Le Grand looks to start a new streak

To hear the talk, it’s easy to forget the Le Grand High School football team had a pretty good 2014.

Despite a coaching change, graduating the most successful senior class in school history and losing one of its remaining stars to grades late in the season, the Bulldogs still won a share of a sixth consecutive Southern League title and earned an eighth straight trip to the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

But a regular-season finale loss to rival Mariposa and a first-round playoff exit at Hughson are what’s lingered most in the minds of many fans. So is the standard coach Raul Alvarez and his staff have helped set. The playoff loss snapped a streak of five section final appearances and four Division V titles.

“The city of Le Grand has always been supportive of the team, no matter what,” junior running back Carlos Iniguez said. “But people expect us to make a playoff run every year. It’s a good thing. Yes, there’s some pressure with that, but who wouldn’t want to play for a school where that’s the culture?”

Things won’t get any easier for the Bulldogs anytime soon. The section’s reformatting of the top six divisions based on size matched it with a Hughson side almost doubled their enrollment. The Huskies were bigger and faster and thrashed Le Grand 41-0.

Alvarez said it’s a new reality the team needs to embrace.

“We can’t look at it as a bad thing,” Alvarez said. “We know we’re always going to be one of the smallest schools in the division. We just need to see it for the challenge that it is and adapt to it.

“Last season’s situation was kind of unique, because not only did we have the coaching change, but we also briefly had the co-head coach scenario. Even the coaches that we had remain were all taking on new positions, so there was a lot of upheaval. This year, nothing will be foreign to the kids, so I think being able to just concentrate on football will be an advantage.”

He’ll attempt to do that with a new generation of players. The Bulldogs return six starters on both sides of the ball but have only two holdovers from the 2013 championship team.

The offense will be led by Iniguez, who eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards as a sophomore last season. Junior Villagomez and Maurisio Ramirez are back to anchor the offensive line he’ll run behind. Knowing defenses will begin to key on him in his second season, Iniguez said he dedicated the offseason to getting bigger and faster.

“I’m hoping to do better than I did last season,” Iniguez said. “Last year, I think I kind of snuck up on people, but this year I know defenses will be looking to shut me down. I’m going to go as the offensive line, but we’ve got a lot of guys back there and I definitely think I can get more touches, more yards and more touchdowns.”

One thing that should help free space for Iniguez will be the development of sophomore quarterback Beto Marquez. Many around the program think he has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks Le Grand has ever seen. Marquez has an unproven receiving corps to develop with, but new tight end Natthan Sherriff (6-foot-4, 230 pounds) should provide a nice safety net across the middle.

The defense will once again be a strength with a good front seven. Junior Travis Johnson (70 tackles) and senior Jesus Garcia (48) will lead the linebacker corps while Sherriff and Ramirez wreak havoc on the defensive line.

“We’re going to do what we always do,” Alvarez said. “We’re going to pound the ball on the ground on offense and hit you in the mouth on defense. The goal as usual is to win league, and then we’ll see where we’re at after that.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 9:49 PM with the headline "Le Grand looks to start a new streak."