Making the playoffs. Winning a playoff game. Anthony Armas believes those are important indicators of how far the Denair football program has come the past few seasons and provide a solid foundation to build on going forward.
From that perspective, the Coyotes’ 35-15 loss to Stone Ridge Christian on Friday in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 playoffs – while disappointing – should still be viewed as measurable progress for a program that hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2019.
“We really feel that Denair is the kind of place where we can compete in the playoffs every year,” Armas said. “With everything that has gone on in the past few years, I think some people may have forgotten that. This group reminded people that’s possible and I believe they just cleared the path for the teams coming up the next few years.”
The Coyotes (6-6) finished tied for third place in the Southern League this season. Denair will lose 10 graduating seniors, but expects to add a strong junior class next year that finished 8-1-1 and tied for the SL junior varsity championship.
“We had 37 players on the varsity roster for playoffs, which includes underclassmen that we asked to come up for playoffs. Right now, it’s looking like 27 of those players will be coming back. It’s very encouraging for the upcoming season,” said Armas, who has had rosters with far less than 20 players in the past few seasons.
“We have very high expectations for our varsity team next year,” he said. “We should have a very good team. It will still be tough, though. I think the league was pretty young. It should make for a heck of an exciting league next year.”
While optimistic about Denair’s football future, Armas is quick to credit this year’s team – especially the seniors – for re-establishing the sport on campus.
“This is a group that has been through a lot,” he said. “We didn’t have enough players for a JV team when they were freshmen because of COVID, so they had to play varsity as freshmen. The way they have battled through so many obstacles, stuck with the program through some tough years, and managed to make it to the playoffs their senior year and win a playoff game is a testament to their resiliency.”
For all those reasons, the 2024 team will be one of Armas’ favorites.
“I’ll remember them as a group that made football fun again,” he said. “We definitely had some tough spots during the year, but this group always seemed to make things fun while still working hard towards getting better. I do think they helped re-establish the program. Only time will tell.”
If Denair competes for SL titles in seasons to come, Stone Ridge Christian (9-2) is likely to be one the schools standing in the way. The Knights tied Delhi for the league championship this season and had two victories over Denair – 28-8 on Sept 20 and 35-15 on Friday night.
Armas thought a key moment came early in the second half when Denair was threatening to cut into Stone Ridge’s lead.
“We received the ball to start the second half, down 21-8,” he said. “We had a great return on a reverse from Noah Chavez that started us with good field position. We drove down to the 9-yard line, but we couldn’t punch it in. I thought that was a huge turning point. We had a chance to close the score to 21-14 at the very least, if not 21-16. Stone Ridge sacked us on the 20. They proceeded to go on an 80-yard drive to make it 28-8.”
Despite the disappointing finish, Denair will have some key pieces returning next season, including quarterback Derek Potter, top running back Degan Butler, and defensive backs Austin Silva and Angel Rosas.
“Potter does a great job taking care of the ball and taking what the defense gives us,” Armas said. “We’re really looking forward to him leading our team the next couple of years. Silva and Rosas did quite well for us at cornerback, not just this game, but all year.”
The coach also had high praise for one of his seniors, Jesse Ruelas, who scored one of the Coyotes’ two touchdowns against Stone Ridge.
“Jesse battled like he always battles,” Armas said. “He is one of the more tenacious players we have had come through our program. He plays a lot bigger than his size.”
