Folsom football enjoying first uninterrupted offseason since start of pandemic
FOLSOM -- This will be a special year for Folsom High School football players and student-athletes all over the state of California.
For the juniors and seniors -- the classes of 2023 and 2024 -- they've never had an offseason. Some have never played high school sports without the specter of the pandemic. Even though COVID remains prevalent in the capital region, a season without significant restrictions feels normal for the football players of Folsom.
"It feels different what the normal should've been like but we've just had crazy things happen," says senior Walker Lyons. "Left school March of 2020 came back March of 2021. First spring season sophomore year. Six game season; and then four months later we're back in it for a full season."
Lyons is now a senior, a top 10 recruit in California, and a top 100 prospect nationally. He remembers a time in high school before COVID and is anticipating a return to normalcy. His quarterback, junior Austin Mack, is seeing something completely new.
"I've never gone through spring ball, summer ball coming into this preseason," Mack explains.
DJ Brown is another senior who has had to contend with all the changes throughout his high school career. His coaches are the ones that have been the guiding lights throughout the years and this offseason in particular.
"Coach Doherty, he's a great mentor," Brown says. "He always says you don't know what you don't know and I think that's a very true statement."
This being the last season for the seniors, every single one wants to go out with a bang. But more than the motivation to win games, there's a desire -- sometimes unique among a younger generation -- to really appreciate the moment in light of the uncertainty of the last three seasons.
"All I wanted was one year to really go at it and really compete and see what we could do," Brown says. "Think this team this year is special."
And this year will be a big one for Folsom as well. The team returns a bevy of talent from Lyons, a Stanford commit, to wide receiver Nico Flores, a Notre Dame commit, along with plenty of players with multiple Division I offers. Mack will be taking over at quarterback after watching behind Tyler Tremain in 2021. Last year's Folsom team upset De La Salle before falling in the CIF 1-A State Final to Cathedral Catholic. But Lyons and his senior class think there's plenty of juice to come back around and take home a trophy this year.
"It sucked to make it that far and lose," he says. "So, like I said, I think the key phrase that i would say for this team this year is that we're locked in."