SUNDEVILS FULL OF HOPE
Returning coach Miguel Medina has confidence in his offense
For Española Valley coach Miguel Medina, it’s Round II with the Sundevils.
And for the Sundevils, well, it’s time to rebuild what fell apart after Medina’s previous tenure ended.
It was 2015 when Medina led senior-laden Española to the best season in school history before leaving because of upheaval in the school district’s administration.
With those issues settled for the time being, Medina has returned and is ready to push the Sundevils back up the charts of respectability.
“We have a great bunch of kids,” he said. “We don’t have much senior depth, eight seniors in total. But the junior class is pretty big. The junior class has been together since YAFL.”
And it’s a group with which he is familiar, as the juniors were 8th-graders when Medina was last here and rolled off an undefeated season.
“These kids know me and I’ve known them since they were young,” he said. “They know what’s expected of them.”
All in all, the situation is a whole lot better than when Medina first took over the program.
“It doesn’t look bad, it looks hopeful,” Medina said. “It’s not as bad as when I took it over in 2012, when I had eight kids. This time, we have more kids and they’re athletic, so that’s much better.”
What has Medina particularly encouraged is the offense.
“Right now … we have tons of skill positions; receivers, running backs, a decent quarterback that transferred in,” he said.
Under center will be Makaio Frazier (6 feet, 190 pounds, Sr., QB), who played at La Cueva as a freshman and a sophomore before taking last year off as he was home schooled.
“He’s pretty polished,” the coach said. “He came in the summer and the kids accepted him. He’s been a welcome addition. We didn’t have a quarterback. I was contemplating the single wing. We have some younger kids, but they’re freshmen, so it’s been a blessing not having to start from scratch having to teach kids how to play.”
José Perez (5-10, 170, Jr., RB) is returning in the backfield, along with Gabe Quintana (5-11, 195, Jr., RB).
Perez “is one of those kids that ran track when I was here because I sort of became the track coach by default,” Medina said.
Quintana has decent speed, but is powerful and will share the load
with Perez.
“We have some pretty decent speed, talent,” Medina said. “With this kid (Frazier) at quarterback, we should be able to throw the ball.”
Blocking could be an issue, but Medina is cautiously optimistic the line will come together
“Across the lines, we’re decent, but we’re thin,” he said. “We have a couple of seniors and the rest are juniors. They’re strong and they average about 200 pounds but, after that … then we have a bunch of young kids.”
If the lineman can get the reads down, it should work out well.
“The offense I run, it’s built for smaller lineman,” Medina said. “We use a lot of deception, angle blocks, down blocks, a lot of leverage. We try to get guys who can move. I like kids who are quick. Sturdy kids who are strong and can move.”
On the other side of the ball, the defense also will rely on speed and quickness, with Kebin Marquez (5-9, 130, Jr., DB/ WR) expected top carry a big load as a defensive back.
“We react well to the ball,” he said. “Most of the teams we see are runoriented. One of the things we need to work on is mixing up our coverages, but we’ll try to keep it simple. Simple rules, not too many blitzes, read and react.”
With the move down to 4A, Medina said he’s hopeful the Sundevils will be a handful quickly.
“The thing about this group of kids, they were used to winning at a young age,” he said. “Unfortunately, when I left, they haven’t seen many victories since, but they have that attitude where they hate losing.”