Protecting the tradition at Sonora High School
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The cards really seem to be stacked against the storied Sonora Broncos and Head Coach Jason Herring for the 2006 football season.
You’ll have to excuse him if he really doesn’t seem too concerned at this point.
One of the things the happy-go-lucky coach is most proud of is the mural on one wall in the weight room adjacent to the football field that boasts helmets that dawn the years of each of the football juggernaut’s five state championships: 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, and – probably Coach Herring’s favorite – 2000.
That was his first year as the Broncos’ head coach.
In huge block letters in the middle of the proud championship-year-clad helmets is a phrase in huge block letters: “Protect the Tradition.”
They do very well to do just that in Sonora.
Sonora At a GlanceIt should be a down year, relatively speaking, for the Broncos, as they lose 24 seniors from last season. Fans shouldn’t think the season will be a loss, however, because Sonora should still be poised to make a playoff run in the extremely difficult new District 8-2A. With their returning senior quarterback and solid coaching, the Broncos could be much improved with their untested players by the time their biggest games of the season roll around in weeks 9 and 10. |
While the lore of championships past resonates through the Broncos’ facilities, it seems more evident that playing through great challenges and seemingly incredible disadvantages is the more recent common theme. This is nothing new to the seventh-year-coach of the Broncos. In fact, he’s really made a living of doing a lot with a little in more recent years.
This season’s main defiance to the Broncos’ continuing playoff excellence is the off-season UIL realignment that brings Top 25-ranked powers Blanco and Comfort to a new District 8-2A, with the only recently familiar district foe for Sonora being Mason. Add to that the fact that Sonora loses 24 seniors from last season, and only brings back four starters on both sides of the ball, and it’s easy to see it could be a tough year for the Broncos.
Every contender in the new district is bringing back strong classes from 2005 teams – with Comfort and Early both being teams that made deep playoff runs. Sonora, on the other hand, lost more players to graduation than most 5A teams normally do after 2005.
| 2006 Schedule | ||
| Sep. 1 | at Harper | 7:30 PM |
| Sep. 8 | Brackett (Homecoming) | 7:30 PM |
| Sep. 15 | at Colorado City | 7:30 PM |
| Sep. 23 | at Marfa | 6:00 PM |
| Sep. 29 | Ingram Moore | 7:30 PM |
| Oct. 13 | Junction* | 7:30 PM |
| Oct. 20 | at Mason* | 7:30 PM |
| Oct. 27 | Brady* | 7:30 PM |
| Nov. 3 | Blanco* | 7:30 PM |
| Nov. 10 | at Comfort* | 7:30 PM |
| *Denotes District Game | ||
The underdog role is nothing new to Coach Herring, even though he won a state championship in his first season as the head coach at Sonora with what he admitted was “an incredibly talented team” that he inherited.
“On paper it really looks like we’re battling this season for third place and the final playoff spot, but our kids still think we’re going to win a district championship,” Herring said. “I’m not sure if we can play with the Comforts and Blancos, who got put in our district this year, but we are sure going to go in trying.”
Herring isn’t willing to concede the match-ups against the new brass of the district, though.
“Again, if you just looked at it on paper this year, we’re going to be really down. We graduated a lot of kids, and have a lot of holes to fill. But we’re going to be in every game, and we’re going to give people a run for their money,” Herring said.
The coaching philosophy of Herring and his staff, however, is not just as simple as getting out there and “being in games” with some presumably superior teams. To see why, just look back a few seasons ago.
After a 5-5 record the year prior, and the only season in his tenure that Sonora didn’t make the playoffs, in 2003 Herring and his staff looked at the schedule and opponents of the upcoming season and realized that the Broncos didn’t match up well physically at all. So they changed their plan of attack.
The traditional wing-t power-running team decided to adopt a Texas Tech-like spread offensive scheme, to allow their smaller, quicker athletes to make plays in open space. The early returns weren’t good, as Sonora limped to a 1-4 start in non-district play – prompting talk around town questioning the direction of the storied program. After a surprising win against favored Reagan County to open district play, the Broncos squeaked into the playoffs. Following a first-round win over Marfa, the Broncos’ change of style culminated in a rousing upset of 30-point favorite and #4 ranked Crane in San Angelo.
