Prep football: St. Michael's hopes to continue playoff tradition
11/21/2008
That's how the St. Michael's High School football team celebrates Thanksgiving, although not in that order.
For the last five years, the Horsemen have dedicated a couple of hours out of the holiday to practice for their Class AAA state semifinal contest.
"It's a tradition," St. Michael's senior tackle Jake Winter says. "Ever since (the seniors) have been here, we've never not been in the semifinals. It's the expectation that we're kinda held to."
That can't be said at Lovington, the standard bearer in AAA with 15 state titles and the top seed in this year's state playoffs.
The Wildcats have yet to get past their postseason opener the last two years.
No. 2 Bloomfield dreams of holiday practice, having only reached the quarterfinals since the five-classification system was instituted in 2000.
Portales, the third seed, pulled off the feat in 2006, but that was it.
Today, No. 4 Socorro, which made a semifinal appearance in 2006, stands in the way of a sixth straight semifinal appearance for fifth-seeded St. Michael's. The Horsemen (6-4) make the 140-mile trip to Eddie Castañeda Field to face the Warriors (9-1), much to the delight of the 11 seniors who have helped establish the standard that their younger teammates endeavor to continue.
"Playing at home is nice," Winter says, "but when you're on someone else's field and their fans just get on you and heckle you, proving them wrong is just the best thing."
But the seniors wouldn't be in this position if not for the rapid maturity of several sophomores, especially running back Russell Disch.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pounder has rushed for 1,166 yards, becoming the first 1,000-yard rusher for the Horsemen since another sophomore at the time — Robbie Castillo — did it in 2004.
Senior running back Manuel Trujillo has seen Disch's transformation from the somewhat timid runner he was back in September.
"You didn't see Russell running the way he does now at the beginning of the season," Trujillo says. "His maturity level is way up from then."
He is not alone, though.
Quarterback Michael Wiegel has thrown six touchdown passes versus three interceptions during a six-game winning streak.
Linebacker Michael Lamb is fifth on the team in tackles with 45 and has recorded all three of his sacks during the streak.
Horsemen head coach Joey Fernandez says the winning streak has instilled the younger players with confidence that was missing during a 2-4 start, but he also credited them for giving up when the season was at its bleakest.
"You would think that with the growing pains that they went through in the middle of the season that they would lose focus of what we're trying to do," Fernandez says. "With that group, they started working harder at getting themselves better, and I think that was one of the big changes that we had."