A Saturday, Aug. 21, scrimmage against Beyer High of Modesto showed West High’s players that their team has a lot going for it that it didn’t have last year. Any thoughts of last year’s 3-7 season, when the Wolf Pack finished fourth in the Tri-City Athletic League at 2-3, were focused only on how last year’s juniors were building experience for a winning season this year.
Matt Loggins, in his first year as Wolf Pack head coach, said one of his goals is to create an offense that will keep the other side guessing.
“We’re still trying to find our identity offensively,” he said. “We’d like to be balanced — run the ball effectively and also throw the ball in spots effectively — so we’ve worked a lot this summer on throwing the ball.”
Senior quarterback Jake Peterson is back for his third year on varsity, and he will have returning senior D.J. Watson and junior Patrick Thompson as running backs. Seniors Will Kaigler and Elijah Mitchell are West’s leading receivers.
“We don’t want to go into a game where they’re going to put nine guys dedicated to stopping the run,” Loggins said. “We want to make them honest and have them keep the deep safety and respect that we can throw the ball.”
Peterson added that team unity helps — he leads a group that’s an even mix of veterans and talent coming up from junior varsity.
“The veterans, we’re doing a good job of coaching up each other and being leaders out here. We definitely have a lot of leaders,” he said. “If we make a mistake, we hold each other accountable.”
Players expect another of the big differences this year to be defense. Loggins named linebackers Rami Booth, Dominic Williams, Jonny Cabral-Ramsey and Steven Mills as the returning seniors who will keep opponents off the scoreboard.
“Our defense can stop runners,” senior center and nose guard Russell Moreno said after the scrimmage. “Our run game is solid. We stopped everything they had.”
Players are optimistic for a strong start, but it will be the middle of the 10-game season that will decide whether West will be one of the Sac-Joaquin Section’s leaders.
“We have Lincoln, Atwater. We have Tracy again,” Booth said. “That’s going to be a great game for us. We’re just looking for competition, basically, and go 5-0 for the preseason and go on to playoffs.”
West’s pre-league season is mostly on the road, its only home games being the cross-town matchups against the fledgling varsity team from Kimball and the defending San Joaquin Athletic Association champions from Tracy High.
The Wolf Pack can expect three more key games in a row, with the last pre-league game against SJAA runner-up Lincoln and the first two Tri-City Athletic League games against Tokay and St. Mary’s, the teams most likely to stand between West and the playoffs.
“We’re excited for Lincoln,” Moreno said. “We’re always excited for Tracy High. I hope they’re ready to go.”
The Wolf Pack’s third league game is a grudge match at home against Edison, which won last year’s game after West’s potential game-winning field goal was ruled no good, and West is also looking to get back at Stagg.
Players are confident that they have the talent and attitude to meet those challenges.
“Our team’s advantage is going to be heart, because I feel that everybody wants to play,” junior tailback and cornerback Patrick Thompson said.
“I like the tempo. We’ve just got to keep it up, keep hitting hard and keep running fast.”
West High schedule
• Friday, Sept. 3: West at Atwater 5/7:15 p.m. (S/V)
• Sept. 10: West vs. Kimball 5/7:15 p.m.
• Sept. 17: West at Freedom 5/7:15 p.m.
• Sept. 24: West vs. Tracy 5/7:15 p.m.
• Oct. 1: West at Lincoln 5/7:15 p.m.
• Oct. 8: West vs. Tokay* 5/7:15 p.m.
• Oct. 15: West at St. Mary’s* 5/7:15 p.m.
• Oct. 22: West vs. Edison* ** 5/7:15 p.m.
• Oct. 29: West at Stagg* 5/7:15 p.m.
• Nov. 5: West vs. McNair* 5/7:15 p.m.
• Nov. 12: Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.
*Tri-City Athletic League game
** Homecoming
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