Exeter High Senior Allan Sanchez
Returning Defensive Strong Safety (Photo by Ron Holman)
Posted on August 23, 2010, by Damian Marquez, The Visalia Times-Delta Exeter High Looking For
Central Sequoia League and Valley Supremacy
There was one team standing in Exeter's way during the 2009 high school football season.
Exeter finished in second place in the Central Sequoia League behind Kingsburg, and was eliminated in the second round of the Central Section Division IV playoffs by Kingsburg.
If not for one of the most potent aerial attacks the Central Section has seen in recent years, it very easily could have been Exeter holding up the CSL and Division IV championship trophies instead of Kingsburg, which was led by Tennessee-bound quarterback Tyler Bray.
The Monarchs have the same lofty expectations heading into the 2010 season as they always do: They want to take back the Central Sequoia League title they shared in 2008, and they want a crack at a Central Section title.
Defense:
In order for the Monarchs to have a chance at reaching their goals, they are going to have to rely on a defense which features five returning starters.
Leading the defense, which is a base 4-3, is senior strong safety Allan Sanchez and senior linebacker Marcus Aguilar. Sanchez finished the season with 61 total tackles and three interceptions. Aguilar moves over to middle linebacker. He had 80 total tackles and two interceptions.
"He's real fast," White said about Aguilar. "He was our strongside linebacker last year and with [Jaycee] Totty gone he's moving to the middle. He was good last year and he'll be very good this year." Other returning starters include cornerback Alex Valencia, free safety Jacob Sertich and defensive end Joey Kunkel, who was a linebacker last season.
White is confident about what his defense will be able to do. "We don't have very many question marks on defense," White said. "We have a lot of experience there. We feel very good about what we do."
Offense:
There is no secret to what White wants to do on offense — run, run, run.
And he feels he has the group of running backs that will be able to move the ball effectively.
Sean Elium is the top returning rusher from last season, and A.J. Tobias, Jorge Garcia and Kunkel will also get a lot of carries. White said having four players he can give the ball too, makes his job a lot more exciting.
"It's going to be fun," he said. "We have [nine] new starters on offense so we don't have that one go-to guy. We'll have a lot of fun calling the plays because we have to spread the ball around."
Anchoring the running game is right tackle Miguel Perez, who is the Monarchs' only returning starter at his position. Mitchell Gosvenor started at tight end last season but will be playing guard this year. Exeter is also going to be breaking in a new quarterback and right now it is a very close race between juniors Zach Vernon and Chase Rolden. "We have some depth at the position," White said. "They're both good athletes. Nobody has the edge right now. We'll see what happens."
Overview:
The Monarchs should know how good they are going to be within the first three weeks of the season.
"We're a young team so hopefully we get out of the gates fast and win some games," White said. "We open up with Tehachapi so that will be a good test from the get-go."
Exeter plays non-league games against Woodlake, Taft and Yosemite which should make it battle-tested for what has proven to be a very tough league schedule.
Winning league is nice, but as always, Exeter's main goal is a Valley title, and that gets a little bit easier with Kingsburg moving up to Division III. There were a lot of changes as far as divisional placement goes in the offseason, but the Monarchs stayed put in Division IV. "Our league doesn't change so we'll worry about that first," White said. "We'll worry about the playoffs when we get there."
