El Capitan football pushing for first playoff appearance. ‘It would be a game changer’
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a series as we follow the El Capitan football program during the season.
“Leave a legacy” is part of the school motto at El Capitan High School.”
It’s an important concept the Gauchos football team has taken to heart this season as they set the foundation to build what has been a losing program into a winner.
It starts by changing the culture within the program, getting players to buy in on what it means to be a good teammate and taking care of business off the field.
First-year head coach Xavier Ramirez has helped lead El Capitan to a 4-3 start to the season.
That early season success gives the Gauchos an opportunity to become the first football team in the school’s history to make the playoffs.
Senior DeJuan Franklin has never played in a playoff game in any sport.
“It would be my first playoff game ever, it would be whole new experience,” Franklin said. “We’d be able to say, ‘We started it. We were the first team at our school to make the playoffs.’ I’d be happy doing something like for my team and my school.”
Lack of success
Merced County football programs such as Merced and Hilmar high schools have become accustomed to making the playoffs every year. The Bears haven’t missed the playoffs since 2017 and the Yellowjackets haven’t missed the postseason since 2014.
Compare that to El Capitan program that hasn’t had a winning season since the school opened in 2013.
A lack of stability at top — with four different head coaches in the past four — years hasn’t helped. Even with the successful start this season the Gauchos overall record is 18-83 all time.
Every player that pulls that Gauchos jersey over the shoulder pads on Friday night is well aware of the program’s futility over the years.
That’s why just making the playoffs would be such a big accomplishment.
“It’s deeper than just us,” Franklin said. “It gives belief for the younger guys, our freshmen, sophomores and juniors. If we can do it for the first time ever then it’s possible for them. Then they could do it. It boosts their morale, like, ‘Their class did it, why can’t we?’ It raises the standard for the program.”
Ramirez would love to see this senior class experience the playoffs, especially his senior captains Franklin, Diego Ultreras and Logan Davenport.
There are 24 seniors on the Gauchos roster this year and Ramirez estimates about 20 of them have been in the football program all four years. That means those players all had to deal with the constant change of having four different head coaches.
“There’s a lot of guys who have been here from the start, and they’ve never given up on on themselves,” Ramirez said. “I’m happy for those guys who stuck it out.”
Playing meaningful games
The Guachos’ path to the playoffs isn’t easy. They still have Merced, Buhach Colony and Golden Valley left on their schedule.
Right now Max Preps lists El Capitan as a bubble team in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs. The team’s hope is if they finish with a 6-4 record that it will be good enough to snag one of the 12 playoff spots in their division.
However, their strength of schedule isn’t very high so six wins may still have them coming up short.
Playoffs or no playoffs, the Gauchos are playing meaningful games at the end of the season. Something this program has never done.
“It starts now,” Davenport said. “It started last week for us. We can’t pay attention to the outside noise. It’s not like we’re already there, we need to keep working. We’re not satisfied, our approach is we can always get better.”
Ramirez said has seen a change in focus at practice in recent weeks.
“You could just tell there’s a difference in our practices right now,” he said. “You could just see this group really coming together, they’re really holding each other accountable. We’ve talked about that before, letting these guys take ownership of it.”
If the playoffs happen...
With the success this season there have been some big-time performances by the players.
Utreras has had two three-interception games from his safety position and his eight interceptions this year are tied for the most in the nation.
Quarterback Gio Mendoza threw five touchdowns in a win over Waterford this season.
Running back Lorenzo Peters set a school record with 304 rushing yards to go along with this three touchdowns in a 33-28 win over Los Banos.
“It’s finally our hard work paying off,” Ultreras said. “It’s kind of good to have some of these guys get to show off for everybody.”
Ramirez says it’s been different players stepping up each game. He credits the offensive and defensive lines for doing the work in the trenches so some of the skill players can make these highlight plays.
Ramirez also credits his offensive coordinator Sergio Mendoza and defensive coordinator Alex Hernandez for calling the plays and putting the players in the right position to succeed.
Ultreras see the ultimate reward as playing in the playoffs.
“I get chills just thinking about it,” Ultreras said. “It would be a game-changer. It would affect so many other people on campus who come support us. It would stop people from talking down to us. It would help build support for football. Part of our school motto is ‘leave a legacy’ and it would help us do that.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 12:00 PM.