While the Broncos where defeated in the next round by Holliday, Herring says he was able to take an admittedly inferior team in overall size and skill, and augment them to a new style that gave them a better chance to compete and surpass everyone’s expectations.“I’m not married to the wing-t. I’m not married to the spread. I’m married to winning. If anyone loves the wing-t, it’s me. It won us a state championship in 2001,” admitted Herring.
“I think too many coaches are married to a system. They probably say, ‘By gosh, we’re going to run a 50 and a wing-t.’ Well, that’s not how we do things. We aren’t like a college team who can choose what players we want to fit our system, or a 5A who has a lot of athletes to choose from. We have to adjust to fit what we have, and put those kids in the best situation to win. That’s what I love about 2A high school football.”
The year 2006 will not be without a change for Herring and the Broncos. They will implement a multiple faceted offense that will use both spread and wing-t formations throughout the game. Herring says they can now start to use more power running schemes at times because they have some larger, more physical offensive linemen.
Still, the Broncos will not throw away what has worked for them in their ‘Red Raider’ playbook.
“We don’t want to get away from the spread. We used it for three years and got to five playoff games using that system with kids who didn’t win half of their games in junior high,” Herring said. “These kids have run it for three years now. They are used to it.”
The new multiple formation offense will be run by returning senior quarterback Caleb Ramos, a dual running and passing threat, three-year starter, and First-Team All District performer from ‘05. Also returning is talented senior running back Justin Northcott, a Second-Team All District selection from last year.Although they had standout years, Ramos’ and Northcott’s junior years ended at the worst possible time. Northcott blew out his MCL late in the regular season, shelfing him for the remainder of the year. The Broncos’ signal-caller, Ramos, had his leg broken on the first play of Sonora’s second round playoff game against Coleman, a team they had beat 14-6 earlier in the season.
Sonora would lose to Coleman 35-14 to end their season, but, as Herring points out, the score was not indicative of the effort that an undermanned Bronco team exhibited that day.
“I don’t like to make excuses, but we had three major knee injuries to three starters and key contributors,” Herring recalled. The most notable of those devastating injuries to Broncos was the first two tailbacks on the depth chart, Brett McDaniel (SR) and Justin Northcott (JR), who both suffered season-ending knee injuries.
“The first time we played Coleman, we won, and it was a great football game. We had all our guys healthy then. By the time the playoffs came, we had lost three starters and then on the first play, Caleb goes down. Coleman hadn’t lost a key player from the first time we played them,” Herring said. “We were undermanned, but the kids we had out there played their hearts out. But that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Sonora trailed by a slim margin, 20-14, late in the game with the ball, when a couple of interceptions and a long return allowed Coleman to build the lead that showed on the scoreboard to 35-14 as time expired. It was a lot closer than that.
Needless to say, considering the circumstances and timing of those injuries, the Broncos’ leaders on offense have a lot to prove in ’06. Also returning to the Bronco offense is 1st Team All District Left Guard Dustin Duhon and RG Zadria McGee.
On defense, the undersized Broncos will feature a quick, hard-hitting style with returning 1st Team All District free safety Evan Gully. Northcott and Duhon turn around from their prominence on offense to man the linebacking corps for Sonora, while Aaron Gayton, who started at defensive tackle as a sophomore, returns for his junior campaign.
Just like the offensive side of the ball - on defense, with only four returning starters from ’05, the Broncos find many holes to fill. While there will be many players suiting up on varsity for the first time, Coach Herring will find many able juniors, as his junior varsity squad played an undefeated season last year.
Jason Herring expects 2006 to be an uphill battle for the Broncos, but if they can avoid some of the catastrophic injuries the team saw last year, and with the leadership of the few returning players he has, he believes they can improve throughout the year.
Fortunately for Sonora, huge games with district newcomers Blanco and Comfort are not found on the schedule until the final two weeks of the regular season – when the team will have gained its most experience. If there’s one thing Herring knows, it’s how to get the most out of what he’s got.
“We make a living out of little 160 pound kids that will hit you,” said Herring.
With a little luck, and by continuing to “protect the tradition,” the Broncos could turn another undermanned team into another successful run into the Class 2A Playoffs.
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