District Champions or Bust for Warriors

Coming off a successful 7-3 season, the Steinbrenner Warriors' expectations for the upcoming season are relatively high. With a lot of the team's top performers returning for their junior and senior seasons, the Warriors are champs or bust this year.

“A district championship is what we’re looking for,” said Warriors Coach Andres Perez. “Nothing less will be acceptable.”

Perez has coached with Steinbrenner since the school opened; first as the quarterback and offensive line coach, then as offensive coordinator, and now as the head coach.

Returning for his senior season, running back Kendall Pearcey racked up 776 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, 142 yards and 2 touchdowns in the air, combining for 918 total offensive yards last season. That’s without including Pearcey’s 441 yards and 3 touchdowns on combined punt returns and kickoff returns.

“I’m actually faster than I was last year, so hopefully all that off-season work pays off,” Pearcey said.

According to Perez, the load will not be entirely on Pearcey, with two other backs in Jake Carroll and Shaheem Barthel, but you will see him in many situations that get the ball in his hands, whether it be on offense or special teams.

“Realistically, what we got are three excellent running backs. We’re not going to have that 2,000-yard rusher, we’re going to have three backs that together, we hope, will get those 2,000 yards,” Perez said.

As for the air attack, junior Curtis Fitch is “one of the smartest players,” Perez has ever coached, and will return under center for the Warriors. As a sophomore, Fitch averaged 91 pass yards per game throwing for 815 yards 9 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Fitch has put in a lot of work to get better at the position for this upcoming season, and the keys to his success this year will be to “stay within himself” and “enable the players around him,” Perez said.

The team had its first taste of success last year (7-3), after combining a record of  (5-11) in its previous seasons. Now that Steinbrenner has the ambition to continue its success, and support from the school, the Warriors will approach each game with high regard and district games with extra intensity to fulfill their goal of a district championship.

“All expectations are high. The school’s finally realizing that we have potential after last year,” said Fitch. “Everything is really big and everything is really pumped up!”

Steinbrenner takes on Newsome at 7 p.m. tonight at Chamberlain. Check out the rest of the Warriors' game schedule here.

How do you think the Warriors will do this season? Let us know in the comments section.