Down-sized Bumgardner has an upside for defending champions

BELLEVUE — Assistant coach Joe Razore heckled him once from a balcony.

Wes Warren saw him while driving and honked.

The folks on Main Street, they just stared.

"I'm just like, 'Hey, we're trying to get ready for football," said Nick Bumgardner, who last summer drew more than his share of double-takes by lugging a bulging backpack and a football through town on his jogs to and from workouts at Bellevue High School.

Bumgardner's runs, usually done with a small group of teammates, typically began at Clyde Beach Park and wound a circuitous path through the neighborhood before finishing in the school's weight room. Before setting out, he'd sometimes throw a pair of 15-pound dumbbells in his backpack and a football under his arm, an offensive lineman in the early stages of a transformation.

"He had good feet and he hit holes hard," said Bellevue Coach Butch Goncharoff. "The idea for him was he had to cut weight. He had to be a guy who could carry the ball 20 or 25 times a game."

Six months later, Bumgardner has become that guy for the Wolverines.

He's their leading rusher with 182 carries for 1,494 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Tonight, he'll lead Bellevue (11-1) against Lynden (10-2) in the Class 3A state championship game at the Tacoma Dome at 7:30.

The game is a rematch of last year's title showdown, won by Bellevue 42-15.

"They look better than they did last year," said Bumgardner, a senior. "I'm looking forward to playing them because they want to play us. ... It's going to be a good game."

One year ago, Bumgardner weighed almost 255 pounds. He played center and started on Bellevue's state-championship team.

But graduation stripped the Wolverines of their speedy stable of running backs, and suddenly positions that had been ably staffed for years needed filling.

Bumgardner, who had played fullback briefly at the end of his sophomore season on the junior varsity, was one of the first to volunteer his services.

"You've got to lose weight," Goncharoff told him.

"I can do it!" Bumgardner replied.

He quit eating after 7 p.m. every day.

He cut out a lot of his snacking, drank more water, less soda and juice.

And he started running more, often with a football in his hand.

"It (the diet) was real tough for him," said senior lineman Jeff Dicks. "I'd see him at night and he'd be like, 'I can't eat past 7,' and I'd be like, 'Well, I'm going to eat.' And he'd be over there drooling. ... That was pretty tough for him, I know, because he likes his food."

Slowly, surely, the pounds started melting away.

Bumgardner's clothes became baggier and soon, even his nickname, "Buddha," no longer fit.

By the end of two-a-day practices, his pot belly was gone.

He had dropped to 220 pounds and was looking every bit the tough and agile fullback the Wolverines had hoped he might become.

"He just kept getting better," said Warren, Bellevue's offensive-line coach. "His feet got quicker. And since he was a lineman the year before, he knew where every block was coming from."

If Goncharoff and his staff were looking for further validation, they needed only wait until the season opener at Mount Si.

Bumgardner remembers the play being a 948 Down. To the Wildcats, it must simply have been a downer, as Bumgardner burst 79 yards up the middle of the field for a touchdown on his first varsity carry.

"That was so sweet," Dicks said. "I guess it just showed how much he worked. It was good to see for him that he was able to get that."

Tonight's game could mark the last of Bumgardner's playing career. He says he wants to attend Washington or Washington State next fall, but also is considering Western Washington, where he might be able to continue playing.

He has a 3.0 grade-point average and is skilled with computers. Last year, he took a year-long, two-period-a-day class at Newport High School to earn his Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification.

Regardless of what the Wolverines do tonight, it already has been a remarkable run for Bumgardner and this year's senior class. They have won 26 of the past 27 games dating to their sophomore seasons and have never lost in seven tries in the state playoffs.

They'll look back on it someday, Bumgardner says, but for now only one game matters.

"I don't know if anyone on the team is really thinking about what we've accomplished so far," he said. "It's just the next game."

Matt Peterson: 206-515-5536 or

mpeterson@seattletimes.com.