Seton Catholic Sentinels
Conference/Region: 4A-II/East Sky
Coach: Rex Bowser
Last year’s record: 4-6, missed playoffs
Returning starters offense: 6, including receiver Andrew Gillispie, the leading pass-catcher that returns from last season (22 rec., 394 yards, 4 TD) and one of few skill position players not lost to graduation.
Returning starters defense: 5, including LB Colin Bresnahan, who’ll need to come up big in the middle for the Sentinels’ defense after recording 77 tackles as a junior.
Schedule
Aug. 27 vs. Independence; Sept. 3 vs. Amphitheater; Sept. 10 at Campo Verde; Sept. 17 at Coronado; Sept. 24 vs. Notre Dame (at Scottsdale Community College); Oct. 1 vs. Williams Field, Oct. 8 at Tempe; Oct. 15 at Queen Creek; Oct. 22 vs. Arcadia; Oct. 29 at Maricopa; Nov. 5 vs. Higley.
Key games
Sept. 17 at Coronado: Seton lost a heartbreaker here last season and the Dons will against provide a stiff test against a new, mostly untested group of Sentinel skill players.
Oct. 22 vs. Arcadia: If the Sentinels want to make a run at the region, they will have to dethrone the Titans, winners of eight games last year, including a 65-24 defeat of Seton Catholic.
Outlook
The Sentinels lost approximately 75 percent of its scoring production to graduation, mostly from quarterback Justin Sieczkowski and running back Kyle Johnson, yet coach Rex Bowser likes his incoming group of 22 seniors as “real leaders” and “true football players.”
Will it be enough?
Bowser also likes the fact that he gets to coach interior lineman Kevin McDonald, a four-year starter who is the last in a long line of McDonald brothers to go through Seton Catholic. Three of those went on to play college football and the Sentinels know their best chances are to run behind him.
“He is very, very good,” Bowser said of the fourth McDonald likely to play at the college ranks.
The Sentinels have two options at quarterback in 2010, two year back-up Anthony Wallace and sophomore Ryan Bresnahan, where both are still competing for the starting job. That emergence will be crucial for Seton in Bowser’s “spread” offense.
