Football preview: Chino 'loves the position it's in'
Chino may have gone winless last season, but high school football allows for some quick turnarounds and the Cowboys may have reason to believe they can pull one off. First of all, they moved from a revamped Sierra League to the less competitive Mt. Baldy League. Secondly, there are four playoff spots and only seven teams in Chino's new realigned league.
Is it likely Chino will contend for a playoff spot? No. But in a league with only two teams who have made the playoffs at least two seasons in a row, the Mt. Baldy League is fairly wide open outside of Colony and Chaffey - one of which has won the league each of the last seven years.
In his first year as head football coach, Chino graduate Matt McCain (who will pull double duty as the Chino athletic director for the sixth year) will try and restore the pride to a once proud program that has won five games the last three years combined. McCain knows a little something about that pride seeing as he was an assistant coach for nine years during some of Chino's finest moments. He is optimistic, to say the least.
"I really like this team," McCain said. "I've seen them all summer and in the spring and I really like what I see. I love the position we're in. We obviously have a lot of room to grow and we'll be the underdogs on a weekly basis. But I think we've got a pretty good football team regardless of that."
Despite the lull, Chino's support seems to remain strong evidenced by the 1,000+ people at the spring game. Of course, this was supposed to be the year that many of the sophomores Greg Setlich coached in his first year before he was let go after last season were supposed to come around.
Junior Sean Mulis, who started a handful of games last season, will take the reins at quarterback and running back Xavier Brown one of five returning offensive starters. If the Cowboys are to build any sort of momentum, a defense that allowed more than 40 points per game last season will have to be where it starts.
About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
Email Clay here
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