San Benito reintroduces option attack at spring practice
The San Benito High football team is returning to its roots.
Head coach Chris Cameron and offensive coordinator Bryan Smith
introduced a
”
new
”
attack at the team’s scheduled spring practices last week, new
in the sense that the current players on the Balers’ offense have
not seen it before.
San Benito reintroduces option attack at spring practice
The San Benito High football team is returning to its roots.
Head coach Chris Cameron and offensive coordinator Bryan Smith introduced a “new” attack at the team’s scheduled spring practices last week, new in the sense that the current players on the Balers’ offense have not seen it before.
But Cameron is only reintroducing an option-oriented attack, where at its roots will be based on the triple option.
San Benito began running the same offense back in 1998, and Cameron said the team was “running it with authority” in 2004 and 2005 when the Balers made back-to-back appearances in the CCS Large School Division championship, even winning it all in the latter year.
“But we kind of got away from it,” Cameron said. “We just got away from things we were doing real well.”
The team would add new elements each season and tweak the offense here and there each year, essentially leaving the Balers with an attack it didn’t start with.
“We kept building off of it and we got away from it,” Cameron said. “But it’s all stuff that we ran before.”
The triple option forces opposing defenses to worry about several different running plays where the quarterback can pitch to the fullback, pitch to the halfback, or decide to keep the ball and run upfield.
“The kids are loving it,” Smith said. “They’re excited and we’re getting a lot of energy out of them.
“And we are passing the ball.”
Cameron said the team made plenty of strides in just four days of spring practice, but they are still “light years” away from where they want to be.
“It takes a lot of work,” Cameron said. “But it also gives you a lot back.”
Several new coaches were also introduced at spring practice last week, while Matt Andrade was recently announced as the new head coach of the junior varsity program.
An assistant coach for several seasons at the freshman level, Andrade replaces Luis Espinoza, who announced his desire to return to school and earn his masters following the conclusion of the boys volleyball season in May.
Meanwhile, Denny Schuler, who calls Hollister home for part of the year, was on hand for spring practice last week, doling out information where necessary. Schuler was an offensive coordinator at Oregon State, a defensive coordinator at the University of Oregon, both an offensive and defensive coordinator at Cal on two separate stints, and later a defensive secondary coach at Stanford.
“We’ve been fortunate to have his knowledge and help,” defensive coordinator Tod Thatcher said. “He’s great. The guy is a wealth of knowledge.
“He’s been coaching 30 years at the (college) level. There’s not something he hasn’t seen.”
Changes on the defensive side of the ball this year, Thatcher said, will include the Balers bringing more of a platoon approach. Offensive players will remain on offense; defensive players will remain on defense.
“It gives us more time to practice defense and more time to practice offense everyday because we don’t have to switch,” Thatcher said. “We’ve primarily had guys going one way, but now they’re really going one way.
“We can do a lot more teaching.”
