Cheyenne takes a team approach

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.

Before the season, first-year Cheyenne coach Charles Anthony assessed that his team was just trying to find "Life after David."

Now, the only reminder of David Peeples is the Desert Shields' one loss, a forfeited game Cheyenne was penalized after a postseason fight against Bishop Gorman last year. Peeples successfully managed to keep the forfeit from being assessed until this season.

Heading into Friday's matchup with Shadow Ridge, Cheyenne is 4-1, undefeated aside from the forfeit.

The record happened by surprise. Sure, Cheyenne beat 0-5 Basic, then defeated an offensively anemic Western team 18-0. But Cheyenne was definitely an underdog when it took on Las Vegas and defeated the sixth-ranked Wildcats 27-6 to close out nonleague play.

But a funny thing happened last week as the Desert Shield faced struggling Northwest foe Mojave.

They won.

Over the past few seasons, Cheyenne developed a trend of stepping up for the big games, and letting itself down for the easier ones. But no more.

Under 32-year-old new coach Charles Anthony, who came from Western last season when Dave Snyder Jr. left Cheyenne to open Canyon Springs, the Desert Shield has a new intensity, and a new focus that relies on the entire team to carry the offense, instead of Peeples, who is now at UNLV.

"When David was here, we'd get the ball to David, and other teams expected that," said Perry Eppinger, the Shield's 6-4, 320-pound tackle, who has been recruited by Fresno State, Boise State, UNLV, Brigham Young and Oregon State. "We had different attacks, we use different receivers, some screens, all that."

Also improved is Cheyenne's defense, which last year averaged 22.13 points per game. Now, the Desert Shield allows just 6.5 points, a hallmark of the defense that Anthony considers so important. Those same four teams that have combined to score 26 points on Cheyenne average 19 points per game overall.

Eppinger said he expected this kind of turnaround from his team.

"It wasn't a surprise to me," he said. "We have better chemistry as a team. We have a better line this year, we're smaller and more focused. We have more motivation and drive to get the job done."

He said that the team has felt better able to connect to their new coach because of his age.

"Not taking away anything from coach Snyder," he said. "Coach Anthony's younger. It was only a few years back he was here (as a player)."

Anthony, who last year guided Western to a surprising 5-4 record, including a 4-1 mark in the Southwest, said he has been surprised by how the team has jelled.

"It was a pleasant surprise to see the guys coming together," he said. "We're just about on the same page. Not totally, but almost."

As for life after David, besides the upset at Vegas, it has been the surprising play of tailback Torrie Coleman, who has emerged as one of the city's top rushers. In four games, Coleman has worked his way to fourth place on the city's rushing leaderboard, his 844 yards 150 ahead of Eldorado's Marcus Newson, who has played six games, and 90 behind Shadow Ridge's Ricky Snodgrass, at 936 in five contests.

Coleman transferred to Cheyenne from Valley two years ago, and sat out last football season.

"He hasn't played in two years. We didn't know what he could bring to the table," Anthony said. "We knew about the kid. We'd seen him in practice, but he was unknown to us also."

Coleman was sick and wasn't at Cheyenne's practice on Wednesday. But his presence will be important as the Shield tries to better its playoff seeding position Friday night against Shadow Ridge.

The grind of playing a tough team every week, compared to the relative ease of Southwest league play, is something that Anthony said he knew he'd have to adjust to.

"I knew going into it this was the best division in the valley," he said. "The players know what it's all about. They know Cimarron, Centennial and Palo Verde and their players. It's up to the kids to prepare to do what they've been doing for years."

Except now, they're trying to forget about the letdowns in between.