In case you haven’t heard, the Bruin football team qualified for the post-season for the first time in almost 14 years. Coach Bavaro, his coaching staff and his team left for Amity High School, just south of McMinnville Thursday afternoon.
Bruins first-year head football Coach Shaun Bavaro will face their first post-season opponent in Amity tonight at 7:00 pm. The Wild Coast Compass sat down with Coach Bavaro, and asked him some questions regarding the relatively new ground he, his staff and this team are walking on today.
Last Friday night, after the loss to the Hidden Valley Mustangs, Coach Bavaro, the seniors and the team walked into the locker room for what they believed was the last time. That game, touted as a ‘win and your in’ scenario, weighed heavily on the team as the reality of the situation settled in.
However, as the Wild Coast Compass reported earlier in the week, because of a mathematical equation, and a stroke of scheduling genius by Coach Bavaro, the Bruins had earned a place in postseason play. We asked the coach how he broke the news to the team, and what their reaction was. Coach Bavaro told us the first thing he did was send out a text through the text messaging program and notified the captains.
He told us the team was ‘pumped’ to have the opportunity to play a week 10 football game. We asked what it meant to him, his program and the team. “This is huge for our program” he said, “Win or lose today, this is a huge step in the right direction for our kids and the program itself. 5 wins, maybe a 6th in season one is a testament to the kid’s relentless effort to continue to battle! Sure it’s been a roller coaster ride of a season, but we’re learning that each season will have its ups and downs”.
We asked Coach if he was surprised to find out they made it and who was the first person he told. His answer was that he found a text on his phone last Saturday morning from Coach Joel Magill, the head coach of the Amity football team, asking him “when are they going to play?”. A bit confused, Coach Bavaro, not knowing they were in the playoffs yet, responded light-heartedly “whenever”. That is when he really found out they were in he said. I had to keep it quiet all day he said, and then his phone blew up and he probably got the most texts in his life that day.
In the office Saturday morning, listening to the Del Norte game with his defensive coordinator Mark Hawley, Coach Hawley was the first person he told, and then the team text went out. Sounding a bit emotional, Coach Bavaro noted that prior to becoming a Bruin coach, 90% of his coaching career has been in that area, and he had built great relationships with other coaches in that area. “It’s been a fun week of texting back and forth with all the guys up north,” he said.
The Wild Coast Compass then got down to the nitty-gritty, and pinned Coach Bavaro down on some football.
Knowing that the Bruins haven’t seen the 4-1 Amity Warriors, who earlier in their season defeated the St. Mary’s Crusaders 51-7 in a preseason contest, we asked coach what if anything different he prepared for this last week. The tone of the conversation changed, and he said “first, we have to match their physicality to have a chance. Amity has a strong tradition with experienced players and coaches. They run a ‘wing T’ based offense.., so we had to change up our defense, keying on staying home in our positions because their wing T uses a lot of deception to exploit weaknesses with fakes to move the ball.”
“Amity” he went on to say, “has a very strong defense much like ours.” Looking at their schedule this season, the Warriors held most teams under 20 points on the season. “We are going to have to take what their defense gives us, be disciplined and not create self-inflicted wounds to keep the game close and have a shot at this. I’m sure our kids will play well.”
We asked if he had any concerns. “This is all new for this program. Who knows when Bruins football had an overnight trip and playoff game. I am a little worried about how the long bus ride, the overnight stay, and waiting to play the game is going to affect the team. We have nothing in the past to reference to. I hope after the kick-off the kids will settle in and play their game. I’m excited to watch them perform tonight, they have earned the opportunity.”
The Wild Coast Compass would like to thank Coach Bavaro for taking the time to talk with us, we know he had a lot on his plate at the time. We also would like to encourage our readers to get to the game tonight if you can and cheer this team to a win in this first big step in Coach Bavaro’s program.
Good luck, you and your team have already represented the Bruins well, BEAT AMITY!
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