Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.
Prep Sports Now
Discussing every team, every league
Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer celebrate the return of football season with an hour-long podcast diving into anything and everything regarding local high schools. They also look back on the victories by Bishop Gorman and Moapa Valley in the Sollenberger Classic and finish with week one picks.
Related coverage
Other Northwest Division schools
- Talented Legacy squad knows importance of opening season strong
- Cimarron-Memorial determined to prove last year’s season was an ‘exception’
- Newfound depth has hopes high at Shadow Ridge
- Cheyenne needs to improve defense to bounce back
- Jacobi Owens, Trajan Pili lead revitalized Centennial program into season
- Faith Lutheran has to replace several key performers from last year
- Arbor View dealing with elevated preseason expectations
- New coach, new attitude gives Mojave reasons to be optimistic
It’s become safe to make two assumptions about the Palo Verde football team every preseason — the Panthers are going to rank near the top in the state and have at least one vaunted senior running back leading the way.
Holding true to tradition, Palo Verde enters the 2011 campaign second behind only Bishop Gorman in the rankings. Senior running backs Jonathan Maxwell and Eric South are the predominant reason.
“Maxwell started every game last year and South got some time, too,” Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost said. “They are both looking good and ready to go.”
Maxwell and South will work out of Palo Verde’s trademark double wing offense. They have a lot to live up to with the graduation of Brandon Wright, who is now at San Diego State. Wright rushed for more than 1,600 yards and scored 25 touchdowns last season.
They’ll have extra help, too. One could make an argument that the best rusher on the roster is junior Ryan Beaulieu, who averaged nearly 10 yards a carry last season.
“When Brandon got hurt, he went in there and lit it up against Faith Lutheran,” Rost said. “He’s a really fast kid.”
Beaulieu’s main priority is on the defensive side of the ball. The cornerback is one of three Panthers who made the preseason All Sun Team.
The others were junior defensive lineman Dillon Chaisson and senior Jerrol Garcia-Williams, who played safety last season.
Rost said linebacker was a more natural position for the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Garcia-Williams and that the switch probably should have happened sooner.
“Every college coach in the nation was telling us to do it,” Rost said. “But besides that, we lost all of our linebackers last year. We wanted him there last year, but with those guys it didn’t make sense.”
Rost reported that Garcia-Williams looked so impressive in the team’s camp at Southern Utah this summer that the college’s coaching staff offered him a scholarship on the spot.
Although the Panthers lost their entire linebacking corps, they are in no way inexperienced. Two of the team’s top five tacklers, senior defensive back Jacob Witham and senior defensive lineman Josh Symonette, are also back.
“On our defensive line, we lost some of our ends but we’ll make some moves,” Rost said. “Both the offensive and defensive lines should be real forces for us.”
The units will need to be, as the Northwest division looks poised to regain its reputation as the best in Southern Nevada. Teams like Arbor View, Centennial and Legacy are returning key pieces while everyone else in the division is also finding reasons for optimism.
But there’s a reason Palo Verde has only lost one divisional game in the last four years. It’s a familiar one that’s back again this season.
“Speed in the backfield stands out,” Rost said. “Our team speed is outstanding.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy