Pullman football coach Dan Lucier expected his optional Saturday morning meeting with players to be lightly attended after Friday night's 48-20 road victory over Deer Park. In the past, a dozen members would show up and talk about the game, a message for the week or what to expect in the coming days. This time, however, that number had doubled and Lucier could only smile. His team isn't resting on its laurels after a 4-1 record. They've tasted victory, and more important, the Hounds are hungry for more.
"The kids are buying in. The lights are coming on," Lucier said. "We've played the league champs from the last two years and we completely, for the most part, dismantled them."
Lucier's message hasn't changed, even if the reputation of his program has after a hot start. The coach preaches to his players the importance of working hard on every play, playing with passion and finishing strong - be it one play, one drive or the end of a game.
"That was our big talk on Saturday - if we think we should beat Clarkston, we're going to get our butts kicked," Lucier said. "If we have the attitude that we can live on all the hard work before and we've reached as high as we're going, we're in trouble."
All along the motivator has been that no one believed the Hounds were a threat in the Great Northern League. "What if?" Lucier told his players on multiple occasions. It's a mantra that asks the players to give it their all to see what can happen when they maximize every ounce of their ability on every play.
But after their start, the Hounds are going to need a different motivator, and Lucier hopes his team will continue to work hard, rather than begin to enjoy the ride.
"It's the process. If we start to think we are pretty good now and forget the process we're going to be in trouble," Lucier said. "Our job, as coaches, is to make sure the kids keep the process every second of the way."
The process of working hard regardless of record, opponent or where a player is on the depth chart wasn't always a part of Lucier's teaching. It developed when he and his Superior High School teams stopped being satisfied.
"We were always pretty good, but I was tired of being pretty good," Lucier said of the school in Montana. "We would always make it to the first or second round of the playoffs and then we'd get beat. At that point something happened in my coaching life that I realized I had to get kids to understand how critical it is that they come (ready to) work as hard as you can and to finish."
In four wins this season, the Hounds have faced deficits and bounced back, including 34 unanswered points in the second half last week against Deer Park.
"Deer Park, I don't think, had any idea what was going to happen," Lucier said. "They thought, 'Oh, this is Pullman.' I don't think they knew, but they knew very soon that they were in for a dogfight."
For a program that got behind and stayed behind a lot the past few seasons, the turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable.
"My very first day with these guys, that was the very first concept we brought to them - finish," Lucier said. "We pushed them to explode through the finish line, because normal kids want to coast to the finish line."
The Hounds have avoided that tendency largely because of the tenacity of its entire roster, but five players stand out in Lucier's mind.
Quarterback Justin Cillay, linebacker Ryan Pitzer, running back Jake Staniszewski, two-way standout Jackson Kincaid and do-it-all David Ungerer have all been crucial to Lucier's successful transition into the Hounds' football program. And each one has stepped up at different times this season to lift the team to victory.
Last week it was Staniszewski's turn, as he racked up 100 yards rushing and receiving. In typical Lucier fashion, however, the coach said it wouldn't have been possible without the Pullman wide receivers and blockers, who tenaciously threw themselves at defenders down the field to spring Staniszewski on several occasions.
The night also belonged to Ungerer, the smallest Hound on the team. The stout cornerback intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble to put the game away, but it was a second quarter screen pass play Lucier felt turned the entire game around.
"Deer Park was driving and had momentum. David read the play, ran 15 yards and just laid the wood to this 6-2, 185-pound kid," Lucier said. "That maybe changed the course of the game. He's got the heart of a lion. He's 130, 140 pounds, but that hit in the second quarter shushed their crowd. I didn't know if the kid was going to get up."
That's what Lucier has done so far in Pullman - gotten the most out of the least. The smallest Pullman player delivered the hit of the season. The least hyped team could deliver the biggest blow to the GNL standings - as long as Pullman finishes.
"We've still got a long way to go, but we're starting to beat teams pretty good," Lucier said. "It all comes back to the process. We've got to focus every step of the way. We're not to the place yet that we can coast to a victory."
Andrew Nemec can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 231, or by email to anemec@dnews.com.
