Community Sports
Super Seniors | Gig Harbor High School boys
With the high school sports season completed, Gig Harbor Now presents our 2025-26 Super Seniors.
Super Seniors recognizes seniors who had huge impacts on their teams during their careers at Peninsula and Gig Harbor high schools. Although many senior athletes excelled at multiple sports, an athlete can only be selected once on our list.
The award is based on the athletes’ complete high school careers rather than individual seasons. It includes Puget Sound League-sanctioned sports as well as water polo and lacrosse if those teams included contributing seniors on the roster.
The following are the Gig Harbor High School boys Super Seniors for the 2025-26 sports year.
Football: Peyton Howard
Peyton Howard. Photo by Christi Adams
Howard was a 6-foot-3, 285-pound bruising right guard who helped blow open holes that allowed Tides runners to accumulate more than 2,738 yards last season and average an impressive 6.2 yards per carry.
Howard combined athleticism with quick feet, strong hands and a massive set of thighs. He was adept at drive blocking while still possessing the ability to pass protect with finesse and balance.
His was also nasty on the field. Howard wasn’t a dirty player, but he played hard with noticeable intensity. His physical style was often displayed as a Tides defensive tackle during his junior season, when had 47 tackles, six tackles for loss and a team-leading three sacks.
Howard was the Puget Sound League Narrows Division Lineman of the Year as a senior after being selected as a first-team all-league performer on both sides of the ball last season.
Boys cross country: Gavin McKeegan
Gavin McKeegan. Photo courtesy of Gig Harbor track
McKeegan used his determination, endurance and finishing kick to be one of Gig Harbor’s best cross country performers over the last three seasons.
He routinely was in the fight for the Puget Sound League championship and owned a defeat of long distance star Mana Voss from Central Kitsap, who would go on to win state titles in track and cross country this season.
McKeegan showed his speed and grit versus Voss at Sehmel Park in 2024. Both runners battled over the hills and valleys and emerged from the trees with roughly 200 yards to go. With lungs burning, McKeegan came through in an all-out sprint to the finish line. McKeegan crossed in a time of 14:10.83 over the 4,150 meters, beating Voss by a second.
Swimming: Travis Scott
Travis Scott. Photo courtesy of Gig Harbor swimming
Scott was a 6-foot-5 freestyle specialist who kept grinding and improving until he finished second in the 200-yard freestyle at the Class 3A state meet last fall.
Scott has a perfect swimmer’s body, with wide shoulders and narrow hips. He swam like a torpedo headed for the pool wall. He was also explosive off the starting blocks and usually didn’t emerge from out of the water until he was one-third of the way down the pool before starting his freestyle strokes.
The senior won several individual freestyle league and district championships during his career while also powering multiple relay teams to league and district titles.
“Travis is a student of the sport and he has worked extremely hard at self improvement during his time in the program,” Tides coach Mike Kelly said. “He established goals, then achieved them. Travis is a diverse swimmer and excelled in the freestyle at all distances.”
Tennis: Nathan Cheek
Nathan Cheek. Photo by Lorrie Wood
Cheek played all over the Tides’ doubles lineups during his career. Gig Harbor coach Lorrie Wood depended on him to get the critical deciding doubles point in contests that were knotted 2-2 with the third doubles team often playing later in the day.
Cheek has solid ground strokes and a dependable serve, but he was best at the net, sending smashes over the fence. He posted a winning career record for the Tides during his senior campaign. But Cheek stood out most to his teammates and coach as a leader.
“Nathan was a great help to me each day as he organized the team and led them through their dynamic warm-ups before practice,” Wood said. “I appreciated him for keeping his younger teammates in line and showing them how to respect the coaches and our team rules.”
Wrestling: Luke Young
Luke Young. Photo by Blake Moser
Young moved between the 132- and 138-pound weight classes during the past two years but displayed the strength of a wrestler several weight classes higher. He had the strength to hip-toss opponents to the mat before pouncing on them for pins but also the technical skills to escape if he was in danger.
Young finished fourth at districts and compiled a 16-9 record as a senior. He also possessed plenty of toughness, according to Tides coach Blake Moser, both on the mat and mentally: He fought through injury during the early part of his senior year.
He recovered to make an impressive late-season run and qualify for the Class 3A state tournament. “Luke was extremely tough, highly motivated and very smart,” Moser said. “Anybody who ever watched him wrestle could tell he was very strong and very athletic.”
