Semipro team comes to Oak Harbor

Oak Harbor, the epicenter of high school football in the Pacific Northwest, now has a semipro team.

The Skagit Valley Lightning, members of the 12-team Evergreen Football League, now calls Wildcat Memorial Stadium its new home.

Home games were played in Mount Vernon, but Lightning management decided to take advantage of the new Oak Harbor facilities for future games.

Owned by Randy Rogers, Brad Collins and Holly Emmons, the team has a local flavor with players from Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Burlington and Lynnwood in addition to Oak Harbor and Navy personnel stationed at NAS Whidbey Island on the roster.

Players range from high school seniors to those 40 years of age, and have a variety of reasons for wanting to continue playing organized football.

Vince Jenner, a former California resident and now an aviation electronics technician at NAS Whidbey Island, said he is a rookie in the league.

“This is just my first year playing and it’s a lot of fun to come out here and knock heads,” he said. “You can’t knock the chiefs out at work, so I might as well come out here and knock some of these guys out.”

Quarterback Mike Henderson, a 2001 graduate of Oak Harbor High School who works for Ironwood Communications in Lynnwood during the week, said he is in his second year with the team.

“I like it. We’ve got some things to work on, but I’m having a lot of fun playing,” he said.

Obtaining a junior college scholarship is one of Henderson’s goals.

“Junior college is a possibility, that’s what I want to aim at,” he said.

Sheldon Gourdine, one of the more experienced players on the roster, is also an electronics technician and said he has been in the Navy for 15 years. During that time, he said he has played football for 14 years.

“I’ve been with the Lightning since they started out and before that, I played in the military league when I was in Japan,” the big lineman said. “I also played in a league while I was stationed in Guam that was sponsored by Miller Lite beer.”

Gourdine said he plans on staying in the Navy for another five years and then retiring.

“I want to continue playing football for the fun of it, to get out and stay in shape,” he said.

A 2002 graduate of Oak Harbor High School, running back Nick James said he is in his second year in the league and works as a civil engineer in Bothell when not wearing the gold and black.

“I come up here every weekend to play football, it’s a good time,” he said.

Offensive and defensive lineman Lampton Lawrence said it was his brother who talked him into playing.

“Mike Henderson is my brother and he was the one who convinced me to play,” the 2003 Oak Harbor High School graduate said. “I moved out of state for awhile after I graduated, but now I’m back here working and I could be here playing on the team for awhile.”

Some guys are content watching football on television during the season or playing football video games on their X-boxes, but that is not enough for some.

The Lightning provides an opportunity for players to participate in an organized, competitive league and continue to hone their football skills just for fun, or to stay in shape, or maybe even to be noticed by a junior college recruiter so as to further their education.

The team plays its final home game of the 2008 season Saturday, May 24, hosting the South Sound Shockers.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m.