Prep football returns to county
SALINAS >> The traditional sounds of spring sports were missing, replaced by an eerie feeling of fall. No bats slapping balls or hurdles being clipped. Instead, football was back after a 15-month hiatus Friday.
The pandemic wiped out this past year’s entire season. As odd as it was seeing players in pads and helmets during March madness, the game was back on the turf Friday at Palma.
“Personally I didn’t think we would ever see this day,” Palma linebacker Guy Bessey said. “Even when they told us, I just felt something would ruin it. Now that we’re here, it feels surreal.”
Granted, it was just a scrimmage between longtime rivals San Benito and Palma. But it packed a punch for 85 minutes.
The season will be brief — six weeks. Roadblocks remain. Weekly testing for now and masks are part of the journey. But it’s a small price to get back on the football field.
“We treated it like it was our last game,” said Bessey, a senior. “We have to have that attitude. At any moment, someone could get COVID and we’re quarantined.”
There were COVID-19 precautions taken for Friday’s scrimmage. Palma players had been tested earlier in the week, the officials and coaches wore face coverings and fans weren’t allowed on the field (although a handful of fans could be seen peeking over nearby fences to watch). Yet, there was a slight sense of normalcy on the Palma field. It had the look, feel and even fragrance of football.
“It didn’t feel like a scrimmage at all,” Palma quarterback Luke Rossi said. “It felt like a big-time game. We came to compete. It even got a little chippy. Both teams went hard. It was a great environment.”
Anxiety aside, the juices were flowing as players got reacquainted with their gear. The pure joy of playing flowed through their veins and was evident in their faces, the occasional screams of excitement.
“The adrenaline was pumping,” Bessey said. “It brought back my desire, reminded me why I’ve played this game my entire life. I missed it a lot.”
It wasn’t just the players who felt that gratification of being back on the field. Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo looked like a coach in his first season rather than his 21st as the head coach.
“I have been coaching for 30-plus years,” Carnazzo said. “Never again will I take the sport for granted. I have never been as unprepared, and I’ve never been as excited for a shortened season.”
For the first time in Carnazzo’s two-plus decades as the head coach, there was no offseason, no summer workouts — only conditioning by social distance.
The year-long pandemic wiped out the entire fall season for all sports, some of which have come back for an abbreviated six-week season this spring.
“I always believed we would be back out here,” said Rossi, whose Chieftains will travel to Fresno on March 26 to face San Joaquin Memorial. “I tried to keep the guys positive. I never really lost hope. I’ve been throwing since January.”
Still, the rust was evident for both teams, particularly on the offensive side where neither team was able to get into a rhythm on their 10-minute possessions.
“We were a little shaky,” Rossi said. “That’s to be expected. We were pumped and nervous. It took time to get back into the swing of things. Once we calmed down, we put a string of plays together.”
Rossi’s first completion on the Chieftains second series seemed to ignite a flame offensively. Tailback Luke Alvarez found a few seams behind an offensive line, anchored by UCLA-bound Noah Pulealli.
In fact, Alvarez set up the team’s first touchdown when he bounced off a tackle and bolted an extra 16 yards to put Palma inside the 5-yard line.
“We’re flying by the seat of our pants,” Carnazzo said. “I don’t have the answers to a lot of people’s questions. But we’re going to be successful by improvising, adapting and overcoming obstacles in our path.”
Rossi began to find his rhythm with his receivers on the team’s second 10-minute series, connecting with Joey Finley on a 23-yard completion, and hitting J.T. Amaral for another 21 yards.
“Fifteen months is a long time to not be on the football field,” Rossi said. “It felt awesome. We just had a great time being out there and playing football again.”
For all the rough patches that were expected in preparing for a scrimmage less than two weeks after being given the green light, San Benito and Palma’s defense’s both sparkled, making plays.
“I thought we tackled well in that first series,” said Carnazzo, whose Chieftains will face San Benito in a game in four weeks. “We were physical. We haven’t had a lot of time to tackle. We did some good things. We have a lot of work in front of us. But we can build off this.”
Bessey and Finley both created havoc on defense, while pressure from Oki Hautau was applied to the ‘Balers quarterbacks, who brought out a shotgun offense.
“It’s just fundamental and technical things to iron out,” Bessey said. “We’re cramming a lot in two weeks. School is a drag online. Football allows you to get into a zone. This was one of the better feelings of the week.”