Liberty football players looking forward to new challenge

Quarterback Anthony Quinones is back for his senior year with the Bison. (File photo by Rick Rowell)

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

Friday’s football game at Temecula Valley will mark the season opener for Liberty High School’s fourth football season as a program. Though they are returning many athletes, the Bison are looking forward to a few new things this year.

Perhaps most notable is the new league they’ve entered, where they will face opponents from larger schools in a higher division than previous seasons. The Bison will compete in the Ivy League with Rancho Verde, JW North, Vista Del Lago, Orange Vista, and Paloma Valley.

Head coach Adam Contreras said the new level of toughness in their opponents is something his team has been preparing for.

“They’ve got big guys at those schools, so we need to be standing up for ourselves and have a certain level of meanness,” said Contreras, mentioning that the new opponents bring a new feeling of expectations. “We did something new programs don’t do last year with winning the [Mountain Pass] league championship. So there’s an expectation that we’re going to bring it and there’s pressure to continue our tradition of winning. Hopefully this year we can win our first playoff game.”

Last season, the Bison finished 5-0 in league play but lost in the first round of the CIF playoffs to San Jacinto, 56-14.

Junior Trent Hallis is looking forward to what his team has to prove.

“We have a few hard teams on our schedule and we’re hoping to shut people up about us being able to compete with the harder teams,” said Hallis. “I feel confident in our team and I’m excited for the hype of this season.”

“I don’t feel nervous at all,” added senior quarterback Anthony Quinones. “We have a great football team and I’m confident in what we can do.”

Quinones is one of over 30 seniors on the team, a group that includes the first ever four-year starters for the Liberty program.

Though they had seniors for the first time last year, Contreras said this group is a little different.

“Those first couple years they didn’t have the upper classmen to teach them the ‘Bison way’ or how to do things here,” he said. “Now, we as coaches hardly have to do any of that culture stuff … because I can say it all day long, but until these kids take ownership of the team, it doesn’t sink in. And that’s what they’ve done now and the younger kids are receptive to that.

Junior receiver Brenden Adkins takes his role as an upperclassman seriously and hopes to be able to teach the younger kids by example.

“I hope they know just to be patient,” Adkins said. “I was there on varsity last year and now I get to start and the patience is paying off ,so that’s what I want to teach them.”

As the returning quarterback, Quinones said that on top of leadership, there are parts of the team’s playing style that have been honed in the offseason.

“It’s going to be a fun season as we’ve been getting stronger and establishing our new culture with this group of seniors,” he said. “Look out for all of our running backs; they’re going to be big this year and these games are going to be fun.”

Other seniors agreed that the running game is what they are most excited to see in the games because of the effort that they have all put in to improve it.

Seniors Chauncey Hogg and Alfonso Alvarado said that on top of the on-field stuff, all the teammates have grown closer.

“I’m most excited about our sense of brotherhood,” said Hogg. “I’m excited to go out there with these guys that I’ve been working with all through the summer.”

“I’m excited about being with this team. We worked hard over the summer and I’m ready for the 10 games, then making playoffs,” said Alvarrado. “I love the guys we’re around and being with them in or out of school. We’ve got great team chemistry.”

The chemistry is something Contreras and his staff have been hoping for and are impressed by.

“The seniors really have taken to the culture this year,” he said. “When someone shows up late, it’s the seniors who help with the lesson there. We’ve got a good, responsible group of kids here and that’s what I’m really proud of.”

In addition to the team culture being influenced by experienced and invested seniors, the staff also gained three new coaches and a weight room trainer, who Contreras said has helped the team’s confidence level.

“He’s running the weight room now and that has created such a confidence in the kids,” said Contreras. “We have a little bit of scrappiness to us and it’s cool to see the kids grow into that.”

With the returning aspects of the team meshing with the new, Contreras said only time will tell how the season will go, but he is optimistic about the program’s potential.

“We seniors got together and decided that we’re chasing perfection this year and make sure that we’re striving to be our best,” said senior Brian Woisin. “That’s the legacy we want to leave here.”