Burbank football benefiting from influx of youth

An influx of freshmen has been the lifeblood for the Burbank High football program for a number of years.

This summer, the football landscape at Burbank has again been reinforced with a large group of freshmen ready to make its mark on the program.

“We have been able to get a good number of freshmen the last few years,” said Bulldogs Coach Richard Broussard, who is entering his second season. “And some have been able to make an impact in just their first year or they get called up to varsity after their first year.

“Last year when we had all of our injuries, we had to call up a group of those sophomores to help us out on varsity. We had to pull up 13 sophomores.”

What has enabled the Bulldogs to continue to thrive for a number of years has been an influx of players from the Burbank Vikings Youth Tackle Football program. Many of those players have come in as freshmen and gone on to be impact athletes at the varsity level.

More so than cross-town rival Burroughs, Burbank seems to get more Vikings players into its program. Many of those Vikings have helped the Bulldogs remain successful on the freshman level, as the program has captured the Pacific League championship seven of the past nine years.

“The last few years we have gotten a lot of players from the Vikings,” Broussard said. “We are going to be junior-heavy this season and a lot of those juniors have played together on the Vikings. That’s why there is a lot of continuity with this team right now.

“Some of those guys played for the Vikings Senior team that made it to the Super Bowl a few years ago.”

When those players have moved up to varsity, they continued that success. Since 2009, Burbank has tied for a league title (in 2009), finished second or tied for second three times, advanced to the CIF Southern Section Southeast semifinals once and quarterfinals twice.

This year’s squad will be trying to make up for a group of key players which graduated, namely Washington State-bound running back James Williams (who was injured most of the 2014 season), quarterback Ryan Meredith and All-CIF defensive end Kyle Alvarez.

Burbank is coming off a season in which it went 8-4 and placed third in the Pacific League with a 5-2 mark. The Bulldogs went on to pull off an upset in the first round of the Southeast Division playoffs, defeating host El Rancho, 38-34, before falling in the quarterfinals to Salesian, 48-27.

“We definitely have some spots to fill,” Broussard said. “We lost some very good talent from last year and a lot of those guys had been with the program for a few years. So now we have some guys battling for spots, but we should be good. Those guys who got called up last year had to really grow up fast.

“The guys have really been working hard during the spring and summer and they have been getting at it. This is a hard-working group, which is good to see.”

The Bulldogs began spring practices last month before the end of the school year. They had one week off for finals and another week off before opening summer ball two weeks ago. Burbank has been taking part in passing tournaments, including one last weekend at Gary High and another July 11 at Santa Fe High.

One of the sophomores who had to fill in last season when Meredith was sidelined with injuries was incoming junior Guy Gibbs. Broussard said Gibbs has been tabbed as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback. The signal-caller said he is ready for the challenge.

“I feel like I have a lot to look forward to this year and I have a lot to build up to,” Gibbs said. “I am trying to work on some things during the summer, mostly not thinking too much and just trying to be the leader out there on the field.

“This summer is important to me because I want to get better so I can be ready for the season.”

All-league linebacker Andy Reyes, who will also be a junior, said along with his teammates, being on the football field training is where they choose to be during the hot summer months.

“I’m a football player, this is what I do. So this is where I want to be,” Reyes said. “I got injured last year, so I’m really looking to get back into the best shape that I can.

“With the players that we lost last year, I just want to step up and be a leader and really just be there for my team.”

Burbank will continue summer practices until mid-July.