High School Football Preview: Barons striving for improvement in 2017

Two-way player Kishaun Sykes greets a teammate during recent Fountain Valley football practice.

By Matt SzaboStaff Writer

Aug. 16, 2017 10:05 PM PT

Jimmy Nolan is nothing if not honest.

And, by Nolan’s estimation, last year’s Fountain Valley High football team was arguably the worst in school history.

“I’m not too proud to say that it was led by me,” he said.

Circumstances maybe worked against the Barons. Nolan was hired late in the game last summer for the Barons job after two years at Lakewood. Ray Fenton had left Fountain Valley to take the job at Los Alamitos. Fountain Valley thought it had its head man in Justin Schaeffer, hired in March 2016, but he resigned in May.

With players leaving and Nolan’s late start, the Barons went 1-9 a season ago and winless in the Sunset League after a 7-4 showing the year before. The only win in 2016 was by a point, 42-41 against Mira Mesa, with Fountain Valley stuffing a two-point conversion at the end to earn the thrilling win.

Nolan said the victory was one of his favorites in nearly two decades of coaching, but the losses also hurt. The Barons were beat up after a scrimmage against Mater Dei and playing Servite in their season opener, Nolan said.

“We had our full team, and it was like Aug. 5,” he said. “We had all of our guys, the first time I had saw them all. The really bad thing was, they were out of shape, we didn’t have many, and we had Mater Dei approaching in two weeks, followed by Servite. I tried to get out of the Mater Dei [scrimmage], but [Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson] is a good friend of mine. He said, ‘No, we can’t change our schedule for you guys,’ and I said, ‘I understand.’

“So we went out there and got our butts kicked. I don’t think we ever recovered from Mater Dei and Servite. But even if we did recover, we were not good. We were out of shape. The kids didn’t prepare properly, and that’s not on them, but they had no direction. They had no coach for most of the spring.”

Continuity will be a good thing for this year’s Barons, even after losing first-team all-league players like defensive end Angel Hernandez and tackle Scott Craig to graduation. Hernandez, the Defensive MVP of the Orange County High School Football Game, is now at Southern Nazarene in Oklahoma. Craig plays for Chapman.

Top skill players for the Barons figure to be guys with little meaningful varsity experience. Senior Nick Welch, a transfer from Huntington Beach High who broke his hand midway through last year’s Oilers season, is in the mix at quarterback. Fountain Valley also has back both of its quarterbacks from last year, senior Garrett Horn and junior Andrew Ross.

Senior Benn Vallier is projected as the starting running back, coming back from an injury-marred junior year in which he injured his ankle against Servite.

“We actually have a couple of pictures with 11 guys on him, and he’s still up,” Nolan said. “He reminds me a lot of Toby Gerhart.”

And junior Kishaun Sykes is a threat at receiver, or really wherever Nolan puts him on offense or defense. The Barons are motivated to be better, two-way lineman Nathaniel Wight said.

“[Last season] is still fresh in your mind and it makes you work harder,” said Wight, a senior who plays left tackle and right defensive end. “We’re just looking to improve on last year.”

Nolan said that leaders on defense include senior linebacker Jaydin Breedlove, junior ‘backer Tyler Le and senior safety Corey Swain.

The Barons don’t want to get beat up early again. This season, there is no scrimmage for Fountain Valley, and the team is working toward their season opener against Troy on Aug. 26.

Welch said that practices have been good and productive.

“I love it,” said Welch. “We work really hard, and we’re just trying to improve on everything that we do. The kids like being out here, and it’s a good environment.”

Nolan is trying to build the program up, and he was encouraged when the Barons freshman team went 8-2 last year, including a rare win against Edison. Sophomores set to be major contributors this year include running back/linebacker Carlos Salazar, lineman Joey Tallabas, utility player Tanner Ciok and quarterback/cornerback Dillon Kerrigan.

Nolan isn’t big on predictions, although he said the Barons should at least double their win total from a year ago, if not more.

“They put in eight months of hard work,” he said. “People say, ‘How are you guys going to be?’ I say, ‘I don’t know.’ You have to ask me after the Troy game. We’ll see.”

But clearly, Nolan is proud to be at Fountain Valley, his old hometown. Nolan, who played at Mater Dei and Utah, said it’s just a part of his underdog mentality.

“If we’re teaching kids life lessons, what a great opportunity,” he said. “For me, it was choosing the right thing, and that’s to help another school. If you look at my resume, I’m always trying to help a school. If you’re going to work for free or peanuts, then you might as well be doing it for the right reasons.

“I’ve played, I’ve won. I don’t need to live vicariously through my kids. This is a teaching tool for being a better man. My goal is for these guys to be good husbands and good fathers. We can learn how to be good men through football. This place is down, people are laughing at it? Call me. You let the principal know I will take it. Then I got the calls from the right people.”

That was last summer.

A little bit more than a year later, Nolan is still here, and the program appears headed in the right direction.

“Between transfers and Twitter, I’m sickened at this football culture, and that’s why I’m proud to be here,” he said. “I really enjoy being here, because it’s real.”