STANWOOD — Stanwood running back Brad Gee isn’t letting a late start — or anything else — slow him down.

Gee, who was a standout back for Archbishop Murphy, transferred to Stanwood this season, and has made a sizable impact in a relatively small number of games for the Spartans after becoming eligible.

Gee has run for 645 yards on 94 carries for the young Spartans squad and leads them in yards, carries and touchdowns (seven).

Along with several other talented young backs, he has helped solidify the backfield for the Spartans, who lost starter Ben Zipp early in the season with a head injury.

His biggest game performance to date came in what is likely to be this team’s signature victory: a rumbling, 266-yard, three-touchdown performance in Stanwood’s thrilling 48-39 win over Arlington last week that helped the Spartans claim back the Stilly Cup.

He also ran for 128 yards and three scores in Stanwood’s victory over Monroe, which was their first win of the year.

“He’s a true football player,” Stanwood coach Dick Abrams said. “He’ll get on the ground and get dirty, and he knows how to work.”

Until this year, Gee attended Archbishop Thomas Murphy, a private school in Everett where he played sports and starred on the wrestling team, making it to the Class 2A state championship match of the 189-pound weight class before falling to Aberdeen’s Erich Schmidtke.

This year, financial issues that included rising gas prices landed Gee in Stanwood, which is where he grew up and played middle-school football with some of the players who are now fellow Spartans.

“I love it,” he said of the move. “I went to middle school here and coming back, I can hang out with those guys more.”

An ineligible Gee had to sit out the first four games of the season. He played in the next four.

When he did take to the field, he stepped into a big role for the Spartans.

Abrams said the 6-foot-1, 215-pound junior is “a slasher.”

“He can go sideways as fast as he can straight ahead, and not every running back can do that,” Abrams said.

Abrams also said Gee’s tenacity can earn him extra yards, sometimes dragging defenders with him.

“What’s amazing is he’ll (seem to) pick up three yards, but actually he gets seven or eight. He doesn’t go down. In fact, we had to tell the offensive line to keep going, because he’ll just keep going.”

Abrams also said that Gee’s arrival has helped the other runners on the squad, including another underlcassman, sophomore Devon Wooldridge, who has 409 yards and six scoring runs on the season.

Gee said he enjoys playing with talented teammates such as Wooldridge and the other runners — as well as the Spartans’ offensive line.

“The line’s done a magnificent job. They’ve gone out every week and done a great job. All the yards I get are because of them,” Gee said.

He and his teammates hope there are more yards in the future, including next season, when the team (3-4 Western Conference North Division, 3-5 overall) will bring back most of its squad.

He said, “We can’t wait.”

Trevor Pyle can be reached at 360-416-2156 or by e-mail at