The Buhach Colony High football team doesn’t have to travel by bus for a home game anymore. The Thunder band doesn’t have to load all their gear in a trailer and transport it to Atwater High. The Thunder finally have a stadium on their own campus.

 

It’s a pinch-me type moment for Buhach Colony head coach Kevin Navarra. “I think it won't hit us until we actually put the pads on in the locker room,” said Navarra. “I think there's a lot of energy from our kids, from our youth program. You glance over now from the practice field out there, and you go, ‘Hey, we’ve got a home.’ For at least five games we’re not jumping on a bus, having to figure some logistical things out to get over there. I'm super excited.”

 

It’s a new era for Buhach Colony football and it comes as the team attempts to build off of last year. Entering last season, the Thunder were coming off of back-to-back winless seasons. Buhach Colony snapped a 23-game losing streak last year, finishing 4-6, including a 42-40 victory over Atwater in the Bloss Bowl. That taste of success has the Thunder program hungry for more this year.

 

“What I'm excited about is last year was about proving to them that we can get over the hump and win some games,” Navarra said. “Now we've got a group where they look back and go, ‘Okay, well, we won some games, but we're upset because we were in some ball games where we thought we should have won.’ We left two or three games on the field.”

 

The Thunder plan to return to their roots and run a more traditional fly offense, which is a system built around the fly sweep, using constant motion, misdirection and precise blocking schemes. The most success the program has had was when the Thunder ran the fly offense with former head coach Kevin Swartwood, winning the Central California Conference championships three consecutive years from 2010 through 2012 and reaching the section semifinals all three seasons. 

 

“Last year we could say we were running the fly, but this year I think the way we run it is a little bit more traditional,” Navarra said. “The way we've done in the past, we’re really trying to emphasize the deception component of it and continue to build off of it. We also want to be able to get in the gun and let our quarterback run a little bit, we want to throw the ball to the edge. It's easy to say we want to put the ball in our athletes' hands.”

 

The Thunder return some key players on offense, led by Blake O’Brien, who battled through some injuries to lead the team with 736 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in seven games played. O’Brien’s talent was on display against Atwater when he rushed for a career high 296 yards and four touchdowns.

 

“I think having a little success last year makes everyone a little more thirsty,” O’Brien said. “We got that first taste, we had a few great games, but I think we're reaching higher than that. I think everyone's going to raise the bar.” 

 

Buhach Colony will also count on returning linemen Michael Hernandez and Race Burrola, receiver Aedyn Bighom, tight end Jonathan DeLoa and fullback Mason Caetano. Many of those same players will see a lot of time on the defensive side of the ball, along with linebackers Jeremiah Hurtado and Soren Anderson. “I feel like everybody knows each other and knows what they can do,” Caetano said.

 

The team hopes the program can take another step forward this season. They’ve put in the work, starting with early morning workouts. They hope that work will equate to a successful season and a chance to showcase their talents in their new stadium. “This group understands when you put that time in the offseason, it does pay off, and it comes down to those little things,” Navarra said.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.