Tenino seniors, led by Pac-12 bound Hickle, hope to cap program’s growth with playoff bid
One dismal night during the 2018 season, Tenino High School’s football coaches outnumbered the player on their sidelines. You read that right: player, singular.
Only 12 guys dressed for the game. Eleven were on the field.
Coach Carey Nagel took over the season before, starting his program, he said at the time, “with some things a lot of kids weren’t comfortable with.”
Squad size dwindled. Temporarily. Players who didn’t stay missed out, said senior running back Shawn Nicholson, a freshman in 2018.
“Nagel’s built this program on a sense of family,” he said, pointing to the team’s annual three-day trip to Nahcotta Beach, a mix of boot camp, football and fun activities, as key to bonding among players and with the coaching staff.
“We make it intentional to give kids memorable moments. We make time for the coaches to talk to the kids. We make it a point to get as close as possible and build those relationships,” Nagel said.
Fielding a team of 45 players this season, the Beavers held onto a guy who has become the centerpiece: defensive end and fullback Takari Hickle, who had just come to town from Scatter Creek rival Rochester as a freshman in 2018.
“In Tenino’s history, we haven’t had the best seasons or the best players,” Hickle said. “We were down but if you have passion and fire for the game, it brings out the best in you.
“We’ve had players who wanted to play. We’ve had guys drop out, but we’ve always had the core group of us that sees the vision, sees what we’re doing here. We’re in an uplifting, happy environment.”
Gifted with overdoses of size and athleticism, the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Hickle, who committed to Oregon State earlier this summer, might have taken a look around and engineered a transfer to a larger school. The last Beaver athlete to earn a Pac-12 scholarship, to Washington State, was women’s basketball player Nike McClure. She transferred to Class 2A power W.F. West after two seasons at Tenino.
“I never believed you have to go to a big high school to play in college,” Hickle said. “If you’re talented you’ll get noticed. If you have it, you have it. I have loyalty to our team and our coaching staff. I’ve always felt supported. I know when I’m on the field with this team I have people behind me.”
Hickle, a 3-star recruit according to various scouting services, put up big numbers during the abbreviated spring 2021 season to earn first team Olympian All-Area honors after being named to the second team as a sophomore. Offensively, he rushed 52 times for 492 yards and seven touchdowns. His only pass reception went for another touchdown. Defensively he fought off double- and triple teams to make 45 tackles, 16 for losses.
“He’s one of those rare guys who has size and explosion. When he gets out on the field, you’re like ‘wow, thank God he’s here,’” said Nagel. “He pairs that with leadership. He’s good with guys on the team. It all molds together.”
Nicholson, who plays linebacker on defense, is sometimes astonished to see Hickle in on a tackle.
“Takari comes out of nowhere. It’s crazy how he just flies to the ball,” he said.
Hickle started in flag football at age five and, though he has played a variety of sports, knew immediately it was his thing.
“Football gives me a different feeling than everything else. I don’t know where else I’d rather be than out here,” he said after Tenino’s practice at Beaver Stadium on Thursday morning.
He says his success is as much mental as it is physical. Asked what makes him the player he has become he responded: “My awareness, my drive to be the best competitor I can be, my will to not quit, to keep driving, to keep going.”
A model for those who say young athletes should play multiple sports, Hickle has competed in four as a teenager, adding rodeo to stints on Tenino’s football, basketball and soccer teams. Each has contributed to his development.
“Rodeo requires a lot of body control, you have to react on the fly. Not everything goes according to plan with horses, things happen, you have to be able to think quickly and shift your body with the weight of the horse,” he said.
“Basketball has helped me see the field a lot better. In all honesty, though, the sport that’s improved how I play football is soccer. My awareness of where I am on the field is 10 times better.”
Hickle had an offer in hand from Nevada when the other Beavers, Oregon State, came calling.
“I was unsure. I didn’t expect to commit until the end of my senior year,” he said. “Going down there changed everything. I met the coaching staff. We talked about their morals, what they bring out of their players, what they want as a team, who they are. I knew that’s where I wanted to be.”
As much as Hickle says his Tenino teammates have meant to him, he and his success in finding a place at OSU can inspire the Beavers in return, Nagel said.
“The kids see you can do something at a smaller school. Obviously, Takari’s blessed with the size and speed, the toughness and nastiness you need to play in the Pac-12. But he’s also a worker. The kids see if you put the work in you can get where you want to be.”
Meanwhile, Tenino performed well at a team camp it hosted earlier in the summer. Nicholson praised a big junior class led by All-EvCo selections Dylan Spicer, Randall Marti, Triston Whitiker, Max Craig, Bryan Budsberg and Keegan O’Connor.
The 1A EvCo, already a tough small school league, doesn’t get any easier with this season’s addition of Eatonville, 5-0 in the 2A South Puget Sound League a year ago. The Cruisers only loss came, 29-19, in a hastily scheduled midweek game at undefeated 3A South Sound Conference champion Yelm.
“Eatonville’s going to be a very tough opponent, but all the teams in our league are tough and well coached,” said Nagel. “They add to the strength of our conference, hopefully that will play a factor in the playoff seedings.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.