Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) varsity football team has finished the regular season with a 6-4 record. This is the first time that the Barons’ have had a positive regular season win-loss record in eight years. Aside from a handful of other factors that contributed to the team’s success this season—a senior heavy roster, a low division to compete in and a reenergized defensive engine—the team owes a lot to their presiding offensive line (O line) for their consistent quality in the trenches and for powering the teams high octane offense.
In American football, the O line is a five man group whose job is to prevent the opposing team’s defenders from tackling their quarterback or running back before that player can gain yards. This season, the starting BVH O line has been a force to be reckoned with. The unit is chock-full of size and experience. Of the five starters, four are seniors, four are above six feet tall and all five are over 260 pounds. Aside from the advantages levied to them from their significant statures, the BVH O line has also gained strength from their shared cohesion and care for each other.
“This year, our O line is more united than ever. They play with the thought of the unit rather than themselves, and that is not to say that [the O lines of] other years did not have a similar sense of unity, but our O line this year just feels different,” O line coach Michael Albright said.
The O line is arguably one of the most important factors in whether a team wins or loses a game. If the O line can not block well, then the ball can’t move forward, the team can not score, and the ball carrier is more susceptible to injury. Of the five O line positions, there are two players called tackles who preside on the far edges of either side of the line, two guards who line up on both sides of the line’s interior and one center who stands in the middle and snaps the ball on every play. All five of the BVH O line starters would improve at their specific positions with cooperative off-season strength training.
“During the off-season, the team and I worked on Saturdays. We worked a lot of the drills and skills that we may not have had the opportunity to work during the regular season. Of the players that came, most of them had prior varsity experience from last year. The guys really wanted to improve on their skills and their strength and they were very dedicated this off-season,” Albright said.
The off-season training done by the O linemen has a large role in the connections that they collectively share. Center and senior Nicholas Pina (67) goes on to recognize the dynamic role that shared experiences hold in establishing a sense of certainty and value in the O line.
“It is much easier to rely on people that you know have been putting in the same amount of work as you. It feels good to know that the lineman beside me are working hard to make sure that they keep myself and our teammates safe. That feeling builds a brotherhood,” Pina said.
As the team’s center, Pina deals with unique issues that no other player on the O line has to deal with. For example, centers and quarterbacks are the only players on the team that are guaranteed to touch the ball on every play. Alongside the pressures of perfecting his ball snapping form, Pina also has to deal with nose tackles—usually the largest and heaviest defensive lineman—hitting him on every down. Despite the list of tasks levied onto Pina’s shoulders, he is actually the shortest starting O lineman, but he uses his stockiness to his advantage.
“[In football] the low man wins. Whoever is going to be able to drive the opposite player back wins the rep,” Pina said. “[Despite my potential disadvantages], I use my low pad level and stocky build to get under my opponents’ shoulders and drive. [Low height] could pose disadvantages to some, but I found ways to just turn it into my own advantage.”
Centers are expected to have a strong relationship with their quarterback since they are the ones that give the quarterback the ball on every play. Pina mentions his beliefs in BVH’s young starting quarterback and junior Isayah Luna (4), pointing out Luna’s positive attributes and potential for the future of the team.
“Something that I see in Luna that a lot of people miss is the swagger that he has. He has the poise of a starting quarterback, he has a certain poise that lets people know that he wants to be great. Although he is still developing, I am very excited to see what he does in the coming years,” Pina said.
Centers are usually the commanders of the O line, but the BVH O line is different in that the starting guard duo—left guard and senior Kelly Brown (75) and right guard and senior Sebastuan Flores (78)—are the captains of both the O line and the team. The duo’s responsibilities as captains are to enforce a sense of structure within the team.
“[As a captain] it is my job to push everyone to work their hardest and also to hold everyone accountable to their actions. A lot of the time I will find myself get ticked off when our players are messing around or not paying attention when they’re supposed to be,” Brown said. “Since we are captains, Flores and I are very vocal when it comes to keeping other players focused and in order.”
Flores goes on to mention the limitations that he is perceived within his role as a captain. He realizes that although he’s tasked with leading the team when he is off of the field, his responsibilities on the field are to follow directions and to complete his assigned tasks as an O lineman.
“Being captain does not give me any on-the-field power. When I step on the field, the only people that I am listening to are the coaches and the quarterback,” Flores said.
In order to earn his role as a captain of the team, Flores had to improve his physicality and discipline. He mentions the ways his consistency and effort developed him as an athlete and as an individual.
“When I started football, I was one of the heaviest [players on the team], but then I lost a lot of weight. What I am saying is that I came out of the gate slow. Overtime, I increased my speed by being consistent with what I do, and although I faced a lot of challenges, my consistency is what made it all possible,” Flores said.
