Raising THE BAR

Offensive skill positions, defensive front strength aim to push Dolphins higher

BY ZACH CAVANAGH

Dana Hills football is looking to take its next step.

The program’s first two years under head coach Tony Henney have been inarguably successful for the Dolphins, especially in the context of their history.

Dana Hills has qualified for the CIF-SS playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since the program’s last playoff appearances in 2012-13. The Dolphins have done that by resetting their offensive focus each season as they graduated star talent. Dana Hills posted school-record passing numbers with quarterback Bo Kelly in 2021 and boasted Orange County’s leading rusher with Christian Guarascio in 2022.

However, the Dolphins have hit a wall in the first round of each of their postseason appearances, and as Henney looks to not just fill holes each year but continue building his program, it’s natural to ask how and where to grow this program to reach its next level of development.

“I feel like we just haven’t gotten over the next step, and that we have to keep trying,” Henney said. “We hit a ladder, and we’re stuck on a step right now. From a coaching aspect, whether it’s a kid, a group of kids, a grade of kids, they have to be the ones that accelerate it to the next level, and you’ll have another few step jump when that happens.”

Henney says he sees that next-level potential in his sophomore class, which not only has the talent but the “juice” or confidence to themselves. There will be integral sophomore contributions from a physical presence such as Charlie Eckl or a playmaking ability such as James Leicester.

Add that to returning senior playmakers including Noah Kucera, Chase Berry and Deacon Hills or the continued development of line strength in Nate DePierro and Kevin Garcia, and Dana Hills can turn its eyes to a next-level goal—not just winning seasons or playoff appearances but championships.

“We want to be the third Dana Hills team to ever win a league championship,” Henney said. “If we’re going to take that next step, that sounds like a solid next step to me.”

Dana Hills has never won an outright football league championship in the school’s 50-year history.

The Dolphins have split league titles twice—a Sea View League title in 2012 and a Pacific Hills league title in a pandemic-delayed, two-game league schedule for the 2020 season. Dana Hills also hasn’t made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons at any point this century or won a playoff game since 2009.

Winning consistently and expectations of winning consistently comprise that next level to which Henny is looking to take the Dana Hills program.

“We need to win a league championship, and we need to breed a tradition of that’s what we’re aiming to do,” Henney said.

Skilled Offensive Pieces Seek Distributor

Dana Hills undeniably has some offensive weapons.

The Dolphins return their top two receivers in seniors Chase Berry and Noah Kucera. Berry, the top receiver last season, will start the season on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, but he’s expected to return by league play. While both players came over as transfers from San Juan Hills last season, Kucera had to sit out a bit longer than Berry, but they still nearly had equal yardage production. Berry became a go-to scoring option with 10 touchdown receptions, and Kucera reeled in five touchdown catches.

Kucera will be the top target, and he’ll be joined for early-season reps by sophomore James Leicester, who emerged over the offseason at the outside receiver spot when Berry went down.

“He had some moments where he looked like a sophomore, and he had moments where he grew up,” Henney said. “The joke with him Is that he turned into a ‘dog’ over the summer, but he’s a little dog. So, his nickname is ‘Poodle’.”

Another emerging target is Nikolis Grguric, who is going out for football for the first time as a senior after starring for the Dana Hills basketball team last winter. Grguric’s 6-foot3, 210-pound frame and box-out basketball instincts are a perfect fit at the tight end spot, where Nate DePierro moves out for full-time duty on the offensive line.

That offensive line showed off the dividends of a long offseason in the weight room last year by carving up holes for Christian Guarascio’s county-leading rushing numbers. DePierro is one of three returning starters up front alongside fellow seniors Kevin Garcia and Sebastian Becerril-Pastrana. They’ve only gotten stronger and should solidify that group.

The hopeful beneficiary of that line play is senior running back Deacon Hill, who was an impact player on defense last season but carried the ball only 12 times playing behind Guarascio. Hill still averaged nearly four yards per carry in limited work. Guarascio’s production is also a potential model for Hill, as Guarascio jumped from 612 yards rushing on 100 carries as a junior to 1,891 yards on 263 carries as a junior.

All of this talk of the skill positions without yet mentioning who’s behind center, and that’s because it’s the only position without any proven measurables yet.

Senior Myles Van Wyhe steps up into the role with just one single varsity snap to his name, and if the Dana Hills offense is going to live up to the potential its other positions portend, Van Wyhe is going to have to click in. However, Henney described Van Wyhe as an “extremely hard worker” and knows patience will be the key to getting this offense going.

“I feel like Myles has really come along,” Henney said. “He still has a long way to go, and there’s going to be a grace period. He’s never started a game. He’s only played one play of a varsity game. He’s going to have some moments that maybe aren’t so good, but you have to coach him up and keep his confidence up.”

To also ease the pressure on Van Wyhe, Henney also noted the Dolphins will have to find a way to run the ball, and again, Hill stands to benefit with that early focus as Dana Hills builds toward balance.

“There’s always two ways to measure balance—how many times you rush and throw it, and the other is how many people are getting the ball,” Henney said. “I feel like with the distribution of the ball, we’re going to have great balance, because I feel good about most of the skill guys touching the ball.”

It may not be another record-making statistical season, but Dana Hills has more than enough weapons to find something that works.

Strong Defensive Front Leads Young Side

As mentioned previously, the biggest offseason focus over the past two summers for Dana Hills has been the weight room, particularly for the Dolphins’ line play.

It showed up last year in the running game, and it looks to show up this year in the defen- sive line pressure.

“We are the strongest that we’ve been since I’ve been here,” Henney said. “Hopefully, that breathes some confidence into them.”

That group on the line is returning starters in DePierro and Mitch Hill along with super sophomore Charlie Eckl, who Henney said has the potential to be the best player in Dana Hills program history. Behind the line, there are also returning impact starters in senior linebackers Dominic Barto and Noah Brown.

That group showed sparks of pressure last season with three sacks each from DePierro and Brown and two sacks from Barto, but the Dolphins will need consistent pressure from their front seven to relieve some pressure off a young defensive secondary.

“The X-factor is going to be the defensive front seven,” Henney said.

“If that group plays at a level that I believe they can play, they’re going to make the job easier on the secondary. They’re going to make the job easier on the offense with field position.”

Opening In The Pacific Coast League

Every year since Dana Hills football’s move from the traditional confines of the Sea View and South Coast Leagues has seen incredibly tight races in the Pacific Coast Conference, whether the league itself was called the Pacific Hills or Pacific Coast League.

While last year’s Pacific Coast League featured two eventual CIF-SS champions, including a state champion and state runner-up in Laguna Hills and Northwood, respectively, like Dana Hills, each of the returning teams to the league is without its star running backs each team relied on for success.

Last season, two unstoppable forces ran into each other—Guarascio and Laguna Hills’ Troy Leigber—and it was Leigber who bowled over the Dolphins with 225 yards and five touchdowns. However, Leigber is now at UCLA, and the Hawks will be easier to handle.

It was a similar result with Northwood’s Adam Harper running for 342 yards and four touchdowns a week later, but Harper is also out of the Dolphins’ way after graduating.

The league swaps Irvine for Portola, and while Portola returns its top players, Dana Hills has been successful against the Bulldogs since coming into the conference.

The league is up for grabs as everyone reloads.

Patience For Potential

The reload period for Dana Hills isn’t going to be about replacing talent or developing playmakers. For the Dolphins, the early portion of the season will be about meshing those talented playmakers into a cohesive unit.

“I think we know the direction we need to go and the style we need to play,” Henney said. “I think we have a pretty good grasp on how to get better with what we have. I think that the one thing that’s hard with coaches is sometimes you have to have the patience to let some of that play out, especially with the young guys.”

It’s those young guys who will push Dana Hills beyond single years of standout talent and into generational cycles that replenish and raise the program. Henney and the Dolphins won’t be skipping any steps on the ladder, and they recognize the work ahead.

“We just learned that we have a long way to go,” Henney said. “After spring, we thought that. After summer practice, we thought that. We just have to keep getting better. I know that sounds cliché, but it just is. This kid improved, this kid improved; is it enough to win a league championship?”

Whether it is enough for a league title or not, it’s that mindset that Dana Hills needs to push itself to the next level and raise the program to a new standard of excellence.