Steilacoom’s Logan Brady has been quietly putting up big numbers for Sentinels offense
Most of the focus, when talking about the Steilacoom High School football team, which is in the Class 2A state championship for the first time in program history, goes to 5-star receiver recruit Emeka Egbuka.
And deservedly so. Egbuka is one of the country’s top athletes and has been a human highlight reel since he stepped on the field for the Sentinels as a freshman.
But Steilacoom junior receiver Logan Brady has been quietly putting up big numbers all season long in the air-raid offense and is a big reason Steilacoom finds itself in the state championship game.
Five receivers on Steilacoom’s roster have racked up over 300 receiving yards this season. Among them, Brady has emerged as the clear No. 2 for junior quarterback Chance McDonald this season. Brady has 591 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns on the year on 39 receptions.
“It’s really exciting,” Brady said. “I’ve always known that I can do it, it’s just a matter of getting the opportunities. It’s a credit to the coaching staff. They know how to put people in good situations. We have a great o-line. Chance is not been under pressure. Then we have Emeka taking triple teams. It leaves me wide open on the back side.”
And Brady has only played the second half of the season as a receiver, after starting the season as the team’s running back for the first four games. An injury to receiver Isaiah Devane moved Brady back to receiver, where he played last year and where he said he feels most comfortable.
“We just had a need at the (running back) position,” said Steilacoom coach Colby Davies. “He’s one of our more versatile and skilled athletes.”
With Devane’s injury putting him out for the remainder of the season and transfer Rasun Williams emerging as a reliable option at running back, Davies moved Brady back to receiver.
It didn’t take long for McDonald to develop a rapport with his new receiver.
“He’s a really physical guy, he runs his routes hard every play and when he catches the ball, it’s hard to tackle him because he’s just a physical dude,” McDonald said.
Davies said Brady is a player that McDonald can trust to be consistent on every play.
“Chance is pretty good at identifying who’s got mismatches and who the open guy is going to be within our concepts, so when you have a guy like Logan who runs every route as hard as he possibly can, it’s easy to have chemistry,” Davies said. “He consistently runs routes the same way. He runs every route the way it’s supposed to be ran on a consistent basis.”
For a quarterback, that’s something that can’t be overstated.
“Sometimes you might have a receiver that runs a route one way the first time, then runs it differently the next time,” Davies said. “Chance is expecting him to be in a certain area based off what we’re getting coverage-wise or leverage-wise. Logan is someone you can trust and count on to do the right thing every time.”
Brady got his blue collar attitude from his dad, who will tell his son stories about growing up in Philadelphia.
“My dad has always preached ‘No plays off.’ It’s always been going as hard I can 100 percent of the time,” Brady said. “Every time I get the ball, I feel like there shouldn’t be one person that’s able to tackle me. It has to be the whole team.”
Of course, having Egbuka on the opposite side of the field doesn’t hurt Brady’s production, either. Teams will often double or even triple-team Egbuka in hopes of slowing him down, which leaves Brady in 1-on-1 situations he’s happy to exploit.
“Any time I see Emeka scoot out there and see the (defensive backs) communicating, I know Chance gives me a look and it’s like, ‘This is my time,’” Brady said.
In Saturday’s Class 2A state championship game against Tumwater at 4 p.m. at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, Brady could be a key for the Sentinels offense if the T-Birds look to slow down Egbuka.
“It could be big for us on Saturday,” McDonald said. “If they bring that two-high safety look and cloud Emeka, that’ll definitely open up a lot of stuff for him and the other guys. We have a good game plan this week. We’ve put in a ton of work all offseason. We knew we had a chance to prove something and show who we really are.”
