Two young schools with little football success in their history and little if any ties to youth football net for the second time in their history. First-year head coaches Ty Preyer (Sierra Linda) and Josh SeKoch (Youngker) are trying to build these programs for long term success and with Youngker 4-3 and Sierra Linda 3-4 there was the sense that the two 4A teams were evenly matched.
Oct. 28: Youngker 7, Sierra Linda 6
THE STAKES
Neither team is really in the hunt for a playoff berth or the 4A Southwest Region title (Thunderbird is in the driver’s seat there). This game was about building and belief. SeKoch spent 2021 as an assistant at Peoria after nine years as the Valley Vista head coach. He took over the program from Tony Cluff, who produced the Roughriders’ only winning record – 7-4 in 2017. But it was hard for Youngker to gain momentum and the team was 2-8 last year. Sierra Linda’s story is almost the opposite. No Bulldogs varsity team had even won more than four games UNTIL last season. But that team lost coach Nate Gill and 700-yard receiver Traven Vigenser to Desert Vista, plus a 1,200-yard rusher, 2,100-yard quarterback and three of its four top tacklers to graduation. Preyer inherited megastar receiver Stephon Daily and a ton of youth. He’s now stating a freshman quarterback.
THE SCENE
This was Youngker’s Homecoming game and final home game of the season. So there was a buzz at this growing far West Valley school. The game was scoreless until the final 10 seconds of the third quarter so fans of both teams had a “what now” vibe. But things opened up a bit in the final 13 minutes of play. And the Roughriders had reason to celebrate their first Homecoming win in quite a while and the second time in 14 seasons of varsity play that the team has won five or more games.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Youngker junior running back Jantzen Ginger has been splitting carries with senior Sammy Agbeshi most of the season. On this night, Ginger earned a larger workload, finishing with 20 carries for 126 yards. He broke the scoreless deadlock with nine seconds left in the third quarter with a 19-yard touchdown run. Then SeKoch called on him to ice the game after Sierra Linda’s two-point conversion attempt. Ginger ran eight straight times for 50 yards to put the Roughriders in position to kneel down and celebrate the win.
“He played defense last year, as a linebacker. We thought it would be a two-back look, and that it would be more Sammy. It’s been about 50-50 carries up to this point. They’re completely different and both guys have done a great job,” SeKoch said. “Jantzen just had the hot hand and we went with it.”
PLAY OF THE NIGHT
Colorado State-bound Daily was double covered on nearly every snap, as usual. Entering the fourth quarter he had three catches for 22 yards. The Bulldogs started the fourth quarter with the ball down 7-0 and were determined to change that, regardless of the coverage. He caught two passes for 27 yards, then it was fourth and 29. Youngker knew where the ball was going and couldn’t stop it. The safety help arrived late and Daily high pointed freshman Camar Lee’s frozen rope and took a step into the end zone for the touchdown. The duo was not able to connect again on the two-point conversion, just running out of room.
“Yesterday our holder hurt his wrist and couldn’t catch a football. We tried a different bunch of holders and we felt like they best opportunity we had was when #7 was on the field,” Preyer said.
THEY SAID IT
SeKoch: “I don’t think we’ve won Homecoming in a long time. Really, it’s just about the process and there hasn’t been success. So I think in the past – not saying that about any other staff – maybe kids would have stopped competing when chips got down. And we don’t do that. I’m going to keep being a wild man on the sidelines, even though I’m getting old now. The difference is we have a lot of confidence. These kids want to compete. They don’t come here and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to lose.’ That’s not their mindset. And their mindset has been to get better each week.”
“Now we won a game 7-6. It was great. We practice situations where we have to run out the clock. We struggled to not go super fast,” SeKoch said. “I’m excited for the kids. Sierra Linda came out tonight to give us their best. And there’s all the distractions that came with Homecoming for some of the guys, not all of them. I think it’s been a good transition for these guys.”
