Nevarez powers Del Sol offense

Del Sol quarterback Andre Nevarez dropped back to pass Tuesday and, from his end zone, lofted a ball 55 yards while Dragons coach Mike Valenzuela watched in approval.

For the record, that’s 10 yards farther than he could throw last season.

And Valenzuela is taking advantage of that new and improved arm strength.

Nevarez is in the midst of a breakout campaign for the Dragons, who altered their schemes to befit the skills of their 5-foot-11-inch, 170-pound senior quarterback. He leads the Las Vegas Valley with 1,555 passing yards and 14 touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Del Sol is 4-2 and equipped with one of Class 3A’s most potent offenses.

“We anticipated big numbers,” Valenzuela said. “He’s made the growth that we expected out of him.”

Nevarez is unfazed by his success, though, and focuses on the proverbial next play, or game. He says he rarely monitors his individual statistics, instead deferring credit to his backs and receivers — many of whom are also enjoying stellar seasons.

Running back Trey Alexander is averaging more than 100 rushing yards and has eight touchdowns. Senior Markell Turner leads Southern Nevada in receiving yards (597) and touchdowns with six, and Maalik Flowers is thriving as a receiver with 391 yards and four TDS.

“He’s airing it out, and we’re going to get it,” Flowers said. “We’ve been doing that since the very beginning.”

Well, since the beginning of Valenzuela’s tenure, anyway.

Nevarez attends Tech, which doesn’t offer football. He lives in Del Sol’s zone and quarterbacked the freshman and junior varsity teams in 2015 and 2016. But the Dragons ran a double wing offense under the old regime and rarely threw downfield, stagnating Nevarez’s evolution as a traditional pocket passer.

Valenzuela took over last season and installed more modern offensive schemes that better suited Del Sol’s personnel. Nevarez beat out the incumbent starting quarterback, Flowers, and threw for 1,090 yards and 16 touchdowns, inspiring the coaching to spend the offseason accelerating his development.

“We invested a lot of time and money toward 7-on-7 and improving our passing game,” Valenzuela said. “It’s hard to sell anybody outside of the home that we were going to be this type of explosive, chuck-itaround-the-yard (team).”

But that’s exactly what the Dragons are.

Nevarez won’t hesitate to throw downfield anymore and has nine interceptions as a result. But Valenzuela doesn’t deviate from his approach, and neither does his quarterback.

Be aggressive. Stay aggressive. All the time.

“I wanted to have a good year, and I’m having a good year, luckily,” Nevarez said. “It’s fun, getting all the pride from people and excitement from people for doing stuff.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Bysamgordon on Twitter.