Robert Perea
The Greenwave football team found itself stuck in traffic last Friday on its way to a scrimmage at North Valleys, barely arriving 25 minutes before it was scheduled to begin playing.
Coming off a season in which they lost four of their first seven games before going on a run to the 3A state semifinals, coach Calvin Connors hopes that’s the only late start the Greenwave has this year.
Fallon will host Boulder City at 7 p.m. Friday to open its season. The Eagles went 2-8 last year and graduated their three leading rushers and top two receivers.
Boulder City coach Bubba Mariani told the Boulder City Review the Eagles lost almost every starter from last year’s team but have many talented underclassmen. He said freshman Asa Mariani will start at quarterback in an offense that “will be centered around ball control and positive plays.”
Connors said his staff has been busy watching film to try to understand Boulder City’s scheme.
“We’re breaking down their film currently, but we don’t know much about them because they lost a few of their key players last year,” Connors said. “But as far as their scheme and being able to break down their film, we’re prepared for that, and we look forward to the challenge.”
With their first three games against Boulder City, North Valleys and South Tahoe, the Greenwave hopes to get off to a good start before traveling to Truckee in Week 4. The Greenwave return plenty of key players from last year’s team, and Connors said they’ve had a productive offseason, which gives them a chance to start strong.
“We’re taking off right from where we left off,” he said. “Obviously we lost a few seniors on the (offensive) line, so some new guys are in there, but they were on the team last season and they’re doing a really great job of understanding our scheme and our concepts so we can put a complete product on the field.”
Connors is starting his second season as head coach, so unlike last year, he said the players come into this year already understanding his system.
“It was a new system for the kids and new vocabulary terms for our plays compared to the season before,” he said. “We get up on the board and we chalk, and the kids are able to get up there and answer correctly, so that’s the biggest difference from last season to this season.”
Senior quarterback Matt Bird returns after passing for 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns last year. Running back Carson Melendy is back for his senior season after gaining 1,075 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground, and top receivers Calin Anderson and Wyatt Peek also return.
Once they finally got off the bus and on the field for the scrimmages against Bishop Manogue, Damonte Ranch, Carson and Fernley last Friday, Connors was happy with the way the Greenwave played.
“Obviously there are things that we have to correct, but overall, we keep preaching to those guys that our attitude and effort was going to equal our passion for the game of football, and they’ve done a great job since the spring and the summer of buying in as a team and building a culture based off the foundation we had last year,” he said. “Our ones look great, our twos look great and our threes look good as well. So, we put a lot of good stuff on film and overall, we’re very pleased with how we played today.”
After last year’s 3-4 start, the Greenwave won four straight games to reach the state semifinals, where they lost a 28-27 heartbreaker to SLAM Academy, which beat Truckee for the state championship a week later. Connors said that run started in the second half of the 31-21 loss to Fernley, where they trailed 22-0 and 31-7.
“From that point on at halftime we were a different team than we were the first half of the season,” he said. “We preach to our kids that we don’t want to be peaking too early, we want to build, and I think we’re on the right trajectory to have a really good season.”
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