After spending offseason volunteering in the community Vintage football is gearing up for a busy summer
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The Vintage football team has had a busy offseason.
But, their offseason was way more than just lifting and preparing for the 2019 campaign for Vintage who went 10-3 overall and posted a 6-0 record in the first year of the Vine Valley Athletic League in 2018. They also won their first playoff game in 32 years when they beat James Logan-Union City in the first round and Antioch in the quarterfinals to advance all the way to the semifinals in the CIF North Coast Section Division I playoffs.
During their time away from the gridiron the Crushers were busy volunteering in the community. They were very busy throughout Napa County as they volunteered at the West Park, Browns Valley, and Bel Aire Elementary School carnivals. They also were busy cleaning up the garden and Silverado Middle School and the Pioneer Cemetery in Yountville. They also helped out at the Napa Valley Marathon, Feed the Need, Boys and Girls Club of Napa Valley, and Cycle for Sight: A Napa Valley bike ride and charity event.
For Vintage coach Dylan Leach the goal of the volunteering is to show his players how important they are to their community.
“I just think it’s important to give back to the community,” Leach explained. “I’m a Napa guy, born and raised, so I just feel like the more we can give back to the community and help out, the better off we’ll be. I think our kids probably get more out of it than the people that we help. For example, when we do our elementary school carnivals and what not it’s great for us to give back, but the relationship that we get and the fun that we get out of working with these kids is what it’s all about.”
Mauricio Castro, who rushed for 422 yards and three touchdowns on 53 carries as a junior last season, was a big presence as he was at every volunteering event Vintage did.
“Volunteering wise, I just got to meet new people and experience the people in my community and I got to help out a lot,” Castro said Thursday. “Just helping them out just makes me feel better as a person because their smiles make me smile.”
Crushers gearing up for busy summer
Vintage ended their two-week long spring program on Friday. They’ll have a week off before starting their summer program on Monday, June 10th.
According to Leach his team has had a good start of the six month journey.
“The offseason went great,” he said. “We’ve got some new faces around and some new players and some new players and we’re always excited about getting guys interested in the game of football. These kids work extremely hard. I respect them for that, and the effort that they put in will hopefully pay dividends come season time.
“Spring ball is hit-and-miss because we’ve had a lot of other things in spring – I mean we deal with baseball practices, and we deal with plays and work, and we deal with all this other stuff that people aren’t necessarily ready for football season,” he added. “But, we feel like if we can get work done and it’s not about schemes at this point, it’s about instilling our culture and instilling our environment and creating an environment that people want to be around.”
Over the summer they’ll be in a 7-on-7 passing tournament and lineman challenge that is in Davis on June 8th. The skilled players won’t be the only ones busy in at the UC Davis tournament, as there will be lineman competition that Vintage will take part in as well.
“I think just coming together as a team and finishing as a team,” Castro said as to what he and his teammates will gain from the tournaments. “Just getting better, and I think running my routes I need to get a little bit better, so getting competition with a little bit of taller guys because I’m a shorter man, I think that’s going to help me a lot in these seven on tournaments and stuff.”
“More than anything, when we go to these tournaments is just to see who can compete and who can be coachable,” Leach explained. “So, we get to throw some guys in some fire situations or put guys in position they’re not maybe used to or play all the time, so that’s one big thing, and obviously anytime you get to face a different color than the burgundy and gold we want to make sure that we are competing at the highest level.”
Aside from the passing tournaments, they’ll have a few 7-on-7 meetings with perennial CIF Sac-Joaquin Section power and former Monticello Empire League rival Vacaville. They’ll also face Benicia during their busy summer.
“Those are obviously two good programs,” Leach emphasized. “So we want to be sure that we get out and play other people and obviously those guys over at Vacaville and Benicia do a great job and we’re going to just try to play them in one-on-one situations.”
Official practices begin on August 5th.
