Panther Midgets complete undefeated season

The Petaluma Panther Midget youth football team has feasted on North Bay Youth Football League teams all season, and for dessert gets a trip to Las Vegas to compete in the Pigskin Classic.

The Midget players are the oldest and largest of the players that compete in the North Bay League, which consists of teams from Sonoma and Marin.

Petaluma’s Panthers roared through the regular season with a 10-0 record, clinching a perfect league championship with a 28-0 win over the Central Marin Chargers last weekend.

The Panthers now go into a four-team league playoff, facing the fourth-place Windsor Knights Sunday at 5 p.m. at San Rafael High School. If they win, the Panthers would try to add the playoff crown to their season’s championship in a game on Sept. 16 at Piner High School.

Head coach Tyrone Nesbit says the key to the Petaluma success is how quickly players from different backgrounds and different areas came together as a team.

“Some of them didn’t even know one another when we started,” the coach said. “We had six kids who had never played football before. They are a great group of kids. They really believed in our team and in our system.”

Offensively, that system is a spread offense, but one that has the Panthers running more often than they throw. Of course, running is made easier when you have the fastest running back in the league as the Panthers do in Tyrone Nesbit.

But, the Panthers also throw and the coach said they have an excellent quarterback in Jance Offerman.

Nesbit said everything has come together because of what he calls “a fantastic offensive line,” and a “phenomenal defense” that gave up the fewest points in the league,

Another important weapon for the Panthers has been kicker Wilfried Kramer. In youth football, a team kicks two points for kicking a PAT, but only one for running in the conversion. “Those two points mean a lot,” Nesbit said.

Regardless of how they do in the league playoffs, the Panthers will spend Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas competing in a major tournament that includes teams from Alaska, New York, Oregon, and other states, along with several teams from California.

“I don’t know anything about the teams we will be playing,” Nesbit said, “but it should be a great experience for the players.”

Members of the Panther Midgets are Wilfried Kramer, Tanner McKinney, Aiden Chappelle, Emilio Moncisbais, William Boone, Michael Fernandez, Bailie Wise, Robert Holmes, Daniel DeCarli, Domenic Espinos, Kameron Merrill, Anthony Carpenter, Colten Shimek, Max Soares, Joseph Cotton, Justin Naugle, Tyler Manesis, Omar Ochoa, Zac McIntosh, Derrick Pomi, Zian Kovach, Matthew Lojko-Murphy, Jaeger Cybulski, Tyzion Harris, Jace Offermann, Christopher Olvera, Noah Parnell, Jordan Prior, Giovanni Vaca, and Cole Powers.

Helping Nesbit with the coaching are Willie Wise, Mark Offerman, Jim Naugle and Tre Fitzgerald. Cyndi Merrill is team mom.