Panthers Fighting Demons Friday August 22nd

By John Earp

This Friday night the Jal Panther Varsity Football Team will open their 2025 season with a home game against the Dexter Demons. Head Coach Brent Satterwhite says of his team, “Well, we’re way ahead of where we were a year ago because they understand the scheme and what’s going on better. I think kids are really dialing in mentally to what we’re doing and why we do what we do. And I think that’s important. And then some of them, you know, they’re stepping up in a leadership role, and they’re trying to get everybody going in the right direction and that’s been a real positive for us as well.”

Satterwhite says the team has had the surprising development this year of several seniors coming out for the team even though they did not play last year. A total of 40 boys have come out to play for JHS Football this season. Satterwhite says the team is strong numerically and will have a very active JV season this year as well. Of the seniors he has this year who didn’t play last year, Satterwhite says, “I think some of them are going to make good hands for us. So it’s kind of it’s kind of an oddity that we have older kids that haven’t been a part of a program that are going to be contributors. You know, it just doesn’t even happen. In fact, we’ve got 40 kids right now. Our numbers are really solid. We’re heavy on the young guys, but at least they’re not having to get their nose bloody because they’re not ready, and those older guys can step up and play.” The JV Panther Football Team has a game Saturday at noon, with a JJHS game at 10:00 a.m. Saturday as well.

Coach says Zadyn Lujan will be playing running back instead of receiver this year. Daniel Ornelas is back at quarterback. He had a pretty good year having never thrown a football in a game, things like that. I thought he did a pretty good job most of that last year. So he’s back. And then David Gaytan played tackle for us last year, and he here we’ve got him this year playing tight end, and he’s caught the ball really well with practices and has looked good there. And then we have Jose Valenzuela, who’s like the fastest kid around, and he’s catching the ball better, and so we look for some things out of him.

Of the increased participation in all the fall sports programs at Jal High, Satterwhite says, “I think you pour into kids and kids give back, you know? And I hope our kids and our community see that we want to do the best for our kids and we’re here for them, we’re working hard and you know, if they’ll show up, we’re going to be here to coach them. And you know, we we’re going to do everything we can to make them as successful as they can be. So, I think our numbers are really good at all of our fall sports.”