By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
It seemed like all the pieces came together for Pace last season under then-second-year coach Danny Pardo.
Led by a solid running attack and a tough defense, the Vikings went 7-4, finished second in a grueling District 16-5A Division I and made the postseason for the second straight season.
The Vikings are hungry for more, but repeating last season’s success will be tougher this time around with a young team boasting just 10 returning players.
Pardo and company remain confident as the new varsity faces have meshed during the first two weeks of practice.
“ They are young kids, but they are working hard,” said Pardo, who is now in his third season with the Vikings. “They’re working and we’re confident. We have a lot of these kids also in our athletic period, where we work all the scenarios and on chemistry. So all these kids feel comfortable with each other, and now we just have to go out there and play.”
The Vikings have a lot of holes to fill, especially on defense, which returns just three players from last season’s group, which held opponents to 20 points and less than 300 yards per contest.
It’s a situation that makes the first two weeks of practices and two scrimmages all the more important.
“ There’s a group of kids on the bubble that we don’t know if we’re going to carry on the varsity or not,” Pardo said. “Right now, we’re at about 32-33 kids on the varsity with about six or seven other ones that we haven’t made decisions on. That’s why we play the scrimmages so we can see how they look.”
The Pace defensive players admit the process has been a long one, but middle-linebacker-turned-defensive-end Jay Gomez has high hopes that the unit will be ready based on what he’s seen through the early parts of practice.
“ It’s been a lot of hard work shaping these young players into what a solid defense could look like,” Gomez said. “But with preparation, determination and hard work, we can get to where we need to be. Guys are fighting for spots on the varsity team, and it’s good to see them compete against each other and push themselves to their best capabilities.”
The Vikings’ offense returns seven players, but it, too, has had to iron things out during the first two weeks with some inexperience on what used to be a dominant offensive line.
But with experienced and speedy backs and receivers, Pace’s offense is ready to carry a lot of the weight.
That includes helping the young defense across from it to be ready.
“ We lost a few on the line, but we saved a lot of our receivers,” running back Dylan Barron said. “Over the past couple weeks we’ve just been improving what we have, and it’s looking pretty good so far. It’s tough losing a lot of defense, but we want to help push the defense to get better. It’s all about everyone getting better, honestly, and that’s where we have to start from.”
Pardo said next season, things will be flipped when it comes to youth and experience, but right now he’s ready to attack the season and have this year’s players ready to go.
“ Our youth is what we have, so they’ll be coming,” he said. “Next year will be a different story, but this year we have a lot of juniors and sophomores that haven’t played. We graduated the majority of kids last year and it’s a rebuilding year, but don’t get me wrong, we have good talent.”