Basketball: Michael Masini
Michael Masini. Photo by Vincent Starr
Masini was a 6-foot-8 scoring machine who won the Puget Sound League Narrows Division MVP award as senior. He is arguably the best center in school history after scoring 1,533 points and collecting 863 rebounds.
Masini flashed a solid combination of face-up and back-to-the-basket moves. Blessed with size and quickness, Masini could attack the hoop and rattle the rim with a dunk or hit a mid-range pull-up jump shot. He often scored and drew a foul on his up-fake and duck-under moves.
Masini made opponents pay at the line as well, cashing in on 153 free throws as a junior — including 23 in one game. He was a first-team All-Narrows Division pick that season.
Masini was a pogo stick on the glass, jumping above the rim to snatch rebounds. He posted career highs of 23 rebounds and 38 points in individual games. He was also sound defensively, where his long levers allowed him to block opponents’ shot attempts.
Golf: Theo Snyder
Theo Snyder. Photo by Dennis Browne
Synder amassed the most impressive career in Tide golf history. He finished second at the Class 3A state championship as a senior, just one stroke from an individual title, after finishing in the top five at state during the last two years.
A past winner of the Washington Junior Golf Association state title, Snyder was long off the tee and deadly on his approach shots. He routinely lit the Madrona Links fairways on fire as a gallery of classmates clamored to watch Snyder play. He even posted a 58 for 18 holes in a practice round earlier this season at the links with those admirers cheering him on.
Snyder will probably be best remembered for his touch around the greens. His chips from 35 yards and in would almost always land pin-high on the green, before his smooth putting stroke routinely dropped as if a ball magnet was in the hole.
Snyder could truly have a future as a professional golfer some day, but he will first begin his education at Yale this fall.
Baseball: Quentin Bockhorn
Bockhorn is a two-time Puget Sound League Pitcher of the Year. He led the Tides to third at state in 2025 and a quarterfinal appearance in 2026. His masterful pitching helped the Tides to a 6-0 win over Liberty to secure a spot in the final eight at state.
Bockhorn wasted no time before firing pitches that routinely kept hitters off balance. His fastball hovered around 90 miles per hour and he complimented that with a high arching curveball.
The 6-foot-1 senior will be remembered for his control, variety of pitches and his willingness to battle for his team in big games.
“Bockhorn just did what he does every time out, which is to compete, throw quality pitches and hold teams down. The kid is special,” Tides coach Ben Sleeter said after a win over Peninsula this season.
Soccer: Eli Hanson
Eli Hanson. Photo by Vincent Star
Hanson led Gig Harbor to a third-place finish at the Class 3A state soccer tournament, winning the Narrows Division Offensive MVP award and scoring a school-record 23 goals with 17 assists. He was first-team All-Narrows Division as a junior, scoring 14 goals with a team-high 19 assists.
Blessed with quick feet, plenty of tricky ball skills and overwhelming strength, Hanson will be remembered as one of the program’s best all-around players.
Track: Gavin Olson, Troy Arnold, Justin Morris, Atzel Chavez Avelar
The Gig Harbor 4×100 relay team. Photo courtesy of Russell Moore
This relay quartet deserve equal parts of this award. They combined to run a time of 42.31 in finishing third in the 4×100 relay at the Class 3A state meet this spring. The same group placed sixth at state during their junior seasons.
None of them earned a place in the individual 100-yard final, but their teamwork and synchronization made them more than the sum of their parts. At Star Track, they finished just 0.45 seconds behind an all-star relay team from Lincoln.
Morris ran the lead-off spot, followed by Chavez Avelar, who powered down the back stretch before passing to multi-sport standout Arnold. Olson reeled in runners down the home stretch and almost caught the Abes.
This group surprised many spectators and earned plenty of respect by maximizing their speed and handoffs in the baton passing zones.
“They executed while going 100% and to do that you have to have trust in your teammates to do their job and not worry about dropping the baton,” Tides coach Kevin Eager said. “We are extremely proud of their efforts.”
Lacrosse: John Caplinger
Johnny Caplinger. Photo by Nathan Hyun
Caplinger was a four-year varsity player who combined length, speed and a relentless pursuit of the ball to score 22 goals and record six assists as a senior.
Caplinger had four goals and two assists as the Tides defeated Peninsula, 13-1, in the Baggataway Bowl at Roy Anderson Field this season.
The senior had a full allotment of shots in his bag. He occasionally surprised goalies by skipping shots off the field turf.
Caplinger, the only senior on the team, impressed coach Mark Kemp with his leadership. “John’s a great human being and a great leader,” Kemp said.