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• Walk the Talk

• From the GILROY  DISPATCH: Dedicating the game – and the season – to injured teammate Jacob Brendle, an inspired Anchorpoint Christian football team thumped visiting Faith Christian 78-8 on Friday night.

  Brendle, a senior, injured his neck in the team’s win against Clovis last week. What first appeared to be an injury that would have him out a week or two, head coach KC Adams said, turned into much more.

  “He went in for an MRI and they found a tumor on his spine that has been growing for five years,” Adams said. “We will know more this week what is really going on.

  “It was an emotional thing for the kids this week,” Adams said. “I haven’t seen them play like that before.”

  The Warriors relied on a pair of quarterbacks, Matt Garay and Samuel Apolinar. to run the offense. Both had efficient days under center, throwing for 70 yards and two touchdowns each.

  Kareem Lucas backed up a 271-yard rushing performance last week with 141 more yards and three scores.

  Colin Minyard had a career day, hauling in four catches for 91 yards and three touchdowns. Matt Thomas also corralled a 44-yard touchdown pass.

  “Colin, I don’t know what he ate, but I want to have more of that,” Adams said of his wide receiver.

  The Warriors open Coastal Athletic League play against Crystal Springs Uplands next Saturday.

  “Crystal Springs is real good,” Adams said. “We are going to have to be on our ‘A’ game.”

  Dedicating the game – and the season – to injured teammate Jacob Brendle, an inspired Anchorpoint Christian football team thumped visiting Faith Christian 78-8 on Friday night.

  Brendle, a senior, injured his neck in the team’s win against Clovis last week. What first appeared to be an injury that would have him out a week or two, head coach KC Adams said, turned into much more.

  “He went in for an MRI and they found a tumor on his spine that has been growing for five years,” Adams said. “We will know more this week what is really going on.

  “It was an emotional thing for the kids this week,” Adams said. “I haven’t seen them play like that before.”

  The Warriors relied on a pair of quarterbacks, Matt Garay and Samuel Apolinar. to run the offense. Both had efficient days under center, throwing for 70 yards and two touchdowns each.

  Kareem Lucas backed up a 271-yard rushing performance last week with 141 more yards and three scores.

  Colin Minyard had a career day, hauling in four catches for 91 yards and three touchdowns. Matt Thomas also corralled a 44-yard touchdown pass.

  “Colin, I don’t know what he ate, but I want to have more of that,” Adams said of his wide receiver.

  The Warriors open Coastal Athletic League play against Crystal Springs Uplands next Saturday.

  “Crystal Springs is real good,” Adams said. “We are going to have to be on our ‘A’ game.”

  Warriors Win Third Straight – Face Crystal Springs Saturday

• By Josh Weaver Gilroy Dispatch

  GILROY – Despite its offense being held scoreless in the second half, another stout defensive effort by the Anchorpoint Christian Warriors helped secure a relatively tight 30-6 victory over North County Christian on Saturday afternoon in Gilroy.
  Junior Samuel Apolinar forced two fumbles and Josh Masteroieni recovered another for the Warriors’ rugged defense, which already has two shut outs in four games this season.

  The Warriors have averaged 50 points per game, so the team’s 30 point output Saturday left head coach, KC Adams, a bit mystified, yet grateful for the win.

  “We got spanked by this team last year,” Adams said. “That was the first time in three years we haven’t scored in the second half. I didn’t know what to do. They shut us down in the second half, but I think we were playing not to lose instead of playing to build on the score.”

  Anchorpoint set the tone early, electing to attempt some trickery on the opening kick off. The gamble paid off as the Warriors recovered the onside kick. Seven plays later Apolinar bulled into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown, his first of three rushing scores on the day.

  The Crusaders mounted their own scoring drive on the ensuing series but a chain of key defensive plays, highlighted by a Masteroieni quarterback sack on a second-and-goal play, helped extinguish the threat.

  The Warriors took over on downs and efficiently built on their lead as the offense gobbled up 55 yards in seven plays, with Apolinar finishing the march with a 5-yard jaunt. Senior Nicholas Colmon, who filled in for the Warriors’ regular starting quarterback Josh Ignagni, found his groove during the drive, connecting twice with Jacob Brendle on passes of 16 and 25 yards.

  “We had to make sure we were extra prepared because we knew that they were a tough team,” Brendle said. “We had to be tougher. It was Nick’s first week. We made sure we were on the same page. He came through.”

  Brendle hauled in nine catches for 127 yards and also rushed for 38 yards and a score.

