Wolves compile 7-5 record in football coach's first season

The 300 students who make up the student body of Enterprise High School include grades 7-12, thereby, making this by most accounts a small school. The football team competes in the 1A classification with a team consisting of 28 players who survived to the semifinals of the state playoffs where they fell to Rich High School — a far off northern high school who may — or may not — have the same culture as the feisty Wolves. Barry Jones moved to this fertile oasis four months ago to coach football and begins some of his sentences; "They didn't tell me that ... "

Not to give the wrong impression, Jones loves this place and says it is a great place to raise kids, but there is a culture to get used to — the first clue might be, when calling the school, the music played while on hold is a xylophone version of Home on the Range.

In his first year, Jones compiled a worthy 7-5 record and he is impressed with the strong work ethic of kids who grow up farming hay. However, this double-edged sword resulted in players having to miss practice to get the chores done. Nonetheless, this community turns out strong kids and very competitive kids.

Jones describes: "Chance Phelps played all year with a hurt knee. He is just a tough kid." He lugged the ball 189 times for 814 yards. He continues: "Brayan Cervantes led the team in tackles with 64."

Trevor Colf is a wide receiver who had 46 catches for almost 1,000 yards to lead the region. Said Jones, "He was double and sometimes triple teamed and nobody could stop him."

According to Jones this kid can't stay out of the weight room and has aspirations to play in college. But for obvious reasons he has gone largely unnoticed.

Those three are seniors along with Jacen Hafen and Richard Leavitt. Justin Vanderhoof is a senior who started at quarterback but it didn't work out well for him and he was eventually replaced by Slade Moyle who came in to pass for 800 yards and eight TDs. He is a ninth grader.

Also returning is his brother Austin a strapping 6-4 tight end who Jones says is a great athlete but needs to hit the weights. Also soph Travis Colf — yes he is little brother also — returns on the OL/DL. "He lives for football," said Jones.

Still more all in the family are the Cervantes twins — Jonathon and Kevin. Along with older brother Brayan, this family breaks the Enterprise mold. Moving here three years ago from Las Vegas, these kids were former gang members who have turned their lives around despite broken home problems in spades. And the coach's son Ryan rounds out the family connections. He is a sophomore wide receiver and defensive back. His fellow sophomore, Robert Hunt, returns at linebacker. "They both love to hit," said Jones.

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E-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com