Jake Tumblin — if you can’t catch him, you can’t beat him.
Jake Tumblin is ready to run.
Gifted with speed and the ability to slash into the open hole behind his blockers, the Coupeville High School junior may be one of the first players to benefit from new coach Tony Maggio’s decision to install the wing-t offense this season. A quarterback as a sophomore, he will operate as a wing this year, and the plan is for opposing teams to spend most of their time staring at the back of his uniform as he blows by them.
Regardless of whether he’s taking the ball under center or scampering to daylight, Tumblin is a young man of many talents. Also a standout defensive back, he was picked as the best at that position at a recent football camp run by former National Football League legend Lawyer Milloy, a pretty fine DB in his decade plus in the pros.
Tumblin will make plays. Where he lines up is the least of his concerns.
“I love the transition,” Tumblin said. “We have great athletic, young quarterbacks to fill in that position and it doesn’t matter to me where I play, as long as it puts our team in a better position to win.”
After struggling against a schedule that was top-heavy in schools that boasted student bodies several times bigger than Coupeville, the Wolves will have more of a fighting chance this year. Gone are ATM, Cedarcrest and Lakewood and in are schools much closer in size, such as Orcas Island and Lynden Christian.
“It definitely mattered to the players,” Tumblin said. “Honestly, no one wanted to play them, but hopefully over the next few years we can grow as a program and compete with them again.
“We want to be the team that nobody wants to play after they watch our film,” he added. “We want to be a totally different team than last year; we want to win. We want one win a week and we’re gonna take it one week at a time.”
The son of a coach — local baseball guru Chris Tumblin — Jake has been an All-Conference level catcher for the Wolf baseball team. Last season he was successful on every one of his 20 steal attempts,
using his jet-powered legs to dazzle and befuddle opposing batteries.
If his legs keep up that kind of frantic pace on the gridiron over the next two seasons, he may be able to reach his post-high school goal, as well.
“I’ve always wanted to play college football after high school,” Tumblin said. “That’s what I’m shooting for.”
First, though, the recruiters would have to actually catch the fleet-footed speedster. Not an easy thing to accomplish.
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