Le Grand hoping to contend for another blue banner. ‘Everyone has big aspirations’
If you drove by Cesar Chavez Middle School in Planada on any summer evening there’s a good chance you’d see a group of kids tossing the football around.
Le Grand High School football coach Aaron Martinez lives near the middle school and saw them often. They were his players running routes and working out on their own.
“It started with our quarterback Julian (Bucio),” said junior Reyes Diaz. He would text us to ask if we wanted to run routes. We worked out a lot during the offseason on our own. We ran a lot of routes.”
Martinez has a group of players willing to put in the work. It’s a group that returns a lot of key contributors from last year’s team that won a Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII championship and is hungry to do it again.
The offense returns players like Bucio at quarterback, senior Louie Aguallo at running back, senior Carlos Castaneda and Diaz at receiver and four starters on the offensive line, including senior Fermin Villegas, who Martinez calls the best lineman in school history.
“Everyone has big aspirations, but our mantra this year is 1-0,” Martinez said. “We want to go 1-0 each week and take it one game at a time.”
“Our coaches are preaching we’ve got to go 1-0 each week,” Diaz said. “We have to win every week in practice, in the weight room and every thing we do leading up to the game. We have to think about right now and not think about the future.”
In Bucio the Bulldogs have a quarterback who has gained a lot of experience in a short time. Bucio was thrust into the starting quarterback role during the COVID-shortened spring season when Aaron Martinez injured his knee.
Bucio threw for 2,488 yards and 31 touchdowns last season
“All of a sudden with the COVID season he’s a quarterback with 17 games under his belt,” Martinez said. “He’s gone from a big-eyed kid to a quarterback who has gone through a playoff run and won a section championship. He’s had a great spring.”
Bucio has plenty of weapons in Aguallo, Castaneda and Diaz.
“I feel we can pick up where we left off last year,” Diaz said. “We return a lot of players. We have the same chemistry as players that we did last year.”
Here’s a look at the other Merced-area Southern League teams Gustine, Mariposa and Delhi, which all have new coaches this season.
Gustine
Collin Lane takes over as head coach of the Reds after coaching Delhi last season. Lane will bring with him the shotgun wing-t offense that he ran as a player under Mike Parsons at Modesto Christian High School.
Junior Zander Leyva returns at running back after running for 530 yards and a touchdown as a sophomore last season. Senior Gio Torress also returns at running back.
Key returns for the Reds also include senior Alejandro Lugo, sophomore Isaiah Prado, senior Alex Ramirez and senior Gilbert Sotelo.
Mariposa
Former Mariposa assistant coach Spencer Arebalo takes over after Robert Stitt retired last season.
The Grizzlies will have to turn to some new faces after losing many key contributors from last year’s team, including quarterback Wyatt Green, who started the past three seasons.
Senior Apollos Powell will be busy this year as running back, linebacker and kick returner for Mariposa. Powell rushed for 158 yards and two touchdowns last season.
Junior Leo Ghaleb will also be a key player for the Grizzlies after playing eight games as a sophomore last year.
Delhi
Rod McCombs returns as the Hawks head coach after a short absence.
McCombs will lean on returners Alek Fuentes at running back and linebacker, Aaron Aguilar at tight end and linebacker, Hector Lua at quarterback and defensive back, sophomore Jose Flores on the offensive and defensive line and his older brother Anthony Flores also a two-way lineman.
Sophomores Luis Infante, Xavier Ramirez, Antonio Gutierrez and Yahir Flores will all play up on varsity this season.
