UW Has Learned Not to Sleep on Ferndale High Football Talent
Ferndale is an unassuming town of 15,000 located 10 miles from the U.S.-Canada border, a bedroom community catching all of the urban sprawl from nearby Bellingham.
It wasn't exactly a college football hotbed for ready-made talent until a 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback named Doug Pederson emerged from Ferndale High School and signed with Northeastern Louisiana, where he played as a record-setting passer from 1987-90.
Even then, Pederson didn't have the University of Washington or Washington State chasing after him. The Huskies were far more interested in other local quarterbacks such as Chris Chandler (Everett), Cary Conklin (Yakima) and Billy Joe Hobert (Puyallup) to pay the other guy any attention.
As it turns out, Pederson could play and spent a dozen years in the NFL as a journeyman quarterback before becoming an even more successful head coach. He guided the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl championship five years ago and the Jacksonville Jaguars into the playoffs this past season.
While Pederson opened the football gate to his Washington hometown so long ago, this past week a Ferndale High edge rusher named Jake Mason announced he will walk on with the Huskies. Maybe feeling a little overlooked himself, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Mason will show up without a scholarship thinking he can earn one.
"I know a lot of people there and I feel like I'll get the opportunity to play," Mason told Dawgman.com. "They've had quite a few guys go on to earn scholarships."
Michael Koenen is another example of this. After playing for NAIA and now-defunct Western Washington, the former Ferndale High punter kicked for 10 years (2005-14) in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Huskies, of course, have had good fortune with Ferndale players ever since, signing highly regarded Jake Locker in 2006 and turning him into a four-year starter and an NFL first-round draft pick for the Tennessee Titans.
They've since added the Hatchett brothers, Geirean and Landon, to the roster, winning the services of these touted 4-star offensive linemen over the likes of Ohio State, Alabama, Oklahoma, USC and Texas A&M, collectively. Both project as UW starters before their careers are over.
Landon Hatchett and Jake Mason actually were teammates this past season for a 9-3 Ferndale playoff team, with the latter finishing with 50-plus tackles and 6 sacks.
The thing about Ferndale now is that for every mainstream Jake Locker in Ferndale, there's quite likely still Doug Pedersons emerging from there, unsung and overlooked.
Mason, who passed up scholarships from Eastern Washington, the Citadel and Portland State to try his hand in Montlake, may or may not be able to play football at the Pac-12 level. Yet considering where he comes from and who's emerged from there, he's definitely worth a look.
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