  “That’s just how he plays all the time,” Adams said. “That’s what he does.”

  Colmon was effective in his starting debut hitting 11-of-20 for 157 yards.

  The scoring continued at a hastened pace as Apolinar scampered 14 yards, leaping over a defender on his way to his third touchdown of the first half to put the Warriors up 22-0.

  Apolinar wrapped up the day with 101 yards on 19 carries.

  Anchorpoint opened up a 30-0 lead three minutes before halftime, as Brendle did some damage on the ground scoring a 3-yard touchdown.

  Warriors Remain Undefeated

• 

  The California State C.I.F. office has just announced that Anchorpoint’s athletic director and coach K.C. Adams has been named the winner of the 2009-2010 “Honor Coach Award”, perhaps the highest honor given to a high school coach in California.
  From the C.I.F. bio:
  KC Adams has long been a fixture in Gilroy youth sports programs. When he arrived at Anchorpoint Christian HS in 2003, the school had no competitive athletic program. In the fall of 2004, KC formed boys and girl’s basketball teams, and added baseball and softball teams that spring. In 2007, KC spearheaded the formation of an 8-man football league within the CCS, a program that continues to grow among small member schools. KC believes in the character building power of team sports and many a troubled youth have turned their lives around under his mentoring. His peers have voted him Coach of the Year on several occasions. More significantly, KC is known among his fellow coaches as a person who will go out of his way to help them be successful in their own programs.
  Adams honored with Model Coach Award

  By Josh Weaver GILROY DISPATCH

  GILROY – Anchorpoint Christian football coach KC Adams was one of 13 coaches from around California to be honored with the Model Coach Award, handed out by the California Interscholastic Federation.
  Adams, who led the Warriors 8-man football team to an undefeated 9-0-1 season in 2009, was instrumental in establishing the football program at Anchorpoint three years ago. Since then, the Warriors have registered a 21-4-1 record.

  The Warriors concluded the ’09 season ranked first in the Central Coast Section and 14th in the state.

  “I know how big of an award this is so for me it’s an honor. I appreciate it and I’m still in shock about it all,” Adams said. “God gave me a gift and I’m just working it His way.”

  The CIF has been handing out the Model Coach Award for nine years. According to CIF Web site, the distinction is given to coaches who “have served as positive role models in their schools and communities, and who have exhibited the traits apparent in the 16 principles of Pursuing Victory with Honor.”

  Adams, who also serves as the school’s athletic director and basketball coach, demonstrates a no-nonsense coaching style, and credits many of his instructional philosophies to coaches that helped shape him as a teenager growing up in Oakland.

  “The reason I got into coaching was because of one of my coaches,” Adams said. “He taught us a whole lot about life.

  “I guess if you ask anyone, I’m kind of a disciplinarian as well as a coach. What I’m doing right now may not make sense to the kids now, but it will when they get older.”

  Adams said that coaching isn’t all about winning, but about having dignity and respect for sports and all who are involved. Adams expects the best from the athletes who decide to participate on his teams.

  “My approach has always been the same,” Adams said. “To be honest, I’m not a walk in the park. I am very, very demanding but at the same time I love what I do. The kids have got to be willing to buy into the program. I get some kids that manners weren’t exactly the first priority in their lives. But the first thing they hear from me is Pursuing Victory With Honor.”

  Adams points to a moment this past season where his seniors on the football team shared their Senior Night with the opposing team’s seniors and also cooked them dinner after the game.

  That behavior is what Adams said he wants the kids to carry on with them after leaving Anchorpoint.

  “That’s what it’s all about,” Adams said. The program works. It turned them from selfish people into caring people. That’s how you want your kids to be when they are off on their own and mom and dad aren’t looking.”

  Adams led the Anchorpoint basketball team, with only six guys on the roster to a 4-4 league record.

  Coach K.C. Adams Receives High Statewide Honor

• Anchorpoint earns 38-28 victory over Anzar

  Friday, September 23, 2011
  Anzar High, the new kids on the 8-man football block, hosted four-time Coastal Athletic League champion Anchorpoint Christian and a rivalry sprang to life in San Juan Bautista on Friday night.

  Daniel Modic barreled into the end zone in the second quarter for the Hawks’ (0-2 overall, 0-1 CAL) first touchdown in program history, sending a spirited home crowd into frenzy. But it was Kareem Lucas and the Warriors (1-2 overall, 1-0 CAL) who had the final say with a 38-28 victory, pushing their league unbeaten streak to 17 games.

