Lake Stevens RB Jayden Limar is TNT’s all-state player of the year
Inside Graham-Kapowsin’s film room last month, first-year head coach Jeff Logan and players gathered to study Jayden Limar, Lake Stevens’ game-wrecking tailback.
In days, the programs would clash in the 4A semifinals, where Limar inevitably dashed for five touchdowns and threw a career-best sixth on a trick play. Logan could only watch, helplessly, as Limar put on an inevitable show.
“‘Hey, he’s gonna get the edge, and we’ve got to take the angles,’” Logan told his Eagles program during film study. “Defenders realize they took a bad angle, like, two to three steps into chasing him toward the sideline.
“By that time, he’s gone. He’s got the edge on you, and he’s going to hit the corner and really just turn on the burners.”
Limar was too fast, too strong, too good. Lake Stevens romped to a 42-28 win, featuring the four-star recruit in every touchdown.
Underneath a shower of fireworks, he smiled. Limar suffered a high ankle sprain in the fourth quarter – leaving the stadium in a walking boot – but assured teammates he would be healthy for the ensuing championship game.
“Any time a team beats you that bad, you’re gonna remember it,” Limar chuckled while reliving Lake Stevens’ championship loss to the Eagles a year prior. “I’m happy we were able to give it back before I graduate.”
X-rays soon eased initial fears of a break or tear, but the four-star recruit was limited to physical therapy at practice and laser treatments from a family-known chiropractor.
Championship game warmups included Limar “just getting used” to sprints, jumps, and turns. He was far from 100 percent, yet managed a bellcow role and turned 33 carries into 185 yards and a touchdown. A fourth-quarter field goal pushed the Vikings over Kennedy Catholic, as Limar had reached the 4A mountaintop.
“I was (nervous) just because I couldn’t even really walk,” he said. “But after that, every day got a little better, a little better.
“I told (my head coach) before the game as I started running around: “Play (me) how you would if I wasn’t injured this week.”
Limar’s high school career is fit for a storybook, down to every fine detail. He is the school’s all-time leading rusher and touchdown scorer, rewriting every attainable offensive record, and a state champion.
Limar is The News Tribune’s All-State Player of the Year.
“To be a part of the first group to win for Lake Stevens… it’s absolutely amazing,” he said Wednesday. “That’s always been everyone’s dream, and to be able to bring that back to this city is absolutely amazing.”
Lake Stevens dropped two of four games and took the season’s opening month to “find their identity,” but Limar was destined to be a pivotal piece of the championship puzzle. The Vikings’ offensive centerpiece averaged a staggering 8.5 yards per carry on 235 totes as a senior, totaling 2,003 yards and 36 touchdowns on the ground.
Always a receiving threat out of the backfield, Limar added 26 receptions for 328 and four touchdowns. The first 2,000-yard rusher in Lake Stevens single-season history, he topped program leaderboards with 5,028 scrimmage yards and 77 total touchdowns in four seasons.
“I think anybody going into a week thinks they’ve designed the best game plan they possibly can for it,” Logan told The News Tribune on Tuesday. “And then, when (Jayden) does some of the things he does, you kind of ruffle it up and throw it out the window.”
Limar is used “just about everywhere” on the field, a trait he embraces. Coupled with 4.46-second 40-yard speed and a keen ability to grind out additional yardage after contact, coaches and coordinators are constantly left grasping for straws.
“That’s kind of the one thing in watching him,” Logan said. “You’re like, ‘there’s no way to replicate that.’”
He’s tantalizing in open space, yet slippery to bring down between the tackles. There’s no true blueprint to suffocating him completely, though Lake Stevens coach Tom Tri joked of a single solution: “Keep him off the field,” he told The News Tribune last month.
“We move him all over the place,” Tri continued. “We’ll throw him the ball, we’ll throw screens to him. … Get him the ball, and hope that our O-line does what it has been doing for 12 or 13 games this year.”
Wednesday brought an additional headline: Limar had switched his verbal commitment from Notre Dame, opting for the University of Oregon.
The state’s fourth overall recruit connected with future teammates and coaches across five visits to Eugene, where Limar will enroll early. He expressed interest in staying closer to home, allowing for frequent family visits.
“It’s very obvious that (Oregon) is building something special,” Limar said. “I just can’t wait to be a part of it.
“This is an amazing day. It’s been an amazing year for me, and I’m just very blessed.”
Commitment officially flipped, Limar called the moment and season “surreal.” He looked to a Lake Stevens coach Wednesday: “It still really hasn’t set in.”
Still, Limar’s future is bound for Oregon, and his Lake Stevens career is cemented in school record books. The championship trophy remains on campus, for now.
Said Limar: “Every day, I wake up and I think about that (championship) game, and it puts a smile on my face.”
