VALLEY VISTA MONSOON

2017 RECORD: 5-5 (Did not reach playoffs)

REGION: 6A Southwest

COACH: Josh Sekoch (8th year)

OFFENSE: Spread

DEFENSE: 3-3-5

KEY RETURNEES: Burt Delay, Jr. QB; Henry Brown. Sr. RB; Liam Kelleher, Jr. WR; Andrew Rumary, Sr. OT; Jaden Lay, Soph. C; Ray Sutton, Jr. OG; Trenton Foster, Sr. LB; Makai Obregon, Sr. S.

NEWCOMERS TO WATCH: Daniel Redmond, Jr. WR; Jorden Lee, Sr., DE.L

2019 SCHEDULE

Home games in caps

Aug. 30 WESTWOOD

Sept. 6 at Trevor Browne

Sept. 13 DESERT VISTA

Sept. 20 at Willow Canyon

Sept. 27 at Pinnacle

Oct. 4 LA JOYA

Oct. 11 COPPER CANYON

Oct. 18 at Tolleson

Oct. 25 SHADOW RIDGE

Nov. 1 at Westview

Steve Stockmar

West Valley Preps

There’s a specific buzz around Valley Vista Monsoon preseason practice this month in Surprise.Consider that the team will welcome back almost its entire starting offensive unit from a year ago, when the offense averaged 26.5 points per game.

In nine of their 10 games last season, the Monsoon led at halftime, including against eventual Final Four qualifier Pinnacle and Elite 8 qualifier Desert Vista. Their three late-season losses were by a total of only 20 points.

Valley Vista seems like it has been right there, on the cusp. And with so much firepower returning to a mix where close losses are still on their minds, 2019 could mark that proverbial “next step” for the Monsoon, who open the new season Aug. 30 at home against Mesa Westwood.

“I knew somebody would ask me that,” Valley Vista head coach Josh SeKoch smiled from the practice field Aug. 20.

Cautious optimism aside, there are reasons for the excitement.

“We didn’t feel like we were a 5-5 team,” SeKoch added. “We just felt like there was a couple of plays that we left out on the field.”

Westview ran the table 5-0 to win the 6A Southwest Division again, nipping Valley Vista by one point on the season’s final night last October, as the Monsoon tried to find itself during an up-and-down 2-3 region run.

After a 2-0 start to the season, the Monsoon couldn’t string together as much as back-to-back wins the rest of the way.

“Last year we just didn’t have the connection that we have this year,” 5-foot-11 junior starting quarterback Burton Delay IV said. “All the players are just closer together. We’re just all buying in.”

An early-season concussion limited Delay to five games last year, but he’s been primed to start under center for a lot longer than that. Living in the neighborhood near the Surprise school, Delay was Monsoon football program’s ball boy for six years before he even took a class there, so he’s been around the program half his life and knows the plays and signals.

And 2019 features a lot of familiar faces on the offense.

Henry Brown, a 5-10 senior, is back at one tailback spot, after he led the team in rushing yards and carries last season, while averaging a hefty seven yards per rush, along with nine touchdowns. Aiden Cunningham, another 5-10 senior tailback, had the second-most carries on the team last year and is the school’s best sprinter.

“They’ll split carries a lot of the year,” SeKoch said. “It’s great having two senior guys that are just freak athletes. They’re both over 4.0 (GPA) as well.”

They’ll all be protected by an offensive line that boasts four of five starters back. The unit that allowed fewer than 10 sacks a year ago, led by 6-foot-7 senior offensive tackle Andrew Rumary and his 10 NCAA Division I football offers.

Sophomore center Jaden Lay started on varsity his freshman year, and juniors Ray Sutton and Garrett Sutliffe are back as well.

The big target through the air will again be 6-4 junior wide receiver Liam Kelleher, who led the Monsoon last season in catches (20), yards (336) and touchdowns (6) in nine games as a sophomore. Fellow junior Daniel Redmond is a promising, lanky (6-1) slot receiver, SeKochh said.

On the other side of the ball, there aren’t as many returning lettermen. Makai Obregon, senior strong safety, and senior middle linebacker Trenton Foster are in fact the only returning starters on a unit. Unlike the offense, the defense feels a bit more like starting over.

“It did at first, for sure,” Foster said. “It felt different because the team we had last year, I trusted those guys a lot. But this new group is very talented. We’ve got tons of talent on the defensive side of the ball.”

While the defensive line won’t have a player over 250 pounds, the 2019 unit will be built on speed. Senior defensive back Derek Miller is a familiar face in the secondary, flanked by speedy senior Tommy Thompson, now in his second year of football after turning the heads of the coaches as one of the state’s top 800-meter track and field runners.

Joining Foster in the linebacker corps are sophomore Andrew Zacek and junior Carson Allcock, who started half the games last year.

The defense also welcomes up a group of players off the Valley Vista JV squad that posted four straight shutouts at one point a year ago, like senior defensive end Jorden Lee.

The Monsoon in 2019 will vie to stay atop the heap in Surprise, post its first-ever win over Westview (regular season finale, on the road, Nov. 1), and look for their first playoff berth since 2016.

With the open division almost certainly taking the top four to six teams in 6A, winning a playoff game or perhaps even hosting one are potentially within reach for Valley Vista this season.

The Monsoon open Aug. 30 hosting Mesa Westwood, who went 5-5 a year ago and, unlike Valley Vista, open 2019 with a Zero Week game. It will be a rematch of last year’s season opener for the Monsoon, who won 28-21 in Mesa.

The first AIA 6A rankings of the season will appear Oct. 1.

Editor’s note: Steve Stockmar can be reached at sstockmar@newszap.com and on Twitter @stevestockmar.

[caption id="attachment_536222" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Valley Vista senior safety Makai Obregon pursues the Greenway ball carrrier during a scrimmage against Greenway on Wednesday, Aug. 21 at Peoria High School in Peoria. [Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps][/caption]