High School FB: Two-A-Days – Centennial

we’ll preview ten teams on the next ten weeknights leading up to opening night… up first… we head to las cruces and take a look at centennial… they are ranked number 1 in new mexico’s class 5a heading into the season… but the centennial hawks know preseason rankings don’t equal state titles… ocampo: “i don’ really buy into any rankings, especially preseason. it’s all about getting into the playoffs and it’s all about playing well in the playoffs. so, really, it means nothing to us.” gurrola: “being at t top, that’s probably the hardest thing, maintaining to be what everyone sees you as. you expect yourself to be that, but the coaches expect higher. they see you as a normal player so you have to prove yourself every day.” a year ago… the hawks largely dominated the regular season… they won their games by an average of 31 points per game… but they fell short of a state title… losing twice to belen … their only to losses of the season … gurrola: “it’s exciting. i want to play them again just to prove what we’ve got. they’re a good team but i think it’s going to be a good matchup when we meet them.” the offense lost a lot of players but the defense is the back bone of the team and it’s good enough that the players believe this season could be special… gurrola: it could reach 18 weeks if it wants to. we just have to work hard. we’re all aiming for that same goal. that’s what i think keeps us together. ocampo: “i feel like we have some good leadership and we’ve got some want to out of our kids, but i’m no fool. we need to get a lot better.” what will make them better is continuing to embrace the championship mindset … nino: everytime we walk out of that locker room, we say be a champion. not only a champion on the field but off the field in the classroom and the community. and if they play with that championship fire .. they may very well earn the championship crown… centennial opens its season on august 28th at onate… we’ll preview onate tomorrow night…