Upland HS football team completes successful season
UPLAND, Calif. — Heart, determination, and resilience are all common characteristics used to describe successful teams in any sport. Talent is always nice to have, but without a strong work ethic and the desire to buy into the main goal of the team, success is difficult to find. One team who certainly embodies these traits, is your very own Upland Scots Football Team. While it may not have ended exactly as planned, this season was certainly one to be very proud of.
The team finished the year with a winning record of 9-5, and made it all the way to the CIF championship game! In order to reach this level of success, head coach, Darryl Thomas, instilled some great values into his team. One of which being the UBeforeMe motto. This was a saying that had previously been used at the school by the head Girls Basketball Coach, Christine Aguilar, but Darryl had the following words to say about the team鈥檚 interpretation and the player鈥檚 response, 鈥淚t means that we have to put the Upland team before individual accolades or wants. This could be very challenging in today’s world because young people have grown up with selfies, self-promotion on social media, and instant gratification. Because of this it can be challenging to get a player to buy into something bigger than themselves like the team.
However, the team came to understand that in order for us to be successful we had to understand that the most important thing has to be the team. Everything else was secondary. There was evidence of this on display each and every game, because wide receivers looked forward to blocking downfield, players were okay switching positions, while others had no problem signaling in plays–anything to help the team. It was great to see.鈥�
Another major theme around the locker room was Pound The Rock, or PTR for short. According to Coach Thomas, 鈥淭his means that regardless of the circumstances we will continue swinging our hammer at the rock. If you continue to pound the rock, that rock will eventually weaken and crack.鈥� As intended, players found that this message applies to more than just football, which was ingrained into their memories play after play.
On the field, the team was in part led by quarterback Noah Sandavol, running back Ricky Allen, and linebacker Vincent Macaluso. But as each of these players would likely tell you, their success would not have been possible without the individual efforts of everyone who showed up to practice day in and day out. Both players and coaches alike. As a combined group, the team totaled 2,093 rushing yards, 1,879 yards through the air, and 69.5 tackles for loss.
Coach Thomas mentioned multiple times how proud he is of this team not only for their individual accolades, but also for their post-season mentality. 鈥淪ince our loss in the CIF Championship game last Friday I have received countless emails and text messages about how the team played for each other. The messages also said that they could tell that the team really liked each other and how much fun they were having running around the field. One message even said that they were proud to be an Upland Highlander Alumni because win or lose they represented the school with effort and class.鈥� said Darryl.
Best wishes in the off season everyone, and good luck next year!
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