Mesa CC Gearing Up for 2006 Football Season
Mesa Community College’s football team has improved its record by one game in each of the past three years, going from 5-5 in 2003 to 6-4 in 2004 and 7-3 last year. The 120 aspiring players who report for pre-season workouts on Tuesday (Aug. 8) have their work cut out if they intend to continue this trend for a number of reasons.
The Thunderbirds play in the highly-competitive Western States Football League that includes last year’s national champion (Glendale) and two other teams (Snow and Eastern Arizona) ranked in the NJCAA pre-season top 25 poll. Mesa is picked for the 24th spot.
With only four games at home and seven of the first eight on the road, the T’birds will have to win that elusive eighth game in just nine official outings since its first two encounters are scrimmages against NCAA Division 2 teams that do not count in the WSFL standings.
Head Coach Dan Dunn and his staff (with newcomers Rashad Armstrong and Vance Phillips on board) have some major holes to fill, the biggest of which is to find a successor for mission-bound quarterback Colton Malone who set school passing records and led the team in total offense.
Gone are leading rusher Chad Baniecki (LSU), leading tackler Todd Runyan (Cornell), the nation’s #2 punter Matt Barnard (New Mexico), and Latron Hickson (Western New Mexico) who led the team in interceptions. Plus the team’s top three receivers are now playing at Division I colleges: All-American Kenny Mahone at Northern Arizona, Marko Mitchell at Nevada-Reno and Jeremy Edwards at Southern Utah.
But Dunn is used to having to deal with a 50% annual turnover in player personnel. Going into the 2005 season, he was concerned about the offense, but the team responded and averaged nearly 400 yards a game. Defense has always been a Dunn hallmark, and the veteran coach once again sees it as the team’s strength, especially at linebacker with the likes of returnees Dwight Simmons, Emmanul Butters, Andrew Gambosa and Leon Freeman.
Scott Wilcox returns from an injury to give the T’birds a solid kicking game. Victor Anderson, Luke Taylor and Brad Johnson are in a battle to replace Malone at quarterback, and there is plenty of talent among the wide receivers and tight ends.
Much work remains in the coming month to cut the squad down to 85 players and fill out the depth chart in all positions. Coach Dunn remains confident, stating, “I believe we have better talent and more depth this year and a good core of players. We play in a very balanced league where any team can win on any given Saturday, and it comes down to who makes the fewest mistakes. We will be highly competitive and an exciting team to watch.”
The 2006 MCC football schedule: Aug. 26 at Adams State* (Alamosa, Colorado); Sept. 9, at University of Redlands* (Redlands, California); 16, at Eastern Arizona (Thatcher); 23, Arizona Western (7pm); 30; at Phoenix College; Oct. 7, at Snow (Ephraim, Utah); 14, bye; 21, at Glendale; 28, Pima (7pm); Nov. 4, Scottsdale (2pm, Homecoming); 11, New Mexico Military (2pm).
(* = non-Conference scrimmage)
