FALL SPORTS PREVIEW: Every St. Vincent player must contribute

The St. Vincent High School football team will have no reserves this season. Every person on the Mustangs’ 18-player varsity roster will be expected to contribute as the team moves into the new Bay Football League.

St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway, now starting his fourth decade coaching and 36th football season at St. Vincent, has hopes of adding a few more players now that school has started and he has a chance to do a bit of recruiting in the hallways.

“I would like to get up to about 24,” he says. “When my son was playing, we won a North Coast Section championship with 22 players.

“We don’t have a lot of numbers, but I am excited about this group of guys. We have 18 players on the roster, and every day last week we had 18 guys out for practice.”

Undisputed team leader will be returning quarterback Dominic Pedersen. An outstanding all-around athlete, he completed 122 of 225 attempts last season for 1,749 yards and 19 touchdowns. He will be even better this season after a year of learning the St. Vincent offense that requires the quarterback to make reads and decisions as the play develops.

“He will be huge for us,” said Galloway. “He knows what he is doing.”

Senior Nick Vollert should be in line for a big season at wide receiver. A talented athlete, he caught 13 passes for 148 yards in an injury-slowed junior season. Now healthy, he gives Petersen a big (6-foot-1) target either deep or for possession.

Vollert leads a receiving corps that includes senior Alec Woodyatt, juniors Michael Davis and Trenton Starrett, and Trey Davis, the only sophomore currently on the varsity.

Although the Mustangs lost rushing and receiving leader George Sammon to graduation, they do return senior Manny Reyes, who got quite a bit of playing time at halfback last season, averaging 8.7 yards per carry while gaining 340 yards and scoring four touchdowns.

Junior Tony Garcia-Bedoya, coming up from the junior varsity, and senior Kieran Hutt will also be in line for ball-carrying duties.

Anchored by Will Tarrant, the line might well be one of the Mustangs’ strong points. Tarrant, a 6-5, 235-pound athlete, is one of the best football players in the empire at any size school.

To make better use of his mobility, the St. Vincent coaching staff is moving him off the defensive line to a linebacking position on defense.

Also on the line are junior Ryan Silva (6-0, 195), junior Jimmy Lamerdin (6-0, 155), senior returning starter Connor Carr (5-10, 200), junior Enzo Burgan (6-0, 235), senior Max Kavanaugh (5-11, 175) and recent junior varsity call-up Mohammed Alloy (6-0, 220).

“All the linemen have to be inter-changeable,” says Galloway. “They all have to know all the positions.”

Who will play where and when is still being sorted out, but all will play and all will probably play on both sides of scrimmage.

Nick Murphy (6-3, 200) returns at tight end and is also expected to be one of the mainstays on defense at linebacker.

With so few bodies, it is a necessity that all players go both ways. The linebackers, with Tarrant, Murphy and Vollert, will be one the Mustang strengths. Garcia-Bedoya and Hutt will also see linebacking time.

All of the linemen will do double duty in the trenches.

Pedersen, Trey Davis, Riley, Woodyatt, Michael Davis and Starrett will be in the defensive backfield mix.

“We’ll rest kids when we can,” Galloway says, “but they are going to have to play. We have to be in the best shape we can be.”

Galloway is excited to have three assistant coaches - new school assistant principal Art Walker, Mike O’Toole and Josh Duffy - who are on the school staff. They will work with Joe Murphy, Bill Pedersen and Wes Sitchler, with Nick Terlizzi returning as team trainer.

With all the other teams - Calistoga, Tomales and Upper Lake – that were part of the North Central League II last year switching to eight-man football because of declining enrollment, the Mustangs this season join a new Bay Football League that includes California School for the Deaf, Stellar Prep from Oakland, Harker School from San Jose, Valley Christian from Dublin and Emery from Emeryville.

Even before getting to league play, St. Vincent faces a difficult pre-league schedule with St. Helena, Willits and Cloverdale from the North Central League I, San Rafael from the Marin County Athletic League and Balboa from San Francisco on its agenda.