Lean times in recent years for the Pasadena City College football team have put the Lancers program in a re-boot mode. With Tom Maher making a second tour of duty as head coach, PCC hopes to find success in 2016 in a new conference. Pasadena will play in the newly formed SCFA Metro League as part of the American Division.
The league is a far cry from the Mission Conference, which was arguably the most powerful grouping in state history with two smash-mouth divisions of the SoCal region's best teams back in the 1990s and mid-2000s during Maher's first tour at PCC (1996-2004). Now many teams inside the Metro are opponents who in recent seasons were in the Lancers' early non-conference scheduling--Glendale, LA Southwest, El Camino College-Compton Center, and East Los Angeles. West LA and Santa Ana, another former Mission foe, make up the rest of the "league."
The Lancers return just seven players from the '15 squad that won two games. One of those returners is All-SCFA Second Team selection and quarterback Jett Even, who passed for 2,019 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.
Maher's blue-chip recruit also is a quarterback in redshirt freshman Jesse Hanckel, who originally earned a scholarship to Fresno State. The 6-foot-4, 202-pounder set all of Village Christian High's passing records and has all the tools to be a great one, according to Maher.
"Hanckel is as good as I've seen at this level," he said. "He has size, a powerful arm and is an accurate thrower. It will be fun to watch him develop here. Jett, as a returner, will see action and gives us an option threat. We're lucky to have two guys we can turn to help us lead the offense."
PCC's wide receiving corps is paced by Yusef Muhammad (from Potomac High in Maryland) and letterman Rasheem Whitfield, who caught 15 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns in 2015. Oharjee Brown (Burbank High), Drevontae Armstrong (Palmdale), and Joseph Gregory (Foley, Alabama) are also in the WR mix. At tight end, the Lancers have three performers in Jordan Bruner (Palo Verde, Las Vegas), Jordan Jones (A.B. Miller), and KJ Turner (Jefferson County HS, Georgia).
At running back, Ty'rant Davis (5-11, 198, Norwalk High) looks to be getting the most reps in practices followed by James Shaw (South Gate) and Jacob Fimbres (Sonora). At fullback, sophomore Demarco Munoz (Rosemead), converted from the defensive line, Francisco Gallegos (South Gate) and Anthony Bakhshi, the Rio Hondo League Player of the Year from South Pasadena High are jockeying for time.
PCC's offensive line is shaping up to be an all freshmen group with Michael Medina (6-4, 340, Bernstein HS) at right guard, Davaughn Bennett (6-3, 272, Garfield) at right tackle, "Bubba" Joseph Wittmer (Warren HS) at center, Alex Gutierrez (6-0, 270, Bishop Amat) at left guard, and Art Rios (6-3, 320, Roosevelt) at left tackle.
On defense, sophomore safety Kendell Jefferson, third on the team in tackles last year with 54 along with two interceptions, landed the coveted No. 1 jersey as a top-flight secondary talent. Other safeties are Raysean Clayton (Garfield HS), Adrian Morrow (El Toro), and Ty Apana-Purcell (from Mililani, Hawaii). At cornerback, Armon Easley (Cathedral), Marquis Williams (Garfield), Jshoun Wolfe (El Toro) and returning sophomore Luis Luna, one interception and a team-best four pass break-ups, all are in the rotation.
Maher is high on frosh outside linebacker Tyler Poythress (6-2, 206, East Coweta, Georgia), who is a strong tackler and a possible pass rushing threat. Sophomore Daniel Moreno, a transfer from Compton, is a starter as well at OLB and is the team's long snapper. Domoinique Snelson (Garfield) is also on the outside. At inside linebacker, Matt Terlizzi (Bishop Amat) and Jasper Chavez (Rosemead) will see time along with Elyjah Hoapili-Kreutz, a letterman who had 19 tackles and forced two fumbles for PCC last year.
Maybe the team's most talented group is the defensive line with Daeqwan Bailey (6-3, 310, Sanderson, North Carolina), David Keshishyan (Ribet Academy), and Adrian Huerta (West Covina) at tackle, and Quentin Asberry (Heritage HS), Zephaniyah Sanford (Camp Kilpatrick), and Rene Rubalcava (Diamond Ranch) at the ends.
On special teams, the kicking and punting duties will be entrusted to Enrique Lozano (6-2, 210, Montebello High), who made a long field goal in the team's pre-season scrimmage v. Fullerton last Saturday. The returners have yet to be decided.
Maher talked about his time away from the sideline after serving as a recruiting coordinator for Fullerton for more than a decade.
"The big thing for me is wanting to help," he said. "It's one thing to bring kids into a program, but you want to be able to teach and guide these players as they develop at the community college level. It's exciting to be back at head coach and I really will strive to bring PCC back to some of the winning ways we had in the early 2000s. It didn't get much better than our 2001 Mission Conference champion team. I still believe we had the best team in the state that year."
The Lancers open the 2016 season on Saturday, Sept. 3 as they visit a former Mission foe--pre-season No. 2 state-ranked Long Beach City College. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Veterans Stadium.
[Lancers in action during their pre-season scrimmage last Saturday at Robinson Stadium, image by Richard Quinton.]