By Sisseline Lovejoy, Namrud Fessehaye, Owen Gordon, Judah Kupers, and Paul Neacsu
Last Thursday, September 5th, Albany High School’s JV football team won their first game in almost two years. This game against St. Helena was closely followed by another September 13th against Northgate.
Coach Scott Shevelson is also a PE teacher at AHS. Players shared positive feedback about his work. Freshman Lucas Escoto-Lucero said: “Shev is definitely a good coach. He’s hard on us but that shows that he cares and wants us to be the best that we can.” Junior Savio Mah said, “He puts us in a place where we can get success if we put our minds to it.”
Shevelson also made it clear this feeling was mutual: “This is the nicest group of young men that I’ve coached here at Albany.”
Players who participated in the 2022 season showed much enthusiasm about returning to their sport. Junior Nshan Ergas said: “All the juniors hadn’t played since our freshman year since we didn’t technically have a season last year. So getting back onto the field was really an excitement.”
Shelvelson also notes the difference between the two seasons: “I think that the young men that were with me last year are making huge strides to be better athletes, better football players, better young men.”
The energy in the crowd and on the team seemed to play a big part on last Thursday night’s win. Ergas explained: “It was a very fun game, I would say. The energy was very high, on our side especially.” This high energy from the crowd and the players can go as far as to change the outcome of the game. Mah adds: “I like that we had people in the stands cheering for us. I feel like the team feeds off the energy, so if we do good, we feel like we did better.”
Players also note that the community of players has been especially tight-knit this year. Mah explains, “Everybody on the team is very close, we’re like brothers.” Escoto-Lucero adds, “I’m excited to play with this team, we’re family.”
On September 13th, the Cougars lost to Northgate 15 to 20.
They remain hopeful for next week’s home game against Pinole.
