PHS Football Coach Mauro Enters Year Two With Expectations

When Clay Mauro took over the Peninsula High School football program last year, he compared it to buying a mansion sight unseen. It looked great from the street. But somebody else had built it, and Mauro spent his first year just learning where the light switches were.

“On paper, it’s yours,” Mauro said. “But there’s always still remnants of the previous owners. I felt like I was kind of walking around this awesome, great, big house that someone else had built, and I was just kind of learning how it works.”

A year later, the house is his.

Mauro begins his second season at Peninsula, having taken a teaching job at Key Peninsula Middle School, giving him a foothold in the district beyond the football field — and giving him, in his words, the thing that had been missing.

“Settled,” Mauro said. “That’s the term I’d use. Now that’s settled, and everybody knows what we’re doing. I’m feeling great about things overall.”

That stability shows up in how he talks about the program now: less like a tenant and more like a homeowner picking out paint colors. The bones, he said, are staying the same. It’s the details he’s fine-tuning.

Peninsula is coming off its best season in years. The Seahawks went 6-4 overall and 5-1 in the Nisqually Division in 2025, Mauro’s first year, posting the program’s first winning campaign since 2022 and going undefeated at home on Roy Anderson Field. The season ended with a 28-17 loss to unbeaten White River in the Week 10 Agreement, a crossover event outside the official state bracket.

“We saw development all season and proved Peninsula is a winning program,” Mauro said. “What great programs do is build off this type of success and take the next actionable steps.”

Those next steps have a number attached to them — three, actually. Mauro hung three numbers in the Peninsula locker room this preseason: 4, 7, and 48. They represent the years since the Seahawks last beat Gig Harbor in the Fish Bowl, since Peninsula’s last state playoff win, and since the program’s last state title.

“That’s the goal, is make it zero,” Mauro said. “You see these numbers, you don’t like them? OK, do something about it every single day.”

Peninsula will try to do it with an unusually senior-heavy roster. This year’s seniors logged real varsity snaps as sophomores and juniors, but the class behind them didn’t get the same runway. Peninsula’s junior class has little varsity experience to lean on. That puts even more weight on the seniors to carry the program this fall.

At the center of it is senior quarterback Talen McDonnell, who threw for 493 yards and four touchdowns on 65% passing last season while sharing time at the position. He’ll also handle Peninsula’s kicking and punting duties — Mauro said McDonnell has Division I ability as a punter, averaging 40.9 yards per boot with a long of 70, and Division II tools as a placekicker, going 12 of 13 on PATs and 3 of 4 on field goals with a long of 37.

“He’s really adaptable,” Mauro said. “I hope everyone gets to see what we see with him regularly. He’s an amazing kid.”

Senior Jake Johnson returns as Peninsula’s top target after catching 16 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns a year ago. Senior Thomas Marzano led the team with 53 tackles and rushed for three touchdowns in a part-time backfield role. Offensive lineman TJ Strilcov returns after a first-team all-conference season last year.

“(TJ is) a blue-collar guy who had to grind it out to develop his game, and he’s done that tremendously,” Mauro said.

The defense returns several of its top players. Senior Asher Epstein had 29 tackles and four sacks last fall and earned second-team all-division honors.

“He’s a silent leader, a leader by example, and you can’t get him off the field,” Mauro said of Epstein, who played through injuries much of last season.

Senior linebacker Kainoa Coit, Peninsula’s ASB president, finished second on the team with 49 tackles and is one of several players Mauro pointed to as an under-the-radar leader. Senior Logan Johnson led the defensive backfield with four interceptions and 14 pass deflections.

Mauro also brought in first-year offensive coordinator Drew Campbell from Eastside Catholic. Campbell’s arrival, Mauro said, will help the team lean more heavily on the passing game than in the past, taking advantage of McDonnell’s arm strength.

Mauro didn’t make the nonleague schedule easy for the Seahawks. Peninsula opens Sept. 4 at W.F. West High School in Chehalis, an 8-3 team last season, before hosting Franklin Pierce, a top 10 2A team last season, in its home opener Sept. 10 — both playoff qualifiers a year ago.

“Our conference is going to be tough, dude,” Mauro said. “We wanted to see people that could beat us, that could get out there and could do some stuff against us. And you do that so that you’re ready for the hard schedule.”

The Fish Bowl against Gig Harbor moves to week three this year, Sept. 19, by mutual agreement between the two coaching staffs rather than the traditional season opener. Mauro said it wasn’t about the rivalry losing weight — it was about making sure both teams know who they are first.

“It’s the Fish Bowl, man,” Mauro said. “There isn’t a seat in the house. We wanted our side and the other side to have a little more to look forward to.”

Kick-off for the 48th Fish Bowl is 5 p.m. at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. The Tides lead the Seahawks in the series 24-23.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misidentified the coach in a photo caption and included a reference to incoming senior tight end Aiden Muilenburg, who has since transferred to Puyallup High School.