“The school’s bursting at the seams with all these new houses out here. The kids that have been here wanted to win. Our summer attendance was great and we did 7-on-7 for the first time. We had great attendance in the weight room,” SeKoch said. “We’re going to get our football class opened in the spring, hopefully, so we can catch up. The facilities are great. The guys that stuck it out and wanted to be part of it have done a really good job of figuring it out.”
Junior quarterback Jacob Lira: “I started hitting all my short passes to Caleb and getting the ball out quicker. That also opened up the run game. The backers were playing back, which opened up the run game and got Jantzen the score,” Lira said.
“It feels good. Last year we only won two games. It’s a lot different. The culture is different and as a team we can feel it,” Lira said. “On campus it feels different. It feels good, people look at us and talk about us winning games.”
Preyer: “I told the kids it’s all about words and actions. I can talk until I’m blue in the face. Every time I have a conversation with these kids, now I’ve got to go and show it, in practice, every day in the classroom when I’m checking on them making sure they’re in class,” Preyer said. “I’m willing to do work with them, whether it be running gassers with them. These kids have done a good job, especially recently, of responding to that.”
“Every time (Stephon) comes out here he sees a corner, a safety playing over top, a backer playing him inside. We’re making sure we can open up the field,” Preyer said. “These kids … I don’t think they realize how great they are yet. I tell them that all the time. Stephon did some great things. My freshman quarterback, Camar Lee, is taking to coaching. These kids worked, and they implemented it. Now they did the talking and took control of that. We had a mental block when it came to scoring. We’d be able to put up yards every week but we weren’t able to put the ball in the end zone.”
“They ran inside zone and our defensive end came out and put his arm around him and strip the ball. All you saw is the running back going backwards with his hands up in the error, and our linebackers were running the other way with the ball. The ref said he lost the line and he didn’t see it so he thought forward progress was stopped,” Preyer said. “All I can say is they’re out here doing the best they can. All I can do is commend those officials because they go hard every single day. One play doesn’t win or lose a game.”
5 THINGS I LEARNED
· These schools many of the structural advantages of other schools built in the late 2000s – like Liberty, Williams Field and even Shadow Ridge. Building football programs here, even a little more than 10 years in, will take time. Sierra Linda did not play in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread in the Tolleson district, then went 8-2 last year with a senior-heavy team. This season is the most winning any Youngker player has experienced. Both new coaches bring enthusiasm, though in different ways, to the effort of trying to establish a program culture.
· Youngker has a bit more in place to take the next steps. Both schools have grown to the point where they are 5A by enrollment. But the west Buckeye campus is bursting at the seams. Its enrollment was 2,025 last year, compared to Sierra Linda’s 1887. SeKoch said that number is considerable higher this year. And both lower level programs are benefitting from the new coaching staff and larger numbers. Plus four sophomores start on the varsity offensive line.
· The Roughriders’ defense won this one. Sierra Linda started its first possession at the Youngker 22 after a bad snap and fumble. But the defense forced a three-yard loss on fourth and goal at the 1. The Bulldogs then drove into the red zone in the second quarter, aided by a pass interference call on Daily. But the Youngker junior Demias Pablo forced a fumble at the 2 and junior Isaac Tapia recovered it in the end zone.
· Other than the superlative Daily, almost all of Sierra Linda’s top players are SO young. Leading rusher Malek Bowen (16 carries for 96 yards) is a senior. Not only is Lee a freshman, he will not turn 14 until after the season ends. Stephon's younger brother Seth is a sophomore. And defensive standouts Lennox Hicks (junior), Akhir Harris (sophomore), Kaisean McClure (junior), Deshaun Smith (junior) and Talan Viner (sophomore) should all be returning.
· It was difficult to spot from my vantage point, but the Sierra Linda contingent was up in arms about the non-fumble late in the third quarter, right before Ginger's touchdown run. Bulldogs senior Abraham Gomez emerged from a scrum with the ball and ran into the end zone just in case. But the play was blown dead for lack of forward progress. I didn't have a good angle on it and really can't add to the debate.