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Senior Miners ready for the Grid Iron are (L-R) Colten Smith, Nate Odom, Alvaro Alvarez, Richard Romo, Anthony Garcia, Jordan Peasley, and Ben Quijada. (Frank Smith photo)
By Frank Smith
San Manuel Miner
Four-year Head Coach Steve Elmore will lead the San Manuel Miners onto the Grid Iron for another year of competition in Division V football. Coach Elmore along with assistants Freddy Burnham, Junior Bejarano, Josh Zazueta, Joe Estrada, and Ernie Ivy will have to get their players to dig deep to find paydirt as the Miners will face some tough competition in the upcoming 2013 season. But all family members of a Miner know that once a Miner is called to work they are willing to put in the extra shift and get the job done!
San Manuel will look improve on an overall record from last year of 6 – 4 and a region record of 5 – 3; the Miners lost six starters from last year’s squad but will build on Top Returners from last year in Seniors: Anthony Garcia – LB/OL, Jonathan Croci – LB/TE, Richard Romo – WR/LB, Juniors: Shane Kelly – RB/LB and Roberto Guerrero – C/DL.
The Miners will welcome Top Newcomers in Juniors: Bryan Valdez – QB/DB, Senior: Alvaro Alvarez – WR/DB and Sophomore: Isidro Wasko – RB/DB.
The rest of the Miners squad looking to make an impact are Seniors: Nate Odom – RB/DB, Jordan Peasley – OL/DL, Ben Quijada – RB/DB, Nick Wright – RB/LB, Juniors: Manny Chavez – OL/DL, Daniel Fraley – WR/LB, Roberto Lee – WR/LB, Daniel Medina – WR/DB, Antonio Montes – OL/DL, Manny Reynoso – OL/DL, Arian Rodriguez – QB/LB, Armando Sierra – OL/LB, Diego Borboa – OL/DL, Austin Clark – WR/DB, Sophomores: Stephen Faulstich – FB/LB, Armando Lopez – RB/LB, Michael Sanchez – OL/DL, Jacob Reidhead – WR/LB, Isidro Wasko – RB/DB, Jacob Christian – OL/DL, Brandon Garibay – FB/LB, Issac Gonzalez – OL/DL, Gabriel Sierra – RB/DB, Kyle Yonkin – OL/DL, Freshmen: Antonio Gallego – OL/DL, Robert Allison – TE/DL, Robert Franco – RB/LB, Andrew Gomez – RB/DB, Christian Ramirez – WR/DB, Franky Renteria – QB/DB, Chris Soto – RB/DL, and Robert Sweeney -OL/DL.
“I am looking forward to this season,” said Elmore. “We lost a lot with our seniors last year, but I know the guys will step up this year and we will have a successful season.”
“The strength is in our leadership and family mentality. Nobody is out for themselves. They are all out for the team as a whole and want to see it succeed,” he added. “Our weakness this year will be our numbers. We have 39 total players and 26 of them are ready to play varsity. So that means a lot of two-way or even three-way players.”
Elmore continued, “Our goal this year in to win the region, we have some tough games in our region with PRCA, Canyon State, and San Tan Foothills but if we keep it close I think we will be able to get win.”
The Miners will take part in a two – way scrimmage this Friday as they will travel down to Benson to face off against Tombstone and then they will play Benson with the action getting started at 6 p.m.
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