NWC Early Team Previews: 1A – Mount Baker Mountaineers

Devin Record

May 5, 2023 @ 12:23 AM

As the summer approaches, I wanted to take a deep dive into the NWC and take a look into each team and see how they could compete this upcoming year. With Meridian, Blaine, and Lynden Christian all done, here are the defending 1A state champions, Mount Baker.   Mount Baker Mountaineers - 9-5 (4-1)   Mount Baker started the season with a loss to Sehome HS. I attended that game and chatted with '23 DL Ethan Larson, telling him the team would be just fine and looked very dangerous. After that, the tesm went on to prove me right and win the 1A state championship. They will be losing some key players, Larson being one of them. He had 64.5 tackles, 8 of those being for loss. They also lose playmaker [player_tooltip player_id='584004' first='Marcques' last='George'] who ran the ball 237 times, rushing for 2,175 yards and a staggering 25 touchdowns. That will be a big role to fill, whoever may do that. Starting QB Landon Smith will also be graduating, so the Mountaineers will be on the search for a new QB.   As most of the core won't be returning for next year, Mount Baker still has a couple solid players coming back. '24 WR/DB Landen Hanstead will be coming back after having 400 yards receiving. '25 LB Dylan Moa is going to have another huge season after he compiled 70 tackles during his sophomore campaign. '24 graduate [player_tooltip player_id='915387' first='Jesse' last='Harward'] (6'3" 230lbs) will be returning to help anchor the offensive and defensive lineman. He had 29.5 tackles last season with 3.5 sacks. '24 OL/DL/P Alex Maloney will be back after a fantastic year on both sides of the ball. He had 44 tackles with 6 sacks during his junior year season.   Games to keep an eye on: September 15th vs Toppenish HS, October 27th @ Lynden Christian

As the summer approaches, I wanted to take a deep dive into the NWC and take a look into each team and see how they could compete this upcoming year. With Meridian, Blaine, and Lynden Christian all done, here are the defending 1A state champions, Mount Baker.