Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Shadow Ridge ready for new year after productive offseason

Prep Football Teams 2010

Sam Morris

Shadow Ridge High School football player Jordan Kurth and Gil Colon.

Coach Gabe Gledhill

Western High coach Fernando Carmona talks about the 2010 high school football season.

Prep Sports Now

Previewing the new football season

Las Vegas Sun reporters Case Keefer and Ray Brewer discuss the upcoming high school football season. They will let you know whether or not anyone can dethrone defending state champion Bishop Gorman, release their state title sleepers teams and give a quick breakdown of the area's 30-plus schools.

Expanded coverage

If summer camps serve as any type of indicator about the upcoming season, the 2010 Shadow Ridge Mustangs won’t even resemble the school’s teams of the last three years.

Shadow Ridge, which hasn’t compiled a winning season or playoff appearance since 2006, came out of Utah State’s team camp in June as the talk of the week. The Mustangs impressed everyone who saw them play.

“To go up there and have a good camp and a good showing really gave them some confidence,” Shadow Ridge coach Gabe Gledhill said.

After Shadow Ridge’s 1-8 campaign last season, many were surprised by how improved the squad looked this summer. Gledhill was not one of them. He said this was the year the Mustangs have been waiting for. They return nine starters on a defense that showed flashes last season.

Almost the entire varsity roster is made up of seniors, which Gledhill said made this year’s team the most experienced high school squad he’s ever been around.

“We’ve been undersized and young for the last two years,” Gledhill said. “But these guys are coming of age at this point.”

Leading the charge is senior Micheal Tootle, who was a captain on last year’s squad. Tootle will start at fullback and linebacker.

In addition to Tootle, Gledhill also expects big things out of Jordan Kurth, Josh Mullins and CCameron Raynor. Together, the four make up one of the Northwest Division’s deepest linebacking corps.

“I’m really loaded all around at linebacker,” Gledhill said. “Those four are our main strength.”

Most of the questions are on the offensive side of the ball. Shadow Ridge averaged only seven points per game last season. The Mustangs never scored more than 19 points in a single game.

With Tootle clearing the way at fullback, Gledhill is confident the Mustangs running game will improve.

Senior Nick McDearmon is back for his second year starting at quarterback. He has a nice weapon in senior receiver Zach Ducksworth.

Shadow Ridge’s schedule starts favorably with two teams that also struggled last year, Sierra Vista and Chaparral, before the grind of Northwest divisional play begins.

“Our strength will be our defense, but we’ll be a senior-loaded team on both sides of the ball actually,” Gledhill said. “I’m pretty excited about the upcoming season.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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