What Zach's doing: Getting married, aka becoming a real man, accepting the ball-n-chain, tying the knot, etc.

ARVIN BEARS

Coach: Edgar Mares (ninth year)

2008 record: 5-7 (2-3 South Sequoia League, 3-3 home)
Average points: 20.5
Average points allowed: 21.4
*Average rush yards: 183.3
*Average rush yards allowed: 169.6
*Average pass yards: 86.2
*Average pass yards allowed: 110.1
Best win: Arvin 17, Burroughs 10
Worst loss: South 24, Arvin 13
*—yardage figures are from MaxPreps with fill-ins from Californian box scores (One game from “allowed” numbers is missing; “for” stats are complete)

Key players: Christian Lopez, jr, FB/DL; Freddie Herrera, jr, RB; Dario Sarvaria, jr, FB/LB; Tony Lopez, jr, OL

Key losses: Noel Lopez, QB/K; Daniel Gonzalez, RB/KR; Edgar Conteras, RB/WR/DB; Travis Hicks, OL/DL; Baltivar Martinez, OL/DL

Offense: Youth will be a recurring theme in this preview. The Bears return just one starter, Ramon Carrillo, a wide receiver/defensive back. He caught seven passes for 91 yards last year and ran 23 times for 108 yards and score three of Arvin’s 80 offensive touchdowns. So it’s fair to say the Bears will be starting over this year. They’ll do it with a simple, ball-control offense designed to use clock and keep the game close till the end. Freddie Herrera will see the lion’s share of the carries, and while he’s apparently got some talent, coach Edgar Mares isn’t exactly optimistic as of late July: “We don’t look good passing the ball, we don’t look good running it, we don’t look good doing anything.”

Defense: Things are looking up a bit more here, with a coaching staff that’s teaching both the five-man and three-man fronts to mix up looks. Mares and company will be counting on the defense to get off the field so the offense can use some more clock. Against a rough schedule full of Bakersfield teams, an up-and-coming Burroughs offense and the Tafts, Tehachapis and Bakersfield Christians of the SSL, that ain’t gonna be easy.

Outlook: The nature of high school football is that you’re going to have to rebuild every now and then. You don’t get to sign players to contracts, and you don’t get to recruit the right kind of kids to come in when you know you’re going to have a down year (or at least you’re not supposed to, at a public school). That’s especially true when you have a class that meets with some defections and some casualties to academics like this senior class has at Arvin. There’s a few hanging around, though, and what sounds like a good nucleus of juniors, so Arvin won’t be a complete rollover. But this just isn’t the dangerous team that stayed within a touchdown of section champs Tehachapi and BCHS last year.

Quotable: “We don’t say rebuilding. We just say we’re going to be really young.” — Mares

Schedule: Sept. 4 at Highland
Sept. 11 Foothill
Sept. 18 Garces
Sept. 25 South
Oct. 2 at Burroughs
Oct. 9 BYE
Oct. 16 at Taft*
Oct. 23 Shafter*
Oct. 30 at Wasco*
Nov. 6 at Bakersfield Christian*
Nov. 13 Tehachapi*
°—league game

Prediction: 1-9, 1-5 SSL

HS FOOTBALL PREVIEW INDEX
July 29: Lighthouse Christian, Maricopa, Immanuel Christian
July 30: Mojave, Boron
July 31: Desert, Rosamond
Aug. 1: Frazier Mountain, Kern Valley
Aug. 3: California City, Burroughs
Aug. 4: McFarland, Robert F. Kennedy
Aug. 5: Delano
Aug. 6: Cesar Chavez
Aug. 7: Shafter
Aug. 8 Wasco

TOMORROW: Perhaps the league's big dog this year — Taft