Rosemont and Capital Christian Football Look to Rivals, Challenges

Every high school football team plays with the hopes of reaching the postseason. For and , however, nothing is a given after a year of changes.

The Wolverines of Rosemont come in with what head coach Rick Wanlin called "the biggest team we've ever had," speaking of the 45 players on the roster. Many of the players are newcomers from last year's JV team who will take the place of 18 departing starters that the Wolverines lost to .

Gone is , whom Wanlin called "the best quarterback I have ever coached." Enriquez threw for 3,120 yards and 32 touchdowns and ran for another six scores. That's a huge chunk of production gone from this year's squad.

Jacob "Tex" Smith and Tyler Masterson will battle it out for the starting job behind center, according to Wanlin. Smith will likely begin the season as the starter due to the fact that Masterson can also play wide receiver, free safety, and is the team's kicker and punter.

Wanlin doesn't know if this year holds the same fate as last year when the team made it to the before . But so far he said things are going as well as can be expected for such a young group of players.

The coach named Sac High and Burbank as two schools that have really built a rivalry with Rosemont in recent years. They face-off with those rivals in back-to-back weeks on Oct. 14 and 21. Sac High comes to Rosemont while Burbank hosts the Wolverines the following week.

Rosemont dispatched Burbank in a 43-42 thriller last year and lost to Sac High by the score of 41-28.

Capital Christian hopes to return to playoffs

Capital Christian faces different challenges, but hope remains high for the Cougars.

Rather than a huge crop of new players, the Cougars welcome in a new head coach in the form of Phil Grams after a 4-6 season in 2010-11.

Despite the sub-.500 record, the Cougars were able to pull out a 3-2 record in the Golden Empire League, narrowly missing the playoffs. The team hopes to use the experience gained last year to make a leap into the postseason.

While Rosemont has players hanging from the rafters, Capital Christian currently has just 24 players on its roster. The Cougars will once again rely on the running game to drive the offense, especially on fullback Bo Reid and running back Demitri Crenshaw.

Coach Grams will also rely heavily on senior leadership to win games. But with such a small roster, he knows staying healthy will be at a premium as well.

"We have to stay healthy. If we do, we'll be ok," Grams said. "We also have a new system and everyone has to know their assignments," he added.

Capital Christian opens up against bitter rival Golden Sierra on Aug. 26. Coach Grams is excited to see how his team performs in the season opener in Garden Valley.

The Cougars opened up last season with a 27-20 win over the rival Grizzlies.

Rosemont's 8-4 record last year was the best in school history, and the playoff was the school's first ever.

Capital Christian will look to get back to the playoffs after taking a year off from the postseason. The Cougars advanced to the playoffs and won two postseason games in 2009-10.