The last 23 years has been about one thing for Kyle Williams.
Since the day he graduated from Poway High in 1998, Williams, whose dad Bill was a football coach, has been trying to find his way home.
Except for a two-year stint as an assistant coach on Ron Murphy’s staff at Poway, the last two decades brought him closer to his dream job.
On Mar. 19, Williams makes his long-delayed debut as Poway’s new head coach when the Titans visit Mt. Carmel thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kyle Williams, Poway High’s head football coach
(Courtesy photo)
“Just going to practice now feels right,” said Williams, who replaced Scott Coats as head coach. “Who wouldn’t want to return to the community he grew up in?
“I know I’m finally in a place where I want to finish my coaching career,” Williams said.
What Williams will find is that the Palomar League has not changed since he left for a five-year stay at Fallbrook and a four-year stint at Westview.
The Palomar League is still tough even for good teams.
Five of the six teams — Poway, Mt. Carmel, Del Norte, Westview and Rancho Bernardo — are from the Poway Unified School District.
Only defending league champion Vista is the lone non-district member.
Poway (7-5, 3-2) let a 42-9 lead against Vista in 2019 slip away or the Titans might have won a second straight league crown.
There are plenty of weapons off a junior varsity that was 9-1 and a freshmen team that was also 9-1 for Williams.
Junior Eric Gant and sophomore Luke Gonzalez will handle the running game behind senior Nash Wilsey, the only returning blocker, along with seniors Jack Evanko and Mark Gutierrez.
Vance Jefferson is back at wide receiver after suffering an ACL injury as a junior along with his twin brother Max Jefferson.
The question mark on offense is at quarterback where senior backup Roman Nalder and sophomore Dylan Curry, who is up from the frosh team, may wind up splitting time for now.
On defense, Poway will rely on third-year starter Daniel Kries (61 tackles) and David Miller (47 tackles) at inside linebacker.
Ezra Christensen (41 tackles) is very raw, but will anchor a new front four.
The secondary, however, has plenty of talent in junior cornerbacks Wences Juarez and Gant and a group at safety that includes Quinn Cortes, Odin Stansbury (28 tackles), junior Chase Castleburry, who can also play linebacker, and Vance Jefferson.
“We’re coming off a team as talented as we’ve had here in the last decade,” Williams said. “We’ll just take whatever the defense is giving us. If that means we run the ball or pass it 30 times a game, we’ll do it.”
Rancho Bernardo (7-4, 4-1) opens the season at Vista missing about 40 players from the program who are playing other sports.
“We went from making a run at the D2 title to having fun for the seniors,” Broncos coach Tristan McCoy said. “There’s no playoffs and no spring ball.”
Quarterback is manned by senior Jimmy Sanderback and sophomore Mark Sladack, who could split time with junior Frankie Franchina and speedy Chris Dartey running the ball.
Center Christian Debow, tackle Chuck Smith and guard John Todros heads the line with tackle Joe Forte and guard Jake Pyatt moving up from the JV.
Defensively, the Broncos return three all-league picks in tackle Haris Kulosman (28 tackles), inside linebacker Javen Jovero (51 tackles) and safety David Mendenhall (67 tackles) to go with nose guard Nico Ocampo, end Ryan Bartolomeo and linebacker Antonio Barcelos.
Del Norte (2-9, 0-5) is trying to snap a seven-game losing streak from last season.
The biggest shot in the arm comes from the return running back Manai Hazlett, an all-leaguer as a sophomore who sat out last season to battle cancer.
Hazlett is 40 pounds heavier than he was while going through chemotherapy.
“Having him back changes everything,” Del Norte coach Leigh Cole said. “The kids don’t care that it’s March since they’ve been practicing for this since last April.”
Quarterback Jack Borer has improved a lot and center Garrett Combs leads the blockers up front.
Juniors Jonah King, Ed Lujan and Martin Hill handle the receiving duties.
The young Nighthawks’ defense has linebackers Will Robinson and Malek Hage-Sassan, both juniors, leading the way.
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