Meet Lummi's coaches
Head coach Jim Sandusky is assisted by Dean Pederson, Dan Poasa, Rocki Sandusky and Craig Jackson

It's film night for the Lummi Blackhawks, and after practice head coach Jim Sandusky jogs off the field to the school kitchen while the players dress in the locker room. He unscrews the tops of a couple industrial-size cans of chili con carne, dumps the contents into a pot and sticks in a spoon. He unwraps three dozen or so hot dogs and loads them into the oven. “That’ll take 20 minutes or so,” he says to no one in particular. Who paid for the players' dinner? “The tooth fairy,” Sandusky answers, chuckling. “I wish I could count on her.”

Sandusky serves up chili dogs to, from left, Ronomus Revey, Ray Jefferson, Nelson Montenegro, Dustin Tom and Tony Washington.

He hurries out of the kitchen and heads for an upstairs classroom where his team is waiting to watch film of last week’s win over St. John-Endicott and of this week’s opponent, Neah Bay. “Hey coach,” a player yells down to him from a balcony. “Jacob quit.” Sandusky barely flinches. Earlier in the day he was told that three of his players have been accused of smoking pot, putting their eligibility in jeopardy. That news came on top of learning that Andre Revey, a key contributor to the Lummi offense, broke his collarbone against St. John-Endicott and is out until the state playoffs, at best. “The stress and the emotional factors are hour to hour,” Sandusky says. “It’s not even day to day. You’re constantly trying to adjust.”

Excuse coach Sandusky if he looks a bit blurry-eyed during the football season. He often doesn’t leave his office until or 1 or 2 in the morning, and he gets about four hours of sleep a night. “I usually get really sick after the season,” he says. “I mean the next day. I get wiped out. It’s happened the last three years.”

Sandusky’s work in building the Blackhawks into a football power is well documented; both The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote about his early days with the program. Here’s the CliffsNotes version. Sandusky grew up in Othello and excelled as a receiver and kick returner at UNLV and San Diego State. He played 12 years in the Canadian Football League with the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos and two years with the Seattle Seahawks. He was the Lions’ receivers coach in 1997 when he moved his family to Ferndale because he wanted his children, Rocki and Natasha, to go to school in the States. (He and his wife, Tami, have been married for 24 years. Natasha is now a senior at Ferndale High School, and Rocki is a student at Western Washington University and an assistant coach with the Blackhawks.) Sandusky took over the Lummi football team in 2003, and in the past three years the team has reached the B-8 state championship game once and the semifinals twice.

Lummi’s strength is its offense, and so far this season the Blackhawks are averaging 58 points per game. Sandusky says he is “exploiting” the rules of 8-man football to make his offense as potent as possible. “It evolved from what I thought 8-man football should look like,” he explains. He’s also incorporating some of the things he learned in the CFL, where the field is bigger and the offenses more wide open than in the United States. Because 8-man football is played on a regulation-size field, those CFL strategies work well at this level — so well, in fact, that other 8-man coaches around the state have begun copying Sandusky's schemes. The Lummi offense appears sophisticated by high school standards, with shovel passes, players going in motion and running backs lining up as quarterback, but Sandusky says it’s not so complicated. It relies on word association — for example, runs are animals, as in dog is a dive play, snake is a sweep — and the players wear wristbands that serve as cheat sheets. Each band includes three cards, four plays on each card. Sandusky can tell a player he is the 2 back on play 6 and the player can look down and see exactly what he must do. “We get injuries, I could put any kid at quarterback, technically,” he says.

Sandusky says his primary goal is to build character in his players. He wants to win, of course, but he also understands the value of using football to teach life lessons. It sounds corny, but it’s reality at Lummi. For some of the boys, Sandusky and his assistants are among the most influential adults in their lives, especially when it comes to modeling the value of hard work, clean living and bouncing back from adversity. Sandusky makes sure his players know they can count on him; on the first day of practice he gives them his cell phone number, requires them to memorize it and tells them to call whenever they need help with anything. He counts it as success when they graduate and get a job. Going on to college is a bonus. “It’s very stressful because you can see the opportunities they have and the negative choices they make,” he says. “You know if they hold on long enough they can see the light.”

After watching film of the first half of the St. John-Endicott game, the Blackhawks head downstairs and line up in the hallway outside the kitchen. The tooth fairy, er, Sandusky heaps chili onto two hot dogs on each of the players' plates. Lummi principal Heather Leighton stops by, and as Sandusky serves the food the two of them quickly and quietly discuss the players accused of smoking pot. When the food is gone, Sandusky runs water into the chili pot, closes the window to the kitchen and leaves the mess behind. He'll clean it up later. He heads back upstairs to finish showing film to the team. It's 6:45, and there's still plenty of work ahead for Lummi's head coach.

