Varsity:

The OHS football team is returning from a 6-4 season where the team had a strong run in the playoffs, making it to the semifinals before falling 14-31 to Chaparral High School. 

Now OHS’s varsity football team is returning for the 2021 season, with a new coaching staff and massive changes being made. OHS has played two teams returning from the state championship game.

OHS football has a challenging schedule this season. Despite their record, they are making changes and improvements every week. The team’s biggest struggle currently is playing in the second half.

“We have to work on playing for 48 minutes not 24; we have to learn how to finish football games because right now we’re only playing half of football games which you can’t win games doing that,” said Brevin Czosnyka, senior.

The team still has their goals high despite the setbacks. The players believe they have the ability to be the best team in the state.

“The goal is to win a state championship. Nothing else. We have the talent to do it; we just have to find a way to do it,” Czosnyka said.

With the new coaching staff, there are also adjustments that are being made, most noticeably on offense. This new offense has proven successful averaging 25 points per game.

“We run a Wing-T offense now so it’s a lot of running. Last year we ran a spread. Spread is mainly a lot of passing and throwing and stuff like that, but Wing-T, run, you just run it right down their throats,” said Connor Coleman, junior.

JV: 

The JV football team is off to a 5-2 start on their season with wins against Sunnyslope High School, Highland High School, Shadow Ridge High School, Boulder Creek High School, and Walden Grove High School.

One of the biggest challenges for the team is to put games on their schedule. This affects how much experience the team will have. This year JV has multiple weeks without games (bye weeks).

“The other teams only have a freshman and senior team and all the sophomores drop down to freshman, so we have three byes,” said Jacob Gutierrez, sophomore.

One of the team’s strengths is the bond that they have, and the chemistry between teammates. The athletes are able to use this to their advantage.

“This is pretty much the same team from last year we just moved up, so we still have a tight bond and after every practice we still pray and stuff like that,” Gutierrez said.

The offense for the JV team has also changed drastically with the new coaching staff. With a new playbook they still manage to put points on the scoreboard.

“Obviously our whole playbook changed, we had an offense last year but this year we have a whole new offense, new names, new play calling,” said Canyon Anderson, sophomore.

Freshman:

The freshman team has started out with a 3-3 record, only losing to Chaparral High School, Chandler High School, and Boulder Creek High School. The team still has their head held high, and has big goals for the rest of the season.

The most important part of being a student athlete is being a student, the team has put a large emphasis on getting good grades and maintaining as high of a GPA as possible.

“[The] biggest challenge for me is balancing school with football. It’s a lot to manage school work and make sure you’re not behind and your grades are up so you can play, it’s the first time your grades have actually mattered so that you can play,” said Colton Wiggins, freshman.

In order for the team to achieve their goal of winning every game for the rest of the season, they must win five consecutive games. Even though it will be challenging, the athletes believe they can accomplish that.

“I think we have the team to do it, I just think everyone needs to put in the effort in practice and give one hundred percent effort every play and execute,” Wiggins said.