Woods leads Royals into district playoffs | Prep football

He throws for 25, he throws for 35, he throws for 45. Kent-Meridian High quarterback Ben Woods has made a name for himself in his first varsity season as a reliable and precise thrower, with more than 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns.

But when it comes to his game, the sophomore doesn’t like to think of himself as shoehorned into a single style of play.

“I’m not one dimensional, but for what I need to do for the team,” Woods says. “I’m comfortable doing both, but I think I’m a better passer than a runner.”

Woods leads the Royals (6-3) into a West Central District playoff game on the road against Gig Harbor at 7 p.m. Friday. The winner advances to the Class 4A state tournament.

His interest in football started with the Madden video game when he was 8, he says. Instead of playing backyard pickup football with his brother, Sam, they picked up a copy of the popular football video game, which inspired his brother to play football in middle and high school. Woods says that he simply followed suit.

“It’s been an up and down roller coaster,” he says.

Woods picked up the K-M quarterback’s mantle from 2013’s Quincy Carter, who signed to Central Washington University as a running back.

He says that he hasn’t been nervous about taking on the role, but he has been eager to do right by his fellow players.

“I wouldn’t use the word nervous, but the fact that I wanted to live up to the expectations of what a starting QB should be, and what he should be able to do for his team,” he says.

Much of what he’s learned about being a good quarterback came from Carter, who helped coach him in the off-season before leaving for college.

“Quincy was an amazing athlete and he helped me out during the off-season. I would use the term mentor to describe him. He’s a fun guy but when things get to business. When you get that from an athlete like him, there’s not much you can say.”

In a sense, the training has come full circle as Sam Woods was one of Carter’s biggest mentors when he played for the Royals.

Woods is quick to acknowledge that his success has come from his teammates as much, if not more than, his own work. He believes that it’s the entire offensive line, from his blockers to his running backs, who have made it possible for him to put the ball in a receiver’s hands.

“Those guys are just crazy good. I go on and on about Manny, Kyle, Marc, all the things these guys do to help me out,” he says, “it’s incredible.”

It’s about trust, he says. Knowing that he’ll have a solid pocket to work within, or knowing that his receivers will be able to pick out his passes.

“We focused on that over the summer, getting that trust down that I’m comfortable with it,” he says. “Those guys, they make me look really good, but they don’t get as much credit as I think they should.”

He says that he just wants to make his teammates look good as well, and that encourages him to play as best he can.

“I’m not really focusing on myself ‘oh I want to get a scholarship to this school or I want to get a scholarship to this school,'” says Woods. “I want to help my teammates get those scholarships and make them look good, and if this is what I got to do, this is what I want to do.”

The teamwork and coordination the o-line used was most visible for him in the fourth quarter of the game against Tahoma, when the Royals came back from a touchdown deficit to win 42-36.

“Something changed and throughout the fourth quarter we were just dominating. That was a big game, that was a playoff spot on the line, so that’s one thing that I’ll remember.”

But Woods also says one of his most memorable experiences during the season was when, during K-M’s match against Auburn, when he accompanied offensive coordinator Andy Romine into the field box when he was injured. Being up in the box gave him a different perspective on how his team played, and it stuck with him ever since.

“I got to see the game from a whole different angle,” he says. “I still play seeing things from the box.”