

Casey’s defense allowed a league-best 11 points per game. He led the Seahawks to an undefeated league season, before Peninsula clinched a state tournament berth.

And he wasn’t just a star linebacker.

After placing third at the state wrestling championships as a junior, Casey jumped the remaining two spots at the podium in February to lock up the 3A 160-pound weight class in the Tacoma Dome.

Casey is The Peninsula Gateway’s 2020 Male Athlete of the Year from Peninsula High School.

Gary Griffin — Peninsula’s wrestling coach — knew Casey’s destiny all along.

“I thought he could have won a state title, and I told him that his freshman year,” Griffin said. “I told him that he could be a state champion for us. His junior year, he was really close.”

During that junior season, the Peninsula coaches made the team write out goal cards. Casey’s personal goal was clear: win a state title.

It was his senior year where Casey achieved the goal he had set for himself more than two years in the making.

“[Winning a state title] was huge,” Casey said. “Third place is good, but at the end of the season, when you win first, there’s no regrets. … Writing that down every week, ‘I want to be a state champ, I want to be a state champ,’ really gives you the mental picture of ‘yeah, I’m going to do this.”

Casey’s ability to excel in more than one sport — and in the classroom — was what secured him Peninsula’s own Student-Athlete of the Year award.

“With our student-athletes of the year, they’ve got to be a true student-athlete, and we’re looking for multi-sport athletes,” Filkins said, also serving as Peninsula’s athletic director. “We have a number of students who excel in one of our programs, but (Nolan was) fantastic in different programs. That’s what really separated (him).”

A state-champion wrestler, Casey took a new approach to weight management en route to the top of the podium. He did not bother cutting weight, and remained healthy and strong throughout the season. In Griffin’s words, Casey centered his focus on simply “getting better.”

“Nolan’s got amazing hips when it comes to wrestling, and it can get him out of a lot of trouble,” Griffin said. “It puts him in some really good positions, where some guys don’t have that. He holds a great position. He doesn’t put himself in a ton of bad spots, and he knows where he’s good. He capitalizes and takes what they give him a lot of the time. Guys didn’t really want to wrestle him.”

That transfers to the football field, where Casey led his defense in tackles.

“Wrestling and playing linebacker really just go hand-in-hand,” Filkins said. “There’s a great transfer of skills between those two sports. If he didn’t excel the way he did on the mat, he would have a tough time being the Defensive MVP of the South Sound Conference. His participation in both programs made him a better football player, as well as a better wrestler.”

Though the pen hasn’t touched the paper, Casey has verbally committed to wrestle for North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. It’s where Casey can pursue his preferred studies and continue his wrestling success.

Griffin told The Peninsula Gateway that a number of coaches asked about Casey during the state tournament, but in the end, it was North Idaho College that had what he wanted.

Casey’s wrestling coach had yet to hear of the news.

“I didn’t know that he had verbally committed,” Griffin said. “It’s awesome that he’s doing that. It’s amazing. It’s a storied program and a great place for him. They got a good one.”

Despite the individual awards — whether it be in the eleven-as-one football environment or one-on-one wrestling scene — Casey reminisces most on where he credits his success.

“[I’ll miss] the guys,” Casey said. “The competitions are great and competing and the awards are awesome, but at the end of the day, the practices with your buddies are what I remember. Going to practice when you’re tired and seeing the same faces every day and having fun.”

Casey leaves Peninsula with a multi-sport legacy, including a Defensive MVP award, Peninsula’s student athlete of the year award, and four appearances at the wrestling state tournament.

The senior finally got the job done during his final match.

“And he dominated,” Griffin said. “There wasn’t even a doubt.”