CAPITAL HIGH FOOTBALL

Jaguars release Tim Tebow, but it doesn’t do first year head football coach Joaquin (Wax) Garcia any good. Tebow is too old for Garcia’s Capital’s team and plus there is no legal position for him to play.

But that’s the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jags, and Garcia is now in his first season in 20 years as a high school head coach and has enough to do as the campaign kicks off Friday with a visit from non-district city-rival St. Michael’s.

“We can’t step back,” said Garcia, “who had been an assistant at St. Michael’s for several years. “We have two seniors and are loaded with freshmen, sophomores and juniors. And I told the team that they can’t afford to miss practice.”

He replaced long-time Jaguars’ head coach Bill Moon, who is now running the show with a huge challenge at Santa Fe Indian School. So while Garcia and his staff add a new offensive and defensive playbook, his team is already playing from behind. Two of its days out of the necessary practices thus penalized the squad in triplicate.

“It’s a young and inexperienced team,” Garcia said, “and if my returning players aren’t at practice, it takes away what we need from these leaders,who we expect to adept and help navigate obstacles caused by their absence.”

Garcia and his staff are pretty sure they have everything established, and this includes leadership in the locker room, which is pretty heavy now. Thus, the Jaguars need people to show up and provide the leadership.

Said Anthony Abeya, a wide-receiver, free safety junior: “We do have leaders here who put in the time and show up to work.”

Still, Capital is a far cry from the senior-loaded team that envisioned a deep playoff run in 2020, but when the coronavirus pandemic shortened that season, it played only four times and settled for a split.

Currently, the starting quarterback will be 5-foot-7, 150-pound junior Julian Munoz. His top receiver could be 5-11 Abeya. Francisco Diaz will be running the ball and also playing linebacker. He’s 5-6, 150. Another key target through the air should be 5-6, 135 junior Avelino Trujillo, who is also a defensive back.

At least the team has good size in starting center Lazerus Griego, a 6-foot, 240-pound junior. Then there’s Munoz who gives the squad a dual-threat option at quarterback. The only problem here is an inexperienced offensive line, but Garcia has installed a spread system that was the antithesis of the ground-and-pound style under Moon.

One more thing, 5-5A Capital does not play Moon’s Indian School, a 3A school. Who knows, maybe next year.