After a 10-7 victory over Menlo-Atherton Friday night, the Wilcox Chargers have once again reached the CCS Championship game.
Getting to this point of the season has been a staple in the now 10 seasons under Head Coach Paul Rosa. However, in past seasons, many of those teams were expected to go deep into the playoffs, given the talent and experience running up and down the field. Just last year, the team reached the championship game on the strength of a group of seniors which included a DI recruit in left tackle Justin Hylkema, quarterback Tyson Bonilla, tailback Elijah Walker, middle linebacker Jeremiah Lewis, center Angelo De Los Santos, defensive tackle Lotrail Riggs and defensive end Romeo Castillo.
That’s a lot of turnover from last season to this season, particularly when one recalls that a handful of those players had been on varsity since their sophomore year when Wilcox last went to a CIF State Championship game.
Rosa, who calls the plays for the Chargers, has a completely different group on offense this season. New faces on the offensive line and in the backfield, would, in theory, make a tall task for a run-dominant offensive scheme to maintain a high level of performance.
The new starting tailbacks are Brayden Rosa, who barely played any running back a year ago, and sophomore Elijah Vallejo, playing in his first year on varsity.
Not to mention coach Rosa electing to go with a sophomore starting quarterback in Kai Imahara, the first sophomore starting quarterback at Wilcox in 30 years.
Given all of these changes, a second-place finish in league, losing to Los Gatos again and perhaps being one and done in the playoffs seemed more likely than ever to be the Chargers’ fate this season.
After a rocky 2-2 start to the season, things appeared to be trending in that direction. However, dating back to week four, which was a tough, 19-18 home loss to Hollister on Sept. 20, Wilcox has not lost a game since.
“The season could have gone two different ways at that point,” remarked Chargers Wide Receivers Coach Conor Dunn. “Are we gonna regress, and this is who we are gonna be, let teams hang around who maybe we shouldn’t, or are we gonna play up to the top competition? And Rosa challenged them after that loss to decide what type of team they want to be.”
What they are is the No. 1 seed in the Division II CCS division, set to play in the championship game.
They beat league rival Los Gatos this season, ending a four-year drought, including a CCS Championship loss to Los Gatos just last season. And in the playoffs thus far, Rosa has guided the team to two wins playing with a backup quarterback as Imahara was lost to injury in the final week of the season.
Coach Dunn chuckled when prefaced with all the challenges coach Rosa has faced this season before answering a question about whether this is the head honcho’s best coaching job yet.
“Where do you want me to start?” laughed Dunn. “Obviously, I agree with you.”
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