TOKAY FOOTBALL WORKING ON TEAM BOND
Members of the Tokay High football team have already learned a valuable lesson during their summer workouts: It’s OK not to have their smartphones on them almost 24 hours a day.
In recent weeks, the Tigers have been busy in working toward their mantra of “trust the process.” Last week, Tokay made a trip to Nevada to compete at the Lake Tahoe Football Camp. That gave quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends and wide receivers to showcase their strengths and skills against linebackers, defensive backs and safeties.
This was the third 7-on-7 passing tournament this month for the Tigers. Earlier this month, Tokay competed at the Stagg Brown and Gold, plus the firstever Edison High tournaments.
While Tokay skilled players were busy with 7-on-7 passing games at the Lake Tahoe Tournament, the linemen competed in the Trench Wars tournament. That featured events such as an obstacle course, sled push, 40-yard dash relay, tire flip replay and the popular tug-of-war.
The tournament in the mountains also provided fun for the Tigers and the seven high schools attending. Each squad were split into small groups for competitions that included a talent show
and eating contest.
“Camp allows us the ability to get away and focus on our team for four days and three nights,” said Tokay coach Michael Holst.
Most of today’s teenagers have smartphones to use to call, text and post on various social media websites. But that wasn’t the case for the Tigers at the camp.
“We only allow cell phone use for a limited time during the trip,” Holst said. “We collect them after arriving and give them back one time for a limited amount of time until we check out of camp. While football is a major focus and we get a lot of reps, we are able to build the culture of our program while we are at camp through various activities.”
Tokay has endured back-toback 4-6 seasons. If the wins and losses were reversed, the Tigers, in all likelihood, would’ve earned a SacJoaquin Section playoff berth. But they are focused on moving forward, not looking
in the rear view mirror.
“Our emphasis is always on the process, controlling what we can control and improving on a daily basis,” Holst said. “We have installed our base offense and defense and continued our athletic development program in the weight room and on the field. We hammer fundamentals during the spring and summer, and feel we have executed the plan well up to this point. The players have responded with hard work and attention to detail.”
The details to the running the Tigers’ offense, which is the spread pistol formation, and defense that is the 4-2-5 base, is critical for the upcoming season.
“We’ve improved in understanding our base offense and defense,” Holst said. “Our execution level needs to continue to improve, but we’re running plays on offense more effectively. Our running game should be a strength for us.”
At the camps and workouts, Holst and his assistant coaches have been pleased with the efforts and growth from some of the players. That includes seniors in running back/tight end/linebacker Nathan Branco, lineman Dillon Schmidt and wide receiver/strong safety Ricardo Villalobos.
“These three were all named to the all-camp team in South Lake Tahoe,” said Holst of the trio. “Branco continues to grow as a player and showed his skillset catching the ball as a tight end at camp. Schmidt has been a great leader for us this summer and at camp and he played very effectively on defense during 11on-11 drills.”
Villalobos is a transfer from Sierra. He was at Tokay last year, but did not play football. Holst notes that Villalobos continues to learn our schemes on both sides of the ball and has done a tremendous job competing and focusing on improving every day.
Another Tiger making strides is junior lineman Ian Lerner, who Holst feels will be a tremendous asset for the team this season. One sophomore who has made the move to varsity is wide receiver/free safety Joseph Filippini.
“He is an intelligent and hard-working kid who will continue to develop as a player,” said Holst of Lemer. “We want our players to believe that if they attend every day and give their best effort, we will produce winning results.”
Holst added, “We need to continue to focus and prepare, but we’re light years ahead of where we were as a team in the beginning of summer.”
The Sac-Joaquin Section’s dead period starts sooner this summer this year than in years past — this Sunday. That is because last year, the California Interscholastic Federation approved a measure to allow sections to start the high school football season one week earlier if they wished. Conditioning week for high school football teams begins Monday, July 23.
But from next Monday until Saturday, July, 21, high school football teams can only hold voluntary weight lifting and conditioning drills without the use of footballs and equipment such as shoulder pads and helmets. Holst has given players on all three levels — varsity, frosh-soph and freshmen — all of this week off until the day after the Fourth of July.