68 players show up for first day of football training at GHS
GILROY – One of the 68 football players out for varsity spring work-outs looked at head coach Darren Yafai while the team was stretching and said, “you look so happy.”
Yafai replied, “Of course, I’m happy. I’m ecstatic. This is what I’ve been waiting for since November.”
It had been 194 days since the Gilroy High football team last played a game, defeating rival Live Oak in its regular-season finale, 14-6, and Yafai could not wait to get back on the field.
“This kind of starts our football season off,” Yafai said. “It gives us a chance to really look at two groups of kids meshing together – the returning players and the ones up from junior varsity.”
Thirty-one players were returning to varsity, 30 were from last year’s junior varsity team, six were new to the program, and one was up from last season’s freshmen squad.
“Sixty-eight were here of 70 candidates, so we’re missing two. Out of that a couple will be going down to JVs. We project a varsity roster between 60-65,” said Yafai, who had 61 varsity gridmen last year.
There were no helmets and no pads worn – “just cleats, shorts and T-shirts” – but it was back to planning out another season of Mustang football. That meant back to the basics and fundamentals, something Yafai always starts out his spring practices doing.
“We had a defensive practice, today. We worked on our fundamentals,” Yafai said. “You look at each position group and go through the basic defensive stance and alignment and techniques.”
Once the basics were done right, the team shifted its attention to defensive schemes and coverages. That’s when Yafai really got excited.
“I was pleasantly surprised. It was like jumping back into the saddle. The kids retained a lot of stuff,” Yafai said. “We didn’t have to re-teach a bunch of stuff.”
It was the first of five spring work-outs for Gilroy High football team, which will practice today, Friday, take off for Memorial Day Weekend, and then resume two-hour sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’ll continue with weight training and conditioning,” said Yafai, who has implemented a six-week summer program still with no contact. “All offseason our kids have been lifting. We’ve stressed speed training, agility and plyometrics.”
Wednesday was the first scheduled team work-out, but the Gilroy High coaching staff has stressed more commitment in the weight room since the end of last season.
“Our weight room program is very detailed and data-driven. We designed individual workouts based on kids abilities and strength levels,” Yafai said. “In turn, we’ve seen our kids get a lot stronger and a lot faster this offseason.”
The weight training regiment has focused on lower abdomen, lower back, torso and mid-section, and it is already showing results for the dedicated Mustang gridmen.
“This is the strongest overall squad I’ve ever seen,” said Yafai, who played at Gilroy High for four years and has been on the coaching staff for 12 seasons.
“We had seven sophomores up on varsity and we really leaned on our young kids last year,” he added. “They tasted some success, so I think they’re real hungry to take that next big step to get into playoffs and win some playoff games. They’ve worked harder than I’ve ever seen them work.”
Last season, the Mustangs were officially 4-5-1, but that comes with a disclaimer since they were forced to forfeit a victory over San Lorenzo Valley due to late paperwork on a transfer student. Yafai is adamant that his squad was really 5-4-1 and could have gotten an at-large playoff bid.
“If we don’t get that forfeit win taken from us, we had a chance in of getting into the playoffs,” Yafai said.
But that’s all in the past now and the Mustangs have shown their coach one game should not be the difference between making the playoffs next season.
“That goes back to a lot of kids bought in and a lot of our coaches put in a lot of extra time, especially the varsity coaches,” said Yafai, who opens the weight room in the morning and usually has four assistants with him. “We also have sixth period athletic training and at any given time four coaches are running that and then not to mention the kids are lifting weights after school.”
The coach pointed out that three of the team’s four losses on the playing field came against Salinas, Hollister and Palma, which had rosters filled with upperclassmen dedicated to the weight room.
“Our kids always lifted hard. Our kids were strong for their age and size, but not like a veteran team,” Yafai said. “We’re no longer a young team. We have to fill a handful of holes, but that’s from a JV squad that went 9-1 last year.”
Also a JV squad that sacrificed five of its top players to the varsity for the first seven games and an additional two for the final three games.
There are some new additions to the Gilroy High varsity coaching staff for next season. Mark Carrick, who was the head coach prior to Yafai’s arrival, will be the new receivers and defensive backs coach.
“He’s got a wealth of knowledge,” said Yafai of Carrick. “He’s a veteran coach. He’s got 20-25 years of high school football experience and even coached (junior college) ball.”
Another former Mustang head coach, Rich Masey, who Yafai played for when he was at Gilroy High, will join the staff on a part-time basis, focusing on the offensive line.
“That was big because I don’t know of a high school offensive line coach in the area that knows half of what Rich Masey knows,” Yafai said.
Steven Lo, a former second-team All-League center for the Mustangs, will move up to the varsity ranks after one season as the offensive line coach for the freshmen squad.
The coaching staff will be without defensive coordinator Rich Hammond, who was hired as the head football coach at Santa Clara High School, but that job will go to third-year coach Greg Garcia, who shared the defensive duties with Hammond last season. Yafai said he will be a defensive consultant as well..
In addition, Tim Pierleoni will stay on as the offensive coordinator and Craig Martin will head up the special teams once again and work with the defensive backs.
2004 Schedule
Aug. 27 Santa Cruz (scrm)
Sept. 3 Burlingame
Sept. 10 at Gunn
Sept. 17 at Watsonville
Sept. 24 San Lorenzo Valley
Oct. 1 BYE
Oct. 8 N. Monterey Co.
Oct. 15 Hollister
Oct. 22 at Palma
Oct. 29 at North Salinas
Nov. 5 Salinas
Nov. 12 Live Oak
