Root for Kooyman

For all you anonymous critics let me help you “sift through” the babble. Skip the 1st 2 paragraphs the juicier (more like mildly juicy in this case) stuff is below.

Since I’m all about fulfilling my civic duties I passed on trying to weasil my way out of jury duty and headed down to the Regional Justice Center in Kent on Wednesday. I was half asleep when they were calling out names but I thought I heard Kevin Kooyman over the loud speaker. I didn’t think much of it because she didn’t pronounce it right and what the hell would a defensive end for WSU being doing there (at least as a juror). We ended up in the same courtroom together and sure enough there he was. When I found out that the trial was expected to take 6 weeks it was weasil-city for me.

I made it out of there and so did Kooyman – back to the waiting room for what ended up being a long stint. Anyway, he ended up sitting next to me so I started chatting him up. Kooyman suprised me because I wasn’t expected a big defensive end to be the cordial, smart guy that he was. I’ve watched Kooyman for 2 years and when he’s been on the field (he lettered both years) he’s been intense and played hard. In the waiting room he’s mellow and reading every sports magazine he can get his hands on. If you look at his bio, which I did before I talked to him because I had the time, he finished high school with a 3.94 GPA and as a member of the National Honor Society. The whole time he was working on his grades he was getting all-league honors on both sides of the ball, he picked up state championships in wrestling both his Jr and Sr years and he was a track star to boot. Check out all of his extra-curricular and volunteer work too. He was actually called to jury duty back in April and instead of bailing out completely he rescheduled it for the short window he was going to be at home. Because he has a good head on his shoulders, which I could tell without reading his bio, and because I haven’t had a favorite Coug to watch since Mkristo left, I’m rooting my ass of for Kooyman these next 2 seasons. I will from now on refer to him as “My man Kooyman”.

My man Kooyman (6-6, 242) was listed as the starter on the left end in this springs depth chart. Mattingly is listed as the starter on the right side with Mike Graise backing him up. Senior Jesse Feagin (6-3, 261) will be probably be giving my man Kooyman a run for the starting position this fall but there is also Junior transfer Jessy Sanchez (6-2, 265, West LA College) who will somehow work into the mix. I’m not sure which side the coaches are planning on playing Sanchez but I imagine, with Mattingly and Graise on the right, they will stick him on the left for some competition to strengthen that side.

Because my man Kooyman was I good guy I didn’t press him too hard for juicy information but I got a couple things out of him. He is very excited about Wulff and the rest of his staff. He loves his coach Malik Roberson. (At this point in our conversation I told him how throwing Malik’s name out saved Hootie McBoob and myself from getting our asses kicked by some big dudes at Dick’s Drive-in in Spokane due to a little misinterpretation of something that came out of Hooties mouth. I believe their quote was “You guys know Malik… you’re cool”. Remember that Hootie? A-hole.) He is also very excited to see what they can do this fall with the new system and energy that Wulff is bringing. He said that in a way that did not at all come across as “we’re in a rebuilding time”. It was quite confident actually. Even though it sounds naive that is the best attitude for the team to have. How could you be motivated if your sure you’re going to finish in the bottom of the Pac-10.

I brought up the tough times that are going on with the program right now. His response was that Doba let things slide and that Wulff is working hard at “cleaning up their act a bit”. Again his response was positive and he didn’t seem worried about the damage the recent sanctions and suspensions are going to have on the program.

On the subject of Doba, besides making excuses for him with his age, wife and hours that need to be commited to the head coach position, I brought up how fun it was to watch some of his defenses in the Price era. My man Kooyman mentioned that they brought back some of Doba’s old schemes for the UCLA game last fall. They gave UCLA an ass-whooping with it and then never used it again. He was pretty perplexed why they didn’t. I guess I am too although I’ll admit that I didn’t notice that had happened in the first place.

So anyway my man Kooyman is heading back to Pullman soon for Summer classes which, according to him gives him something to do when he’s not doing “voluntary” work-outs. It was nice meeting you man and I’m refreshed to know that there are still student athletes that care about the student part.

LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis everyone: