Last year, Robert Nevarez was teaching players what the A-gap and the B-gap were.
A year later, the McCurdy Charter School football coach was demonstrating advanced concepts to a much more seasoned group of players.
McCurdy showed surprising amounts of success last year in their first season in three years. Though they only won two games, they nearly won multiple others against larger schools while playing with an almost entirely inexperienced roster, and a strong run-first offense took hold in later weeks.
McCurdy’s football field will see improvements, including resodding the grass, and a new and much-improved scoreboard behind the far end zone, which Nevarez said shows the administration’s commitment to the program.
“Got to score for it to look good,” said quarterback Lucas Martinez.
This year’s group appears motivated, confident and ready to work. Players often take an extra step to repeat drills while experimenting with new methods or taking coach advice.
“Not a day went by where I opened up the weight room and the weight room wasn’t full,” Nevarez said. “Where two years ago, I would open the weight room and there were no kids showing up. They show up, they lift, they’re competing against each other.”
Nevarez expects 30 players on the varsity team this year, a significant increase from last year, providing the team with more depth. He talks about players being “nasty” on defense. Just a small handful of seniors depart from last year’s team, and talented and hard-working freshmen have stepped forward. All in all, McCurdy should improve more from last season and be competitive in even more games.
The Bobcats will rely on speed as their strength, with offensive players like Casey Nevarez (Robert’s son) and Martinez guiding the flow.
Martinez slides over to quarterback, where he played the very end of last season after an injury to Marcos Gasca, who graduated this spring.
“At the end of last year, (Gasca) was showing me his roles, teaching me,” Martinez said. “And now I feel good coming back in this quarterback spot.”
Martinez is also confident about their offensive line, including Alejandro Martinez, opening holes for those runners. Robert Nevarez said the team will add more passing plays to an offense that offers many different rushing looks, while a more experienced offensive line will expand the playbook.
Defensively, McCurdy will run a base 5-2 defense with “monster” and “maniac” concepts and more advanced blitzing techniques. Nevarez said the defense relies on his trust in sophomore cornerbacks Ryan Montoya and Jeremaya Roybal to contain in man-to-man coverage.
Assistant coach Tresean Portis, who missed almost all of his high school career when the program shut down, works closely with the linemen, and is starting a new tradition of awarding a chain to the top lineman practicer. The first one went to junior Dylan Dean, a tight end last year, who took down practically the entire group in drills.
The biggest challenge for the Bobcats this year will be their formidable schedule. All seven of their non-district matchups come against higher-classification teams, five of whom are coming off a postseason appearance.
In the district, always strong Santa Rosa joins the group, and McCurdy will also contend with perennial contender Escalante (McCurdy has not beaten Escalante since 2012).
“We’re definitely going to learn how to play against quality programs,” Robert Nevarez said. “If we want to be a Hope Christian, NMMI, Navajo Prep … we’ve got to go play them. We have to see what they’re all about.”
Also helping to build for the future, McCurdy will have a middle school team for the first time in several years.
While this year figures to be another building year, McCurdy will almost certainly take another step forward and continue to create a strong program.
McCurdy’s season starts on Saturday with a road game at Hope Christian.