The season of touchdowns
1983: that’s the last time the freshman football team went undefeated until this year, when they finished an undefeated season with a 49-7 win against Thousand Oaks.
“It’s always high anticipation playing Thousand Oaks, even if we won all our games before that, since they are our school rivals,” said Kevin Koenig, head freshman football coach.
“It was a really exciting game. It is always fun playing against a rival and it was even more exciting beating them,” added Ryan Cartaino, freshman receiver and free safety.
But their victory wasn’t so easily predicted at the beginning of the season. “We really wanted to set a standard for the freshman team … a lot of our teammates left and went to different schools, just because they thought that the Newbury Park freshmen were going to be a bad group and lose all our games,” said Brandon Solares, freshman linebacker.
“I didn’t think we would go undefeated,” Koenig added. “Every year we have a lot of work to do. From the first practice, I always think we’ll (win) five and (lose) five — that sort of deal. But we coach the heck out of them and they definitely improve as a whole as we go on.”
However, the freshman team was able to collaborate and put forth a team effort to win every one of their league games. “The kids worked really well together. They really have been playing together for a long time. You can definitely see a lot of team unity,” Koenig said.
The players credit the team’s coaches with leading them through the season. “The head coach is an amazing guy and he is no longer a coach — he is a friend,” Solares said. “There were many times I wanted to quit but he kept pushing me and without him I don’t think I could’ve made it through the entire season. The other coaches were also amazing, they pushed you to give 100%. And once you gave 100%, they expected more from you. That definitely benefited us and made us tough mentally and physically. And that’s how we were able to get through these powerful teams like Westlake and Thousand Oaks.”
The team hopes to continue their success in the years to come. “We have amazing athletes and I think if we keep playing together for the next four years, we can do some great things,” Solares said.
“We had one goal when we started in the summer,” Cartaino added. “That was to be league champions and go undefeated. When it finally happened, the feeling was overwhelming.”
