Best Turnaround in Knights History 1-9 to 9-2

By DANIEL FRIEDEMANN

One of the biggest turnarounds in junior college football took place this football season at Shasta College.

Last year the Knights on the gridiron were 1-9. This year the Knights were 9-2, conference champs and Bulldog Bowl champions with 13 players named all-conference, a Shasta College record.

“Without a doubt it was like waking up, going from a nightmare to a dream season,” said sophomore middle linebacker Ryan McDonald.

“It’s exciting, a good feeling,” said all-conference cornerback Robert Lee. “As everybody knows, we struggled last year going one and nine and this year a complete turnaround.”

“It was a really fun season,” said quarterback Will Camy. “Having a lot of key guys coming this year, filling a lot of holes we had last year, adding coach Doug Adkins running the defense, the offensive line having a great year, Brandon Baldwin having a huge year.”

“The last three year’s wins and losses combined were real tough,” said athletic director Gary Houser. So to turn that around and play Monterey, which sported a 13-game winning streak, “That’s really outstanding,” he said.

Houser noted at one time when he coached football that players, coaches and fans are just satisfied with a bowl invitation.

“But our players weren’t,” he said. “These players of ours (practiced hard that week). It just wasn’t fun and games and glad that we were going on that trip. They wanted to beat that Monterey team,” Houser added.

“It was a big turnaround especially for the sophomores,” said defensive MVP Zach Gibbons. “It was a sad season (due to some players leaving at the end of this year) but it was worth it. Coach Adkins was a big part of the turnaround. With him coming here, obviously our defense was outstanding.”

“Last year, it was like getting the pump-up speech just to help us keep going,” said running back Ryan Kruger. “But this time, every time we were meeting, it was celebration. Just a lot more fun,” he said.

Coach Craig Thompson won his first coach of the year award.

“Yeah, it’s the first time I have received that honor,” Thompson said. It typically goes to the head coach who wins the conference and it’s the first time we got it because it’s the first time we won together.”

“It’s not an individual award to me, it’s more of the outstanding job our coaching staff did,” Thompson said. “It shows me how great of a job my assistant staff did and how they are recognized for such a tremendous job they did. They are the ones who deserve this award.”

The Knights won their conference championship against the College of the Redwoods Corsairs for the first time since 1987. Camy led the way with 179 yards passing and two touchdown passes, both to receiver Blake Arrowsmith.

The Corsairs had their way running the football against the Knight’s stingy defense. Running back Lyndon Rowells had 23 carries for 157 yards and one touchdown on the ground, and added an 84-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Knight leading rusher Brandon Baldwin scored three rushing touchdowns and was selected the eighth rusher in Knight’s history to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark as the Knights rolled over the Corsairs, 33-16.

The Knights went into the Bulldog Bowl game defending the conference title against the hottest team in the country, Monterey College.

The coastal team sported a 10-0 record this season and held the longest winning streak, dating back to last season, with 13 wins in a row.

“We went in feeling accomplished but not in that peak of what we could do,” said linebacker Ryan McDonald.

The Knights sure did get one heck of a fight going into halftime, being shut out 14-0.

“We didn’t come out flat but we came out making a few key mental mistakes,” said McDonald. “In our program if you get out of doing your job and do someone else’s job, the whole system falls apart. And we had that happen to us really early. Then coach gave us a speech, which pretty much said ‘the difference between a good team and a great team is what you do when you’re down.’ Then everyone got fired up and that’s when and where we said we were not giving up.”

Camy did just that, completing 25 of 35 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns, both to receiver Blake Arrowsmith.

Arrowsmith led the Knights in receiving with 11 catches for 138 stripes and two touchdown receptions.

“The offense came out and scored and made it 6-14,” said McDonald.

It went back and fourth. The Knights went on to score 21 unanswered points. On the final offensive drive for the Knights, Camy led his troops all the way down the field, completing an 8-yard strike to Arrowsmith for a Knight touchdown, putting the Knights up 33-31.

Then Monterey had a drive of its own. Shasta College defensive lineman Niko Kuypler sacked Monterey quarterback Brian Reader. On the next play, Reader quickly spiked the ball to stop the clock with one second left. Reader dropped back and lobbed the ball in the air as he was going down.

“It goes through defensive lineman Casey Robertson’s hands and through a Lobo’s hands and defensive MVP Zach Gibbons seals the deal picking off Reader’s pass and the crowd goes crazy,” said McDonald.