The Cerritos College football team, with a good recruiting class and new assistant coaches look to rebuild after a disappointing 2007 campaign.
“This is one of the better recruiting classes we have had in a long time,” head coach Frank Mazzotta said.
The Falcons finished last season with a record of 4-5 ust barely missing out on a playoff birth.
“We could have easily been 9-1 last season,” he said. “Mt. SAC is the only game we really should have lost.”
Mt. SAC featured quarterback Kevin Craft who was recently named as the starting quarterback at UCLA.
One game last season was cancelled due to the fires that tore through the southland and of the team’s five losses, four of them were by less than touchdown.
This year, the Falcons will have a lot of youth on team but Mazzotta hopes that inexperience will be counteracted by speed, depth and character.
“This one thing we really looked at is character in each player we recruited,” Mazzotta said. “In previous years we had talented players but a lot would quit when it hard.”
Another thing the Falcons focused on this season is teamwork.
“We really emphasized a lot the team aspect and I think we are more together this season,” Mazzotta said.
The team will return a lot of talent in the defensive front seven led by sophomore nose tackle Johnny Tivoa.
Tivoa recorded 46 tackles last season and was named to the All-South Coast Conference team last season.
“This year I think we have more speed throughout the defense and we just have a whole new mentality because of our new defensive coordinator.”
Another returning player from last year’s squad is offensive guard John Burrows.
He will help anchor an offensive line that has deep tradition and seems to always big the biggest in conference.
“I just want to keep that tradition alive,” he said. “My main goal personally is to get a scholarship to that next level.”
He is one of three returnees on the offensive line and hopes that this the team will get to at least a bowl game.
This year, the team will have one more advantage. Six of its 10 games will be at home this season.
The reason for that is Santa Monica College is having its stadium rebuilt and it will not be ready for the game against Cerritos.
