By: Tyler Stark
For the first time in a very long time, the Redwood Ranger football team will be playing in front of their home crowd at the Mineral King Bowl. Friday’s homecoming game marks a return to “normalcy” in many ways. The Mineral King Bowl will be packed with screaming fans, the band will be playing some tunes, the cheerleaders will be cheering, the atmosphere will be electric!
Wide receiver Christian Daniel ‘22 is really looking forward to feeding off the crowd, and thinks that’ll be a motivating factor all night for him. Daniel says, “Oh I’m really motivated, I can’t wait to see all of our fans again. Friday night lights are finally back!”
Friday night’s homecoming game against Tulare Western will be Redwood’s second game of the season, and first game in two weeks, due to last week’s quarantine.
A question some people have for this game is how will the week off affect the team’s play?
Head coach Kevin Scharton says, “we have worked hard to get the players in shape and get them prepared to play this week. I think our players will be ready and do their very best to bring home a Ranger victory.”
Fullback Ty Potts ‘23 echoes some of his coach’s sentiments. Potts says, “we weren’t as crisp as we were when we left for quarantine.”
However, Potts also says that he thinks that with the number of injuries the team had before quarantine, the time off was good for them.
It was good to hear the perspective of Potts. You’d expect most players to say something like “yeah it sucked,” but it was nice to hear kind of a positive take from Potts.
The homecoming game is always a massive one, and with this being the first Redwood home game in two years, the players are even more motivated to capture this win. Linebacker Noe Viveros ‘23 feels that to capture this win, his team needs to play as one. Viveros says, “To get the win Friday night we’re gonna need to play as a team and come together as one. We need to play hard all 4 quarters and not let up, no matter what the score is.”
Due to the crazy amount of people that should be at this game, players are setting some lofty goals in hopes of impressing the crowd. Defensive end Colton Bowser ‘22 is looking to bring Tulare Western’s quarterback down. Bowser says, “ I’d like to get at least two sacks, that’d be good for me.”
Bowser goes on to say he’s really excited to see the atmosphere on Friday night.
Star tight end Kolby Howard ‘22 has high expectations for this week’s matchup. Howard says, “I think we’ll have a great game. We’re all ready to play and hit somebody.” Howard continues by saying he thinks the key to victory this week is playing mistake free football.
Linebacker Marcus Correia ‘22 is ready to return to the gridiron this week after an unfortunate exit in the second quarter of the opening game of the season against Centennial High. Correia says, “It’s hard to sit down and watch everyone around you continue to play.”
Correia goes on to say he’s ecstatic for Friday night.
For starting quarterback Frankie Alvarez ‘23 this is his first time starting a game at home. Alvarez has been looking forward to this opportunity for a while and he’s very excited to finally get this opportunity. Alvarez says, “I’m very excited to play my first varsity home game. I can’t wait.”
Tyler Stark
Tyler Stark ('24) is in his freshmen year, and this is his first year writing for the Redwood Gigantea. Tyler hopes to work for Sports Illustrated in the future. you can contact him by email with: tyler.st3800@vusd.us
Tags: friday night lights, ranger football, rangers, rhs, rhs football, rhs rangers