Bryant hard to miss on Tumwater T-Bird’s run-stopping defense

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Tumwater FootballBy Gail Wood

It was a defining moment for both a young defensive tackle and his line coach.

A year ago at a Tumwater football practice, Jamie Bryant, than a sophomore, was in a drill against Easton Hargrave, an all-league lineman and a senior. It was veteran versus rookie.

And Hargrave delivered a hellacious hit, knocking Bryant onto his back.

“He was just laying there, looking at the sky,” remembered Rick McGrath, Tumwater’s defensive line coach. “Basically he was almost knocked out.”

But rather than lay there, Bryant stood to his feet, ready to resume the drill. If there was any doubt about Bryant’s toughness, it disappeared.

“He’s a tough kid,” McGrath said. “He’s not afraid of contact.”

In Tumwater’s 3-1 start, Bryant has been the big body delivering the big hits on a defense that held Yelm and Chehalis to one touchdown each. While only a junior, Bryant is already drawing major college interest. The Washington Huskies are willing to offer him a scholarship.

“He likes contact,” said Pat Alexander, Tumwater’s defensive coordinator. “He’s a headhunter.”

Under the Friday night lights, it’s not like Bryant is hard to find on the football field. At 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, the Tumwater junior is easy to pick out. And not because he’s one of the biggest players on the field. He’s often the one making the big play.

Tumwater FootballTo best utilize Bryant’s D-I talent, McGrath has him playing nose guard, tackle and d-end on defense, moving him from position to position throughout a game. And Bryant has also played some tight end, giving T-Bird quarterback Daniel Hinkle a big target to throw to. Hinkle completed a pass to Bryant on a two-point conversion attempt in a 43-36 win against North Thurston two weeks ago.

Against Centralia on Friday, McGrath plans on moving Bryant around a little more on the defensive line.

“They won’t know where he’s going to be,” McGrath said. “They have to account for him.”

Last year in its run to a state championship, Tumwater had its version of Family Feud. At every practice, Jamie went up against his brother Marcus, butting heads in blocking drills or in scrimmages.

“It was fun to watch,” McGrath said. “They were flat getting after each other. That made Jamie better. It really did.”

Jamie Bryant doesn’t deny that. But he thinks he also helped make his brother, who has graduated, better.

“He always went hard on me because he always wanted me to help me improve,” Bryant said. “And I helped him improve too. It was always fun to go against him.”

While Bryant is an opponent’s headache to block, his coaches say he’s not perfect. He’s got room to grow.

“He’s very gifted,” Tumwater head coach Sid Otton said. “But he’s got some things he needs to work on. He needs to work on disengaging. And he needs to work on his quickness.”

Jamie is the youngest of the three Bryant brothers. His oldest brother, Hank, who graduated from Tumwater in 2008, was an all-league lineman. Marcus played guard and center.

While there’s four years separating them, Hank made sure Jamie was on task, doing the things he was supposed to do in football – like lifting weights and conditioning.

“He pushed me,” Jamie said.

In last year’s  2A state championship game against Archbishop, Bryant kept pushing the center backwards, preventing the guards from pulling. That short circuited Archbishop’s Wing-T offense, helping Tumwater win 34-14.

“He eliminated their offense almost single handedly,” Alexander said. “He’s an impressive player.”

But while Bryant is a headline grabbing kind of player, he’d just assume avoid the limelight. When Bryant was in grade school, he sometimes didn’t do his homework just so his teacher wouldn’t call on him.

“He was painfully shy,” said Leighanne Malmin, Bryant’s mother. “But we figured that one out. We got him out of that. Now, he’s just fine.”

Bryant now has a 3.3 GPA and wants to go into the medical field one day. So, he’s got the classroom challenge figured out. He still doesn’t like the attention, but that doesn’t keep him from being a leader on the field.

“He doesn’t wait for someone to come and say lets do this,” Leighanne said. “He just does it.”

After losing its season opener to Olympia 34-7, Tumwater has won three straight, holding Yelm and Chehalis to just one touchdown and outscoring them 99-14. Then came the shootout  win two weeks ago against North Thurston. Centralia, which is 3-2 and coming off a 47-0 shutout loss to North Thurston, is a power team.

Tumwater Football“They love to play smash-mouth,” Bryant said. “They love to run it down your throats.”

Which is just the kind of football Bryant likes. Physical.

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