With the beginning of a new school year, and their first league game looming, the Compass talked with BHHS varsity football head coach Shaun Bavaro about the journey over the past few years to rebuild the program, and how it feels to get ready for their first home game since the 2019 season, post pandemic.
Well, after playing a short varsity schedule against playoffs teams from last year, our young players gained some valuable experience playing a short varsity schedule, our kids finished last year very strong against playoff teams from last year, coach Bavaro said, and we believe that is going to be a great spring board for our upcoming season.
We are excited to play a full schedule of games for the first time in two years, and we are especially excited to have the opportunity to host 5 home games, with our season opener at home for the first time since 2019.
The team has worked hard to get prepared over the summer and we have seen this team grow each day and get better. We have added a few key pieces to the team this year that my staff and I believe will help us make a big impact moving forward.
It has been fun to watch our captains and seniors work and do a great job of leading our team into this season, creating an atmosphere in the locker room that has been great to watch as our veteran players help out the new and younger players, bringing the entire team closer together.
Our participation rate of the football program is at the highest it’s been in the last 8 years, which will not only help our team this year, but this group of seniors is setting the standards for future Bruin football teams to come. My staff and I believe that this will be our strength, a close team that believes in the player playing the position next to them, will determine how well we play as team this season.
Crucial to our success will be how well we execute our gameplans this season, and this team has set our team goals high, committing to continue to be compete in every play, in every practice and in every game. We believe that if we can limit our turnovers, be solid on defense and put a couple wins together, we can make a serious run at a playoff spot this post-season.
Our upperclassmen are ready to lead this group of young men onto the field and open the 2022/2023 season in front of a packed and loud Bruin stadium for the first time since 2019, and we look forward to seeing and hearing ALL of you TONIGHT, at 7:00pm.
Brookings-Harbor High School varsity football head coach – Shaun Bavaro
