Football Season Review

At the end of the Rangeview Football season, there were low spirits and a lot of boys that wish they could have gone on. With a six and four record the Raider Football team walked away with a winning season and friends that will last forever. The seniors that will be departing this year will be missed dearly for they have left a legacy that has not happened in a long time to the Rangeview Raider Football team. To the non-senior group, this year is going to be one of the hardest times to break up the team. All the boys have bonded and are sad to see each other go, but it is an inevitable event that everyone hates to see come. This is what the coaches hate to do every year. “It’s so hard to let the seniors go, especially such a good group of boys. I always hate to see my seniors go,” said Football Coach Gonzales.


This year the Raider Football team got twelve first team All League players and both Offensive and Defensive MVP awards. Linebacker Enrique Gonzalez received the defensive MVP as well as running back Jonathan Mathews receiving the offensive MVP for Rangeview. QB Jaleel Awini, RB JB Mathews, WR Alec Maybin, TE Pedro Esparza, OLs Dan Huddleston and Sean Melton, DLs Austin Bolinger and DJ Holmes, LBs Enrique Gonzales and Sam Fifita, S Sammie Smalldon, and ST John Tidwell were the first team selections for the Central Metro League. Coach Gonzales also received the Coach of the Year award. With all these awards Coach Gonzales was very pleased with what his piers had to say about his team. “See how it works is we can only nominate them for the position, but we can’t vote for them. By voting for the boys like this, it really shows what the other coaches think of our program,” said Coach Gonzales. With five linemen, two line backers, and a handful of back-fielders, Rangeview was the team to beat. The Raider Football team of the 2009 season was the first team to get a home play-off game in twenty years. That is the legacy that the seniors will leave to their friends and more than that, brothers.

The team as a whole ended on a pretty good note in the state. The defense was ranked top ten in 5A and was a defensive power house. With seven seniors leading the defense there was little that could stop them. Having a backbone like this was good for the offense because they could count on the defense to get the ball back when they needed it and when they asked for it. Also having an All League MVP in the backfield didn’t hurt the raiders either. Jonathan Mathews rushed for 1393 yards in his junior year season with fourteen touch downs. He was a key part in the Raiders’ winning season. The defensive MVP, LB Gonzalez, had a total of 104 tackles with a blocked punt and field goal. As a whole, the defense had 410 tackles and only 137 points during the whole season. That is what kind of team the Rangeview Raiders had.

Through the four years that boys have been together, there have been people that have come and gone, but there were the ones that stuck through it. They get to see what they left behind and walk out knowing that the legacy is in the capable hands of the teams to come. With the more than capable Mathews and Awini, the offense is in good hands. The offense next year will be a run down the throats, keep on hitting the hole offense. With the returning Tidwell, Holmes, Melton, and Smalldon, the defense is going to be rocking next seasons’ teams with a hard hitting, high paced, cut-throat defense.

-Austin Bolinger