VPS football gears up for first Heritage League match
by Misty Volaski

Though it was their first team in 26 years, last year's Villanova football squad had a successful 7-3 season. And though this year's team is not as "skilled athletically" as last year's kids, coach John Muller said his new gridders are "much bigger and stronger."
Villanova lost nearly half of its team - 11 players - to graduation in 2002. Add to that the fact that nearly half of this year's team are freshman, and it definitely seems as though this will be a "rebuilding" year for the Wildcats' coaching staff. Muller, however, remains confident, saying that this year's team includes 31 players - which Villanova is "very happy about."
Because of the size of the players, Muller is confident that the season could turn out well for the Wildcats. Muller said the five-team jamboree scrimmage that the team participated in last week helped the team immensely, as it identified key weaknesses for Villanova to work on before their 1 p.m. game tomorrow against First Lutheran.
"It's not how well we execute, it's how ready we are to go out and hit someone else," Muller said. "To be successful, we have to be competitive. In the scrimmage we found lots of problems, but we can't fix them if we're not competitive."
This year's team leaders will include offsensive and defensive linebackers Bruce Wu and Djadji Daffe, as well as Chris Gerhart as the anchor of the defensive line. Quarterbacking this season for VPS will be Andy Lory.
"I want to see us in a game, to see how we can fix more things," Muller said of his team. "Right now, I think we're ready to go."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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