• By STEPHAN WIEBE for the Tribune

Isaiah Strong, JR

PULLMAN - The biggest impression the Pullman football team has made on second-year coach David Cofer this preseason didn't even happen on the football field.

Led by senior quarterback Konnor Kinkade and junior fullback Henry Perkins, the Greyhounds planned an impromptu team camping trip to the Snake River, complete with fishing, grilling and some pivotal team bonding.

"They had planned a camping trip down by the river without me telling them to do that," Cofer said. "To me that shows that they're listening, because we can talk football all day long, but the teams that are together, unified, doing those team activities together - those are the teams that are going to push through the entire season and be able to handle adversity."

The Greyhounds return a heap of experience from last year's team that went 6-4 (3-1 Great Northern League), despite losing Kinkade to a collarbone injury in the fifth game of the season.

Cofer said the injury could turn out to benefit Pullman this season, because Kinkade gained valuable experience helping breaking down game film and watching the Greyhounds from the booth during games.

"The good thing about his situation is he got to see the game from a different lens," Cofer said. "In the past when we've had kids do that, they've come a little bit more prepared the next year."

Cofer said the team's strength this season should be its speed. That starts with shifty junior wide receiver Isaiah Strong - a third-year starter - and senior running back James Pitzer, Pullman's vocal leader.

"We're going to be a really fast team this year and I think it will lead to a lot of explosive plays," Cofer said. "We're really excited to kind of give back to our community and give them a team that's really fun to watch."

Pullman also returns senior wideout/linebacker Jake Wells, senior tight end/defensive end Ty Hendrickson and senior linemen Harrison Lantier and Hayden Muraszewski.

Another strong point for Pullman is its experience, not only on the football field, but in multiple sports. The Greyhounds feature several multi-sport athletes, like Kinkade (football, basketball, baseball) and Strong (football, basketball, track), which Cofer said is a plus.

Pullman's football, basketball and baseball teams all qualified for postseason play during their 2017-18 seasons.

"In this day and age when everybody wants to think that specialization is the way to go," Cofer said, "it's really nice and refreshing to see those three-sport athletes, because they get that competitive drive all year long in pressure situations.

"And it helps because they're out there having fun and they're not burnt out by one sport."

The biggest concern for Cofer's Greyhounds is its depth. If Pullman faces another big absence, like when Kinkade was injured last season, it will have to turn to young players at the Nos. 2 and 3 spots.

Another concern is a deep conference that features no weak spots. Clarkston, Cheney, East Valley and West Valley could all be formidable foes.

"The thing I really like about our league is it's really competitive," Cofer said. "There's no team you can look to and think you're just going to go out and win the game. It's going to be a dogfight."

During the season, the Greyhounds will honor the late, great coach Ray Hobbs, who died in February at 88 years old. Hobbs coached in five different decades from the 1950s to '90s, with most of that time spent with at Pullman. The Greyhounds will wear helmet stickers in his honor.

Cofer said Hobbs' teams were always fundamentally sound - a tradition he hopes to continue this season.

"His teams, no matter what they did, they were all really good at blocking and tackling," Cofer said. "And that's something we want to continue at Pullman High School."