Bruin Football is ready to tear up the heavy competition of the 2019 season.
This year Bruins will be facing many other competitive teams during their league games. This will include five playoff teams, three of whom were state finalists.
“Our schedule is going to be tough, but that’s going to be good for us,” said Senior Quarter Back Tre Maronic. “I’m excited about playing some good teams and getting to compete with teams like Colfax and Center.”
Varsity Football Coach Scott Savoie agreed that it will definitely be a fighting year during the league games.
“I am excited about the 2019 football schedule,” said Coach Savoie. “As usual, PVL (Pioneer Valley League) play will be a battle every single Friday night.”
Junior Running Back Jacob Ayestaran said that he shared Coach Savoie’s excitement.
“I’m very happy with this season’s schedule,” said Ayestaran. “I feel like we have games with our main rivals spaced out, so it will keep the season exciting and interesting.”
Others said that they are more worried about specific opponents.
“The only thing I am worried about is our in-league game against Center,” said Senior Running Back Colton Jenkins.
The players said that they believe preseason will be a good warm-up for the season, facing even more competitive teams.
“This season’s schedule is very good for our preseason games,” said Jenkins. “We are playing some very competitive teams.”
“We have some great competition to deal with, starting with Truckee High School, who is constantly in the running for a Nevada State Championship,” said Coach Savoie.
This year’s team consists of only 24 players, which brings up the concern of losing players to grades and injuries with such a rough year.
“The only thing I’m worried about is losing players to grades and injuries due to the fact that we have a smaller team,” said Ayestaran.
Coach Savoie agreed with Ayestaran.
“As with any year, I’m most concerned with injury and not being able to play with a ‘full deck’,” said Coach Savoie. “Being that we have a small squad, (24 players) our success is dependent on keeping our guys healthy, and when someone does become injured, we need their back up to step up and get the job done. Last season with 22 players, we were able to accomplish this. We never lost a player for an entire game, and we played 13 games.”
Bruin players had some other concerns for this season as well.
“After our scrimmage with NU today (Saturday August 17), our defense was great but we were slacking on offense, so I’m a little worried about that, but with enough work anything is possible,” said Junior Defensive End Gaurd Warren Davis.
Players said that they are excited to have a majority of the games played at home.
“Well, this season’s schedule is mostly home, so it’ll super great to have basically the entire school there for most of our games,” said Davis.
Players also said that they are enjoying the team’s family atmosphere.
“I’m pretty excited about being a Team Captain as a junior, I love my team like a family, and the fact that they love me back and respect me is a great feeling,” said Davis.
Coach Savoie expressed his excitement in general for this season and this year’s team.
“I’m always excited for a new season to start,” he said.“We have been building for this season since last January and we are ready to go. A new challenge is always exciting and I can’t wait to see how the Bruins react to it. I hope [this season] doesn’t differ very much— last year was a great year. We have a great group of guys that are fun to coach.”
