Sultana football team is hungry for a turnaround

How hungry is the Sultana football team after going winless the last two seasons?

“We’re starving,” said junior Charles Mouton.

And understandably so.

The recent history of the program hasn’t been very kind. The Sultans enter the season in the midst of a 21-game losing streak that stretches to the last game of 2007. They haven’t won a league game since the 2006 Key Game and haven’t had an above-.500 record since claiming the league title in ’05.

Last year’s team was outscored 389-81 for the season and only played in one game (a 21-14 loss to Hesperia) in which it had a chance to pull out a win in the fourth quarter.
But that is in the past.

“It’s a new season,” senior lineman Eric Johnson said. “We’re tired of losing. We’re ready to play Sultan football.”

“Everybody’s tempo is so much higher,” senior running back/strong safety Joe Maynes said. “Everybody’s morale about playing is so much higher than the last two years.”

Blake Robbins takes over as the head coach this season, replacing Zane Sweeney who led the team for the past seven years. Robbins has assisted at Sultana since the school opened in 1995, and he coached at the lower levels at Hesperia for eight years before Sultana opened.

Robbins, who was the defensive coordinator last season, will assume the offensive play calling and hand over defensive coordinating to Joe Ardito, who coached the frosh-soph team last year.

“Basically my opinion is to keep it simple,” Robbins said. “The simpler you can keep it, the kids know what they’re doing and they’ll go 100 percent. ... If we go into a game and we have three plays that we have worked on all week to prepare, everybody better know what they’re doing. Just keep it simple and make it work.”

A more favorable schedule could help the Sultans turn around the recent past. Last year only one of their six nonleague opponents missed the playoffs (Victor Valley), and all of them had a winning record.

This season, Cajon, Palm Springs, Knight and Summit have been replaced with San Bernardino, Yucca Valley, Pacific and Granite Hills. Since Sultana’s last winning season, its four new opponents have combined to produce only two above-.500 seasons.

With Robbins taking over the offensive play calling, the Sultans will go back to more of an under-center formation using a multi-set.

“We’re gonna mix it up,” Robbins said. “We’re gonna have one back, two back, three back, two tight ends, one tight end, spread it, multiple set.”

The offense will be running behind a big offensive line with a number of returning starters in Johnson (6-foot-2, 295 pounds), junior center Mouton (6-11⁄2, 275), right tackle Devin Kensley (5-11, 255), and senior tight ends Brandon Lindeman (6-2, 213) and Clifford Maxwell (6-2, 212).

They’ll be helping to block for third-year quarterback Brandon Rios, who threw for 210 yards against Serrano in the season finale last year. Maynes — who started last year’s final game — looks to get many of the carries, but Daniel Vega and Darnell Apante will also get a chance.

Defensively, Robbins likes the size and quickness of his defensive ends Mouton and Fontana junior transfer Terrance Lange. Both of whom can run a 40-yard dash in 4.8 seconds or faster, Robbins said.

Linebacker was a weakness for the Sultans last year, but they now have some experience in third year starter Lindeman and returning junior middle linebacker Jeremiah Pele.
Robbins said he would like to finish in the top three in league. The MRL saw big turnover from last season, but it isn’t going to be easy.

“Basically hard work is our goal,” Robbins said. “Our motto is deserve victory. Hard work, dedication, desire. That’s our motto and hopefully we can do that.”