Skyview’s football team, back in the Class 4A state playoffs for the 10th time in the school’s history, view this stage of the season as a new season.
As a No. 15 seed in the 16-team 4A state tournament field, fictitious oddsmakers might easily give the nod to second-seed Woodinville (9-1), Skyview’s opponent for its 4 p.m. first-round game Saturday.
The Storm don’t see it that way.
“We have the mentality that anything can happen,” senior Tyler DeJong said. “Just because we’re told we don’t have a good chance, that doesn’t affect us at all.”
Funnily enough, that’s statement can easily describe DeJong, too, whose return to football was uncertain following a gruesome right leg injury sophomore year.
In the world of miracles, DeJong categorizes his recovery and what followed as a personal miracle because he’s now playing the best football of his career as a senior after doctors said initially his playing days might be over at age 15.
In fact, it’s far from it. DeJong now starts both ways for the Storm (6-4).
Not only is Skyview back in the postseason, so is DeJong.
“I’ve gotten back to my old self by being able to play,” DeJong said, “but at the same time, I’m a new person and a new player.”
In 2016, a 15-year-old DeJong was a Skyview up-and-comer sophomore with high hopes of becoming an impact player that year.
But he had the highest of highs and lowest of lows in a 72-hour stretch. It began by scoring his first varsity touchdown in a Week 4 win over Mountain View. Three days later, though, he remembers every detail that nearly cost him his high school football career in a junior varsity game with the Thunder.
Said DeJong: “I was still excited about scoring the (varsity) touchdown.
A simple handoff in the backfield at the 20-yard line changed everything. A twist of the leg and weight of defenders on a tackle eventually led to a broken tibia, torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments plus other cartilage damage.
Because of the severity, doctors told DeJong and his family they didn’t know if he could resume a football career that started as young as 4.
Naturally, DeJong felt devastated.
“Football has been my life for so long,” he said. “It’s everything I’ve worked for … then my whole world was at a standstill.”
He failed to let that happen, yet the mental toll proved harder to overcome than physical rehabilitation, he said, especially at running back. Off-and-on knee issues led DeJong to miss three games in 2017.
“For the longest time,” DeJong said, “it was such a mental block that I couldn’t perform to the best of my ability. … It took time to realize that it wasn’t something I had to worry about all the time.”
At 6 feet and 205 pounds, DeJong’s conquered that hurdle and no longer wears a knee brace. He ranks second in total tackles on his way to earning first-team all-4A Greater St. Helens League honors at linebacker. But other recent injuries to Skyview players means DeJong is called on for offense just as much as defense.
He’s started both ways since junior Jalynnee McGee went down with a season-ending foot injury in Week 8, and splits running-back repetitions with Gabe Martin and Robert Mosley.
In last week’s 30-27 state preliminary win over Hazen, DeJong scored two touchdowns and also intercepted quarterback Jaxon Ingram that led to his 22-yard rushing touchdown on the ensuing series. DeJong had a career-high 121 yards on 16 carries and scored four touchdowns in the team’s regular-season finale versus Heritage to qualify for the postseason.
Skyview coach Steve Kizer calls DeJong a student of the game and said he isn’t surprised by DeJong’s productive season, given the work ethic to return to form.
Neither is junior quarterback Yaro Duvalko. Duvalko describes the senior as the team’s Alpha dog and drew similarities to ex-Skyview standout Parker Henry, now a Portland State assistant coach who played at Washington State.
And the timing couldn’t be more perfect, Duvalko said.
“He’s Parker-esque,” he said, “and Tyler shows that when he plays. When the time comes, I know he’s going to be make a big play.”
