Football Preview: Holy Innocents' Bears Starting Off Confident

Building a winning football tradition doesn't come easy at any level.

But Holy Innocents did it by reaching the state playoffs in four of their first six years of varsity competition. Now, when opponents play the Golden Bears, they know they'd better bring their A-game.

Head Coach Ryan Livezey is eager to see the winning tradition continue and he has 15 quality starters back from last year's playoff team to help get the job done, eight on offense and seven on defense.

The Golden Bears are what you might call a throwback team, one that runs an offense you don't see very often these days, the Triple Option or Wishbone. It's a difficult offense to execute. The No. 1 requirement for running it successfully is a quarterback who is skilled in running the option.

Livezey has one of the best in senior John Galloway, who ran for 770 yards on 98 carries a year ago. Galloway is considered a strong college prospect

"He may be one of the best quarterbacks we've ever had come through here," Livezey said. "He did a great job of running the Triple Option last year and we expect him to take up right where he left off."

Behind Galloway is a bull of a fullback, Harrison Andros, a senior and three-year starter who averaged more than six yards a carry last year. Up front, will be senior tight end Howard Joe who had 13 catches for 326 yards and another three-year starter at guard, Evan Thomas.

The offense will also have some exciting newcomers in running backs Owen Penn and Clay Pfoho and center Grant Gosden.

Defensively, the Golden Bears should be agile, mobile and hostile with most of the front seven returning. Along with Andros, will be senior linebackers Lee Davis, Charlie Robertson and Charlie Rousseau and secondary standouts Andy Nichols and Jason Grimes.

Livezey said his team took too long to establish its identity last year and he wants that to change. "Two years ago when we won the region, we figured out our identity early on and that really helped us. Last year, it wasn't until game 7 when we discovered our identity. We can't wait that long this year. We've got four really tough games to start the season."

With 15 starters returning, most of whom have big-game experience and who should be brimming with confidence when the 2011 season kicks off in a couple of weeks, it sholdn't take long at all.