Similar to Flores, Brown had to go through a series of challenges in order to become a better player and to achieve his position as a team captain. Unlike Flores, Brown has been a player on the varsity football team ever since he was a sophomore. Brown attests to the idea that his brief experience as one of the team’s “little guys” amplified his journey to becoming the high quality left guard that he is today.
“As a result of being on varsity since my sophomore year, I have had a lot of time to grow as a player. In the past I have been the little guy at the bottom of the pile, I have been in the dirt, I have been the guy that gets picked on. Now that I have had time to grow in my role, I’m at the top. It’s refreshing to know that now I am one of the top dogs,” Brown said.
Albright has been there to watch over Brown’s growth as a player and as a leader. He takes pride in the bond that himself and Brown have formed over their three year tenure as coach and player.
“In the beginning of his sophomore year, Brown was the O line’s young buck. He was a sophomore on a senior heavy line, and he got to see how those seniors treated football,” Albright said. “Over the past years, I have seen his strength improve dramatically. He is one of the strongest guys on our team and he is also a vocal leader that leads by example.”
As a left guard, Brown’s main job is to block the interior defensive lineman that attack the left side of the O line. Interior defensive lineman tend to be stronger, larger and slower than their exterior counterparts; edge rushers. It is the responsibility of the O line’s tackles to block the speedier and more agile edge rushers. BVH left tackle and senior Aden Provencio (74) comments on the difficulties that he faces to seal the edge.
“[As a left tackle] I find difficulty in blocking speedy edge rushers. These guys are a crazy mix of size and speed. It is very hard to block players that are six foot one inches tall and 210 pounds, especially when they are extremely fast. [Edge rushers are] some of the most athletic people on the field, and going up against them is not easy,” Provencio said.
The team’s other tackle, right tackle and sophomore Nikolas Edwards (76) is the youngest player on the starting O line and the only active sophomore on the varsity team this year. Edwards finds himself in a similar situation to Brown all those years ago, but his coach and team firmly believe in his incredible potential as a player.
“Edwards’ ceiling is higher than any of our present linemans’ ceilings. Edwards as a sophomore is better than any of us were at the sophomore level, his potential is greater than any of the players that I have had the privilege of playing with. There is no doubt in the fact that he can be great, nobody is doubting his potential and nobody is doubting his strength or his ability to make plays,” Pina said.
Edwards is aware of his own talent, but continues to tirelessly work and improve on his skills by immersing himself in the same rigorous labor that his peers do. Although some might see Edwards’ young age in this year’s senior heavy O line as a disadvantage, he sees it as a learning opportunity that can put him ahead of the competition.
“Being on an O line with so many seniors has made me want to be better as a sophomore. I have been working as hard as I can to produce at the same level that they do, or even to surpass their level,” Edwards said.
Despite the mountains of work that players of the O line put in, they often go under appreciated for their crucial role on the field and are overshadowed by their flashier “skill position” counterparts. In his high school days, BVH Athletic Director, Head football coach and former varsity quarterback Tyler Arciaga mentioned how he would personally recognize his O line by repaying them in the form of McMuffins. Similarly, BVH varsity running back, inside linebacker, team captain and senior Caden Ada-Tannehill (22) repays this year’s O line by buying them donuts, which fosters a mutual respect between himself and the unit.
“If Ada-Tannehill ends up having a good game and scores a bunch of touchdowns for our team, then he will buy us donuts for film practice the next morning,” said Provencio. “Ada-Tannehill is a great running back, he makes a lot of great cuts [in his runs] and he breaks around two to three tackles per play. It feels good whenever he gives us respect, but his talent is undoubtable.”
Ada-Tannehill’s contributions to his teammates on the O line are very moving, but it is generally expected that O lineman do their work without the same attention as their peers. Arciaga discusses the culture of selflessness that he has noticed within the position.
“O lineman play the most selfless position in just about all of sports. They almost never get the ball, they never get the score, they do nothave any traditional stats. These are players that get hit every play and don’t get any breaks,” Arciaga said.
Albright, who extensively played every O line position at one point or another throughout his college career, has a different perspective on the mindset of an O lineman. In Albright’s eyes, although O linemen cannot score touchdowns themselves, they live vicariously through the people that they help in scoring.
“[When I played on the offensive line], it felt great to see other players score. I would feel just as much pride and happiness as those guys who scored because I knew that I played my role. I would take pride in the fact that I opened up the hole that the running back ran through or did whatever it took to succeed so that our whole team could be happy. I mean, there is no better feeling,” Albright said.
