Armchair QBs, Coaching Carousel and Twitter talk

There's not a QB in the Stanislaus District who will be more scrutinized then Downey's Aaron Zwahlen. He's made a verbal commitment to Hawaii — it's rare for a QB from this region to go direct from high school to a Division 1 college program — and everyone is going to have an opinion of his arm, footwork, vision and decisions. Zwahlen is breaking in new receivers, just like he did last year when he threw for 2,924 yards and 29 TDs. The Zwahlens are synonymous with football in Modesto, though his family name rose to fame wearing Davis' green and gold. He's not ducking anyone, as Downey has early games with Merced and Central Catholic.

Coaching Carousel

It was a busy offseason for coaches, with three vacancies to fill and two first-time coaches coming in: Bill Flesher at Beyer and Maurice Chambers at Johansen. The other move raised eyebrows. Johansen’s Jason McCoy jumped across town to take charge at Gregori, which is expected to become one of the city’s top teams because of its Salida community. The Beyer job opened when Rich Alkire became an assistant at Gregori; he led Beyer to the MMC title last fall. Looking forward to the nights when Gregori plays Johansen and Beyer.

Talking on Twitter

Johansen coach Maurice Chambers might not be on Twitter, but most of his kids are staying current online. We tweeted linemen Thomas Romero a few times and he was confident the Vikings have the muscle up front and the quickness in the backfield to get the Vikings back to the playoffs. The 6-foot-1, 270-pound Romero is a center and defensive tackle, and he's excited about opening holes for Dwight Shaw, Chris McClure and others. Romero's not just blowing smoke: Chambers says line play will be a strength.