What's wrong with the defending Central Coast Section Division I champion Cowboys?
Who said there is anything wrong?
Granted, starting the year 0-2 was not the target. Yet, it might be noted that the two losses are to a pair of teams a combined 7-0.
Are there deficiencies that can be ironed out? Absolutely. The season is far from over.
Bigger challenges, though, do await. Salinas has a section title rematch in six days at Milpitas, who has outscored its last two opponents 62-0. Palma looms in two weeks.
Maybe hitting the road will be a good thing for Salinas. Dating back to last year, it has dropped three straight home games.
Keep in mind that Salinas suffered two straight losses last year and was sitting at 1-2 before going on a school record 10 game winning streak.
Effort wasn't the issue in a 40-16 loss to Clovis. However, execution was. Getting all 11 players on the same page has been on-the-job training.
I don't believe players are feeling the pressure to duplicate last year's magical feat. And this is not a hangover effect from last year's one-point overtime loss in the State Northern California finals.
It's a different team -- still very talented. There is no need to push the panic button. The process may require a little more patience.
John Devine has been writing about high school sports in Monterey County since, well, practically since he was an athlete at King City in the days just after leather helmets. In PrepNation, John has even more in-depth analysis of the latest results and news he's brought to you in The Herald and in his weekly videos.
Follow Me
The Monterey County Herald reserves the right to edit posts and delete any comments that violate the Terms of Service & Privacy Agreement.
1 comment:
I'm sorry - you can't have it both ways. You were at the head of the pack of hyping this team pre-season. After reading your tweets and blog, it sounded like they were head and shoulders over everyone in the Tri-County area. The fact is that they lost a magical Senior class to graduation, and while they have some good players remaining, they players got swept up in the hype and didn't have the focus necessary to compete. The talk around SHS going into the Carmel game was that the reserves would be in the game by the 3rd quarter because they would be up by at least 30 points.
Its OK to admit that you bought into the hype. SHS will be fine, but we should be more realistic.
Post a Comment