NEW LODI COACH MEETS TEAM
New Lodi High football head coach George Duenas wants returning players to be thinking about this Friday and Saturday.
But inside the school’s weight room on Monday afternoon, the 2006 Lodi High graduate told approximately 100 seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen two things he will not tolerate.
On May 30, Duenas was named the new coach. He takes over for Robert Sperling, who resigned due to health reasons in April after five season. Duenas will be teaching physical educational classes at the campus when the 2018-19 school year starts toward the end of July.
To start Monday’s meeting, Duenas told football players about his pet peeves. One is a player who wears a hat turned backwards. Players inside the weight room who had their hats turned backwards quickly turned their hats where the bill is in front of their head.
The second is being lazy. Duenas said that he and his coaches will not put up with players who are not willing to pull their weight in the weight room and practices.
“With lazy, you can’t do anything with that,” Duenas told the players. “You can’t win with it, you can’t work with it, you can’t build it. You can’t do anything with lazy.”
Then Duenas talked about his playing days at Lodi High. In the Fall of 2005, Duenas and Lodi football captured the San Joaquin Athletic Association title. The Flames had not won a league title in more than five years prior.
“My senior year was an important year for Lodi football,” Duenas told players inside the weight room.
The Flames won their first round Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoff game against Golden Valley of Merced before falling to St. Mary’s in overtime in the second round. Lodi finished with an 8-4 record.
Duenas continued his football playing days, as he received a scholarship for Minot State University in Minot, N.D. He would earn his bachelor’s degree in physical education. He also holds a master’s degree in education and teaching credentials.
Duenas continued to tell the Flames’ players that in order to be ready for this season, goals and a vision need to be established.
“You can’t go anywhere with a vision,” Duenas said. “Us, as coaches, have the power to help you guys succeed this season.”
Duenas noted that the goals and vision will be further elaborated on Friday. That’s when Lodi will hold its annual Bigger, Faster, Stronger competition inside the school’s weight room. On Saturday, the players will take part in a combine-style competition.
“We will be testing them on 40-yard dash, shuttle run,” said Duenas of some of the drills that are scheduled to take place on Saturday.
Duenas explained to the players that they had better to be ready to go to work starting today. That’s when weight training begins throughout the summer into preparing for the upcoming season. High school football teams in the
section can officially begin practices on Monday, July 23.
“We are here to work,” Duenas told the players. “I want you guys to be successful. Attitude and effort . ... We all come from different walks of life. Football, this program, has always been my perfect family. This is a perfect family. We are here, we’re dedicated to each other. The effort you put out here is perfect.”
Duenas continued, “Our time together is short. We have four days a week for four weeks, dead period, (the section has its dead period in which schools can only conduct weight lifting) and then the football season. When I said ‘commit’ ... you come out and put your effort in, get your work done. Do what I do: Come to work and believe.”
After a group huddle at the middle of the weight room in which they said “Flames”, Duenas, assistant coaches and players went outside of the room. Then the players took part in various drills that varsity assistant coach Greg Bishop conducted. That included the dot drill, which warms-up muscles and increases agility that leads to quickness.
On the south end of The Inferno, the school’s gym that opened toward the end of the 2000s, players also competed in high-knee drills with boxes painted on the pavement. Another drill performed was a hopscotch drill. Before returning to the weight room, the players took part in running drills on the south end of the weight room.
This and upcoming weeks, Duenas said that he and assistant coaches will be installing the Flames’ new base offense, which will be a “high-tempo” pistol. On defense, Lodi plans to run a 3-4 base.
Some of the Flames’ upcoming activities include taking part in a passing camp at Delta College on Friday, June 23.
Lodi will kick-off its season at Ceres in a non-league game on Friday, Aug. 24.