For 15 years Brett Ogata has paced the sidelines during football games and practices, urging players to give the game just a little bit more. Now, after taking the helm for the Islanders, he and the coaching staff plan to steer the program into a place that it hasn’t been for a while.

“We haven’t worried about who we’re playing yet,” Ogata said prior to the team’s first game against 4A Lake Washington. “It’s been about Mercer Island and who we are.”

The coach, coming off a two-year stint as the quarterbacks coach at Skyline High School in Sammamish, said he has tried to bring to MI the good and positive aspects that they used at Skyline to inspire the players.

“I really looked at why and what made Skyline so good, and tried to integrate that here to make it work,” said Ogata. During his time at Skyline, Ogata helped the Spartans quarterback Jake Heaps grow into the nationally ranked player who he is today, with a signed commitment to play at Brigham Young University. When Ogata started, Heaps was a freshman heading into his sophomore year, the same place that MI quarterback Jeff Lindquist is today.

“It’s been fun for me, watching them come into their own,” said Ogata.

This year, the team is working on rebuilding, coming off a 3-7 season last fall.

“Everyone on the Island is pretty excited about getting this thing going,” he said. “A lot of people want to see the program succeed. There are a lot of ideas that have been brought in, and people have been willing to help.”

That willingness to create a stronger program was evident from the first day of practice. Last season, 70 kids turned up to play football. This season, Ogata has 114 spread across four teams; varsity, junior varsity, and sophomore and freshman teams, which Ogata said will be a mix of the two classes due to a large incoming freshman class.

Those students will get their first taste of the night lights against Lake Washington in a non-league matchup this Friday night in Kirkland. It might be a bigger school, but it will help prepare the Islanders for a season full of tough league games in one of the strongest conferences in the state.

“The KingCo league is really tough,” said Ogata. “But for the kids, everyone is shooting for Bellevue. Everyone will always say Bellevue until someone knocks them down, and we are no different. The kids are really looking forward to the game.”

Part of Ogata’s overall program goal is to help the team see that if they put the effort into it, there is no reason why they can’t beat teams like Bellevue. While he said they haven’t discussed team goals at length, his personal goal is to help get kids and the community excited about football again.

“I want to have the kids believe this is a good program and to make sure that this is a good, positive experience, and that they are enjoying it and enjoying learning about football,” he said.

The team will have its first home test this Friday night against Newport in their second non-league game. The game begins at 7 p.m., featuring the brand new athletic turf at the stadium, as well as the unveiling of the new MIHS marching band uniforms.

Schedule

9/11 vs. Newport

9/17 at Liberty

9/25 vs. Interlake

10/2 at Bellevue

10/9 vs. Mount Si

10/16 at Ingraham

10/23 at Sammamish

10/30 vs. Juanita