Gilroy’s Jr. Pee Wee Browns have years to go until they reach
the high school level, but this past weekend the Pop Warner
football team took part in its own version of the Prune Bowl.
Gilroy’s Jr. Pee Wee Browns have years to go until they reach the high school level, but this past weekend the Pop Warner football team took part in its own version of the Prune Bowl.
Playing against the Hollister Vikings Sunday morning, Gilroy found itself on the tough end of the stick though, falling 32-6 in the Peninsula Conference Championship.
With the win, the Vikings advance to the Pacific Northwest Regional Championships, which includes Pop Warner teams from Northern California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Alaska.
The Browns finished the year with a 9-3 record, surpassing many of the coaches’ expectations.
“We had an awesome season, it was great,” Gilroy Head Coach Phil Williams said. “To make it to the championship game is tough enough.
“We have one goal, and that’s to learn how to play the game of football and have fun while doing it,” Williams added. “Putting any other pressure on [players] would be unrealistic because they’re 9-, 10- and 11-year-old kids.”
Being small in stature doesn’t necessarily mean the Browns couldn’t pack a punch though.
Entering the playoffs with a 7-2 record and a No. 3 seed, Gilroy advanced to the championship game by defeating No. 6 seed Campbell 40-20 in the first round and Tri-Cities 28-7 in the semifinals.
Assistant Coach Joseph McMurray said the team had improved by a clear measure through the hard work put in by the players.
“We were runner-up in the championship, which is no easy task,” he said. “We were so proud of the kids that blossomed over the year. The 3 1/2 months of playing football, hard work, determination – they didn’t give up.”
Running backs Brandon Boyd and Kenyon Williams carried much of the workload on offense out of out of the Wing-T set, with quarterback Kenny Diptko directing traffic.
“I think we had the best two running backs in the league,” Coach Williams said.
On defense, the Browns were led by defensive lineman David Montes and hard-hitting middle linebacker Nicholas McMurray.
In the coming years “you got to watch out for Brandon, Kenyon, Kenny and Niko,” Coach Williams said. Those guys “just make it easy to coach. It’s almost like cheating.”
Any more talk like that and we might have to start calling them the Gilroy Patriots.
