Chasing Perfection: How Davis High worked all year in its journey toward history
Davis High School football coach Tim Garcia is a bit superstitious. He talks at length about football techniques and gives detailed descriptions on what he feels his players are doing well and what they can improve on.
But when it comes to the fact that his team is chasing perfection, he speaks with some reservation.
“I just want our kids to stay focused on what we can control every day,” Garcia said. “The grind, the process and not getting overwhelmed by all the things that kids have to deal with in this day and age.”
Right in front of the Spartans, however, is a potential 10-0 regular season, which they’ll try to complete on Thursday night when they play Ceres (5-4) at Downey High School. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
They know it won’t be easy. The Bulldogs have a talented running back and good chemistry between their quarterback and receivers.
“It’ll be a competition for sure.” quarterback Jayson Munthe said.
A victory would be the first perfect regular season by a Modesto public school since Gregori accomplished that feat in 2017. It would also be Davis’ first league football title in 20 years and the first 10-0 regular season since 1984.
“It feels really good … knowing that we haven’t been like this for a while,” senior Jose Sanchez said. “But at the same time, we know we got to stay locked in.”
A few weeks ago, Garcia hadn’t even told his players the historic path they were headed down.
It’s no surprise. Garcia, who played football at Modesto Junior College and University of Mary in Bismark, N.D., where he was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2009, speaks the language of an athlete.
“I remember feeling like my gut was telling me to let these kids know how special this could be in the next couple of weeks,” Garcia said. “Not trying to really over-hype it, but just be real and say this is what the realistic opportunity is.”
Championship banners line the walls of the Davis High gym and Garcia approaches every season with the goal of restoring the Spartans as a league leader.
Now, the team knows exactly where its 2021 Western Athletic Conference championship banner will go. Right next to the one won by the 2019-2020 wrestling team.
“We brought (the team) in here a couple weeks ago and said that this is a reality,” Garcia said. “We wanted them to be on high alert that this is something they could do and now. We’ll hang a banner in the gym that’ll be here forever.”
The Spartans go into each week preparing their bodies to handle the collisions that come with high school football, but what takes them to the next level is their mental preparation.
They run through plays in the gym, do workouts before school in the morning and spend time Thursdays and Fridays watching game film.
“The team that makes the most mistakes usually breaks down, and doesn’t give themselves an opportunity to win on Friday nights,” Garcia said. “So (we are) really trying to have them prepared schematically … but then also having them prepared mentally and emotionally, to make sure that they have confidence, and they believe in themselves and they can play fast, and they’re not overthinking stuff.”
It’s not something that is seen from every high school football team. The attention to detail can be hard for some high school players to immerse themselves in. But those at Davis have made an effort to stay involved and compete in not only the physical aspect of practices, but the mental as well.
“It’s been kind of different,” said Munthe, who transferred to Davis High from Beyer this summer. “This is not all physical. It’s a lot of mental stuff, which is really different from what I’m used to.
“But I love it here.”
The added attention to detail translated immediately. The coaching staff noticed they had something special during a preseason scrimmage.
“We played fast and physical and played with passion and so we knew at the scrimmage we haven’t seen this in a while,” Garcia said. “It was kind of eye-opening. We thought, OK, now we might be able to do something with this group.”
Players noticed they could be a great team when they played Los Banos (5-4, 5-1 in Western Athletic Conference) in their second league game. The Tigers are second in the WAC.
“We were told by our coaches that was probably gonna be one of the best teams in our league and that it was gonna be a tough game for us,” senior Dominic Cervantes said. “It was (tough), but I think once we beat them, that really built up our confidence.”
Davis won 40-25.
Everyone involved in the program knows this season means success for more than just themselves. It speaks to the success and traditions of those who came before them.
In the 1980s, the Spartans, under former coach Don Lanphear, strung together eight straight seasons of seven or more wins. Under coach Len Johnston in the 1990s, they had a string of five eight-plus-win seasons in six years, including a 9-3 mark when Garcia played quarterback and led the Spartans to the 1998 section Division I quarterfinals.
“It was something I wanted to try to get the kids in the program and the school to be able to experience,” Garcia said. “I was very fortunate as a student-athlete here to … have great teammates and coaches and administrators and teachers. I wanted to give our kids the same experience and 10 years later, here we are.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
