SEQUIM — The playmaking abilities of Sequim junior wide receiver/safety/kick returner Gavin Velarde has made opposition coaches mutter quiet curses to themselves on the sidelines for the last three seasons.
“I’m sure the league is getting tired of him,” Wolves head coach Erik Wiker joked.
Wiker is just happy to have him on his team creating headaches and mismatches for Sequim’s competition.
And even this far into Velarde’s career, Wiker’s still awed on a game-by-game basis.
“Once you get used to seeing how somebody plays it can kind of minimize the impact,” Wiker said. “But once or twice a game he does stuff that looks borderline impossible.
“I usually start out with, ‘Don’t do that,’ but then it turns out great because he has talent that other people don’t have. Sometimes you don’t realize it until after the game, like Bremerton with the kick return [Velarde returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a TD in a 7-0 win]. You see good special teams blocking, a juke and then he ran for the TD.
“When you go back and watch it on film, and see the gaps in the blocking, you see him juke three people and outrun everyone and realize how much of that was his pure athletic ability, you just go, ‘Wow.’ ”
Velarde can hurt a team in so many ways — his 4.47 speed in the 40-yard dash is no match for the vast majority of prep players, he posseses a shake-and-bake ability resembling a latter-day Barry Sanders or a present-day Tyler Lockett and he has superb tackling and coverage qualities defensively — that it’s difficult to point out where he excels most.
He caught 58 passes for 938 yards and 11 touchdowns. He rushed for 209 yards and five more scores. Velarde brought back three kickoff returns for TDs and also took a punt 83 yards for another score against rival Port Angeles. Then there were the interception returns for touchdowns of 98 and 99 yards.
Olympic League honors
All told, Velarde accounted for 134 of Sequim’s 328 points (41 percent) this season as the Wolves (7-3) finished second in the Olympic League 2A Division and advanced to the district playoffs.
After the season, Velarde was voted Olympic League 2A Division MVP by those same coaches he just finished tormenting.
For all these accomplishments, Velarde is the All-Peninsula Football MVP as determined by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
When a coach has a weapon at their disposal such as Velarde, it only makes sense to try and funnel as much of the offense through him as possible.
To sharpen his game Velarde learned the routes and responsibilities at all wide receiver positions before the season.
Then thanks to injuries, Velarde added running back duties to his plate.
“To have him more versatile helped us out, helped us pick up vital first downs not just touchdowns,” Wiker said.
“By moving him around more he helped the other players take advantage and you saw that with [Sequim quarterback] Riley Cowan being named [Olympic League 2A Division] Offensive MVP and Payton [Glasser] and Kyler Rollness making first team [All-Olympic League].
“And that doesn’t include other guys like Curtis Gorr and the Rudy Whiteheads and other guys that benefitted.”
Velarde enjoyed the added responsiblity.
“I feel like putting me at all the wide receiver positions changes it all up for the defense,” he said.
“If I’m moving around from wide receiver to running back to even taking snaps at QB in the Wild Cat, it changes it up for everybody and allows everybody else to make plays.
“The defense is worrying about me, and we have players that can hurt you when they overcommit.
“And I love that. It’s good for everybody. It builds chemistry, builds confidence, and overall, it makes everybody a better player and makes us a tougher team.”
And it’s not just offense and kick returns. Velarde also shines at safety.
“The thing that is overlooked the most by the coaches in the league is how great he is defensively,” Wiker said.
“He takes away part of the field, reads plays well, can understand scouting reports and put that information to good use. There’s no question why he was the league MVP.”
His most important play on defense came after thoroughly digesting a scouting report for league foe Olympic.
With Sequim up 26-14 and the league’s No. 2 seed to the district playoffs on the line, the Trojans were closing in on a touchdown and a chance to build momentum just before halftime.
Instead, Velarde buried Olympic with a TD on a 98-yard interception return.
“All week we’d been practicing and we knew they liked to run a hitch route for their No. 1 receiver and the No. 2 receiver would run a corner, so I broke to the corner as soon as I saw the throw and took it for a touchdown,” Velarde said.
“I feel like it almost killed them. You get that close to something big and then it just shuts you down.”
Sequim ended up winning 48-26 and Velarde scored five touchdowns: the interception return, an 80-yard kickoff return and three rushing scores.
“We just played like we could, which was awesome,” Velarde said. Everybody played together. We all played to our full potential, we knew it was a big game and we came out firing.”
Velarde followed up with seven catches for 238 yards and three touchdown receptions (39, 64 and 75), plus an 83-yard punt return in a 49-9 blowout of rival Port Angeles.
“It’s always important playing PA,” Velarde said.
“It always will be important. Football baseball, basketball, wrestling swimming and I guarantee its important to them, too.”
And Velarde will use the memory of the Wolves’ entertaining 59-42 district playoff defeat as a motivator for his senior season
“That game was an awesome experience,” Velarde said. “To get back there, this offseason we will have to work hard, and I’m trying to get a little bigger, a little faster and appeal a little more to colleges.”
2016 All-Peninsula Football Team
MVP—Gavin Velarde, junior, Sequim
Quarterback/Defensive Back—Berkley Hill, senior, Port Townsend
Running Back/Linebacker — Cole Svec, senior, Neah Bay
Running Back/Linebacker — Detrius Kelsall, junior, Port Townsend
Wide Receiver/Defensive Back — Cameron Buzzell, senior, Neah Bay
Quarterback/Defensive Back — Rwehabura Munyagi Jr., junior, Neah Bay
Running Back/Tight End/Defensive Line — Jack Dahlgren, senior, Forks
Offensive Line/Defensive Line—Billy Palmer, senior, Forks
Offensive Line/Linebacker — James Thayer, senior, Sequim
Offensive Line/Defensive Line — Lane Dotson, senior, Chimacum
Wide Receiver/Defensive Back/Special Teams — Garrett Edwards, sophomore, Port Angeles
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
