A Cougar quarterback named Gesser goes to Husky Stadium.
No, this isn’t a flashback to the 1999 or 2001 Apple Cup recreation that includes then-Washington State quarterback Jason Gesser.
As an alternative, Seton Catholic junior quarterback Kolten Gesser, his eldest son, and the No. 2 seed Cougars are off to Seattle’s Husky Stadium for Friday’s Class 1A state soccer championship recreation in opposition to No. 1 Royal, a conflict of two undefeated groups who met in final yr’s state semifinals.
For Seton Catholic to satisfy a season-long objective of reaching this system’s first state title recreation, Kolten Gesser has shined because the conductor of a Cougars workforce averaging 46 factors by 12 video games. The third-year beginning QB has thrown for two,351 passing yards with 41 touchdowns and only one interception.
“For all these guys on this team, they’re making my job really easy because the defense is getting the ball back in our hands and our O-line is giving me plenty of time. I’m just getting the ball in playmakers’ hands,” Kolten Gesser stated.
Gesser has grow to be a scholar of the sport within the course of, diligently watching recreation movie, studying tips on how to learn and anticipate opposing defenses whereas having the arrogance to place the ball on the cash for his receivers. To interrupt all of it down, typically the primary particular person in Gesser’s ear strolling off the sphere is his dad, Seton Catholic’s affiliate head coach and offensive coordinator.
“He’s put in so much work, off the field as well as on the field, and doing all the right things that, when you see the rewards start coming from it, you feel very proud of him and very excited for him,” Jason Gesser stated. “To be out here firsthand, helping him along the way and seeing him go out there just thriving and really kind of just coming into his own, words can’t describe it as a dad.”
Kolten Gesser and his teammates insist Friday’s state championship tilt on the 70,000-seat stadium is simply one other recreation in a protracted season, nevertheless it’s a second many youngsters dream of rising up enjoying the game.
In Gesser’s case, the backdrop for these early recollections have been snow-covered fields in Pullman enjoying deal with soccer throughout elementary faculty recess, plus flag soccer video games within the fall, typically throughout daytime hours as a result of most fields didn’t have lights.
Because the son of a former collegiate {and professional} quarterback, maybe it was a given Kolten Gesser would comply with in his father’s footsteps, although he stated he gravitated to the game naturally.
He had an apparent expertise for throwing the ball, and he discovered early how a lot he loved the chess match in sports activities, whether or not he was pitching a baseball recreation, or enjoying quarterback attempting to deceive a protection. That facet has been particularly enjoyable for Gesser and the Cougars this season.
“With our O-line giving us a lot of time, we can actually get into progressions and reads, moving guys over and figuring out how to read defenses and kind of play games with them,” Gesser stated. “That’s been super fun for me, learning that stuff, because I love the mental side of the sport.”
Tapping into his dad’s soccer data has additionally been an enormous assist. Jason Gesser stated he tried to progressively introduce ideas to Kolten Gesser when he was youthful. By the point he reached center faculty and the household moved to Clark County, it was widespread for the 2 to be enjoying Madden or watching a recreation on TV when his dad would pause it to level out a element.
“You see how this corner is playing this? Or you see how this safety is playing that?” Jason Gesser defined. “That’s the place we form of began it, after which actually over these final two years, he’s simply excelled. I’ll be up late at evening watching movie, he’ll be downstairs and I’ll textual content him, ‘hey, you still up?’
“He’ll be like, ‘yeah, I’m doing homework.’ And I’ll pop down for 5, 10 minutes and I’ll go through some things that I’m seeing or, ‘hey, here’s how they’re playing, here’s how we gotta attack this.’ He’s constantly getting things.”
Father and son share a bond over soccer, and as offensive coordinator and quarterback in the identical family. Although the 2 are in sync more often than not, Kolten Gesser stated understanding how his dad communicates helps loads, which has led to a well-known saying of their home.
“I have to listen to what he’s saying, not how he’s saying it,” Kolten Gesser stated. “He’s very nitpicky and likes to fix things right away when something is broken, so trying to have that patience with him, and then he has to have the patience with me because I’m the same way.”
A few of it comes with the territory of being a coach’s son.
“They’re always giving me crap at home — ‘listen to what he says, not how he says it,’ ” Jason Gesser stated. “The thing is, like, whenever you’re the coach of your kid (and) your kid is the quarterback, you’ve gotta be sensitive, because everybody thinks, oh, it’s the coach’s kid. I’m always harder on him than anybody else, and he’s hard on himself already.”
Kolten Gesser first grabbed the reins as Seton Catholic’s beginning quarterback simply two video games into his freshman season after teammate Joe Callerame suffered an damage. The transfer ultimately paved the way in which for Callerame, this yr’s Trico League MVP, to carve out a novel function as a multifaceted talent participant.
In the meantime, Gesser and a youthful Seton squad took their lumps that fall 2022 season, going 5-5 and falling to Montesano in a Week 10 playoff recreation.
Then got here final yr’s shock state playoff run to the semifinals with video games at King’s, Cashmere and lastly, Royal, which went on to win the state title. Nonetheless younger, albeit immensely proficient, the Cougars began believing in themselves much more.
“The more we won games, the more we realized how good we can be,” Kolten Gesser stated. “The more it kind of flipped to, we know we’re going to win, even when we’re down, like, we know we can find a way to win the game.”
Led by a quarterback who exudes that confidence, the Cougars are in good arms.
“More than anything, he just loves to compete. He’s a frickin’ competitor,” Jason Gesser stated. “That’s the fun part of seeing him, whether he’s on that day or not, he’s going to compete.”