Jeff Graham: Where's the best place to coach, on the football field or above the action?

When it comes to covering high school football games, newspaper reporters generally fit into one of two groups: those who like to follow the action from the press box, and those who like to roam the sidelines.

Since joining the Kitsap Sun in 2007, I've typically been a sideline guy. I enjoy making the rounds pre-game, chatting with officials, coaches, athletic directors and chain-gang crew. Once kickoff happens, I'm closer to the sights and sounds, which is important at age 45 because I feel like I'm growing more blind and deaf by the day.

Press boxes are certainly advantageous when the weather turns bad and you have to worry about keeping your notepad full of stats dry and legible, but they can also become noisy and cramped because you're sharing space with announcers, camera and scoreboard operators and other game-operation personnel. Assistant coaches for both teams also typically have reserved seats on opposite ends of the press box.

A majority of the coaches who call plays on game nights do so from the sidelines, but that's not always the case.

Take the two best teams in the West Sound so far this season — North Kitsap and Olympic. The Vikings (4-1) and Trojans (4-1) are tied atop the Olympic League 2A standings with 3-0 records and both teams boast veteran coaching staffs.

This week, I chatted with North Kitsap offensive coordinator Chris Richardson and Olympic offensive coordinator Erwin Quitevis about their preferred location during games.

A longtime assistant under North Kitsap head coach Jeff Weible, Richardson spent years up in the press box filling various roles, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. He'd wear a headset and stay in constant communication with Vikings defensive coordinator Dave Snyder, offering observations and suggestions.

Richardson said the press box vantage point allows coaches a better bird's eye view of formations and how the opposition is lining up and reacting to various play calls.

"You see kind of where the alignment is for their defensive fronts, their linebackers," Richardson said. "You also see what their coverage is doing and how they are moving."

When Richardson took over offensive coordinator duties in 2021, he opted to move to the sidelines. With North Kitsap running an up-tempo, no-huddle spread offense, Richardson said he wanted to be the one signaling the play calls directly to the quarterback. It's a way to put defenses on their heels early and often in games.

"We use tempo against teams and they are not able to sub and then they end up getting tired," said Richardson, who still wears a headset in order to stay in contact with other North Kitsap assistants in the press box. "That's when we end up having big plays and big gains. It keeps the defense in a base look."

On a play when the quarterback needs to "check out" of a certain call, such as Friday against Bainbridge when junior Cole Edwards and the offense faced a fourth-and-5 from the Spartans' 39-yard-line, Edwards initially went with a hard count to try to draw Bainbridge offsides, then looked to the sideline to get the ensuing call from Richardson.

The Vikings ended up running up the middle for 10 yards and a new set of downs in a game they led 42-0 with 8:23 left in the second quarter and eventually won 58-0.

"I like being down here because I can get a feel for what's happening," Richardson said.

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Starting out coaching at the pee-wee level before working his way up the coaching ladder in middle school and high school, Quitevis said he called plays from the field level all the way through the 2015 season, when the Trojans won the Olympic League title and qualified for state for the first time since 1986.

It was Olympic head coach Sal Quitevis Jr. who suggested that Erwin, his brother, give play-calling from the press box a try in 2016. He's been there ever since.

"To me, this is the best view," said Quitevis, who allowed me to observe him in the press box during the first half of Thursday's home game against Port Angeles, which Olympic won 42-3. 

Quitevis made his way up to the right corner of the press box with about 10 minutes before kickoff. Holding a few bags of cookies that would serve as dinner, Quitevis donned his headset and scanned his color-coded play sheet, which lists play-call groupings based on several factors: such as pass/run, down-and-distance, is Olympic in the red zone or backed up against its own goal line?

Quitevis said the press box view allows him better sight of the ball in relation to sideline chains and first-down/yardage markers. When he makes a call, he speaks to his nephew, assistant coach Evan Quitevis, who wears a headset on the sideline and directs signals to the quarterback.

"Everything is quick to me," Quitevis said. "As soon as our player gets tackled, I know the down and distance. When I'm on the field, it's, 'Hey, what is that? Third-and-four?"

That kind of sounded like me during Friday's game when North Kitsap was on offense and moving quickly between snaps. I'm there standing on Bainbridge's sideline, squinting across the field, trying to determine if the ball is on the 46-yard-line or the 47. Next thing I know, the ball is already in play again.

As long as the weather remains abnormally pleasant this fall, I'll undoubtedly find myself on the sidelines on game nights. But if it starts getting rainy — especially on Oct. 28 when the Trojans host the Vikings for what will likely be the league championship game — I might see if Quitevis wants some company.

Jeff Graham covers high school sports for the Kitsap Sun. Reach him at jgraham@kitsapsun.com and follow his work on Facebook (Kitsap Sun Prepzone) and Twitter (jeffgrahamKS).

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Jeff Graham: Football coaches discuss game-night vantage points