After watching his team play in full pads against other high
school programs for the first time since the 2004 season ended,
Gilroy High football coach Darren Yafai summarized his team’s
mid-summer form.
Gilroy – After watching his team play in full pads against other high school programs for the first time since the 2004 season ended, Gilroy High football coach Darren Yafai summarized his team’s mid-summer form.
“I would just say all our running backs and the offensive line looked good and our quarterbacks are improving,” Yafai said at last week’s Competitive Edge training camp in Morgan Hill.
The three-day camp, which took place at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex, pitted the ‘Stangs against eight other teams, including several San Jose programs, Sobrato High and Oak Grove High, which ended Gilroy’s season with a 25-20 victory in the Central Coast Section semifinals last December. The six-hour daily sessions included drill work and 7-on-7 scrimmages.
Yafai said while the starting quarterback position is still wide open, the three-man race for it may have been reduced to two. Seniors Nick Tovar and Chris Velasco are still in the running, but an injury might keep Matt Hemeon on the sidelines for his junior year. Yafai would not disclose Hemeon’s injury.
While the coach called his offense “ahead of the game,” the defense, Yafai said, was not. “The defense right now needs a lot of work. It needs to become more aggressive physically … I saw once we got into scrimmaging, defensive technique went out the window in certain cases.”
The head coach found it odd that the Mustang offense was ahead of the defense in terms of progress. Gilroy lost five defensive starters from last season, but returns six.
“(The defense) definitely should be farther along, but that’s what camps are for, to improve individuals and improve as a team.”
Fortunately for Gilroy, it has another camp to attend that will specifically address its defensive needs – on July 18-20, GHS is the host site for the Championship Defense Camp.
“Hopefully, that will be a lesson for us,” Yafai said.
The Mustangs officially kick off the season in a little over a month when they begin double-day practices on Aug. 11. Their first scrimmage is Aug. 27 against Hollister and Serra. Gilroy’s season-opener is at Burlingame on Sept. 3.
