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Following a 35-24 win over Salinas, Hollister High School’s freshman football team finished its season with a 9-0 record, dominating the opposition with only one close game against traditional rivals Palma High School.
“We were excited before the season,” said Freshman Head Coach Tyler Townsend, “because we heard around town that we would have a good group of kids coming in. Obviously, we did. They all fought for each other and encouraged each other.”
In his five years as the team’s head coach, Townsend said, he had never had an undefeated team before, but his players were remarkably self-confident from the beginning.
“Before the season,” he said, “they told me, ‘Coach, we’re gonna be undefeated.’ Every team says that, but these kids showed me they would keep fighting for every game. And what they preached came to reality.”
Townsend said he told the team not to overthink things and to concentrate on one game at a time.
“I had the game plan,” he said, “and they produced, I told them, ‘All I can do is tell you what to do, and you guys gotta do it.’ Every week, they impressed me and overachieved what I gave them.”
Townsend said that not all schools have freshman teams, making their schedules more grueling because they compete against schools where JV and varsity do not play. But their first game, a 19-0 win against Wilcox High, was enough to assure him that his team would do well this season.
“That’s when the coaches were really impressed,” he said. “We knew we would be good, but we didn’t know we would be that good.”
Townsend said the toughest game was their last, a 35-24 victory against Salinas, a team with a high-powered, fast-moving offense. At that point, both teams were undefeated in the league.
“They came to play for what was essentially the league championship,” he said, “We fell behind, then we rallied. We had some crucial stops and ran the ball for over 200 yards. It was a great overall team win on all three levels: special teams, offense, defense.”
Townsend said one advantage he has as a coach is that many of his players have come up from the Hollister Rebels team, which has a training discipline much like that of the high school.
“They run a similar offense to what we run,” he said, “and many of their coaches have had children on our team. So our verbiage is not that hard to learn because they’ve already got a head start on what we’ll be teaching.”
Townsend said he depended on four players in particular:
Running Back Braiden Hernandez: “His strength is his speed,” Townsend said. “And he could carry the ball. He can take off, stop, and start like nobody I’ve ever seen.”
Hernandez, 15, first started playing two years ago with the Rebels. He says he thinks the toughest game was the 14-13 win against Palma, which was decided by a blocked kick.
“Our offense was struggling,” he said. “But our defense held them to two scores. That’s how we win games sometimes. The defense just does it.”
Running Back Damian Aragon: “Damien led us in rushing and touchdowns for the year,” Townsend said. “He was like a grown man on the field, and nobody can tackle that guy.”
Aragon, 15, began playing football when he was eight. He finds the game’s aggressiveness appealing and enjoys the attention he gets when he scores. He said he felt good about the season and was unsurprised when they went the distance.
“I had played with a bunch of these kids before,” he said. “The hardest part was connecting to the rest because everybody came from different teams. We were very fortunate this year.”
Aragon credits the defense as the greatest strength of the team.
“They would let the offense do their thing,” he said. “We have good running backs, powerful and fast, and we had a great quarterback, so we could run the ball and throw at the same time.”
Quarterback Nate Candelaria: “He was a leader,” said Townsend. “A very humble, quiet leader. He went about his business and led our offense the whole way through.”
Candelaria, 14, began playing when he was 10 and has competed with the Vikings, Cowboys and Rebels.
“I was always a starter,” he said. “I was always very athletic. I’ve always wanted to get the ball and be physical.”
He agrees with Townsend that the hardest game was the final one, against Salinas.
“It was a battle the whole time,” he said. “In the first three quarters, we fought hard. Then, in the last quarter, we scored two back-to-back touchdowns. We stopped them on defense and that was the game.”
Fullback Felix Chavira: “Felix is our energy power guy,” Townsend said. “He’d have these big explosive runs that fired up the team.”
Chavira, 14, began playing football at five, playing for the Hollister Vikings. “When I started,” he said, “I was scared to hit. But now I feel like I’m really comfortable with the sport.”
Chavira said he thinks his physical strength is his greatest asset to the team, and he works out constantly in the off-season to improve his upper body strength.
“When I run,” he said, “especially if I get in trouble, it’s not easy to tackle me, so I’m just like a power runner.”
Townsend said credit for the season should really go to all 63 players on the freshman team.
“Rotating them through is the most difficult thing,” he said. “We had 11 guys on offense and 11 on defense, and the rest we try to get on to special teams. There’s probably three or four games where every single kid touched the field.”
The undefeated season:
- 09/04 – vs Wilcox, 19-0
- 09/14 – vs Los Gatos, 27-14
- 09/26 – vs Aptos, 24-8
- 10/03 – vs Watsonville, 41-0
- 10/09 – vs Soquel, 40-7
- 10/17 – vs Monterey, 26-6
- 10/23 – vs Palma. 14-13
- 10/30 – vs Everett Alvarez, forfeit by Alvarez
- 11/07 – vs Salinas, 35-24
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