Jason Rimkus enters his second season at Interlake head football coach in 2011 after taking his team to the state playoffs in his first year at the helm. Rimkus spoke with Bellevue Reporter recently about returning star running back Jordan Todd, the increased expectations from within the program in 2011 and more.

REPORTER: Last season was your first year as a head coach and also at Interlake. How does the beginning of year two compare?

It’s great. I think that especially in our second year, all the kids that are here and all the parents and coaches know the expectation; how we’re supposed to practice, we don’t have to teach what 7 on 7 looks like or any drills anymore, they just know where to go.

Then, behavioral stuff, like how to cheer on your teammates. At camp, we worked on celebrating. I was grabbing guys and telling them to go celebrate. It’s not always a natural thing to celebrate someone else’s accomplishments but it’s huge for a team, so we’ve been working on that.

Give me one thing that new quarterback Kamana Adriano has impressed you with so far.

One thing? His arm strength, he can throw it farther than I think we all expected and he can throw it harder than I think our kids expected. The first couple weeks we had a lot of dropped balls because they didn’t realize: it’s coming.

He’s just a natural in a lot of the stuff he does. If the kid was 6’1, we would have every school in the country in here. He has a future at receiver, but right now, he’s done a great job [at quarterback].

The leadership and poise part of it, which a lot of kids don’t understand until they’re in the position. He’s done a great job of staying positive when someone misses a block or he gets sacked.

He’s been great.

REPORTER: After the way Jordan Todd ended last season (seven touchdowns in back-to-back games in the playoffs), other teams will be honed in on him in 2011. Do you plan to move him around in the offense this season to combat that effect?

No, we kind of use him more like how the Titans use Chris Johnson. If he’s always back there in that same spot, you always have to worry about that.

We could move him and slide him and stuff like that, but then we lose that every-down presence back there. We like him just at tailback. He’s improved in pass protection and we have some pass routes where we get him out and swing him, but we won’t motion him too much.

He’s a home run every time back there, so let’s just leave him back there.

REPORTER: What is something that still concerns you entering this season?

Our depth, being such a small school and still having lower numbers than what I think we all would like. And some of the younger guys getting used to our whole program, everything was new and now some of the sophomores are new to the varsity level of football.

A lot of them have done a really good job of getting over the fear of the size and speed and just trusting in their job. We have a lot of kids that have come out for football that haven’t in the past and they’ve helped. They haven’t been playing for a while, but they are good athletes that we can teach the basics and they get out there and do a job.

I’m really excited and I think our kids are really excited for the product we have to put out.

REPORTER: How much has the mindset changed around the program since you took over?

I would say their level of competition has grown so much. When I first got here, our first game we were down 14 points and halftime. That was it, the game was over. Now, there’s no quit, which is a huge thing for our team and the challenges that we face, just to never give up. It’s a great lesson for them to carry on into college and that’s why I coach. It’s kind of our backbone and something our kids take pride in.

REPORTER: Over or Under: 1 league win in 2011 for the Saints?

I have no idea…All I’m really focused on is tomorrow in the weight room and how many kids we get in, and beyond that the first game we play, which I’m sure is the answer you’ve heard from everybody.

The first team we play is a 4A power, so we better not look ahead. But really, just everyday, taking it one step. I really take pride in the number of kids we get in this weight room and I’ve seen kids transform based on their work in here.

I’m really excited and I think our kids are too.They surprised themselves at camp, we played some good teams: Bothell, Eastlake, Olympia.

We surprised ourselves with how physical we can be, we ran the ball on teams, which hasn’t been a staple around here for a number of years, and we stopped some teams. That is thing I’m most excited for is to see where our defense goes because for years Interlake hasn’t stopped anybody on defense, let alone last year when we gave up 38 points per game.