Lowry Buckaroos Season Preview
By: J. Ray Dockter
We are officially six weeks into the high school football season in the northern part of the Silver State. Most teams have got five to six games under their belts and even though my writing schedule got mixed up last month I will still be doing a handful of team previews over the next few weeks. Look for previews of Lowry, Elko, Spring Creek and Pershing County to be out in the coming weeks. Without further ado... Today's team is Lowry.
2024 Lowry Buckaroos Football
Head Coach: Taua Cabatbat, ninth season as head coach at Lowry (30-44 overall, and 18-39 in league over eight seasons at Lowry)
2023 Season Record: 3-7 overall, and 2-5 in league; lost in first round of the playoffs to Churchill County last season.
Overview:
The Bucks begin (the second half of) the 2024 season with a renewed hope for this season.
As Coach Taua Cabatbat put it "Last season was a bust, we were hoping for a competitive season. Injuries hurt us and small-town football, [the] name of the game is health, so we struggled after a few key injuries happened." Coach Cabatbat said, "we started off competitive, we were excited for the gains we were making, we just had too many injuries to key players, but I was proud of our kids as they battled until the end."
The motto for the Buckaroos this season will be "lights out - we want to play lights out, be the last ones to leave the field with our chest out, our heads up and being excited for our accomplishments." The key to Lowry's success this season will be staying healthy. Cabatbat said "[The] past three years, staying healthy has been our biggest problem and has limited us from being competitive." The strength of the Bucks will be their offensive and defensive lines as well as playmakers in key positions, most notably their returning quarterback and a handful of wide receivers.
Offensively the Buckaroos run a "modern day spread" that spaces out the field and gets their athletes in space to try and attack their opponents' weaknesses. They return seven offensive starters from last season and welcome a handful of playmakers from last season's JV squad that was competitive. Coach Cabatbat said that he feels most comfortable with his lineman this year stating, "we have a good crew of linemen, and we know they can take care of and control the line of scrimmage for us this season." Gone is All League RB Jesse Jeronimo who battled through injury throughout last season and is now playing at the next level. The biggest competition on the offensive side of the ball will come at RB where the Bucks have five players competing for reps. Returning WRs are going to be expected to contribute immediately.
Defensively, Cabatbat is the defensive coordinator and expects to welcome back four starters from last year's squad. He also expects his squad to be aggressive and establish the line. He said "we must be all in, compete against one another and make each other better. Iron sharpens Iron." Cabatbat expects his defensive line to set the tone and allow his linebackers to learn on the fly as they had a good competition headed into fall camp as well as his defensive secondary displaying good competitiveness and returning a good core.
Players to Watch:
QB Erick Valencia
WR Ryder Huitt
WR Anthony Monroy
LB Jon Moser
LB Bosten Dennis
Season Schedule:
Aug. 23 vs. Columbia (Nampa, Idaho)
Aug. 30 at North Valleys
Sep. 6 Bye Week
Sep. 13 at Sparks
Sep. 20 at Spring Creek
Sep. 27 vs. Elko
Oct. 4 at Truckee (Calif.)
Oct. 11 vs. Fernley
Oct. 18 at South (Lake) Tahoe (Calif.)
Oct. 25 vs. Churchill County
J. Ray Dockter has been covering high school sports since 2022. If you have a story worth telling let him know via Twitter @J_RayDoc.
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