The Olympic Peninsula Eagles, the area semi-pro adult football team, is bigger and better in 2012 and truly represents the North Olympic Peninsula with games in both Jefferson and Clallam counties.
The Eagles open their nine-game regular season this Saturday at Memorial Field in Port Townsend.
They have five home games, four in Port Townsend and one at Sequim High School.
The Eagles have grown twice as big as they were last year, thanks to merging with Pacific Football League champion Kitsap Bears in the offseason.
From a 25-man roster from the 2011 season, the Eagles have increased to a 52-player roster.
They immediately gained size in the trenches and gained a strong-armed, quality quarterback after the merger.
Former Bears quarterback Don Purser, a 36-year-old Kingston resident, guided Kitsap to the league title last season and has been a part of the semi-pro football wars for 12 years.
Purser has played for a handful of semi-pro teams and led two of them to national championships.
The former Eagles quarterback split off from the North Olympic team to start the Bears as owner and quarterback in 2008.
Purser contacted Eagles owner and head coach Mike McMahan in the offseason about merging the two teams.
McMahan remains the sole owner and head coach while Purser, a 1993 North Kitsap High School graduate, will concentrate on playing.
“Don approached me in the offseason and said that he wants to bring a football title to the North Olympic Peninsula, so he suggested that we combine teams,” McMahan.
“We look to be on the right track to bring that title to the Peninsula.”
That starts with Purser, a veteran of leading teams from the pocket.
“Don is a big kid,” McMahan said.
Purser is 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds. He has played offensive lineman at times for the Bears.
“He’s like Ben Roethlisberger, except that he’s not as mobile as Roethlisberger.
“He has a great arm and he likes to stay in the pocket.”
The other immediate benefit from the merger is the increased size in the offensive and defensive lines.
The Eagles now average 280 pounds on the offensive line and 300 on the defensive line.
Last year the team averaged 240 pounds on the line.
“We have gained an average of 40 pounds per guy,” McMahan said. “We have real solid offensive and defensive lines now.”
The good news is that the longtime anchor of the Eagles’ offensive line, center Don Politte of Clallam Bay, is back.
“He has been with the Eagles from day one,” McMahan said.
“He runs a logging company during the week and plays football on the weekends.”
It’s interesting that the Eagles’ defensive line outweighs their offensive line. Most football teams go the other way.
“We do that so we can do roll outs,” McMahan said.
“Our [offensive] tackles are big but our guards are a little smaller and quicker because they have to pull [during roll outs].”
The merger of the two teams have given the Eagles a lot of credibility around the league.
The Eagles were ranked 25th out of 32 semi-pro teams in Washington and Oregon in a preseason poll.
“When they heard that we had merged with the Bears, we were ranked No. 10,” McMahan said.
“We moved up in the polls without even playing a game.”
Skill players to watch this year in addition to Purser are tailbacks D.J. Johnson and Eric Johnson Jr., not related, and wide receiver Jacoba Square.
D.J. Johnson is the returning tailback while Eric Johnson of Neah Bay is moving from defensive back to tailback in 2012.
Square of Joyce is a standout receiver.
The Eagles not only got bigger with the merger but they also got younger.
They averaged 32 years of age a year ago but average 28 now.
“We have gotten younger and a lot faster,” McMahan said. “We have a lot of speed now at wide receiver.”
There is a good mix of veterans and young players on this team, the coach added.
Another benefit from the merger is that the Eagles are getting a ship-load of help.
That’s because the former Bears team brings over a lot of military personnel stationed on USS Ronald Reagan in Bremerton.
McMahan said he isn’t worried about the ship being deployed elsewhere during football season.
“It’s docked here for awhile,” he said.
Because of the influx of players from Kitsap County, the Eagles’ practice field was moved to Irondale Beach Park in Port Hadlock.
“It’s a beautiful field to practice on,” McMahan said.
It all starts Saturday when the season opens at Port Townsend’s Memorial Field. All games start at 6 p.m.
The Eagles open against the Puget Sound Outlaws, which made the playoffs last year.
“They are a veteran team,” McMahan said.
Then the Eagles play in Portland on May 12 against the Shine, in Tumwater on June 2 against the Cavaliers, at Memorial Field on June 9 against the tough Seattle Stallions, at Sequim High School on June 23 against Puget Sound Outlaws again, at Memorial Field on June 30 against the Tacoma Invaders, at Memorial Field on July 7 against the Snohomish County Thunder, in Renton on July 14 against the Ravens and then the Eagles end the season on the road July 21 against the Mount Hood Eruption.
The playoffs start July 28 with the championship game scheduled for Aug. 4.
For more information, visit leaguelineup.com/opeagles or contact coach McMahan, also called coach Mac, at 360-670-5835.