Rose Garden Resident
Cover Story
Photograph by Vicki Thompson
Fleet Lion: Lincoln's Michael Fleet returns to the backfield this season after winning all-league second team honors last fall. Fleet joins Chris Mendoza to give the Lions a solid one-two punch running the football.
Title-winning Lions move up to Mt. Hamilton Division
Lincoln faces test in tougher circuit
By Kevin Sparrer
For three years they have known nothing but championships. The seniors on this year's Lincoln High School football team have been the best every season they stepped on the field.
As freshmen, they won the frosh-soph championship in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. As sophomores, they repeated the task, winning back-to-back titles. Then as juniors on the varsity, they won a co-championship while still in the Santa Teresa Division.
But with this year comes the final test. This year the Lions attempt to prove their skills by moving up to the Mt. Hamilton Division where they will battle powerhouses like Oak Grove and Pioneer, the division co-champs who were picked this year as top Mt. Hamilton teams once again.
Lincoln, though, hopes to have something to say about that.
Leading the way for the Lions will be a number of returning seniors, many of them all-league players last year.
Tarik Hakmi (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) will be a third-year starting quarterback for the Lions and last year was named to the all-league second team. Chris Mendoza (6-foot, 220) is a returning running back and linebacker who was last year's Junior of the Year in the Santa Teresa Division.
Miles Hidalgo (6-foot-2, 210) will be returning to the offensive and defensive lines, Isaac Moreno (5-foot-8, 240) will be back in the offensive and defensive lines after being named a second team all-league offensive player last year, and Michael Fleet (5-foot-9, 175) is coming back to run the ball on offense and stop the ball as a linebacker on defense, Fleet was also named second team all-leaguer last season.
"We're excited about the challenge of moving up a division," said Lincoln head coach Kevin Collins. "We returned a lot of kids on offense and we just want to show we belong in the Mt. Hamilton Division."
The last two years the Lions have finished as co-champions with Westmont, despite not losing a single game last season. The Lions finished 9-0-1 overall, including a win over San Jose Academy in their annual Big Bone Game. It was Lincoln's eighth win in a row in the classic Thanksgiving Day game.
"We replaced a lot of kids on defense," said Collins. "But we're not young, just a little inexperienced."
Lincoln also hopes for a good showing from some of the frosh-soph players coming to varsity for the first time. The frosh-soph team is coming off of yet another championship season where they went 10-0 overall.
Unlike most area teams, Lincoln will get a late start into the 2006 football campaign. Some teams started as early as Sept. 1, but the Lions will play their season opener on Sept. 15 when they visit Mt. Pleasant. Lincoln opens its home season on Sept. 23 against its old Santa Teresa rival, Westmont, then gets into Mt. Hamilton Division play on Sept. 30 at home against Independence.
Lincoln, as usual, will forgo any potential Central Coast Section playoff bid to play its traditional Turkey Day game against San Jose Academy on Nov. 23 at San José City College.
The Lions graduated quite a few players last year, including the league's Most Valuable Player Jose Ramirez. Also gone from last year are Justin Weise, who was a first team all-league linebacker; Kyle Martinez, a first team all-league as a defensive back; Marcos Medina, a first team all-league defensive lineman; and Jason D'Amico, a first team all-league as an offensive lineman. The Lions also graduated a couple of players who were second team all-league: Oscar Mora in the offensive line and Devin Hartman at linebacker.
Despite the fact that Lincoln graduated quite a few players, this year still has a favorable outlook and nothing helps more than experience. So far these seniors have only experienced championships.
A few players from last year's team have also gone on to play at the community college level. Weise has continued his football career at De Anza Community College as a linebacker while D'Amico is playing at Cabrillo as the center of the offensive line.
