Taken from the words of the late great Dodger broadcaster, Vin Scully, it’s time for Culver City High School football. The young and inexperienced Centaurs will open the 2022 season at home on Friday against longtime foe, West Torrance at 7 p.m. inside the Jerry Chabola Stadium.
For the first time in many years, the Centaurs will rely on a lot of unproven talent, but head coach Jahmal Wright and his staff are ready for the challenge.
“We are excited,” said Wright after practice last Monday. “We are just looking forward to playing good old fashioned Culver City football. We are excited about the new, young, unproven talent that we have.”
If their scrimmage with South Torrance last week at Culver City is any indication, the Centaurs should be ready this Friday against the Warriors.
“I was very pleased about how we played against South Torrance,” said Wright. “We played well on offense, defense and special teams. The offensive line really dominated the line of scrimmage. The skilled position players did a good job and our running back, Maurice Burgess ran hard.”
Opening the holes for the running backs and protecting the new quarterback will be returning linemen, senior center Robert Singerman, senior left tackle Charlie Butler, senior right tackle Sunnie Suarez and senior left guard Derrick Hayes.
The new quarterback is 6’3 junior, Sammy Silvia.
“It was a pretty tight quarterback battle between Silvia and junior Alejandro Ortega,” said Wright. “They competed against each other the whole off season and we just named the starter today (Monday). They both did an outstanding job, but Sammy played really well against South Torrance last week. He threw two touchdown passes.”
Silvia and Ortega’s main targets will be junior, Mateo Torres, Myles Singleton and his brother Braylon Singleton. They are both sophomores and they are both outstanding basketball players who played for Culver City last season.
“We have a very deep receiving group that has been doing a great job,” said Wright. “At Culver City we like to spread the ball around to different receivers. That’s been the Culver City trademark for the past 20 years.”
If anyone would know about the past 20 years, it’s Wright. He played football for the Centaurs for four years, and he was an assistant coach for nine years and he has been the head coach for On defense the line will be solid, and the linebackers and defensive backs will be active according to Wright. The outside linebackers are senior Malik Lewis and junior Jashon Kirkwood Jr. The inside linebackers will be junior Pierce Reynoso and senior Nick Badour.
In the defensive backfield the Centaurs will be led by junior cornerback Brandon Mahoney and cornerback Braylon Singleton and the safeties will be junior James Wright and Myles Singleton.
The special teams will be led by junior punter and kicker Henry Brownlow. Brownlow is also a star player on the Centaur volleyball team. “Henry is doing a great job for us,” said Wright. “He is an extremely hard worker.”
Although there will be a lot of new players Wright is confident, they can get the job done. “This group has worked hard this summer. We are a cohesive team, and they are a tight unit. They play well together. We have a team of a lot of sophomores and juniors so we will have the team playing together for the next few years. We are excited about the possibilities.”