WATSONVILLE — Considering that Watsonville High’s football team hasn’t beaten a playoff-bound team or posted a winning record since 2003, is four years removed from going 0-10, hasn’t won a league championship in 14 years and still hasn’t topped league powers Seaside and Monterey since joining the Monterey Bay League, it seems odd that the Wildcatz enter the 2008 season a confident bunch.

But consider this: The team’s quarterback, four of its offensive linemen, its top two running backs, and a healthy chunk of the starting defense all have a league title to their names. So do its top two receivers, both juniors this season. The backup quarterback has even been to a national championship (in flag football).

While the school’s varsity program has undoubtedly experienced its share of struggles the past four years, the Wildcatz farm teams have been a power. Watsonville’s junior varsity team has won the past two MBL championships — and that gives Watsonville’s coaches reason for optimism.

“As much as you want to, you can’t explain winning,” coach Tom Sullivan said. “They’ve got to experience it.”

Most of Watsonville’s skill-position players from last year have graduated, meaning this year they’re thin on experience at the varsity level — although any varsity experience players would have gained last year would have been experience in losing. The Wildcatz won only two games last year despite having an All-League quarterback in Ryan Saucedo and an All-League running back in Sean Villereal.

This year’s group, though, is intent on wiping the slate clean.

“I see a great attitude,” 6-foot-5 senior lineman Kris Arredando said. “I think the difference is that each and every senior this year is stepping up, not just the ones who can play in college or at the next level. I noticed that from the first day of double-days.”

The man in charge of orchestrating Watsonville’s turnaround will be new quarterback Ryan Paz. The strong-armed senior spent most of his time last season on the bench, the heir apparent to Saucedo. So far, Sullivan says he likes what he’s seen from his new maestro.

“The day after the (season-ending) banquet, he got all the juniors together and said, “Hey, you’re not J.V. anymore,’” Sullivan said of Paz. “‘We’re in the weight room tomorrow.’ He wants to win; he wants to be successful.”

Paz said he’s comfortable in his new leadership role.

“I feel I’m a natural-born leader,” he said. “I’m not a big talker – I talk when I need to. I let my game do the talking. It’s going to be everyone contributing (that will make) this offense successful.”

It will also be the play of Watsonville’s offensive line. Led by Arredando, the group has been mostly intact for three years now, and could prove to be one of the Wildcatz’s strengths this year.

“I think we’ll be better conditioned than the other teams,” Arredando said. “We want to make them throw up on the sidelines.”

That enthusiasm is what endears this bunch to its coaching staff.

“This year’s guys want to win,” Sullivan said, “and they know how.”

Paz, though, isn’t ready to declare any victories yet. The senior refuses to brag about any accomplishments from the J.V. level — instead, he’s trying to earn himself the trophy that counts.

“We can’t hold (the J.V. championship) up on a pedestal,” he said. “That’s all out the window.”



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(Published on Aug. 23, 2008)

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Photos by Tarmo Hannula/Register-Pajaronian

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