Q&A: Clovis football coach: We've got good momentum

Editor’s note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Andrew McCraw is beginning his third year as Clovis High’s football coach.

Q: What’re your overall thoughts on last season?

A: We were excited where we finished the regular season. We kind of struggled early, and then we figured it out.

We were waiting for some guys to develop a little bit. When that happened we went on a little roll. We were undefeated in district, won a district championship and had an awesome comeback in the district championship game.

The kids who were on the team that are coming back have worked really, really hard. So we’ve got some good momentum from last season, and hopefully it’ll carry us towards this next season.

Q: Who are some of the key difference makers on offense?

A: Right now we’re looking at John Royal taking over our running back spot. He had some spot duty last year and started one game in the district game versus Santa Fe. Had a 100-yard game. He’s really talented.

He started on defense for us last year. He was a big playmaker on defense so we’re really hoping he can kind of transition to the offense side of the ball and be kind of our bell cow for us, be our big fullback.

Then we’ve got to replace Jett Stone at quarterback. Javier Jimenez is kind of the guy we look at right there. He played some spot duty at quarterback last year. Threw some touchdowns for us as a freshman.

And then we have a couple of offensive linemen that did a really good job that we’re going to run behind: Kaleb King and Claudio Hernandez have had a great offseason.

Kaleb played on the defensive line for us last year. He’s done a good job.

Q: Who’re some of the key difference makers on defense?

A: We lost a lot. We played a lot of seniors both ways last year. So one guy who did a really good job for us last year was Cliff Brown at corner. Lok for him to kind of come back and really lock down one of our corner spots for us.

He ended up being all-district for us and then Matthew Ochoa has done a good job. He’s gonna play linebacker for us. He was our top backup last year and got some time on the special teams.

Then we’ve got a kid named Kyden Everett. He’s going to be a sophomore. He’s kind of a younger guy. He’s physical, pretty athletic. He’s going to be one of our safeties for us.

Then we’ve got a bunch of big guys up front on the defensive line: Giovanni Gonzalez, Troy Richter. They played a lot for us last year. Had some pressures and had some sacks for us. Irvin Rodriguez is another D lineman who has had a really good offseason and did a pretty good job for us on the JV team last year.

Q: Fill in the blank: Clovis High School will have a successful season if ____.

A: Our kids grow up and develop. Our schedule is tough. It’s not going to be easy this year. So we’ll have a good year if kids stick with it and keep getting better.

We’ve got a long way to go. It’s gonna take us a while to get going.

Q: What have you learned in your first two years that will help you heading into year three?

A: You’ve got to adapt to your kids. Gotta figure out what they do. I coached a lot of college football. So you kind of just recruited what you need, you know what I mean?

Now, it’s like, “Well, this is what we got and that’s fine.”

You know, we’re not going to complain about what we don’t have. We’re going to work hard with the kids we do have, and we’re going to figure out ways for our kids to be successful. We got a bunch of smaller kids this year. So we’re going to kind of change some things we do on defense. So a little different scheme up front.

We are going to do a little more blitzing and create some pressure with some of our smaller kids. Maybe we can take advantage of some of our kids’ quickness.

— Compiled by Matt Weiner, The Staff of The News