Dean Pederson


This is Dean Pederson’s third season at Lummi, and he’s more than just an assistant coach; he also serves as Sandusky’s right-hand man. He helps coach the offensive and defensive lines, and on game days he makes sure everything is working and in place: the scoreboard, the chain gang, gear for the players. Many of the details Sandusky used to fret over are now Pederson’s responsibility. “Whatever I can do to make his life easier,” he says.

Pederson worked for Intalco for 26 years before being laid off. He took advantage of a retraining program to attend Western Washington University and earn his teaching degree, graduating in spring of 2006. That summer he went to work at Lummi; he teaches computing to kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

He previously had coached youth football in Blaine for eight years, six years as a head coach, and he spent two years as an assistant coach at Blaine Middle School. Among the boys he coached were his two sons, Tyler, now 20, and Travis, 16, a junior starting tackle at Blaine High School. He and his wife, Diane, have been married 22 years.

Pederson, 52, is a 1974 graduate of Ferndale High School, where he was a member of the football squad. “We weren’t very good,” he says with a laugh. “That was before Ferndale was a powerhouse.” Now, not far from his old hometown, Pederson finds himself in a second career and an intergral part of a football powerhouse.

Dan Poasa


Dan Poasa didn’t need more football when he met Jim Sandusky two years ago. Poasa was coaching and playing semipro football, and he had done some coaching at Squalicum and Bellingham high schools. He agreed to meet Sandusky at the urging of Craig Jackson, who told him the Lummi coach could use some help. One meeting was all it took to convince Poasa to join Sandusky’s staff. “He’s just a great guy with a huge heart,” Poasa says. “He’s father, he’s counselor, provider, everything.”

Poasa is in his second year coaching at Lummi. He works with the offensive linemen, polishing their technique and keeping them focused. He brings a wealth of football experience to the job. He starred at Central Kitsap High School before moving on to the University of Washington, where he was on the squad but didn’t letter. He’s had much more success as a semipro, and in 2005 was inducted into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame. He coaches the Bellingham Bulldogs semipro team during the spring and plays with the BC Spartans in the summer. The Province newspaper in Vancouver wrote a story about him last summer, calling him “the die-hard.” “I’ve got football going all year long,” he says.

Poasa, 38, lives in Bellingham and is receiving manager for Max Hydro Swirl. He is divorced and has four children: Tristan, 18, a senior at St. Louis High School in Honolulu, who recently was accepted to Stanford; twins Chance and Tanner, 11; and Jailahni, 9, all of Ferndale.

Balancing family, job, and all that football can be tricky, but Poasa says working with Sandusky and the players is worth it. “It’s a dream job for those who are just getting into coaching or who want something different,” he says. “If you want to find yourself and find passion for the game, that’s the place to be.”

Rocki Sandusky


Rocki Sandusky was Jake Locker’s favorite target when the Ferndale Golden Eagles rolled to the 3A state title in 2005, catching 17 touchdowns and earning second-team all-state honors. He accepted a scholarship to UNLV, where his father had played, spent a season on the practice squad and transferred to Western Washington University. He played for the Vikings last year, but prior to this season decided he’d had enough football. “It took a lot of my time,” he says. “I wanted to do different things, experience new things. I just felt it was time to let it go.”

After explaining his decision to his mother and father, he mentioned that he’d need a job now that he wasn’t spending so much time with football. His father said, "I know a job you can do. You can coach Lummi with me." Rocki responded, "OK, sign me up.”

The 20-year-old coaches the offensive backs and receivers and the defensive backs. He also helps with special teams and his father expects him to take over that responsibility by midseason. “He’s pretty excited that I get to spend more time with him, and so am I,” Rocki says. “It’s fun to be out there coaching instead of being coached.”

Craig Jackson


Craig Jackson is in his third season with the Blackhawks. He volunteers his time, helping wherever Sandusky needs him. A licensed practical nurse, he also keeps an eye on the players’ physical well-being.

Jackson, 46, played high school football at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly as an offensive guard, and to say he has stayed involved in football would be an understatement. He owned the Northwest Avalanche semipro team in Bellingham for a couple of years — Dan Poasa was his head coach — and played and coached with the semipro Bellingham Eagles. He has helped out the football teams at Bellingham and Squalicum high schools and at the Bellingham Boys and Girls Club. “I’ve been around the game for quite a long time,” he says. “I just love it. When I played the line I loved the combat in the middle of the field.” He yearns to be an offensive coordinator for a team like Lummi and has considered moving to achieve his goal, but for now he’s staying put and lending his experience to the Blackhawks.

Jackson served 13 years in the Navy. He has lived in Bellingham since 1993 and works for Northwest Gastroenterology. He is divorced and has three grown children: daughter Porcia, 25, and boy-girl twins Chasey and Craig, Jr., 22.