Inside The Huskies

UW Opens Spring Ball and Skylar Lin Was There to Capture It with his Camera

Check out the gallery supplied by the talented, young photographer.
Dan Raley|
UW Opens Spring Ball and Skylar Lin Was There to Capture It with his Camera
UW Opens Spring Ball and Skylar Lin Was There to Capture It with his Camera

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Washington Huskies

The fog was so thick around Montlake on Monday morning, the first University of Washington spring football practice was moved to Dempsey Indoor at the last minute.

Photographer Skylar Lin, on this day a sophomore between UW classes, initially was disappointed by this. He had envisioned capturing all sorts of interesting yet spooky images of the Husky players disappearing and re-emerging in and out of the thick stuff.

Before  heading elsewhere on campus for his first class of the day, Lin put in more than an hour of shooting old and new Huskies and and everything seemed to work out well for him in the back-up football facility.

With safety Vincent Nunley catching his breath, he's backed by a championship message, one of several that hang on the walls of Dempsey Indoor.

JaMarcus Shephard is never far away from a Husky football player catching passes, such Richard Newton in this case, always animated as the hands-on receivers coach. 

Rome Odunze celebrates one sensational catch after another on the first day of University of Washington spring football practice. 

Under the watchful gaze of Husky co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell, safeties Makell Esteen and Dominique Hampton mix it up.

Linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala showed his mobility as he ran around the field getting in the way of Husky ball-carriers and pass-catchers. 

Running back Sam Adams II shows a much more defined physique as he runs through opening-practice drills. Adams, however, grabbed at the back of his leg in a drill as he seemed to pull something. 

Asa Turner runs through an interception drill, getting both hands on the football. He had 2 pass thefts in 2022, giving him 6 in his UW career.

Four years after his older brother Ariel, a linebacker, left the UW program, Arizona State transfer Daniyel Ngata joined it and put his compact yet solidly built physique on display. 

Dylan Morris looked as efficient as he's ever been at the UW in the opening practice. showing great arm strength while getting the ball off exceedingly quick under pressure. 

Receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard, no surprise here could be heard above the din of 100-plus players surrounded by coaches, trainers and equipment personnel. Shephard would drop to the ground whenever a UW player dropped a pass, as if he was wounded by it all. 

Coach Kalen DeBoer walked by and, in referencing his first Husky spring football camp to this one, remarked, "Doesn't seem that long ago?"

The Huskies fielded a first-team defense of edge rushers Bralen Trice and Zion Tupuola-Fetui, defensive tackles Ulumoo Ale and Jacob Bandes, inside linebackers Edefuan Ulofoshio and Alphonzo Tuputala, cornerbacks Elijah Jackson and Jaivion Green, safeties Asa Turner and Dominique Hampton, and Husky hybrid Mischael Powell. 

Players such as defensive linemen Tuli Letuligasenoa and Faatui Tuitele, plus Oklahoma State cornerback transfer Jabbar Muhammad, were in uniform, but didn't take part in the controlled scrimmage sessions.

As players cross train at different positions, edge rushers Sav'ell Smalls and Sekai Asoau-Afoa each took some turns with the inside linebackers. 

Plenty of initiation took place. Junior-college transfer cornerback Thaddeus Dixon made a nice break to knock down a Dylan Morris pass, drawing loud approval from his fellow defenders. However, on the next play Dixon got beat bad over the middle when Morris synced one up with Denzel Boston.

Offensively, there were fewer surprises as an offensive line, left to right, of Troy Fautanu, Nate Kalepo, Matteo Mele, Julius Buelow and Roger Rosengarten took the field. They were joined by quarterback Michael Penix Jr., running back Cam Davis, tight end Devin Culp and wide receivers Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja'Lynn Polk.

The second O-line consisted of, from left to right, Robert Wyrsch, Gaard Memmelaar, Geirean Hatchett, Myles Murao and Samuel Peacock.

In the middle of all of this, we never lost sight of Shephard who was caught dancing with McMillan as rap music reverberated throughout Dempsey. After watching Odunze make a difficult juggling catch and running 70 yards with it, Shephard announced, "I'm going home."

By then, Skylar Lin had beat him out the door and hustled off to class. Check out his gallery that he made available before his day, as a student, got too busy. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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