As the football team prepares for the playoffs, the Panther caught up with one of its most dynamic players, Jaxon Woodward, to get a closer look at the team.

Woodward has started on varsity since his sophomore year, and has played a lot of football. He says his favorite football memory was last year’s game versus Rainier Beach. He described the experience as a crazy one: “Coming into the game we knew we had a shot to shock a lot of people and beat Beach even when everyone outside of the team was telling us we didn’t have a shot. Even with 3 minutes left down 14 we were able to maintain belief that we would be able to find a way to win, which we eventually did in overtime.”

As a child, Woodward played basketball, baseball, and soccer, he says what makes football different is, “definitely the physicality is what separates football from other sports. There are things that you can do in football that if you did in real life you’d be going to jail for. It’s great, but the physical aspect of it just isn’t for everyone.”

Woodward says that his goal is to one-day play college football. One of his coaches, Coach Cole, speaks very highly of him. He said, “What makes Jaxon so special is not just what he can do with his arm, which is a lot, but also what he can do with his legs. Teams truly have to game plan to try to stop him.”

Although this team currently has a losing record, they are battle tested and ready to make a run in the playoffs having played 3 of the top 10 teams in the state during their season. Woodward says what makes him believe that this team can do something special is, “the fact that this team is more like a family than a team. From sophomores all the way up to the seniors, we all are friends, seniors don’t pick the sophomores and everyone is equal. Our team is smaller than it has been in the past and that just increases the importance of everyone on the team to play their best.”

Finally, we asked Woodward about this year’s football team theme, E.X.O.D.U.S., and what that means to him. He said, “E.X.O.D.U.S really is just about getting to that promised land, which to us is getting farther than we got last year and re-setting the bar to a higher level. Even more than record wise, all of us seniors really want to make an impact that changes the whole nature of this program and turns it into a winning one.”

As you can see, Woodward and the football team are ready to make a run in the playoffs. Now get out and support the football team!