Football: Foothill to Rely on Youth in Sweeney's 25th Season

New year, same story for the football team.

The Falcons as an unknown before gutting their way to a 6-4 regular season mark and a No. 4 seed in the North Coast Section Division I playoffs where they were by No. 13 College Park.

It wasn’t exactly the most talented team in the area — far from it, actually — but at times it didn’t matter. This year has the potential to follow a similar script.

“My expectations don’t change,” said coach Matt Sweeney, who is entering his 25th season.

“We plan to compete for the league title and I know that sounds crazy.”

Considering league favorite enters the year ranked No. 3 in the nation by MaxPreps.com, crazy is an accurate way to put it, but Sweeney has never been one to back down from a challenge.

Take a peak at the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bay Area Top-25. The Falcons play four of the top-7 ranked teams in their first five games — arguably the toughest slate of any team in region.

“It’s a brutal schedule,” Sweeney said.

With an unproven quarterback — senior Tommy Paulson (5-10, 165) — Foothill’s chances at extending its playoff streak to 19-straight years hinge on its younger players. Nine starters on defense are either sophomores or juniors.

Leading the way are junior FB/LB Grifith Gates (6-3, 225) and senior OL/DL Justin Taylor (6-3, 240).

Gates’ bruising running style will remind some of former Foothill great Rob Andrews, while Sweeney called Taylor an “Unbelievable offensive and defensive lineman.”

Sweeney pointed to juniors WR/LB Ray Hudson (6-2, 215) and FB/LB Trent Morgan (6-1, 185) as two more players to keep an eye on, but admitted from an overall talent standpoint this year’s group doesn’t stack up well against Foothill teams of the past.

Instead, the team will rely on being smart and fundamentally sound.

“The team’s strength is our work ethic,” Sweeney said. “How hard we’ve worked, how hard we run around. Those are things that we’ve always done we’re not going to change.”

Foothill will open at Pittsburg on Friday at 7 p.m. The Falcons opened 2010 with a at home.

——————————

Follow Kyle Bonagura on Twitter

——————————

2011 Varsity Schedule

Look for an Amador Valley preview tomororow