To begin the 2014 football season, the Aragon Dons will return with many key players and a chance to build off of last season’s 3-2 record in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division. Moreover, their goals will predominantly remain the same for this season as they did in the past.
“We always want to be practicing on Thanksgiving Day [to prepare for the Central Coast Section Semifinals.] That’s our goal every year,” says varsity head coach Steve Sell.
Even though the Dons suffered an early exit in the first round of last year’s CCS playoffs, Sell sees no reason to believe why the Dons cannot make a deep run in the playoffs this coming November.
“It’s not out of the ordinary. Since I’ve been the head coach, we have basically gone [far in CCS] just about every other year. When you are practicing on Thanksgiving Day, you’ve had a pretty good year,” Sell adds.
Additionally, the players remain confident heading into the season. Senior cornerback and wide receiver Chad Franquez says, “Our goal is to win a league championship while getting the best record so that we can get a high seed in CCS.”
Senior wide receiver and cornerback Kono Filimoehala-Egan adds, “Expectations are much higher. Looking at our schedule, we don’t really see anyone we should lose to.”
Furthermore, the Dons will face plenty of tough competition this season in the Ocean Division. Sell says, “In the PAL, I think Sacred Heart Prep and Terra Nova have distanced themselves and are clearly the top two teams out of the eighteen teams. There are a couple of teams who are clearly at the bottom, so of the remaining fourteen teams out of the Bay, Ocean and Lake Divisions you could put names in a hat and draw them out and put them in either division. It’s that balanced.”
When asked for his prediction of the team at the end of the season, Sell said, “We can be competitive with just about anyone. It’s basically a war of attrition. Can we keep our guys healthy and eligible? Those are the two things that it’s going to come down to. That’s what separates the top teams in the Bay: what you do when your top players go down.”
With each new season comes the task of replacing graduating seniors and filling various positions. Sell refers to the improved continuity with the football program. “It helps having a really good junior varsity program. Last year, we started having coaching staffs of both the JV and varsity teams manage and work with both teams so the players can be familiar with everything. That way, the players that come up to the varsity team aren’t starting from scratch because they have an idea of how things work. There’s no new vocabulary to learn. It makes for a lot more cohesiveness.”
Filimoehala-Egan adds, “We have eight starters returning on defense. Our secondary could be the best in the league. Offensively, we have a lot of good skills returning. [Senior] Billy Mason is stepping in at quarterback and we have a lot of confidence in him.”
All in all, the team will continue to utilize their speed as they did in past seasons. “We are a running school. We run the football and we are going to hang our hat on that. If I think we have an advantage throwing the ball, then we’ll do that,” says Sell.
The Dons assert that if they continue to stay healthy and keep their players on the field for the whole season, the team will have a great chance of meeting all of their expectations and fulfilling their goals. “I think we have a chance to be at or near the top, but things have to go right for us. We have to stay healthy and we have to stay eligiblee,” says Sell.
