Forgive the Condors for feeling homeless.
Renovations to their football field put them on the road for 10 games last year. Ultimately it caught up to the Condors and their coaching staff.
"It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be,'' North County coach Sean Gomes said. "It wears on you traveling each week. I never got to see a JV game last year.''
While the much-needed rain was a welcome relief last winter, it also slowed completion of the field. As a result, North County will be on the road again for the first half of this season.
"We try not to talk about it,'' said Gomes, who is in his third year at North County. "The motivation is we know it's coming. Each day you can see it's getting closer to completion.''
The good news is the Condors will play at home for homecoming in October. And it will be under the lights as the days of Saturday afternoon football on the Castroville campus are over.
The anticipation is the largest crowd to ever watch a Condor football game will christen the facility, which will include an all-weather track.
"The one thing we've stressed is we don't want to embarrasses ourselves,'' Gomes said. "We do not want to be 0-6. We need to be focused right now.''
In his second tour of duty at North County, Gomes is trying to change the culture of a program that went through seven coaches in six years after his departure.
But it hasn't been easy. The once powerful program has seen its numbers decline in recent years, in part do to the lack of a foundation at the top.
"We're young,'' Gomes said. "I like our enthusiasm. This group wants to get better. At times last year I thought we looked like a playoff team. Then we would shoot ourselves in the foot.''
Gomes could think of three occasions last season when the Condors went on 14-plus play drives, but failed to produce any points on the scoreboard.
"Our focus this year has been on not having those mental lapses,''' Gomes said. "That falls on us as a coaching staff. We didn't do something right."
A priority for Gomes is getting off to a better start to the season and building confidence for Pacific Division play.
North County opened last season with six straight losses. The year before it began 0-4, going 11 full quarters before scoring its first point.
Gomes doesn't need to be reminded about the teams offensive struggles the last two years, as North County has been the lowest scoring team in the county the last two falls.
"We'll tweak some things offensively,'' Gomes said. "The personnel is a little more athletic. We can provide different looks with the shot gun or zone fly.''
One player that caught Gomes' attention is Lupe Sanchez, who will line up in the slot, where he can either take a handoff as a fly back or spread the field as a receiver.
"He put some time in the weight room,'' said Gomes, who brought up Sanchez as a sophomore last fall "He's a little quicker.''
Gomes may have a two-headed quarterback battle between Joseph Bertao and Gabe Miranda, who didn't play last year.
"I choose to focus on baseball last year,'' Miranda said. "But I missed football. It's my senior year. I wanted to go out and leave everything on the table.''
While those that are returning aren't household names, Gomes likes what he sees on the defensive side with the return of linebacker Sergio Chavarria and pass rusher Konan VanLear.
"I know I wasn't here last year,'' Miranda said. "But you can sense a different attitude. The way we focus, our approach. There's a feeling of excitement in practice.''
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