Brian Tucci took a good hard look around the room during his first team meeting after taking over as head coach of the Sammamish Totems.

He saw players ready to buy in to his philosophy on how to turn the school around. He saw enthusiasm.

What he didn’t see was pride. Not a single player in a Totems football shirt; not one letterman’s jacket in the crowd.

“We wanted to change the mindset of the players,” said Tucci, a former Western Washington University and Washington State University right guard who spent last year as the Totem’s defensive coordinator. “We wanted to change the way they look at football before we changed the X’s and O’s.”

That started with dressing for success. Football shirts are the norm for players now; gone are the days of non-Totems practice attire. Even new jersey’s were ordered, truly putting a new look to the new regime.

“We want to establish tradition,” said Tucci, who made assistant coaching stops at Juanita and Woodinville before joining Sammamish last season. “We want to put a little bit of pride back into the school. We can get back to a winning foundation as long as we run a nice, sound program with hard work and dedication to it.”

It won’t be an easy task. The Totems, 1-8 last year, have gone just 9-40 in the past five seasons; the last time Sammamish had a winning season (2003), George W. Bush was in his first term in the White House.

A far cry from the school only ten years removed from a 42-38, last minute loss to Prosser in the 3A state title game.

“This is the year that Sammamish is going to step up and start fresh,” said quarterback and senior captain Nick Hartigan. “Coach Tucci has got that great energy and he’s put a whole new idea and philosophy into the team.”

The new philosophy includes a new look on offense; the Totems will move away from the spread formation it used last season, and utilize a veer offense Tucci says fits the athletes much better.

“We looked at the players we had and built an offense around those guys,” he said. “We want to take advantage of the fact that we have a lot of good skilled athletes out here and a smaller offensive line; the offense we ran last year didn’t let us take advantage of that.”

There’ll be one more important change to the offense – last year, five different Totems took snaps behind center. This year, Hartigan has been tabbed as the Sammamish starter; the end of the shuffling behind center should help team unity, Tucci said, and the Totems can use all the help they can get, after averaging little more than eight points a game last year.

“That’s the cohesiveness that guys are looking for,” he said. “When you have one guy walking into the huddle and demanding respect and pride, and barking out orders…the guys can get behind that.”

Hartigan had the most success of any of the five who spent time at quarterback last season, completing 26 of 51 attempts for 250 yards and four touchdowns.

“When Nick comes into the huddle, he brings excitement,” said junior wing Taylor Ragan. “He’s someone we can rely on and depend on.”

Along with Ragan, Sammamish returns offensive pieces in Zach Erickson at running back, and receivers Brady Anderson and Anthony Do. Anderson led all Totems receivers last season with 22 receptions for 287 yards and a touchdown.

A big loss will be receiver/safety Brett Berkey, who will miss the season after tearing his hamstring during baseball. Berkey, a fixture on the Totems defense, also had 135 receiving yards last season.

Defensively, the Totems will make another scheme change to play to its strengths: the team will shift from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4, taking advantage of a talented linebacking core led by Erickson and Ragan.

“I feel we have four great linebackers and I want all four of them on the field,” Tucci said. “We want to be able to attack and be aggressive and utilize the guys that we have.”

Aggressive is right. Ask those linebackers about getting on the field and they’ll tell you they’re ready to roll.

“We all just want to hit and make plays,” Erickson said.

“We’re ready to get out there and knock some heads,” Ragan added.

Sammamish will also be aided by the emergence of a pair of standout athletes in other sports. Chris Lider, a talented soccer player and a First Team All-KingCo kicker and second team punter as a special teams only player last season, will join the linebackers this fall. Zach King, a Sammamish basketball player who missed the previous two seasons because of injury, will join the Totems defensive line.

Sammamish opens up the season Sept. 4 when the Totems host Chief Sealth in a non-conference game.

“We have the players here,” Tucci said. “The guys that we have can make something happen on the football field on Friday night.”

SCHEDULE

Sept. 4 vs. Chief Sealth, 7 p.m.

Sept. 11 at Roosevelt, 8:15 p.m.

Sept. 18 at Juanita, 7 p.m.

Sept. 25 vs. Liberty, 7 p.m.

Oct. 2 at Interlake, 7 p.m.

Oct. 9 vs. Bellevue, 7 p.m.

Oct. 16 at Mount Si, 7 p.m.

Oct. 23 vs. Mercer Island, 7 p.m.

Oct. 30 vs. Foster, 7 p.m.