By Dylan Reubenking
dylan@yelmonline.com
The Rainier High School football team enjoyed its best season in head coach Andy Bartell’s five-year tenure. The Mountaineers posted a 6-4 record and qualified for a crossover play-in game with a shot at a 2B district tournament berth.
They fell short in the play-in game against Pe Ell-Willapa Valley on Oct. 31, losing 42-12. While the Mountaineers’ season ended prematurely, Bartell is proud of how the team grew both on the field and mentally, especially in crucial moments. He and the Rainier coaching staff emphasized discipline and accountability in the offseason, and he credits how his team bought into their coaching for its improvement in the win column.
“We grew a lot mentally. Even in the Pe Ell-Willapa Valley game where things didn’t go our way, we didn’t lose our head or lose our cool,” he said. “We did a really nice job of keeping our composure. We’re not 100% where we need to be, but we’re 100 times from where we were last year.”
The team’s improvement landed Bartell the 2B East/West League Coach of the Year award, voted on by other coaches in the league.
“It’s a huge honor. I’m very honored that my peers in the league think of me that way and see that our program is making a step in the right direction,” he said of the award.
Bartell said the award, along with 13 Mountaineers student-athletes earning all-league honors, helps support his belief that he and the staff are building a winning program. He said that an increase in home attendance and student participation is further proof that the community believes that same sentiment as well.
“This season was the first step to being a contender,” Bartell said. “You can’t go up unless you start climbing, and this was the first rung of that ladder for us. We got some pieces here to keep building. I told the team that nobody wants the season to end, but with the progress we’ve made compared to the last couple of years, the culture building the right way and the fan base growing, we can’t let this be the end of it. We have to keep working to the next phase of the offseason and getting in the weight room and perfecting our craft.”
In order to keep the momentum going and improve from this season, Bartell said the theme of next year’s offseason will be to stick with the disciplined approach and self-accountability. In his words, he wants the team to “fine tune what we’ve gotten started here.”
“In terms of keeping each other accountable, it can’t just be one or two guys that get on somebody. It needs to be the whole team. We need to be in the gym together. We need to be in the weight room together. It helps not only us but Rainier High School athletics as a whole. We’re trying to create a culture here where we are a sports school.”
