High school football notebook: Fife’s Tanner Knapp decides to play after all

Fife High School football coach Kent Nevin didn’t expect to see Tanner Knapp in a football jersey this season.

Knapp — who is committed to Seattle University for baseball — informed Nevin in the summer that he was going to sit out his senior football season to prevent jeopardizing his baseball career.

But there Knapp was two weeks ago, back on the football field for Fife’s practice.

“I just walked up to him and I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Nevin said. “And he’s like, ‘Absolutely.’

“He just decided that he missed it so much that he wanted to come back.”

He played his first game of the season Friday night in Fife’s 27-21 win over Steilacoom, helping the Trojans improve to 4-0.

In baseball, Knapp was the Class 2A SPSL’s most dominant force — on the pitcher’s mound and at the plate. He had a video-game-like .456 batting average with eight home runs and 46 RBIs, while going 10-0 on the mound with a 0.47 earned-run average and 83 strikeouts in 60 innings.

But Knapp was also one of the main catalysts — on offense and defense — in the football team’s state playoff run last year, especially when Fife lost since-graduated running back Austin Woods for the regular season with an injury. Knapp led the team in rushing with 145 carries for 936 yards and eight touchdowns.

Knapp suffered a shoulder injury this past baseball season, Nevin said. So that was one of the deciding factors, as well as any future draft potential, in Knapp approaching Nevin about not playing football this season.

“We totally understood, he’s a great baseball player,” Nevin said. “He had a hard decision to make and we totally loved and respected him for it. It’s hard for our team, but we understood where he was coming from because he has a future in baseball and he didn’t want to put that in jeopardy.”

But there he was Friday night, back at fullback and middle linebacker after missing the Trojans’ first three games.

His power running, mixed with Wes Nixon’s burst on the edge, is just the 1-2 punch Nevin was hoping this team would have coming into the season.

“Teams can either play us to run up the middle or attack the edge, but they can’t do both,” Nevin said. “That’s going to be hard to defend.”

AMV STARS OUT

Auburn Mountainview will not appeal the one-game suspensions of quarterback Gresch Jensen and safety Gavin Robertson after both were ejected on the final drive of Friday night’s 31-12 loss to Sumner, Lions athletic director Chris Carr said Saturday.

Both are committed to NCAA Division I universities — Jensen to the University of Montana and Robertson to Arizona.

Auburn Mountainview (3-1) faces Auburn Riverside next week.

Robertson was ejected following a 5-yard run by Sumner’s Connor Wedington late in the fourth quarter and Jensen three plays later following Wedington’s 21-yard run.

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "High school football notebook: Fife’s Tanner Knapp decides to play after all."