Spring Ball comes to close at Apollo

WEEKLY BLOG: 5/18/19

On Friday night in Glendale, it was a time to celebrate the end of one season and the unofficial beginning of another.

The three-week period of spring football concluded on a spectacular and unseasonably cool (79 degree) evening for the Apollo Hawks with the guys in the trenches competing in a lineman challenge followed by a 7-on-7 game with players mixed between the two squads.

The efforts of the players that start with a hand on the ground are often overlooked and they can be anonymous to many fans, but they are one of the most integral parts of any football team. So today, we'll start with them as they took part in a Hog Challenge.

The linemen were split up into two teams with points awarded in five different events, all of which challenged one's strength and agility. The evening started in the school's weight room with players seeing how many reps they could bench with the 185-pound barbell. That was followed with a plate push, which included a U-turn back to the start, farmer's carry (with two 90-pound hand weights), an obstacle course, tire flip, and finally a tug of war.

The competition was fierce and it ultimately came down to the final tug of war (out of three) to determine the night's winners.

On the offensive line, Apollo will likely start two seniors and three sophomores. The seniors will be center Liam Bannon and tackle Jacob Lee.

"It's about competition and bringing everyone together after to be a family," Bannon said. "It's more exciting (than practice). It's fun."

Bannon said the most grueling event was the tire flip. While the tire was big, you just had to pull together everything you have and finish. Teammates supported one another to continue as the tire had to travel 15 yards before the next member of the relay could take their turn.

"We have a lot of young boys coming up that need to hear that encouragement," Lee said. "One of the biggest parts is the bond between each other. We have that, we'll be a strong line."

Lee, who is 6-5 and 335 pounds, has heard from San Diego, UTEP, Arizona Christian, and Northern Arizona during spring ball. This will be his second year on varsity for the Hawks.

New head coach Aaron Walls was promoted from his position as offensive line coach back in January. He has 12 years of experience coaching the O-Line both at Apollo (four years) and Cactus (10).

"It's always nice when you can bring back two kids," Walls said. "It does build confidence and when you have a kid that plays center, it's a nice thing."

On the defensive line, the Hawks return Raul Landeros, Abel Gashwazra, and Elias Guerrero. Each of them started every game for AHS last year. Landeros will be a senior while Gashwazra and Guerrero will be juniors.

The 7-on-7 game was played in two 20-minute halves. Teams started at the 50 and had three downs to reach the 30, three more downs to get to the 10, and four downs from inside the 10 to score. After touchdowns, teams could go for one (from the 3) or two (from the 7).

The two quarterbacks that shared time in the second half of last season, Donte Gordon and Brendan Penberthy, were put on opposite teams and took all the reps.

"Those two will compete all the way up to Week 1," Walls said of the two seniors. "They both have varsity experience."

On this night, Gordon had the better of it as he led the Blue team to a 28-14 win.

"They ran the right routes and it came easy," Gordon said. "I need to get more comfortable with my players and the coaches to just make sure everything comes together."

Gordon had to sit the first five games after transferring from Phoenix Christian. Penberthy, who is 6-foot-4, played in four games for the Hawks last year.

The identity of Apollo the past two years has been with the running game as Ali Mohamed had back-to-back 1,300-yard seasons and scored 40 touchdowns. He signed with Minot State this past February.

In the mix to replace Mohamed are Nico Rivas (who did not play in '18 due to a transfer) and Ramon Sarmiento, who will be a junior.

Wide receiver is a position Apollo is low in numbers at. That makes the competition for spots wide open come training camp. A pair of freshman from last season transferred out to Centennial and Camelback. One of the possibilities is Tyler Brown, who will be a junior and plays both receiver and cornerback.

One of the more impressive players in the game was tight end Jovany Gomez. The 6-4, 198-pounder, who will be a junior next season, created mismatches in the passing game while also showing some speed.

"I really liked what I saw out of our tight end," Walls said. "He's improved in his blocking and we're excited about him."

Last year, Apollo (3-7) allowed 38.5 points per game. Walls said the biggest difference thus far is that the team is playing assignment football. Last year, they struggled with getting lined up.

Jeremiah Voliva, who is 5-11 and 190 pounds, is getting ready for his senior year as the returning Mike linebacker.

"I've seen a lot of improvements," Voliva said. "We've totally switched up our entire defense with our new coaching staff."

This is Walls' first time being a varsity head coach. The excitement comes from getting to create a program with lessons learned from being on the staff of Larry Fetkenhier at Cactus.

"The biggest thing from me is the accountability piece," Walls said. "The small things take care of themselves once you take care of that."

The new coaching staff includes just one assistant that was worked with last year's Apollo team under Zack Threadgill. Walls feels good about the progress made in these three weeks.

"It's a brand new offense," Walls said. "It's a brand new defense. We wanted to get the base of our schemes down."

One of the new assistants is Amber Dirks. It's rare to see women on a high school football staff and Walls has never had one working with him in his 14 years. She came over to Apollo from North Canyon and will be the JV head coach while also helping out on Friday nights as the plan is to have the JV and the varsity practice together during the week.

"She is very organized and knew what she was talking about," Walls said of the interview process. "It seemed to be a good fit."

There were a couple of bumps in the road as kids that have played football their whole lives weren't used to having a woman instructing them on the field.

"You have to say, 'This is a coach'," Walls said. "It doesn't matter what the gender or race is. The individual needs to be respected."

Walls said the numbers are encouraging and there should be at least 55 on the varsity team. He didn't give a win total or postseason pronouncement when asked of the expectations for this year's Hawks.

"The expectation is to approach every game one game at a time," Walls said. "We want to see your effort for the entire game. We can live with some mistakes, but not bad effort."

This is the second year of the two-year block, so Apollo will have its same 10-game schedule as last year. That includes tough battles against Casteel, Notre Dame, Centennial, and Sunrise Mountain. That quartet outscored the Hawks, 220-64 last year.

So, if the goal is playoffs, the other games become vital. With the difficult schedule, 5-5 would put Apollo on the bubble (which is a little bigger this year with one or two likely moving on to the Open Tournament) and 6-4 would most likely put the Hawks in the playoffs.

Apollo opens at home on Aug. 23 against Desert Mountain. The other non-region games will be at Maricopa and Buena. In region play, the Hawks will face Ironwood and Kellis before finishing the season at Sunnyslope.

The team does not currently have any planned 7-on-7 tournaments or Big Man competitions scheduled for the upcoming month. They will have weekly 7-on-7 practices against other schools in the Glendale Union District. From July 14-17, Apollo will travel west to Carlsbad for summer football camp and another chance to bond as a team.