Eastlake Wolves 2011 graduate Michael Harper figured his football career was history until a phone call from Eastside Bulldogs Head Coach Kevin Bouwman changed everything.
“I had been out of high school for few years when Coach Bouwman reached out to me,” Harper said. “We had known each other for a long time. He told me all about the team. I hadn’t played football for a while and I wanted to play again.”
Harper, who is a team captain on the Bulldogs squad that captured a Northwest Junior College Football League title courtesy of a 5-1 record in 2015, said the Bulldogs are striving to defend their championship on the gridiron this fall.
“No. 1 goal we want to repeat as champions,” Harper said. “All the hard work we put together getting a championship last year was worth it. It was awesome and it had been a while since we have been part of a winning team. We want to do it again.”
The Eastside Bulldogs team, which is in its fourth year of existence, is composed of a wide array of different players from different community colleges in Western Washington. Bouwman said each player on the roster is required to be enrolled in a minimum of five credits per semester or quarter in college in order to be eligible to play on the team. Bouwman encourages his players to take a full academic load, which is composed of 12 credits. The hard-nosed head coach said he stresses the importance of academics to every player interested in joining the Bulldogs team.
“The first question I ask a player when they are asking to play for the team, ‘Are you in school?,” Bouwman said. “That is the first priority for us. We have a requirement of a minimum of five credits but we’re trying to bump that up to 12 credits.”
The Bulldogs had one of their best seasons in team history in 2015, culminating with a NJFCL championship. The Bulldogs went 5-1 in league play against Lewis and Clark, Central Sound and Everett. They played each team twice.
“Last year was definitely a good year for us. We won the league championship, which was great,” Bouwman said.
Even with the success in league play, the Bulldogs went 0-3 in non-league matchups against NCAA Division III squads Linfield, Pacific and George Fox.
“We didn’t have as good a showing against the Division III teams, which we were disappointed in but we were competitive in every game with them,” Bouwman said.
He estimates that about half of the players from the 2015 squad will return to the fold this fall. Harper said the Bulldogs are a close-knit group on and off the field.
“When you [a player] get here from the get-go we make sure everybody knows that high school doesn’t matter anymore. We are all together now. We do a lot of drills and team building exercises,” Harper said.
