{"id":32831,"date":"2013-06-12T11:27:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T18:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=32831"},"modified":"2017-06-10T10:46:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T17:46:28","slug":"mcfarland-measures-up-his-next-season-at-tc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=32831","title":{"rendered":"McFarland Sizes up His Next Season at TC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Temple<\/a>

Temple City HC Mike McFarland is entering his fourth season.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Josh Ouellette<\/p>\n

Entering his fourth season as head coach for Temple City, McFarland hasn\u2019t been the most successful in the history of the program. \u00a0In fact his overall record isn\u2019t great, in his time the team has gone 10-22, yet have managed to make two playoff appearances.<\/p>\n

In 2012 TC shocked the local pundits and made it to the postseason, playing Paraclete in the first round of the CIF playoffs and played Monrovia in the week before at the end of last season, losing 35-14 and 49-7, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played Monrovia and Paraclete in back-to-back fashion. That\u2019s kind of a unique deal to play the two best teams in the division like that. I don\u2019t think our team was very phased about it,\u201d said McFarland. \u201cPart of that was the by product of the process of what we had gone through and were those kids had come from earlier on in the season and the season before that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams play in the same league as three-time CIF Champion Monrovia and McFarland sees this as an advantage and not a problem for his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good that comes from it. You don\u2019t have to look very far to see where the bar is set. I think that it serves as a very good motivating force to have that challenge so close and to know that your going to play them [the Wildcats] and that they\u2019re a league team,\u201d McFarland explained. \u201cI think that\u2019s a good thing. They\u2019re in our league so were going to play them, and they\u2019re the standard right now. We know that were going to have an opportunity to play them, and that\u2019s a positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last five years TC has gone through many changes in the offense it runs. From Power-I, to a spread formation, back to the an I-formation and then to last years Wing-T style of offense.<\/p>\n

Again coach McFarland doesn\u2019t see this as a negative for his Rams, but more so an opportunity to maximize the potential of the players he has on his roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do, what I do, is out of necessity. We look at the personnel that we have and we try to highlight what we do well and minimize what we don\u2019t do so well. What the finished product looks like comes with the further evaluation of players,\u201d McFarland said about his offensive approach. \u201cAt the starting point there will be some of that [Wing-T style of offense] that will remain with us, but I can\u2019t say definitively what we\u2019ll look like until we get a chance to see our kids in more competitive situations, with pads on and get closer to the finished product.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that being said Temple City turned their season around last year after going 0-3 to win four straight thanks to the change in style paying off. From last years team there is much of the \u201ctalent\u201d coming back to fill important positions on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have some good players returning. I feel like we have a good set of skill kids returning,\u201d McFarland said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know enough about the rest of the team across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning Rams include Nick Starling, Nick Kaneko and Nasir Banihani. All of which will look to lead the Rams on both sides of the ball next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBanihani started the game against Paraclete, and he\u2019ll have a great opportunity to become the starting quarterback again this fall,\u201d McFarland said.<\/p>\n

But what has been and probably always will be at the heart of Temple City football is the ground game. McFarland has confidence he has the dual threat attack to be successful come the start of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarling is our best downhill running threat, said McFarland. \u201cAnd Kaneko is very versatile and he served in a ton of roles last year. I mean he is a ball carrier, but in the playoff game we moved him around and used him as a lead blocker. He\u2019s also one of our best returners and defensive players.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is another player on coach McFarland\u2019s radar for TC next year as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother player we have returning is Nathan Ruiz, who started at outside linebacker as a sophomore. He\u2019s going to give a big contribution on both sides of the ball,\u201d McFarland said.<\/p>\n

Where the Rams really shined last season was in the trenches on defense amassing four All-Rio Hondo players on the TC defensive line: James Bettancourt- Defensive Lineman of the Year, Felipe Serano- First Team, and Jorge Cruz and Jake Ferntheil earning Second Team honors.<\/p>\n

McFarland recognizes that replicating that type of d-line would be tough to do and that there are some major shoes to fill in those spots for the Rams.<\/p>\n

\u201cFerntheil is the only returner. He\u2019s our nose guard and he\u2019s a very very good football player. We\u2019re expecting big things from Jake this year and he\u2019ll anchor our defensive line, but we got to replace those other three guys,\u201d McFarland admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be the biggest challenge we have. Finding guys that can create the same kind of opportunities that those guys last year did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferntheil is easily the biggest player in a Temple City uniform and will look to bring back memories of Brian Soumakian to North Field on Friday nights this fall. Listed at 6-feet-2-inches and 285-pounds the Rams lineman is looking to be the dominant force behind the TC attack on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is for him to play both ways and that\u2019s his goal as well. Jake [Ferntheil] know\u2019s he\u2019s got to get into great shape to do that,\u201d said McFarland. \u201cHe\u2019s a big guy and last year he really wasn\u2019t able to [play both ways] because he wasn\u2019t in good enough shape. He was also coming off of an ACL injury the year before. But yeah that\u2019s our goal; we\u2019ll be better if he can play both ways.<\/p>\n

With a tough non-league schedule the Rams will be tested before they enter into what McFarland calls a \u201cvery competitive [Rio Hondo] league.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams will play Simi-Valley, Arroyo, Alhambra, Eagle Rock and Rosemead in the weeks leading up to league play with Monrovia, San Marino, South Pasadena, La Canada and Blair.<\/p>\n

Normally TC tends to have games against closer non-league opponents but it just didn\u2019t work out that way for this upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good thing in my opinion. I think the games mean a little bit more when you\u2019re playing schools you know of, and more people can get there, and all those things,\u201d said McFarland.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Simi Valley is a team Temple City isn\u2019t familiar with but the Pioneers will definitely be a step-up in the level of competition the green and gold normally face.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be a great test for us. They\u2019re a PAC-5 school, I know they struggled a little last year at the varsity level,\u201d quipped McFarland. \u201cBut when your playing teams like St. Bonaventure and Oaks Christian it\u2019s a little bit different. I expect them to be a great challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach McFarland knows football is more about the work put in during the offseason than the individual players on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a quality group of guys that are just solid, solid kids. They work hard and they have good attitudes and work ethics, and they like playing football, so that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d McFarland said. \u201cI feel good about what we have this year and I feel good about what our kids have done and what they\u2019re doing. I\u2019m enjoying the process of working with these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams open the season on Aug. 30 against Simi Valley before playing in the Mid-Valley Classic against Arroyo on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Josh Ouellette Entering his fourth season as head coach for Temple City, McFarland hasn\u2019t been the most successful in the history of the program. \u00a0In fact his overall record isn\u2019t great, in his time the team has gone 10-22, yet have managed to make two playoff appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32831"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59252,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831\/revisions\/59252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}