By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Rivera has been quite successful during the past two seasons with plenty of experience on both sides of the ball.
The Raiders opened practice this week with some talent returning, but with a lot of youth as well. So the priority has been getting everyone up to speed.
“We’re a pretty young team,” Rivera coach Tom Chavez said. “Our focus is to get the younger guys on the same page for playing varsity. They’re coming from the JV so they’ve been in the program, so that’s the good part.
“We have to get them into another level of (game) speed. They’re a year older, so that kind of helps us out there.”
All week Rivera has concentrated on conditioning, tying it together with every football drill.
“I think right now the progress is getting a lot better with our conditioning,” Chavez said. “I’m very positive with what we’re doing and how we’re getting prepared for the season.”
Although the storyline could change slightly after practices begin in full pads.
“It’s a little bit different once you put the pads on,” Chavez said.
On defense, the Raiders are younger, but certainly up to the challenge.
“We have a pretty strong JV group that’s coming up,” Rivera defensive coordinator Juan ‘J.C.’ Cavazos said. “It’s a tribute to our defensive coaches (Edward Garcia and Ruben Cardenas), they do a great job and a tribute to the kids, they’re attentive and they’re working hard, they’ve been here all summer. We haven’t had any kids miss (practices), they’re all here and all excited.
“We have a little more size, a little more height on the D-line this year, so we feel really good about these youngsters.”
Rivera is working on improving its secondary play during early practices.
“We want to focus a little more on not giving up the home run ball,” Chavez said. “I think that’s been an Achilles’ heel for us the last few years, and a lot of that has to do with our philosophy we’re trying to do up front. We’re going to work a little harder to try to avoid that home run ball, make them earn it when taking it down the field on us. That’s one aspect of our defense we really want to focus on and work on.”
As for the Raiders’ offense, the task is to fill holes left by several seniors from last year’s squad. So, Rivera will gear it toward its personnel slightly more than previous years.
“Our offense is multiple, we run a lot of stuff, and we’re going to run an offense that fits our kids,” Rivera offensive coordinator Brian Milam said. “It’s going to change in that aspect. We’re going to use our skill players and get the ball to them.”
With three-year starting quarterback Danny Elizondo gone, the passing game will be the focus for Milam.
“I feel like we need to really sharpen up our passing game, make sure our passing game’s there,” he said. “Our running game is always pretty solid, so we need to make sure we continue what we established last year in the passing game.”
Milam also will use the preseason to work on the mental aspect of the game.
“I want these kids to get better in every aspect of the game,” he said. “We want our kids mentally tough. The season’s a long grind, and I feel like our kids (need to) become football smart, more in tuned to the game. If we’re all on the same page, I think that’s going to help us a lot.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.