Out of disappointment comes motivation for Hilmar

A disappointing loss in the section championship game last season has served as motivation for a hungry Hilmar High School football team this offseason.

The Yellowjackets’ season ended with a 28-18 loss to Bradshaw Christian in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI championship game. Falling short of the blue banner has pushed a team that returns nine starters on defense and aims to put itself back in position to win a section title this year.

“I don’t think any of us juniors who are now seniors will get over it,” said senior Cody Rentfro. “It’s kind of a grudge we’re holding. We want to take it back.”

Hilmar coach Frank Marques said this group has hit the ground running since returning from winter break. He’s seen a motivated group during weight training, conditioning and seven-on-seven passing tournaments.

“It was a tough one,” Marques said. “It’s one of those things you don’t quite ever get over. My thing is you feel bad for that group of seniors. We had a great group of kids. As coaches, you feel you always have a chance to get back. For those seniors, that was their one chance.

“This sounds crazy, but when you lose, that next class becomes more hungry to win it. I don’t know if we would have been working as hard if we would have won.”

There’s plenty of reasons to believe the Yellowjackets are capable of competing for a Trans-Valley League championship and making another long postseason run.

It starts on defense with 11 returning players who started at least one game.

The Yellowjackets are led up front by Joey Pereira and Xavier Burke, who combined for 10 sacks last season. The linebacker trio of Rentfro, Wyatt Amaral and Bryan Walley also returns.

“I like their tenacity,” Marques said. “They’re a hard-working, blue-collar type of group. It’s really a throwback type of team for Hilmar. It reminds me of the teams we had in the ’80s. We have some rough kids who are definitely motivated. They just have an edge to them, and that’s good to have in football.”

Many of the players’ work ethic comes from working on dairies – waking up early in the morning and putting in a long, hard day of work.

“It’s Hilmar,” Rentfro said. “Most of us spend time helping each other at the dairies or we’re doing stuff at the river.”

Offensively, the Yellowjackets return their two leading rushers in Joshua Lee Jennings (1,029 yards and seven touchdowns) and Rentfro (811 yards and 10 touchdowns).

The young offensive line will be anchored by 6-foot-4, 295-pound senior Ethan Jones.

Senior Chase Kindburg takes over for Daniel Teixeira at quarterback and gives the Yellowjackets another dual threat for their spread offense.

“I think our games are the same,” Kindburg said. “I can run and have a lot of options for quarterback runs in our offense.”

The Yellowjackets must replace last year’s leading receiver Alex Chavez, who caught 70 passes for 1,344 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Marques and Kindburg like their receivers, including Klay Farris and Kelby Peres.

“This summer we weren’t dropping balls,” Marques said. “We had seven guys catching the ball all over the field. I’m excited about what we have at receiver. Ferris had a great second half for us last year. He’s big and has good hands. Peres is great route runner with great hands.”

The Yellowjackets have the talent and motivation. It’s just a matter of putting it all together this season.

“We thought we worked hard last season, but you realize if you could have done a couple more reps here and there,” it could have helped, said Kindburg. “Now when we we’re lifting or running, we have that section title loss in the back of our heads. It’s pretty motivating.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Out of disappointment comes motivation for Hilmar."