Head coach Gary Heide's expression as he presented Josh Westbrook Bayfield's 12th Man Award at last year's end-of-season banquet couldn't help but remind the then-junior of the feeling he'd experienced late in the state football semifinals. That's when La Junta's Dean Findley flew unblocked into his view while he scanned for an open receiver.
Westbrook knows he will be the focal point in 2016.
"It was pretty nerve-wracking actually, watching and seeing what I have to take over," Westbrook recalled last Friday outside BHS.
"But it also makes you realize how blessed you are to have a good team around you when you get the opportunity to come out and play, and play in the playoffs. It was a great experience."
And Westbrook, one of a fearsome foursome with that surname on the Wolverines' roster this fall, can't wait to lead, full time, the 2015 Class 2A state champions' defense of their title.
"I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and getting ready," he said, noting competition for the position early in the first week of camp would likely come from Hayden Farmer and Rocky Morris.
"I've got big shoes to fill, definitely - Kelton was a great quarterback. But I think I'm prepared pretty well, and it'll be a good year. I have pretty high expectations for us, honestly. I think we have a great team and I'd love to win state again! Go back-to-back! That's my goal, our team's goal, and we're ... going to give it our best every day."
Officially, that process - and that of every CHSAA gridiron program - began Monday, Aug. 15, but for Westbrook and others, it was more or less continuing an intensive off-season.
"Lot of work ... the whole summer," he said. "A lot of camps, 7-on-7s with Coach. Just a lot of football!"
Filling the open slots of a state championship team isn't always an easy task.
"We kind of tried out a lot of people at a lot of positions, and overall, we look pretty good. There's a couple positions still a little iffy on who's going to start, but overall, most positions are filled, and a lot of the seniors that left last year have pretty good people replacing them this year," Westbrook said.
One of the summer's highlights was another solid showing at the CSU-Pueblo Team Camp, regarded as last season's jump-off toward gaining the state championship, 28-20, on the road at Platte Valley in Kersey.
"We actually did better this year than last year, I think," Westbrook said of football camp. "Didn't lose a single scrimmage, beat everyone we played. So I'd say it went pretty good; our defense looks pretty stout this year."
It will be tested first next Friday night at 7 in Blanding, Utah, against UHSAA Class 2A power San Juan. They kick off their season in-state tonight at 2A Kamas South Summit.
"It's kind of intimidating how good their record is," Westbrook said of the Broncos' extensive postseason production. "But it's just a record. We know a little bit about them. They're a good team, went to the semifinals last year I think, but if we play our best, we can definitely beat them. We'll give a hundred percent.
"That's my focus right now: One game at a time, definitely. Blanding first, but Durango (Sept. 23) is a game that's really sticking out in my head. It's their homecoming, and I'd love to wreck it."
He'll have double as many chances to do so should he also start at weak-side linebacker. And if he doesn't personally destroy a Demon, or two, and possibly three, other Westbrooks might, whether solo or in a swarm.
"There's me and my brother Jesse - he's my twin - and then Sam," Westbrook said of, respectively, a probable starter at inside 'backer and the anchor at nose guard.
"We're all seniors, and Sam's little brother, Daniel, is a sophomore. And Sam and Dan are our first cousins, so it'll be a Westbrook-filled team!"
If patrons reading a Bayfield football game program last year thought they were seeing double, triple or even quadruple of certain last names, they weren't. Brothers and cousins abounded.
Incredibly, three Killoughs (Kyle, Hunter, Cade), two McGheheys (Brody, Max), two Phelpses (Zane, Ryan), two Heides (Dawson, Carl), two Snookses (Cash, Dax) and two Hiseys (Mason, Payton) were listed along with the Westbrook quartet on the loaded roster.
"We had seven sets of brothers last year, the most of any team in the state, and two sets of twins! It was a lot of 'family' on the team," Josh Westbrook said.
"We definitely have a great family-oriented team, and Coach really puts a lot into that too. Keeps everything as a brotherhood .there's no 'I' in it at all."
"This is his fifth year now, so I've been with him all four years. And he's also my track coach, so I get to spend a lot of time with him and we have a really good relationship - it's more than a coach-player, like a coach/friend/dad relationship," Westbrook said of Coach Heide.
