No sleep for the Panthers

Monday ushers in new season of football

As Sunday barely rolled into Monday, Porterville High School’s varsity football program once again kicked off the start of the season with a midnight practice under second-year head coach Michael Machado.

All across the Valley, football teams began their first day of practice on Monday but Porterville was the only local team to start as soon as the clock struck midnight.

The idea of midnight practices are not to get out of practicing under the hot, summer sun, but instead to develop a mindset of working while your opponents are sleeping. It’s something Machado mentioned repeatedly to the players at last year’s first midnight practice but didn’t need to mention much this year since many players already understood the motive of the early practice.

“It’s different, it’s still hot,” PHS senior Demario Ennis said. “I thought it’d be a little cooler but it’s still pretty hot. But while everybody else is sleeping we’re out here working. So I’m loving it.”

Ennis was Porterville’s leading rusher last season with 533 yards on 91 carries and looks to once again be key for the Panthers.

“It feels great, I feel like as a running back you set an example for the rest of your team and you really got to push yourself so everybody else can follow,” Ennis said. On pushing himself and his teammates, Ennis said, “Imma to do extra reps even when coach says go hard, I’m going to go a little extra hard and push everyone else along the way.”

Porterville went 4-6 last season and missed the playoffs by just one game thanks to their East Yosemite League cross-town rivals, Monache. The Marauders defeated the Panthers 35-9 in the Granite Bowl to end EYL and Porterville’s season.

“The goal is always the same — first team on, last team off,” Machado said. “We never go into the season not wanting to win a championship so that’s obviously [it]. The goal is to win every game one week at a time and then see where the cards fall. Last year, obviously we slid into the finish. All we had to do was win one of the last two games to get

into the playoffs and so that was a little bit of a disappointment. So we have that in mind, knowing that every week is massive because it can be one game either way at any part of your schedule that can push you over the top and get you into the playoffs or not.”

MONACHE

Across the city, Monache hit the field later in the day for an evening practice that had players ready to get the season started. But even with the excitement of a new year, the realization that this could be their last season on the field was bittersweet for some seniors.

“Coming into this final first day of practice it’s kind of bittersweet,” senior defensive tackle, Moses Caraveo said. “Just because I’ve been playing since I was in second grade. You know I kind of worked up my whole life for this moment and just to think about after this year it’ll be all gone, it’s bittersweet but I’m trying to come out and enjoy as much as I can.”

Like Porterville, Monache also returns a second-year head coach in Chris Frankland. Last season Frankland led Monache to a 4-7 overall season that included a trip to the CIF Central Section Division IV playoffs.

The Marauders graduated a number of significant players including wide receivers Marlon Johnson and Montrece Fields, linebacker Ethan Mccombie and lineman Austin Habich. They’ll have a number of holes to fill but Frankland’s confident players will step up and help the team.

“I think coaches get in trouble when they use the word ‘replace’’, Frankland said. “We’re a new team, this is a new group of kids. I’m excited about a lot of our underclassmen who are going to be juniors, and sophomores. Watching them develop, watching them grow. And so I think we’ll be different. I think every coach will be a little bit different because they’ve got different talent, trying to find different ways to get those playmakers the ball.”

STRATHMORE

Keeping their usual late afternoon practice of 4 p.m., the defending CIF State Division 6-AA Strathmore Spartans started their season with group drills and an “extreme team bonding” period at the end that included a lot of lunges, a lot of sit-ups and a lot of other “fun” exercises for the combined varsity and junior varsity squads.

“Feels good to finally be able to do something,” returning junior Cristian Rodriguez said. “Instead of spending the whole summer working out, we get to actually be with our friends doing the drills.”

Rumored to be the team’s starting quarterback this season, Rodriguez led his teammates through drills by going full speed and gathering everyone together for breaks. Becoming the team’s starting quarterback is something Rodriguez said he is looking forward too.

“It means that if I’m [looked at] to start, it means they actually see something in me so it’s going to push me to do more but I have more responsibility to do with the team,” Rodriguez said. “I can’t always be slacking, be messing around. I’ve got to be the leader to push them and make sure everything is on task.”

Like all teams across the Valley, Strathmore graduated several players but stand out more so for graduating nearly their entire offensive line — an offensive line that led them to a 16-0 perfect season. Robert Garza, the offensive line coach, however said he looks forward to seeing what the incoming group of players can do this season for the team.

“It’s exciting to see what we can do with some of these young guys that are coming out,” Garza said. “Having been around all those kids for practically 10 years, now the seniors are the last ones of that group. So now you got a lot of young players that are hungry, trying to prove themselves. So we’ll see what we can do with them. “