By Paola Palacios
Young, fresh faced Tigers draw big question marks with new season just days away.
The Tigers are returning to a new season after most of their players graduated and 19 players transferred to Division I schools this past year.
This keeps the football program as one of the top programs in the state as far as transfers go.
“We mostly have a new team, since 19 of our players transferred to Division I,” head football coach Tom Craft said.
Most of the team’s offensive starting players from last season are returning.
“Our offense at the moment looks stronger than our defense,” Craft said.
One of the returners is last year’s starting Quarterback Ian Fieber.
Fieber completed 140 passes of 221 attempts for 1553 yards, 15 TD’s, and 7 interceptions last season.
“We need to work on some little things,” Fieber said. “I think we are looking good and I’m excited.”
Most of the returning players are on offense, but with new players coming in, the transition hasn’t been that difficult for Fieber.
“We have a bunch of guys who just want to get better and work hard,” Fieber said. “Most of the receivers are back from last year along with some running backs so it hasn’t been too difficult to transition,” he said.
Craft is not sure how the team will be this season as most of the team members are freshmen with 10 bouncebacks and approximately six returners according to Craft.
As for defense there is only one returning player, defensive linebacker DeShawn Fortune.
Fortune recorded 12 tackles, 23 assists, 3.5 sacks, 6.5 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble on the D-Line.
When asked about who is the team’s biggest opponent is this season,
“At the moment Victor Valley, because that is the next game, and after that it will be (who we play in) our next game,” Craft said. “I’m not a calendar coach, I don’t have a calendar team,” Craft said.
“They’re all big we just have to take it week by week.” Fieber said.
The Tigers have a scrimmage against Palomar on Aug. 27 at Escondido High School at 4 p.m.
Nick Escalera contributed to this article.
