Cascade League Football Preview -- Dealing With Their Grief -- Tolt Football Players Focus On Season After Death Of Former Teammate

Forget the opener, homecoming or any possible playoff games.

Regardless of what happens during the season, the Tolt football team suffered its biggest loss before the season ever started. It happened early Wednesday morning last week, when 19-year-old Aaron Dalla Pozza was killed in an auto accident.

"The team really took it hard," senior Erik Highland said. "It was a real shock."

Dalla Pozza, an all-league member of Tolt's 1991 Cascade League champions and a June graduate, had been coming out to two-a-day practices the first week of turnout to help the coaches. He died of head injuries suffered when his truck went off the road near Redmond and hit a tree while he was driving home from a friend's house about 5 a.m. Police speculated he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

"It was a stunner," Tolt Coach Gene Yerabek said. "We didn't know quite how to handle it. It's kind of tough."

If one thing is certain about this Tolt football season, it's that nothing about practicing, planning, playing or losing will seem as tough.

"He was real close to all of us," senior Chad Hinzman said. "He was a great kid all-around. And we've dedicated the season to him."

Players will wear shoulder patches with Dalla Pozza's No. 50 on their uniforms, and the team will retire the number.

"Everyone has been really focused since it happened," Highland said. "It seems like now everybody wants to do it - if not for themselves, for him."

If the Demons are going to do it this year, make the playoffs for the second straight year or maybe even go unbeaten in league play again, it will start with Tolt's backfield H-bombs: Highland and Hinzman.

Tolt graduated all its skills-position starters from last season, but both Highland and Hinzman come into the season with lots of playing experience from last year's blowout-filled season. And although they're smaller - at 5 foot 10 and 5-8, respectively - than their predecessors, they're faster.

The Demons also have replaced a receiver hole with speed in senior split end Dan Predmore. And quarterback Adam Lane - who started some before breaking his ankle at midseason - has returned.

"It's sort of like getting the car back, but the engine's gone," Yerabek said of his '92 team. "But we shouldn't drop down too far. I think we'll be up their knocking on the door again."

They should be able to start knocking right away, up front, with some big linemen returning, including first-team all-Cascade pick Mike Foukiemoana, a 6-2, 240-pound two-way lineman. Another first-team all-leaguer, senior Jim Barth (6-1, 215), returns at linebacker and offensive line. The Demons also return 6-2, 190-pound Greg Anderson and 6-foot, 165-pound Will McMeins on the offensive line.

Experience should be a Demon strength, despite graduating six starters on each side of the ball. Every offensive starter this season is a senior, and the H-boys double up in an all-league defensive backfield. Highland was a Class A first-team all-state selection at defensive back last season.

But the Demons' biggest strength might be the one they wear on their shoulders this season.

"For him to show up to our practices," Highland said, "it showed he really wanted to be part of a football team that went far."

That's why Tolt players voted to practice in the afternoon after they learned of Dalla Pozza's death before morning practice that Wednesday.

"A lot of people felt that's really what Aaron would want," Highland said. "He wouldn't want us to dwell. He would want us to get a good practice in. That was a really focused practice. If anything gets out of hand, you just say his name and everybody just comes to attention and does perfect."

That doesn't mean it's easy. Or that it's going to get easy anytime soon.

"We got along OK for a couple of hours," Yerabek said of learning the news. "But somebody does something or says something and then it kind of hits hard. It's going to be a yo-yo for awhile, I think."