THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Wrecking balls, flat tires and steady players
When you watch a Timberlake football game, it doesn’t take long to notice senior offensive/defensive lineman Jeremy Hurlbert.
He makes tackles on kickoff coverage.
He knifes across to tackle runners trying to head around the other end.
He gets upfield and wreaks havoc with the opponents’ passing game.
And that’s just part of it.
"He is an absolute wrecking ball on defense,” Timberlake coach Kelly Amos said. “But if you watch him block, he’s absolutely destructive. He’s the real deal.”
Twice in the first half last week against St. Maries, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Hurlbert got upfield quickly enough to get his hands on a pass out in the flat. He did that twice, and the second time it was ruled a lateral, and his deflection was pounced on by a teammate and returned for a touchdown.
“That's so hard for a defensive end," Amos said. “Think of the amount of time it takes to get to that position. He's the fastest player on our team.”
On offense, Hurlbert is a pulling guard, instrumental in Timberlake’s success in the ground game.
A starter both ways since his sophomore year — which doesn’t happen all that often at Timberlake, Hurlbert has the measurables to play at the NAIA level, Amos said.
“If he was 6-4, 6-5 ... “Amos said, perhaps the bigger schools would also take a look.
“He has great speed,” Amos said. “I think he could play D-end at the NAIA level."
Amos noted the Kellogg game, where Hurlbert had four sacks.
“Besides his speed, as a lineman he’s never on the ground,” Amos added. “You watch the really good ones, they never fall down. He rarely ends up on the ground. And when you’re constantly running, and end up on your feet, you're going to make a lot of plays.”
LAKE CITY hasn’t been above .500 this late in the season since 2019, when the Timberwolves were also 3-2 after five games.
2019 was also the last year Lake City made it to the state playoffs.
Two of the T-Wolves' three wins this year have come on the road, including back-to-back trips to Gig Harbor (Wash.) and Eisenhower of Yakima.
The trip to Yakima was not without incident, as one of the buses carrying Lake City players blew a tire some 25 miles east of Moses Lake, between Ritzville and Moses Lake.
Lake City took two buses — one carrying offensive players, the other carrying defensive players. The defensive bus suffered the flat tire.
Head coach Byron Hout was on the defensive bus.
The offensive bus was traveling ahead of the defensive bus. When the tire blew, the driver of the defensive bus radioed ahead to the other driver, who turned around at the next exit and came back to the defensive bus.
With time as a factor, Hout and the defensive starters loaded onto the offensive bus, and it resumed its trip to Yakima.
Some of the other coaches stayed behind with the defensive reserves and the disabled bus.
The first bus got to the football stadium in Yakima around 4:45 p.m., some 45 minutes later than scheduled. Kickoff was slated for 6 p.m., and the good folks at Eisenhower pushed the kickoff back to 7 because of the flat. Thanks to a worker dispatched from a tire store in Moses Lake, the second bus finally got moving again, and rolled into the stadium around 6:30.
Lake City overcame an understandable slow start and went on to win 14-0.
“They were just so amazing to us; we’re grateful for their hospitality,” Hout said of the folks at Eisenhower.
Eisenhower is scheduled to play at Lake City in 2025.
MORE PAISLEY: Coeur d’Alene High volleyball player Paisley Goings was highlighted as the Knudtsen Chevrolet Press Athlete of the Week in Wednesday’s paper.
Space constraints prevented running everything Viking coach Carly Curtis said about the steady, versatile, 5-foot-9 outside hitter in that space.
So here’s what else Curtis said:
“She has always given beyond 100% in practices and during competitions. No matter how much pressure she was under we could count on her to score. For example, this season alone she has served 312 times and turned 36 of those into aces with only 10 serving errors the whole season. Defensively and in serve receive she’s digging and passing at a rate of 90%. Her ability to see where to hit is another factor that has made her successful on the outside.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.
MARK NELKE/Press Timberlake senior defensive lineman Jeremy Hurlbert attempts to deflect the pass of St. Maries wide receiver Julian Ceja-Grimaldo during last Friday's game at Van Tuinstra Memorial Stadium.