Ray Conner
Sports Editor

Being in unfamiliar territory, the Broncs varsity football team looks to be competitive.

After winning the High Desert League title last season, the defending champion Broncs will look to a group of inexperienced talented individuals and a solid group of returners to bolster their chances of repeating.

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With a squad of 35 players, sixth-year head coach, Ben Goffinet likes his chances for the program to continue its winning ways.

Goffinet along with his assistants in Brandon Deckard, Brent Mixon, Tom Evans and jayvee assistants, Bill Chase and Colin Moore will also be helping out.

Kern Valley returns 10 players from last year’s championship squad, including three juniors and seven seniors. Leaving 25 players with no varsity experience.

On a good note, those players coming up from the junior varsity also know how to win.

Each player coming up from the jayvee only knows being league champions. Combine that with the seniors who know nothing else but winning the HDL title, Kern Valley’s chances are as good as any other team.

As for being a team with a target on their backs, Goffinet thinks that opposing teams will give them a little bit more attention because of it.

That doesn’t mean, the Broncs will give anything away, they will take the field and compete until the final whistle stops play.

Some of the key losses of personnel for Kern Valley from last year include, Warren Pappas, Mark Eisenhauer, Kyler Emery, Jordan Lawson most of our offensive line.

That whole senior class was a strong contributor for us last year.

The players that make up this year’s Kern Valley Broncs include senior returners, Dakota Claude’, Mike Donnelly, Robbie Fisher, Ryan Fisher, Tyler Parker, North Williams and Matt Wylie.

Goffinet said, “In a lot of ways we are starting from scratch, but those juniors that came out last year saw how a team can be successful and what it takes to win.”

Other seniors coming aboard this year are Cody Bulgarelli, Ben Carlson, Kyle Cawein, Ben Foster, Austin Kennedy, Trevor Lightner, Jake Littlejohn, Eddie Nelson, Devin Pues, Chandler Snyder and Nick Verdugo.

The juniors that are returning Broncs are Travis Gibson, Anthony Hernandez and Aaron LaFarga.

Some key additions include former Kern Valley jayvee players and now juniors, Dylan Atkinson, Stephen Corcoran, Cameron Lanterman, Kevin Little, Rusty Muncy, Robert Ochoa, Shane Russell and Cody Sheckells.

Those juniors that will be playing for the first time include, James Condelles, Nathan Halliwill, Dalton Hambelton and Victor Taracevicz

Two sophomore players on the team this year are Jon Chase and Corey Mixon. Both of these players played for the jayvee squad last season.

The non-league portion of the Kern Valley schedule will be a time for Goffinet to mold his team and allow them to gain valuable varsity playing time. His expectations are always to win, but he is realistic in knowing his young team will be looking to find their niche in how to win games.

Goffinet said, “I would like to go 5-0 in the non-league, but I’ll accept 0-5 if we are learning and we win a league championship. If those five losses make us prepared to win league then we’ll take it. That’s our goal to win league. It’s been years, if ever that we have back-to-back titles.”

He would go on to say, “We are going to learn as much as we can in the non-league. We have a lot of inexperienced guys who I think are going to be helpful, but just need some time. We have to develop all that raw talent and how it fits.”

The Broncs open the season this Friday at home against McFarland. They take on Vasquez at home the following week, then travel to play Whittier Christian, it’s back home for the Chadwick game. There is a correction in that this game was originally scheduled for Saturday Sept, 25, but in actuality it will be played on Friday, Sept. 24 and they close out the non-league by going to Shafter to play the Generals.

They then have their bye week before starting the High Desert League.

Besides having the league championship label and looking for the repeat, other teams that will be tough to beat in the HDL is Bishop.

Goffinet said, “Bishop is Bishop. They have finished second for quite a few years and are always looking to win league. They will be ready to play when it comes around.”

Goffinet sees the strength of his team in the depth. He has competition at every position. Being a Seattle Seahawk fan, Goffinet said he has to root for Pete Carroll because he is the Seahawk coach, but that is on of his mantras. “Competition breeds success.”

On the flip side, he sees the weakness of the team in the inexperience. He said, “We do not have a ton guys that have varsity game experience. They are going to be learning on the fly. Experience is the only thing that will teach you how to do it.”

With six weeks, including their bye week, the Broncs will be on the crash course to learning the game of football as they get ready to defend their HDL title.

In closing Goffinet said, “I think you will be pleasantly surprised with what this group of kids is going to do. This is what I feel about them. We are not the biggest group of guys on the field and we are not the strongest and we are certainly not the fastest, but I think how they make up for that is in the discipline, the heart and the joy of playing together. I think you will see some good stuff out of them.”

With less than two days before the opening kick off it sounds as if the Broncs from the head coach on down will be putting a product on the field that everyone can enjoy.

With high hopes and great expectations, The Broncs will take to the field on Friday at 7 p.m. in start of getting out of practice amongst the team to banging heads with a real live opponent and seeing if the things they have learned will take them to learning how to be a winning football team.