Panther Football opens against Dexter
by John Earp
The Jal Panthers Varsity Football Team will start off their season tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. in what is sure to be a challenging away game against the Dexter Demons. Dexter is typically always a very good team, and this year will be no different. The Demons presently are ranked #6 in NM Division 3A, while Jal is ranked #5 in 2A. The Dexter Demons beat the Panthers last year.
JHS Head Football Coach Brent Satterwhite, in his first year, says Dexter has a good team, with a returning quarterback from last year, C.J. Granados, who he says is “a talented kid. He’s pretty fast; throws the ball pretty well.” Dexter running back Julian Manzanares is also one that Satterwhite mentioned as being a key player for Jal to contend with this Friday.
Coach Satterwhite says the Panthers will have their hands full with Dexter because of their speed on the perimeter. They like to run the speed option to the outside and they don’t do a lot on the inside, a little bit of counter, but they do like to hit the edges. I think we’ve got a good plan for that, but you’ve still got to go and make tackles and tackle fast guys. So it’ll make it fun and interesting, but we’ve got a good plan. Dexter’s defense is different too, according to Satterwhite, “but we feel good about the plan.”
Satterwhite says he feels the Panthers’ new passing game “is getting there. There are good days and bad days, because, you’ve got to throw it and you’ve got to catch it, and you’ve got to protect the guy. There’s things like that that we’ve got to get better at. The philosophy behind what we do is to get the ball to the athletes in space and let them make plays. So, I think we can get that done. We’ve got some playmakers, Sebastian [Arroyo] and Nolbert [Cervantes], we’ve got a freshman that’s looking good, Joel Nieto has caught the ball well. Zadyn has caught the ball well, done some things in the scrimmage for us. Christian Diaz has played the right spot, done some good things for us. We’ve thrown to the back out of the backfield, which we do fairly regular, and we haven’t had Andre [Rodriguez], because he’s coming back from a knee injury from last year, but he is now released. He catches the ball extremely well and did really well in 7 0n 7 doing that. Then Cash [Taylor], who’s always been a lineman, but he’s been playing running back while we were waiting on Andre to get well, and he’s done some really nice things, too. So, we feel like we’ve created some opportunities and depth there with some guys who haven’t played those spots. Our line has been a struggle a little bit to get down the concepts of running the zone. They’ve run counter in the past, so that’s not as unfamiliar with them, I believe, but there’s just some differences in concepts from what we’ve done up front. So those guys are learning. Some of them are young, and so they haven’t played a lot. I’ve been in that boat before, and you don’t get to pick and choose, but you work with what you’ve got. They’re good kids and they’re working hard, it’s important to them and they get it.” Satterwhite says he was impressed with his players “trying to be physical” in the scrimmage last week against Hobbs, even though they had not had much time to be physical in practice.
Satterwhite says there have been many changes in the Jal program since last year, which are still “in growing stages,” but he feels “like we’re going in the right direction, though not hitting on all cylinders yet, but we have to be by Friday night, and if not, they may knock the hats off of us, and we’ll have to wake up and figure out what we’ve got to do. That’s the challenge of coaching, like Tom Landry says, “You’re trying to get people to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.” Satterwhite says of his players, “You’ve got to get the best out of all of them. The problem is, not everybody likes to go in that direction, but they always like the results. I like our kids. We’ve got good kids, solid kids. It’s been a really good community. We’ve enjoyed our short time here. We’re anxious to get these kids going in the direction that we want them to go, get this thing rolling like we know it can, because we feel like we’re in a good situation. We certainly have the best facilities, and I feel like the opportunities are really big.”
Satterwhite is happy with the turnout for the junior high program as well. He said, “I think we’ve got 29 or 30, maybe more, because I helped get some kids dressed this morning before they went out to practice in the junior high.” The high school program has 28 players this season, which is close to the 30 players he had hoped to see. He says the junior varsity program is “still on the bubble” at this point, saying, “We’re not going to play a JV game this week, with Loving as scheduled. We just don’t feel like we can make that happen. We could bring up some kids from the junior high team and get them a couple of more reps, but we still haven’t seen them play yet, so we don’t know who that is. Some of those issues won’t be issues in the future, because we’ll have been here three years or so and we’ll know who can do what, but we’re just not there right now. But we’re excited about those young kids. I’d give my left arm for us to be able to have a JV. The thing about, I think all sports, but certainly team sports, is, you have to play to really get better. Until you’ve put yourself in those situations, reactive, interactive with your teammates, you just don’t know. We’re trying to give our kids as many opportunities as we can, as many reps as we can, so it will be beneficial.”