Prep Football | Big Colin Porter gets Bothell moving

These days, Colin Porter rarely gets pushed around.

At 6 feet 5, 310 pounds, Bothell's left tackle does most of the moving. In fact, when the senior fires out of a three-point stance, the guy on the other side of the line tends to end up on his back.

But that wasn't always the case. When Porter was a sophomore at Redmond High School, he was forced to go up against Trevor Guyton in practice.

"At the beginning of the year, he just smacked me every day," Porter said of Guyton, now a sophomore lineman at Cal.

Whenever the Mustangs ran the Oklahoma drill — two players meeting head-on in an attempt to perfect their one-on-one technique — Porter slammed into Guyton. Most of the time, Guyton planted him.

"I got in the weight room and I went up against him every day," Porter said.

By the end of the season, Guyton was no longer able to smack Porter around.

Porter didn't worry about getting bigger because, well, "I was blessed with size," he said with a laugh.

These days, he is a hulking man-child. He has not allowed a sack this season, providing time for quarterback Mitchell Muller to find receivers and blowing open holes for junior running back Luke Proulx.

The UW-bound big man is a big reason the top-ranked Cougars are playing in Saturday's Class 4A semifinal against No. 2 Skyline at 7 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome.

"He's the best run blocker, pass blocker I've ever coached," Bothell coach Tom Bainter said.

"He's got strength like you wouldn't believe. He's got great feet. He's tough and, probably the most impressive thing that I saw him do outside of games was when we ran 40s. He ran a 5.2 40. He runs like a fullback."

Bainter estimates that Porter averages more than eight pancake blocks per game. As an offensive lineman, Porter was co-MVP of the KingCo 4A Crown Division with Muller. He is a game-changer, the kind of player who stands out because of his combination of size, speed and athleticism.

"You're so busy reading the play and then — boom! — he's right there in your face," said Skyline linebacker Anthony DeMatteo.

Porter spent his offseason working twice a week with Keith Gilbertson, former Huskies coach and Seahawks assistant.

"He's helped me so much with everything," Porter said. "I give him a lot of credit for my technique and what kind of player I am now, because he's just been so helpful to me."

Back when Porter was a pup, working against Guyton, he spent most of his time on defense. He took what he learned on that side of the ball and coupled it with his understanding of the game to develop into a tackle with an attack-dog mentality.

Bainter has talked this season about having enough depth to frequently run offensive starters against defensive first-teamers in practice. Those matchups often pit defensive ends Michael Hartvigson — also headed to the Huskies — and Evan Hudson against Porter, creating some of the toughest competition the players will face all season.

"It's like a domino effect," said Hartvigson, describing the chaos Porter creates on the left side of the line.

For Porter, though, this year has been about more than an undefeated season and the charge for a championship. He found a special combination of competition and camaraderie at Bothell after his parents moved from Redmond over the summer.

"It's something I'm never going to forget and, hopefully, we can get it all done in the next couple of weeks," Porter said. "Win or lose, I'll remember this for the rest of my life."