This year the amateur football team will play their home games
at Gilroy High School
With more talent this year and depth throughout the roster,
winning the Northern California Football Federation championship is
not the goal of Central Coast Barnstormers amateur football
team
– it’s the expectation.
For the last three years the local amateur team that is made up
of mostly former high school and college players from area schools,
has lost the league’s conference championship game to the team that
would go on to win it all.
This year the amateur football team will play their home games at Gilroy High School
With more talent this year and depth throughout the roster, winning the Northern California Football Federation championship is not the goal of Central Coast Barnstormers amateur football team – it’s the expectation.
For the last three years the local amateur team that is made up of mostly former high school and college players from area schools, has lost the league’s conference championship game to the team that would go on to win it all.
Prior to this year, the league was called the Golden State Amateur Football League. The Barnstormers will compete this year in the newly named league’s AAA South Conference.
Another change this year is that the Barnstormers have a new venue for their home games and will no longer play at South Valley Middle School in Gilroy.
The Barnstormers, which first started competing in 2000, will play all of their home games for the first time this year at Gilroy High School’s Garcia-Elder Stadium.
Last Saturday night in front of the home crowd, the Barnstormers kicked off their 2006 campaign with a 56-7 throttling of the Manteca Thundercats.
“This is the best overall team that we’ve ever had because of the depth,” said Barnstormers head coach Jeff Borges, who has seen the Barnstormers roster grow from less than 20 to 54 players. “And we seem to keep getting more guys. At every position we are two strong, meaning we have two guys who could start and someone who could back them up too. So we’re in a real good position.”
With so many on the roster one would think that the concern for many of the amateur athletes would be that they wouldn’t get much playing time, but that wasn’t the case last week.
“We got everybody in. And we think we could have a lot of games with scores like that first one, which would give everyone playing time each week,” Borges said. “This week is going to be difficult though.”
Today the Barnstormers will go up against the powerhouse Stockton Trojans, which represent the league’s AAA North Conference.
Instead of 10 games this season, the schedule has been cut down to eight games, with the championship game taking place on June 17 at a site that’s yet to be determined. Whatever site that is Borges plans on his team being there.
“We are playing on that day,” said Borges, who a former assistant head coach in the in the early 1990s at Gavilan. “That’s our mindset. We feel that we are one of the better teams that have been together for a while so we are familiar with each other. That’s an advantage over the newer teams.”
Players on the Barnstormers 54-man roster range in age from 19 to 47. The oldest team’s oldest player is Ted Stilwell, a 6-3, 230-pound defensive lineman who was once an All-American at West Virginia. Each game, Borges tries to get him in for a few snaps here and there.
This year the Barnstormer offense will be led once again by 30-year-old quarterback Bryan Smith, who has been the league’s top passer numerous times.
Last year, Smith missed a number of games as he was preparing for marriage but appears to be in top form again this season.
“He’s really consistent,” said Borges. “He’s real calm and doesn’t get too excited. He’s got a Joe Montana mentality and he’s modest. He doesn’t get to high or too low.”
In addition to Smith, the Barnstormers have a number of familiar faces throughout the roster.
In the backfield, explosive running back Derrick “D-Train” Morrison is back as is the team’s fullback “Touchdown Tommy” Jimenez.
“Derrick runs really tough,” said Borges. “He’s quick. Not a big guy (5-foot-8) but he hides behind the line, and when we need those tough yards, he gets them too.”
The Barnstormers also return a number of quality receivers, including David Gittens, Rigo Munos and Aaron Muro.
On defense the Barnstormers are led by former Live Oak players Joe Barnes and Jeff Hewitt. The two play defensive end. Barnes and middle linebacker Jaime Iracheta, who played college ball at Fresno State, are the teams sack leaders.
Strong safety Joe King and free safety David Flores are also instrumental in the team’s success.
“All of these guys are really quick, tough and smart,” said Borges. “They all pick up what I tell them and are ready to roll with it.”
At the season opener in Gilroy, there were roughly 250 people in the stands cheering for the local team.
“I think the interest is getting a lot better,” said Borges. “The word is getting out that we are a pretty good team, and people are coming to watch.”
