Joe Pirillo needed just one season to change the culture of Lathrop High’s football team.
Now, he’s expecting more.
The Spartans are coming off a 6-5 season in which they made the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs for the first time in the program’s seventh varsity year. The benchmark season ended in disappointment, however, as the top-seeded team in Division IV was upset by No. 8 Los Banos, 30-29.
“Last year, that group laid the foundation down,” Pirillo said. “With this group, we’re talking about putting up the walls for us to hang our achievements.”
Pirillo and the Spartans continued to build over the summer, this time with higher expectations. He was encouraged by the turnout for the offseason, with the program averaging close to 100 participants in workouts. Pirillo added that the varsity roster has swelled to 58, up from 48 at the end of last season with sophomore call-ups included for the playoffs.
The section’s three-week Dead Period ends Aug. 8. Until then, teams are forbidden to use sports-specific equipment, but the Spartans are continuing their work in the weight room and with conditioning.
“Football is the only sport that is regulated until the end of the school year,” Pirillo said. “We get about a month and 10 days over the summer to work on things, and then they take the football away from you again. I try to make them understand that summer workouts are important because you don’t get much time, and they’ve bought into it.”
Quarterbacks Keonnee Linnell and Jonny McCuaig are battling for the starting spot previously held by Diego Chavez. They had opportunities to work on the passing game with 7-on-7 scrimmages against Stockton schools Lincoln, Edison, Stagg, McNair and Chavez. Lathrop also went 3-3 in the Mountain House Tournament, where it went head to head with Valley Oak League rival Kimball.
Galven Munoz and R.J. Tisdell established themselves as the team’s top receivers. Tisdell is also the leader of a defense that returns 10 seniors.
“One of the things I noticed was the way the seniors have banded together over the summer,” Pirillo said. “If they remain that close, with the amount of talent we have we can put some points on the board.”
Lathrop will be well tested for the rigors of the VOL. Pirillo and his coaching staff put together a challenging non-league schedule that now includes defending Trans-Valley League co-champion Hilmar (Sept. 2), the SJS Division VI runner-up, and Franklin of Elk Grove (Sept. 16). Franklin is a member of the ultra-competitive Delta League and reached the second round of the Division I playoffs in 2015.
West of Tracy remains on the schedule and is the Spartans’ zero-week opponent on Aug. 26. The Wolf Pack qualified for the Division I playoffs and owns closely-contested wins over Lathrop the past two years.
“We had a number of teams that wanted to play us, and the consensus for us as a staff was that if we have a chance to challenge ourselves with the amount of returners we have we should take it,” Pirillo said. “We have our work cut out for us, but it also lets us know how well we can perform in the VOL.”
