WIAA football roots: Tom Tri, the offensive mastermind of misdirection and open-space operation at Lake Stevens

Longtime coach has greatly evolved from a run-based background in Wing-T and pro-I formation offenses

LAKE STEVENS, Wash. - Take one look at the fast-paced, wide-open, misdirection-driven Lake Stevens High School offense, and you'd think longtime coach Tom Tri had buried himself in "Air Coryell" tutorials since he was a youth.

Wrong.

That is what makes the Vikings' transformation into one of the state's premier yards-gobbling offensive attacks so profound - the 52-year-old's younger-day roots stem from something completely opposite.

Tri finished up his high school career as a blocking tight end/offensive tackle in the Wing-T formation under the late legendary coach Terry Ennis at Cascade of Everett in the late 1980s. Earlier in his prep career, he was part of a pro-I offense under Gary Price.

In 1998, when Tri was hired by former Lake Stevens coach Ken Collins to as an assistant, the Vikings' were a run-based I-formation offense - lots of off-tackle or counter-trap runs to set up a play-action pass game. 

But as the Vikings kept running into bigger, more powerful teams in the Wesco in Snohomish, Marysville-Pilchuck and Monroe in the late 2000s, Tri sensed it was time for a switch.

"We always had guys that were faster and more athletic," Tri said.

What sealed the offensive-scheme shift was when workhorse running back Isaac Molstre was lost for the season with an injury in 2007.

"I just realized we were way too one-dimensional in the I-formation," Tri said. "So (after Molstre's injury), we went to shotgun in four-receiver sets the last two or three games of that season, and had some success."

After that, there was no turning back.

In the spring of 2008, Tri and his coaching staff flew down to Los Angeles to attend a seminar put on by Tony Franklin, one of the top spread-offense gurus in college football (Kentucky, Troy, Auburn, Cal and currently at Army).

"In 2008, we ran the Tony Franklin offense," Tri said. "It was great. We had an all-state quarterback (Nick Baker) that year and scored a ton of points."

For months after that season, Tri aimed to merge some of his old-school run-game principles with his new offense.

"I love counter-trap," Tri said. "So I just started playing around with motions and wys we could run some of our old I-formation stuff, but do it out of spread."

When Jacob Eason stepped on campus in 2012, Tri decided one more change was in order.

Because Eason was such a strong pocket passer, Tri and his staff went back to see Franklin, who was Cal's offensive coordinator at the time when Jared Goff was quarterback.

That was when Tri was introduced to a concept quickly becoming popular in college football - run-pass option (RPO) - which the Vikings immediately adopted for good. becoming one of the first high school programs in Washington to utilize it.

And in the years following, Tri has found ways to add to that playbook.

"We've looked at other schools that run RPO in spread, and take ideas that are working - like Cal, for a while, or the 'Air Raid' with WSU," Tri said. "We watch a lot of film (of other college and high school programs), and have enough background information that we add one or two concepts a year or so to keep teams guessing.

"We've gotten really good at it."

Photo by Vince Miller