Starting a brand new high school football program has been a big challenge for Kathleen MacDonald High School. Yet after finishing their third ever season, and first ever season at the varsity level, with a .500 league record (4-4), one could argue that Head Coach Burt Codera was able to ace the biggest test he’ll ever face in his tenure as Condors Head Honcho.
This year’s inaugural varsity season was always slated to be the most difficult of the first four years. Of course the first season with only a freshman class playing JV was also tough, but many of the opponent’s best sophomore players that season were already promoted to their varsity squads. The Condors went 2-3 in five league games back in the 2022 season. A year later, the JV squad, now with sophomores and freshman, went undefeated (10-0).
Making the move to varsity this season without a senior class meant a likely reversal of fortunes. If one were to bet which would be more likely, going winless or having another undefeated season, going winless would have been the more popular bet. Those same sophomore opponents who were not on JV in 2022, would now be in their third years on varsity, not to mention the rest of the opponents’ senior class players being older, faster, stronger.
Despite the big disadvantage of playing without a senior class, Codera got his squad, led by quarterback Moussa Fall, to play .500 football. Playmakers Ethan Bugarin, John Leonard, Dominic Oretga, Siaosi Hautau and Dom Hunt took advantage of impressive blocking from offensive linemen like Boston Olivarez, Aaron Xu, and Darey Villamar. Those aforementioned linemen were all team captains to go along with Fall and Leonard.
“The linemen never get enough love and they are the heart and soul of the team,” remarked coach Codera in an exclusive interview with The Voice. “They do the dirty work, they are the most unselfish guys on the team, they don’t care who gets the ball, who gets the glory, they all just want to do their job. They deserve a lot of recognition, they grew leaps and bounds, they were undersized and overmatched at times, but they kept fighting and left it all out on the field. A lot of guys on our line played really well for us.”
Overall the team played really well, especially given the circumstances facing off against more experienced opponents each and every week.
“It was a roller coaster, we definitely got introduced to varsity really early in the season and it was kind of a shock for the players and the coaches,” admitted Codera. “But every single week saw our team get a little bit better, do a few things better each week and clean up the mistakes. We just stuck to it, had some success, got a couple wins, got competitive, the kids started believing, things started clicking and we peaked by the end of the year. I’m bummed that the season is ending because we are still just barely hitting our stride.”
MacDonald will be the only team in the Peninsula Lake league that will return all 22 starters on offense and defense next season as their oldest players enter their senior seasons. The Condors finished tied for fifth in the nine team division and expectations will certainly be raised going into 2025.
