By breaking an assortment of Central Coast Section offensive
records last season, Gilroy High proved beyond a doubt it had the
most lethal passing attack in Bay Area high school football for the
year of 2007. The Mustangs look to be on a similar path for this
coming season after just the first few weeks of summer.
Gilroy won 7-on-7 passing tournaments in back-to-back weeks,
with the most recent victory occurring Saturday at the Second
Annual 7-on-7 Tournament presented by the U.S. Army at the San
Francisco 49ers’ headquarters. The win scored a small group of
players and coaches from the team an all-expenses paid trip to New
Orleans to play in the National Tournament being held July 10-13. A
week prior, Gilroy won a tournament held at San Jose State
University.
By breaking an assortment of Central Coast Section offensive records last season, Gilroy High proved beyond a doubt it had the most lethal passing attack in Bay Area high school football for the year of 2007. The Mustangs look to be on a similar path for this coming season after just the first few weeks of summer.
Gilroy won 7-on-7 passing tournaments in back-to-back weeks, with the most recent victory occurring Saturday at the Second Annual 7-on-7 Tournament presented by the U.S. Army at the San Francisco 49ers’ headquarters. The win scored a small group of players and coaches from the team an all-expenses paid trip to New Orleans to play in the National Tournament being held July 10-13. A week prior, Gilroy won a tournament held at San Jose State University.
“We got a plaque (at SJSU), not quite the same prize,” joked GHS head coach Rich Hammond.
The accomplishments in both tournaments were notable, but for far different reasons.
The Mustangs were able to go undefeated in the SJSU tourney, but were missing one critical player when it comes to passing for Gilroy: quarterback Jamie Jensen. Out of town to visit colleges of interest, Jensen, who threw for 4,323 yards and 41 touchdowns last season, missed seeing his teammates go 7-0 and outscore opponents 301-88 in those games. Best of all, last season’s junior varsity quarterback, Nick Marra, provided steady direction to an offense he is still learning. Marra, a junior, is expected to back up Jensen this coming season.
“For Nick to do well was very exciting and it’s a good thing for our team,” Hammond said.
The 49ers’ tournament consisted of eight high schools from around the Bay Area (Riordan, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Andrew Hill, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Washington, Piedmont Hills and Gilroy), with teams playing in a round-robin format with a minimum of four games each and a single-elimination playoff. Each game consisted of two 15-minute halves and one five-minute halftime, with five minutes between games.
Gilroy went undefeated in six games, beating Santa Cruz 45-14, Riordan 51-0, Piedmont Hills 38-21, Washington 54-10 and Scotts Valley 39-31 in overtime. The Mustangs were able to pull out a close victory over Andrew Hill in the championship, as Jensen found Bryan Sanchez for a touchdown with just 30 seconds remaining.
“I’d like to say one person stood out but I look at the touchdowns and it got spread around quite a bit,” Hammond said. “Everybody kind of contributed, it was a pretty good team effort.”
Hammond noted it was similar at the SJSU camp as well as a tournament held at Stanford University, where Gilroy’s coaches got to see the team’s depth by giving more time on the field to reserves.
Players going to New Orleans, which will include a two-day tournament consisting of 16 teams from around the nation, as well as a seminar on character development and tour of the Ninth Ward, include: Tony Travis, Jamie Jensen, Richard Sotelo, Peter Guenther, Adrian Melendez, Bryan Sanchez, Nico Sandoval, Lelan Gettys, Sean Hale, Ferris Gonzalez, Dante Fullard and Steven Martinez.
