Timeout with...Brian Howard - Varsity Football

Michelle Sandstrom, the Oak Harbor Sports Report roving reporter, submitted the following look at lineman Brian Howard.


Brian Howard, though born in Okinawa, Japan he has lived here “twelve long miserable years” and is a local Football Player for our Oak Harbor Wildcats! This 6’2”, 228 pound senior expressed to me some of his feelings about every subject of the game.
To begin I found out the he plays the position of right offensive tackle and defensive nose guard because he is big and he loves it. Bringing up his size again, that is the reasoning for his jersey, #68. In football certain positions only have certain numbers, and because he is a big guy he gets the bigger jersey.
This was Brian’s first season back after two years, though you wouldn’t be able to tell by the way he performed. He shared that before this season he had been extremely nervous. He has played football for eight years total but after taking two years off he wasn’t sure he would be the same, nor did it help that he hadn’t practice once over the summer. But personally he felt he did the best he could and worked as hard as he could, personally he felt proud of his performance after his time off and as a fan I am sure I am not the only one who noticed his hard efforts during each game.
The Jersey. A players jersey is vital to every girl here at Oak Harbor High School. It’s something everyone wants to wear and hoping they can be the first to ask a player before it is taken for the season. When I told this to Brian he chuckled saying “it’s pretty sweet” and exclaimed that Tiersha usually gets to wear his but if another girl asks he’ll let her.
With the season coming to an end fast Brian isn’t looking forward to it, “it’s a good time and were all really close, I’m going to miss the pasta feeds every Thursday evening”. However over all he thought the team did a poor job and the team could have done a lot better if they had worked a little harder. Though he is proud of his performance this season, he takes some blame and says “I could have been meaner, a lot meaner”, and “Turner, Fisher, Allen, Wilcox, and Mueller did a good job coaching us, they are pretty chill”. His advice for next season players is “don’t screw around, period”! It is obvious we didn’t have a great season, however the team knows their mistakes and they did all that they could and it is now time for Winter sports.
Brian will be doing Wrestling and he is unsure about Track & Field in the spring.
He considers Wrestling his favorite sport because “I bring the pain”, and is really excited for it to begin. However had adds that the sports fees are “RIDICULOUS”! But they won’t stop him from joining and being the best that he can be.
Remembering Brian as once a tiny middle schooler from North Whidbey it’s hard to believe that he will be graduating this spring in June. His plans don’t include going to college for football, just moving out for now.