By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Opening two-a-days Monday as the fourth head coach at La Villa in five years, Alex Guerra met with his players for the first time and focused on how they would go about building a rapport.
“You could tell right away, looking in their eyes, they weren’t sure,” Guerra said. “To me, I saw that as, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard this before. Are you going to stick around?’ That type of deal. So my no. 1 goal with them is, give me an opportunity to trust me. I’m going to trust you. Let’s work together.”
Despite the coaching carousel, the Cardinals have made the playoffs four times during the stretch, including last season as they went 4-7 and made a bi-district appearance under coach Shawn Alvarez. The transition to Alvarez, in his first and only season with the program, was eased by the familiarities in his offense and that of his predecessor.
Alvarez continued to run the slot-T, and the returners flourished as they adjusted to his late hire, less than a week before summer break.
Under Guerra, however, the Cardinals are wiping the slate clean, implementing a new offense (spread) and defense (multiple). They hardly passed the ball last year, but quarterback Rey Felix anticipates that changing for his junior campaign.
“Now that we’re running spread, we like it,” Guerra, a backup last season, said. “Right now, our biggest challenge is getting different coaches. But we’re getting to know our coaches now, and hopefully we could make a big difference from last year. We don’t want to have the same record as last year.”
Even with La Villa graduating several starters, Guerra believes there’s enough skill players to sustain their attack. Though undersized, senior slot receiver Joe Gonzalez is projected to make a play a significant role in the aerial attack. And junior Nate Diaz, who is the only returning lineman on the roster, also figures to inherit plenty of leadership responsibilities in what is otherwise an inexperienced front line.
“This offense, it’s really different,” Diaz, the right tackle, said. “We have to pull out and run a lot. There’s a lot of pass-blocking. We’re not running the ball like last year. It’s more throwing and screens. There’s a lot of options.”
Outside of the three returners on defense, the Cardinals are relatively young on that side of the ball. They bring back Felix at outside linebacker, Gonzalez at cornerback and Diaz at defensive end. For Diaz, it’s an even bigger load to carry after he went from tackle to center last year.
“We’re very young across the boards,” Guerra said. “A lot of question marks. It’s the second day of pads (and helmets), so we’ll see how it goes.”
LOW IN NUMBERS
Last year, La Villa had as many as 38 players show up to two-a-days. So far this year, the Cardinals have had 27.
Guerra isn’t concerned, however, saying he anticipates another half-dozen might show up after returning from summer vacation. If not, several players might be called upon to go both ways.
“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” Guerra said. “Looking at it, I think we’ll be in the mix. The plan is to get back in the playoffs. We’re young, and we lost key players. But we’re going to try to build off what they did (last year) and try to be a playoff team.”
COACHING VETS
To ease his transition to the Valley, Guerra brought on local assistant coaches to help fill out his staff. His offensive coordinator, Israel Garcia, is from Rio Hondo. He has coached 23 years.
And James Weatherwax, who will oversee the defense, has coached for 36 years, mostly in the Houston area.
Guerra enters his 18th campaign, his fifth as a head coach. He spent the past four seasons at San Antonio Memorial, where he posted his best year in 2013 (3-7 record). From 2006 to 2012, Memorial lost 69 of 70 games.