Posted Nov. 4, 2017 by Corey Colstelloe, The Tehachapi News Xs and Arrows: Whatever Their Secret Is
The Warriors' Results This Season Have Been Impressive
For the second consecutive season, the Tehachapi Warriors regular season football finale against West High School had a lot of meaning. Last season the game played in Tehachapi meant win number 300 for Hall of Fame head coach Steve Denman and a piece of the South Yosemite League Championship for the Warriors.
Fast forward 12 months and the Warriors won again over the Vikings, using a combination of special teams and defensive turnovers to erase a late deficit and prevail 27-21 in the Vikings' homeland off Valhalla. It took Connor Tim stepping in front of a pass on the Tehachapi 1-yard line to hold off the Vikings and give the Warriors another milestone win of sorts.
This win didn’t have 299 victories behind it for their head coach. Heck, it was only win number five for first-year head coach Doug DeGeer, who has captured four of those wins in the last four weeks. The Warriors are finally back at full strength, or closer to it than they were weeks ago when their schedule was robust, and their roster paltry.
Friday’s win was also the first of hopefully many championships for DeGeer, as the Warriors claimed their second-consecutive share of the SYL Championship after four straight wins. Looking back to that 14-13 last-second loss to Independence is torturous for the players and the staff, knowing full well that a few seconds separated them from an outright title. But then again, maybe it was that loss, the last one the Warriors have since experienced, that morphed this team to its latest incarnation.
This situation begs a comparison. In 1982, a young coach took over for a legend as well. Steve Denman won a Desert Inyo League Championship in his first season after taking the reins from Gary Ogilvie. It was the first of 15 league titles to come. Three seasons later in 1985, he won his first of eight CIF Championships.
He wasn’t the first to do it in his inaugural season. In 1956-57, when Bernie Hill took over the program, it was a team that was unknowingly dropped from the Sierra League midway through the season. They played as an independent and won a San Joaquin Valley Championship going 10-0. Bill Carll won the DIL in his first season in 1967, so I guess you can say coach DeGeer simply claimed his place in history. Either a legendary Chinese proverb, or the last fortune cookie I ate, said “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” No matter the source, the wisdom is applicable. The first steps have been taken.
Considering the tough start to this season, the injuries, the 1-4 record at the start of October, this team is impressive. They have progressively improved on the field, especially defensively where the Warriors are forcing turnovers and making life as a quarterback very painful. Offensively they’ve simplified things. Early in the season the plays were almost too complex as the new staff tried to show Tehachapi they were changing things up from the "three-yards and a cloud of dust" approach so famous during the Denman tenure.
Watch this team now and they’re running the ball more, and using misdirection and Wing-T formations again. Success has followed. I guess the grass isn’t always greener under a passed football.
Whatever the secret is, the results have been impressive. Four straight wins since the start of October, a league co-championship and plenty of momentum heading into the CIF Central Section Division III playoffs. Tons of credit should go to the players on the field who could have packed it in after a couple of lopsided losses to a few state-championship caliber opponents. But they didn’t. Credit to the coaching staff for not allowing them to, and for making the right adjustments once the team was healthy.
Thursday night the playoffs return to Tehachapi as the fifth-seeded Warriors host 12th-seeded South with a 7 p.m. kickoff. It's a Thursday game because of Friday’s Veterans Day observation. Maybe another step can be taken in this long football journey for a program with a new identity. It’s been a fun one to watch so far.
Corey Costelloe has covered the NCAA, professional and local sports for more than 20 years
as a reporter and broadcaster. A THS graduate, he now resides and works in Tehachapi.
He can be reached at corey.costelloe@gmail.com.
