Sideline Smitty / Craig Smith
De La Salle vs. Bellevue gives 2004 early jolt

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Q: What's got you fired up about this high-school football season?

A: I'm calling it the NASCAR season because the main attraction occurs first, just like the Daytona 500 in February kicks off the racing season.

Unless you've been vacationing on Pluto, you realize the big event is Saturday night's game at Qwest Field between Bellevue and De La Salle of Concord, Calif.

De La Salle has won a national-record 151 consecutive games and Sports Illustrated devoted seven pages to the program a few weeks ago.

After this game of the new century ends, Bellevue will refocus on going for an unprecedented four-peat — four consecutive Class 3A state titles. It would be an accomplishment unmatched by any school in any football classification, include B-8, in this state.

Q: What else is new this year?

A: Plenty.

1) Every Class 4A league in the state will be involved with playoff games with teams from another league for round-of-16 berths. In effect, we will have 32-team 4A state playoffs.

2) The 16-team brackets for state football playoffs will be open, so no longer will Eastern Washington teams be on the same side of the bracket in 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A playoffs. This opens the possibility of two Eastern Washington teams playing for the state championship in these classifications. Five of the past seven winners in 4A have been from the dry side of the state.
 
3) A new multi-classification league — the Cascade Conference — has been formed for all sports. The 3A members will be South Whidbey of Langley and Cedarcrest of Duval, which is leaving KingCo 3A. Members from last year's 2A ranks are Sultan, Lakewood and Granite Falls. Opting up from 1A to 2A are two-time state defending champion Archbishop Murphy of Mill Creek and King's of Shoreline.

4) A new rivalry will blossom — Skyline, which is moving from 3A to 4A, and Eastlake. The schools are less than one mile apart on the Sammamish Plateau but in different school districts.

Q: Who is the state's No. 1 senior prospect?

A: Jonathan Stewart, running back from Timberline High School in Lacey. Stewart is 5 feet 10, 224 pounds and needs only 649 yards to break the state's career rushing record of 6,128 yards. He is ranked among the nation's top 15 recruits. Stewart says he is primarily interested in five colleges — Oregon, Washington State, Ohio State, Michigan and California.

Q: Overall, what are the best-stocked positions in the state?

A: Running back and linebacker. Last year, it was offensive linemen. Besides Stewart, the other top senior running backs are Leon Jackson from Pasco, J.R. Hasty from Bellevue and Taylor Rank from Evergreen of Vancouver. Top linebackers are Anthony Felder from O'Dea, E.J. Savannah from Bellevue, Tyler Pelluer from Skyline and Adam Leonard from Rainier Beach.

Q: Other than Bellevue vs. De La Salle, if you could see only two regular-season prep games this year, what would they be?

A: Tomorrow — Skyline at Lake Washington. Skyline's 4A baptism against quarterback Ryan Staudacher and the Kangaroos from Kirkland in an early matchup of two top-10 teams).

Oct. 1 — Capital at Olympia. Nothing is more fun than a rivalry game in a two-high-school town when both teams are good.

Q: Give me some football morsels to help set up the season.

A: Gladly.

1) The usually powerful 4A Big Nine Conference appears down this year. Defending state champ Pasco will be a power again, but the second best team east of the Cascades could be Mead of the Greater Spokane League.

2) The KingCo 4A Conference race might be among the best ever. Lake Washington, Bothell, Inglemoor, Ballard and Skyline look capable of winning the title.

3) Ex-Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel has returned to the Rainier Beach staff as an assistant. Beach travels to Alaska to play Juneau-Douglas in Week 2.

4) Look for relations between the Metro League and KingCo 3A to get a little frosty if their WIAA district gets four round-of-16 berths and Metro keeps three of them. The imbalance is because Metro has 13 football schools and KingCo eight. So far, attempts to get Metro to talk about a playoff for a fourth spot have failed. Smitty's take: A playoff for No. 4 would be the only fair thing to do. Prediction: KingCo team by three touchdowns.

5) Tumwater coach Sid Otton (267-103) is getting closer to the all-time wins record of the late Dick Armstrong (279-92-5), who got 245 of his wins at Snohomish.

6) This is the 100th anniversary for high-school football in Tacoma and Pierce County. The festivities include a huge luncheon in the Tacoma Dome Sept. 9.

Q: What's your prediction for the Bellevue vs. De La Salle game?

A: A screaming, national-headline upset — Bellevue 21, De La Salle 14. Is that being a homer? You bet! But I said last year Bellevue wouldn't win a third straight state title and the Wolverines proved me wrong. The folks in Bellevue wouldn't have scheduled this game if they didn't think they could win it.

Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com