By DON McDERMOTT
PVT
The Nevada Class A high school football season opens tonight, with Tonopah traveling to Round Mountain for a non-league showdown.
Elsewhere in the league today, it will be Beaver Dam Ariz. at Spring Mountain, Laughlin at Indian Springs and Sandy Valley at defending state champion Pahranagat Valley Alamo.
A relatively inexperienced Tonopah team, with only two starters back off a team that advanced to the Nevada 1-A semifinals in 2009, will battle Round Mountain, which has 15 letter winners on its roster.
Duffy Otteson, a former Tonopah High School standout athlete, is the Muckers’ coach for the second straight season. James Swigart is in his ninth season at Round Mountain.
In past seasons, Tonopah had such offensive threats as Otteson, quarterback Mitch Lehner , QB-TB Scott Thibodeaux and Denver Otteson, the triple threat runner, passer and kicker.
This season, the go-to player could be sophomore quarterback Seth Littlefield. Defensively, senior linebacker Eric Reynoso should be the Muckers’ leader.
Round Mountain lost Joaquin Ramirez 1,154 yards rushing, 18 touchdowns to graduation, so figure on sophomore Mitchel Doheny to be the Knights’ feature back. Garrett Snyder, a senior middle linebacker, is geared to lead the Knights’ defensive scheme.
This is the first of two games between these 1-A League and Nye County rivals. The game that will count in the standings is Oct. 8, at Tonopah.
* The Tonopah roster includes seniors Travis Smalley, Eric Reynoso, Kalei Elliott, Aaron Kostiuk and Cedric Kirby; juniors Anthony McElroy, Taylor McLaughlin, David McGaw, Nick Wallace, Joseph McMillan, R.J. Guernsey and Brad Johnson; sophomores Seth Littlefield, Spencer Littlefield, Derek Otero, Aiden Gromis, Emitt Davis, Colten Vessels, Gage Brock, Brian Taylor, Justin Perchetti, Andy Beaubien, Cole Shrider and Jacob Blackburn, and two freshmen, Jimmy Hunt and Ricky Butchler.
Volleyball at Ely
Tonopah’s volleyball team opens the 2010 season at the Ely White Pine tournament today and Saturday.
Also today, it will be Lake Mead Christian Academy playing in the Las Vegas Invitational, with Laughlin at Indian Springs. Saturday, Round Mountain is at Eureka.
Beatty’s season will start Sept. 3, when the Lady Hornets play in the Lady Trojans Invitational at Pahrump Valley.
Going to Ely for coach Judi Boni’s team will be seniors Meghann Thibodeaux, Sam Kimber, Amanda O’Donnell and Britney Klapper; juniors Summer Ashbey, Harley Maughan, Monica Molina, Courtney Bottom and Elaina Dunn and sophomores Ashley Eason, Deanna VanPoucke, Alli Friel and Sarah Greber.
Also at Ely are Pahranagat Valley Alamo-Battle Mountain, West Wendover, Wells, Wendover and Lincoln County, as well as the host Lady Bobcats.
Today, Tonopah will play Wendover at 12:45 p.m., Lincoln County at 3:45 p.m. and White Pine at 6:45 p.m. Saturday’s matches will be against West Wendover 11:30 a.m. , Wells 3:45 p.m. and Alamo-Battle Mountain 5:45 p.m. .
Besides Beatty, Tonopah and Round Mountain are also in the Lady Trojans Invitational .
Tonopah is in a pool with Class 4-A Las Vegas Desert Oasis, 1-A Lake Mead Christian Academy the defending champion and 2-A Las Vegas Calvary Chapel.
Round Mountain is in a pool with the 4-A host Lady Trojans, 1-A Indian Springs and 4-A Las Vegas Vo-Tech.
Beatty is in a group that includes 3-A Overton Moapa Valley, 4-A Las Vegas Western and 2-A Ely White Pine.
In the final group are 2-A The Meadows, 1-A Laughlin, 2-A Mountain View Christian and the PVHS junior varsity.
Any chance at all that the PVT will write positive things about the high school football team this year? Last year all we read were accolades about all the OTHER schools football teams!!! Our town should be proud of the boys that play for our HS. They try, they work hard, and they don’t deserve to read about how terrible they are and how great the other team is, from their own town paper. Come on PVHS Trojans! Go for the gold! Be the freight train and have fun! After all…isn’t that what organized schools sports are suppose to teach our kids? To be competitive and have fun, learn how to operate within a team environment? I for one will be cheering them on this year. PLEASE PV Times…be a supportive, positive newspaper. Just once!
As the sports editor, I appreciate your comments
I believe we have been a positive influence on all PVHS athletes and teams, including football. I know that in some other towns that if their football team was winless in its last 19 games, it would have been raked over the coals by sports writers.
We have not done that, nor will be; we have been supportive of all PVHS teams for more than nine years. The following is an example of a story we ran last season on the Trojans loss in a 4-A League game:
Sept 2009…
Pahrump Valley scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns and got the ball back with about four minutes left. But the Trojans were unable to capitalize and lost 20-14 to homestanding Las Vegas Western in a Sunset Region Southwest Class 4-A Division football game that opened the 2009 season, Friday.
The Trojans are at home Friday to play defending division champion Bishop Gorman (2-0); kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Brian Mikol rushed for 133 yards, including touchdowns of 39 and 52 yards, and the Warriors (1-0) piled up 375 yards to beat the Trojans (0-1).
Western did all of its scoring in the first half, starting with Mikol’s 39-yard TD and Dante Warren’s 58-yard keeper. Mikol’s 52-yarder in the second quarter turned out to be the decisive score. Warren finished with a team-high 157 yards rushing.
Pahrump Valley moved the ball inconsistently throughout the first three quarters. But the Leo Verzilli-coached Trojans put together two long drives in the fourth period to score twice.
Shane Ervine ran in from 1 yard and Dajhan Celius from 24 yards. Ervine finished with 71 yards on 11 carries.
Nowhere does the story say anything negative about the Trojans, other than using the word “inconsistent” in describing their offense. Which it was.
I am sure if you asked coach Verzilli if he thought his team was being treated unfairly by the PVTimes, he would say “No!”
When a team loses 18 games in a row, there is only so much that can be said in a positive manner.
The PVTimes is not a cheerleader, and we do everything in our power to be fair. For instance, three senior starters back from the 2009 team are academically ineligible for the whole season. I have not named them and won’t, because THAt would be unfair to both those boys and the team.
No problem then. We will all keep reading since you NEVER say anything directly negative about the team, but promote how well the other team played. Question for you: If a team loses 18 games in a row wouldn’t ANYONE look at the coaching staff to see where they are falling short. The Trojan players don’t come up with their own plays, nor run their own practices, or their games. We are short players and some players are on offense AND defense the entire game. I know several players that haven’t missed more than one play per game the entire season(s). If you want to use words like “inconsistent” use it in describing the coaches who are not teaching the boys how to consistantly run plays. If a child ends up a thief at age 10 who’s fault is that? The child or the parents? Of course Coach Verzilli would say “no” to your question. None of them want to take responsibility for the football teams inability to win games. It must be all the boys faults. Just keep not saying anything or holding the staff responsible. Funny how the golf team and the volleyball team sure win a lot. Hmmmm? Interesting isn’t it. This is Pahrump. We don’t want ALL facts, just some. And no responsible journalist would EVER post the names of ineligable players from a high school team! This isn’t the NFL. But hey… keep up the good work. Thank you so much for the accurate and impartiality statements.