East County Sports

New head coach plans to continue Falcons’ success

KYLE SZYMANSKI

For the first time in 16 seasons, the Freedom football team won’t be led by head coach Kevin Hartwig.

But the Falcons ought to have plenty of talent to continue their winning ways.

Andrew Cotter takes over the head coaching position with an impressive resume. He played for Hartwig at Liberty High School and went on to rebuild Moreau Catholic into one of the top Catholic school teams in the Bay Area in his 10 seasons at the helm. Moreau won a combined 10 games in six seasons before Cotter’s arrival, but then won 25 in Cotter’s final three seasons alone. He also guided the Mariners to their first 10-win season and first playoff victory.

Now the coach is focused on carrying on Freedom’s longstanding success.

“It’s tough being the guy after the guy, but I love the challenge,” Cotter said. “That was something that was appealing about the job. It brings another challenge into the fold. I have a great group of coaches that I am real excited about.”

The Falcons, whose 9-3 season in 2017 ended in a 37-0 loss to Liberty in the North Coast Section championship game, return allleague players quarterback Joey Aguilar, running back Giles Jackson and wide receiver Mekel Ealy on offense. R“It’s been a long summer, but we have worked pretty darn hard,” said Cotter.

“We are excited to get this thing going in a couple of weeks.” Aguilar, Jackson and Ealy will be three core pieces for a quality offense that will feature slot receiver Jaimier Parker and deep threat Kimahni Tolefree.

Roy Lee is also expected to see some time at running back with Jackson likely to play a prominent role in the Falcons’ passing game.

Colby Hunter, Taleni Lepolo, Ryan Fithian and Deric Lapuz will anchor the offensive line, while Lepolo, Jacob Hawkins and Julian Partida will do the same along the defensive line.

All-leaguer Diego Fratus, Brett Bausola, Hunter McAllister and James Dziedzic will all see time at linebacker, and Jeloni Brown, Ziare Williams, Daniel Roanhorse and Lee will roam the secondary.

The Falcons nonleague schedule features five 2017 playoff squads in Turlock, Windsor, California, San Leandro and San Ramon Valley. To view Freedom’s schedule, visit www. thepress.net/special/east_county_sports

Patriots poised to pounce

KYLE SZYMANSKI

The Heritage football team will enter the season as a young squad looking to prove that it belongs in the deep Bay Valley Athletic League (BVAL).

The upstart Patriots graduated 36 seniors from last year’s 7-5 squad, bounced in the second round of the North Coast Section playoffs – but 14 seniors remain to carry the team. “Honestly, we are going to be young, but we’ll surprise some teams,” said head coach Don Sanders. “We are going to be a hardworking group. I am fairly upbeat about our season.”

Junior Trevor Moorman and sophomore Asher Haynes, both newcomers, are competing for the starting quarterback position. Juniors James McNorton, Kevin Moore and Adam Smith and seniors Christian Borja and Joaquin Gonzalez anticipate being the big boys up front protecting the quarterback and opening holes for a running back by a committee that is expected to include junior Tony Zalec and sophomore Hanai Muhammad, among others.

Whoever ends up as starting quarterback will throw to a wide receiving corps of senior Daniel Simone, Anthony Ford, junior Kendrick Shaw, junior James Williams, senior Hunter Dixon, sophomore Brad Ehlen and senior Hayden Goldston. Meanwhile, McNorton will join senior Gabe Cortez, sophomore Gerrick Dacpano and newcomer Otha Johnson to hold down the defensive line.

Linebackers Jimmy Grossi, a senior, Ehlen and Zalec will bolster the defense. Sanders said he’s been especially impressed with the team’s work ethic in practice.

“We are grinders, we are workers,” Sanders said. “I think we are viewed as the underdogs, and I think we are going to keep grinding and keep working and keep getting better every day.” Heritage’s nonleague schedule features a quintet of 2017 playoff teams: San Ramon Valley, Foothill, Kennedy, Amador Valley and California.

“Our preseason and regular season is definitely a challenging one,” said Sanders. “The BVAL is always challenging and, preseason-wise, I have added some quality teams like Cal and Amador, Foothill and SRV. We have our work cut out for ourselves, and we are kind of excited about it.” To view Heritage’s schedule, visit www. thepress.net/special/east_county_sports

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