Silverado prepared to take the next step

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

SUN RANKINGS

1. Silverado

2. Foothill

3. Green Valley

4. Del Sol

5. Coronado

6. Basic

7. Liberty

2004 RECAP

Foothill (10-0, 5-0) Lost in Sunrise semifinals to Valley

Silverado (7-2, 4-1) Lost in Sunrise semifinals to Las Vegas

Coronado (5-3, 3-2) Lost in Sunrise quarterfinals to Valley

Green Valley (6-4, 2-3) Lost in Sunrise quarterfinals to Las Vegas

Basic (1-8, 1-4)

Liberty (2-8, 0-5)

Del Sol (2-8, independent)

PAST STATE CHAMPIONS

No Southeast Division team has won a state championship.

RETURNING ALL-STATE PLAYERS

D'Angelo Jones, honorable mention, running back, junior, Foothill

This is going to be a big year for Silverado football.

Big as in expectations, with the return of the core of a team that won a playoff game for the first time in its 12-year-history.

Big as in talent, like eagle-eyed quarterback Tyler McNeace, solid running back Jeremy Pate and kicker Cory Skolnik.

And big as in, well, big, with linebackers Kyle Rath (6-foot-4, 240 pounds), Ben Jacobs (6-3, 215) and free safety Randy Liles (6-5, 205) anchoring what could be the city's best defense.

Enemy territory becomes even less friendly when three guys a head taller than everyone else are roaming the field. Then Liles goes and says this:

"I'm excited, man. I want to go out there and hit some people."

The Skyhawks, once the laughingstock of the Sunrise Division, are now a force. They won't be messed with easily, and they won't just be satisfied with the moral victory of winning their first ever playoff game.

"They knew the tradition, they were glad to break it and now we can focus on other things instead of that being such a pressure point," coach Doug Thornhill said.

McNeace is the center of the Skyhawks' offensive threat. He completed 46 of his 109 passing attempts, throwing for 589 yards and six touchdowns while giving up seven interceptions last season. He also ran for 354 yards and 10 touchdowns on 87 carries.

The quarterback said that last year's exceptional run has put more pressure on him and his teammates.

"There's a lot of expectations, not only from other teams but from within our program," McNeace said. "We expect a lot out of ourselves, we expect a lot out of other players on our team. The coaches expect a lot from us."

With the expectations have come excitment.

"Everybody's been showing up, the two-a-days were really good," Rath said. "I know when I started as a freshman, it wasn't like that with the seniors. We've always had that excitement. We've always carried it through."

Jacobs agreed that the upswing of senior talent has helped morale through the summer.

"We're out pulling up everyone else instead of coming out short," he said. "Everyone's getting along well, and we're all working hard."

With the playoff win out of the way, there are two more prizes the Skyhawks are eyeing.

Both will probably be determined on Oct. 14, when Silverado travels to the Mission Hills area to take on perennial powerhouse Foothill. The Falcons are in a transition year, and the Skyhawks haven't beaten them since Foothill's first year.

It was in 2000, Foothill's second season, that the two teams started playing for "The Bell," a large bell currently sporting the Falcons' blue and gold.

"They're ringing it all the time, it kills us," Liles said.

If the Skyhawks can bring the bell back to Spencer Street and paint it purple and teal, they will more than likely have also wrapped up the Henderson City Championship. That's the goal Thornhill mentions when talking about his team's ambitions for this year.

They're not super-sized ambitions, but with such a big year brewing at Silverado, it's not hard to figure that good things are finally due.