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Friday, Sep. 04, 2009

Buhach Colony's special forces group runs with confidence

ATWATER -- Thirty minutes north of Sonora, tucked high in the gold country, a training ground exists in the thick of the woods.

It's something of an oasis -- 160 acres of bootcamp adventure. A playground for the rough, rugged and daring.

This summer, a group of teen-aged boys descended on the camp with the want to push themselves. To be all they could be, if you will.

They zipped around on cords, scaled rock walls, balanced themselves on poles 35 feet in the air and navigated an aerial obstacle course with only rope, hard hats and courage.

Old Oak Ranch might be billed as a "refuge from everyday life," but for four days it was the proving ground for a Buhach Colony team looking to change its football stars.

"It was incredible," running back Dallon Muse said. "We're closer now because of it. We're all like brothers on the field."

The cornerstones of that group are juniors Muse, Jarrell Davis and Corey Chapman, the fleet-footed trio who will see a bulk of the carries in Kevin Swartwood's Fly offense.

Together, they form "The Unit" -- a Special Forces-type group, like the hit TV show, who specialize in:

seek-and-destroy;

breaking tackles;

breaking ankles;

being as fast as bullets;

being sneaky, shifty and simply hard to catch;

blowing up walls of linebackers and through goal-line stands;

and converting first downs -- on any down, in any situation.

Chapman is the platoon leader and every defense's top priority after emerging as one of the Valley's top sophomores a season ago.

The 5-foot-8, 160-pound back averaged 162 yards per game and nearly 10 yards per carry with his straight-ahead style.

Then ...

An injury forced him to miss the final six games of the season.

In stepped Davis, a junior varsity call-up. The gunner. Smaller and lighter than Chapman, Davis provided Buhach Colony's offense with wiggle and flair.

Muse, who began playing football as a freshman, is a balanced back who rushed for more than 2,000 yards at the lower levels.

"I'm very excited to have some kids that can run, obviously," Swartwood said. "The Fly is just a regular old offense with some motion and deception. The bottom line: If they fake as hard as they run, we'll be successful in moving the ball. That's the key to the whole thing.

"They're unproven, like the team, but I get the sense that they know anybody by themselves is not as good as the three of them together."

"The Unit," however, represents only a fraction of BC's promise and hope.

The junior class compiled an 18-2 mark at the lower levels, including a 10-0 run to a Central California Conference crown as freshmen.

Their task now is to match those results at the varsity level.

"We're going to put Buhach on the map," Davis said. "I feel like we're going to do something really special."

Swartwood loves the swagger -- because, for the first time in the school's history, it's genuine and real.

"There's a lot of confidence, and winning breeds that confidence," Swartwood said. "That group won as freshmen and sophomores.

"The confidence, the passion and the pride -- it's all good stuff. You can't teach that stuff. You can talk about it, but you can't teach it."

Special forces, indeed.

James Burns is sports editor of the Sun-Star. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.