  “That’s one down,” said head coach KC Adams, whose Warriors suited up just nine players. “We are trying to win the league. That’s our goal. Let’s win something with the little that we got.”

  The Warriors are 17-0-1 in the CAL since their inaugural 2007 season. The tie came in 2009 against Marina.

  Lucas ran for three touchdowns and threw for two more, tallying 257 (199 on the ground) yards on offense. Despite being targeted by the Hawks defense, the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder had scoring runs of nine and 62 yards in the first quarter, the latter lifting Anchorpoint into the lead 14-0.

  “We broke down so many films on Kareem Lucas,” Anzar head coach Luis Espinosa said. “Trying to stop him was our main goal. He’s a phenomenal kid.”

  Anzar cut the deficit to eight points on its ensuing possession, traveling 53 yards on five plays, aided by a 37-yard completion from quarterback Jeremy Cedeno to Reno May, and capped by Modic’s plunge across the goal line.

  “Just to get that ball, see it open up – it was a culmination of what we were working for the last few months,” Modic said. “I’m honored to have that chance.”

  Each team had a drive stall on the others’ side of midfield as time ticked down toward halftime. Anchorpoint, though, had the ball with 32 seconds before the break and took advantage of a pass interference call, scoring two plays later when Lucas found Austin Keathley open on a corner route for a 2-yard touchdown and a 22-6 lead.

  The Hawks needed just three plays into the third quarter to pull within one score as Cedeno (5-for-8, 60 yards) and May again hooked up for a big play, this time a 15-yard scoring strike.

  “It was a lot better tonight being able to mix up the play calls,” Cedeno said. “We had them guessing what we were going to run and that gave us a little respect.”

  The Warriors expanded the advantage back to two scores in four plays with Lucas, this time lined up at running back, scampering 29 yards to pay dirt to make it 30-14 after a converted 2-point play.

  Jesse Jimenez, who carried the ball 17 times for 93 yards, shouldered the load on the Hawks’ next set of downs, rushing the ball three times – the third an 8-yard touchdown to bring Anzar back within one score.

  On the Warriors’ next offensive play, however, Lucas hit Steven Hunter for a long-distance 52-yard touchdown at a 38-22 cushion.

  “Once we get back into the film room we will work on what we need to,” Lucas said.

  Cedeno scurried in on a 7-yard quarterback keeper with 1:16 left in the fourth quarter, but by then the Warriors were out of reach.

  “We have a bunch of new players so we are still trying to figure things out,” Hunter said. “We practiced defense all week because it isn’t our strong point yet. But this was a good game for us.”

  The Warriors totaled 303 yards of offense while the Hawks gained 203. Damien Stowbueneko had and interception, and Miguel Madrigal and Joseph Banuelos had sacks for the Hawks.

  “These guys have a big crowd, big entertainment, big excitement and I remember our first year like that. I’m absolutely proud of what coach is doing over there. He’s doing a great job,” Adams said of the Hawks. “They are good, they’re firm and they are consistent. And I love the fact they we have a rivalry with Anzar.”

  ***********************************************************************************************************

  By: Josh Weaver sports editor for the Gilroy Dispatch

  It’s a numbers game for the Anchorpoint Christian Warriors 8-man football team. And this season, the numbers are adding up.

  Twenty-two players reported to the opening day of camp, nearly double the amount who suited up last season, giving head coach KC Adams a bit more leeway in how he runs his practices.

  With the team’s reputation for winning and Adams’ coaching prowess becoming more recognizable, the Warriors are ranked No. 2 in the state in preseason polls, Adams said.

  “Teams down in L.A. want to play us now, whereas before they wouldn’t call,” Adams said.

  With just seven seniors on the roster, three of which saw significant playing time last season, the youthful Warriors potential is, “scary.”

  “We didn’t rebuild, we reloaded,” Adams said.

  – Extra focus has been paid to the defensive side of the ball. Wanting to avoid high-scoring, back-and-forth contests, Adams and assistant coach Marlowe Brinson have been diligent in establishing a strong starting eight.

  “If we really do what I think we can do, this defense is nasty,” Adams boasted.

  – The departure of two-year starting quarterback Josh Ignagni, the signal calling duties have been handed over to senior Samuel Apolinar.

  “He has great concentration and knows the offense,” Adams said.

  – Junior Matt Garay will serve as the team’s backup QB and will most likely see time under center during ball games.

  Get Ready for Some Football!