Yellow Pages
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — The Sedro-Woolley football team took the field with heavy hearts Friday night, then the Cubs found the perfect way to honor their assistant coach.
A day after Denny Engberg died suddenly, the Cubs played a nearly flawless football game against the Monroe Bearcats, winning 36-14 at Sedro-Woolley High School.
“This was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do as a football coach,” Cubs coach Bryan Alexander said. “We lost a great friend and a great coach. He’s going to be greatly missed.”
Engberg, 46, was a 1981 Sedro-Woolley High School graduate and a four-year participant in football, basketball and baseball. He was a coach and board member with the Sedro-Woolley Youth Football program from 1997-2003, a volunteer coach at Cascade Middle School in 2004 and 2005 and had also volunteered with the high school’s C Team.
He was hired as an assistant coach for the high school in 2007. His son, Kellen, is a senior on the team and played in the game.
“We all played for him. He’s been my coach since I was eight,” senior Zach Adams said. “Tonight was tough. It was difficult not to see him over there.”
Counselors and coaches met with the players Friday morning, and the players decided they would like to play the game.
“They were absolutely adamant. They wanted to play for coach,” Alexander said. “They have been incredibly resilient. We talked a lot about family before the game.”
The school held a moment of silence in honor of him and for freshman Martin Carderas, who died earlier in the week after being struck by a car. The flag was lowered to half staff. Engberg’s family came to the game wearing shirts with his name and number on the back, with a picture of him on front with the words “In Loving Memory, Denny Engberg.”
“This has been a tough week,” Sedro-Woolley athletic director Todd Torgeson said. “The thing about Denny, in some regards he was the heart and soul of the Sedro-Woolley football program. He came out for the kids no matter what, and he coached with emotion. He was always there to help somebody.”
The celebrations were a little more restrained than they might have been, but the Cubs had plenty to celebrate. Ian O’Bryan accomplished a rare feat, scoring a touchdown on offense, defense and special teams. Derek Garcia finished with 139 yards rushing, 87 yards passing and scored two touchdowns.
With sure tackling and quick pursuit, the Cubs managed to shut down Monroe’s running game and still keep a dangerous deep passing game from being too problematic.
The Bearcats played without starting quarterback Anthony DiMaggio.
Coach David Telford declined to give a specific reason for DiMaggio’s absence, saying only that he “had some issues.”
Backup Joey Roppo threw for 179 yards on 11-of-23 and threw two touchdown passes, but he was also intercepted three times. O’Bryan returned the first 27 yards for a touchdown to open the scoring.
The Cubs took the lead for good on a safety at 9-7 in the second quarter, then took the ensuing kickoff and drove down for a touchdown, with Garcia going over from the 2. O’Bryan opened the second half with an 88-yard kickoff return, then tacked on a 5-yard touchdown run later in the quarter as the Cubs pulled away.
Garcia finished up Sedro-Woolley’s scoring with a 1-yard run.
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at .
