'05 Eagles a blend of youth,
experience
By Steve Gerace
New College of the Siskiyous head football coach Eric Young is surrounded
by both young and veteran assistant coaches as a large Eagle squad begins
preparations for the 2005 fall season.
Some 100 players, about half of them returning from last year's 5-5
team, are in the Eagles' training camp, which will include an intrasquad
scrimmage under the lights at Weed High School this Saturday, August
20th, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
"We've got a lot of teaching to do to get guys moving in the same
direction, said Young, who replaces Matt Sayre, who has returned to
his previous position as offensive coordinator at Southern Oregon University
after one year at the Eagle helm.
Two former Eagle head coaches, Greg Gatlin and Phil Maas, are assistants
to Young this season.
Gatlin, who began as an assistant under the Eagles' first head coach,
Jim Ray, had two stints as head coach and is this year's defensive line
coach.
Maas, who recently returned from a football coaching stint in Austria,
has spent most of the past 25 years as an Eagle assistant coach and
is a former head coach and athletic director. He is this year's defensive
coordinator and linebackers coach.
Another veteran on the coaching staff is offensive line coach Tim Frisbie.
Younger coaches include offensive coordinator Dan DeLeon and defensive
backs coach Gabe Raso, who both came to COS last year with Sayre.
New to the staff is quarterbacks coach Les Courtemanche, who still holds
COS passing records and was an all-conference quarterback the last time
the Eagles made a bowl appearance in 1999.
Young said the 2005 Eagles are a talented group and the energy level
has been high in the early going.
"We have a lot of young players with a lot of returners,"
said DeLeon. "Hopefully, the old and the new can mix and we'll
open up the season solid."
The Eagles are scheduled to scrimmage with Sayre's SOU team in Ashland
August 27th before opening the season at home September 3rd against
Yuba.
