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Most football teams consist of at least 40 players or more ... sometimes maybe 30. But what happens when a team has fewer than 20 players?
Harker's football team in experiencing that this season with only 18 players on the varsity.
"We have to avoid injuries and we can be competitive," coach Fred Barnes said. "Conditioning is particularly important to us; we need to have energy in the fourth quarter."
Despite their small numbers, the Eagles are returning nine players from last year's squad, including three all-leaguers.
The first of those all-league players is senior Jeff Liu. Liu is a guard on the offensive side of the ball and roams the middle as a linebacker on defense.
Coming back along with Liu is senior Amit Mukherjee. Mukherjee is also part of the offensive line and will be a defensive end on the other side. He is another of the all-league players returning for Harker.
Senior Wilson Haung is the other returning all-league player. Haung will be carrying the ball this season for Harker and roaming with Mukherjee as a linebacker.
There are six other returners this season: Senior Chris Sutardia will return to the offensive and defensive lines; junior Jason Martin will be handling the pigskin as the quarterback and will be chasing it down as a defensive back; junior Eric Tsai will be in the trenches as an offensive lineman and a defensive end; junior Gregg Ringold will be catching passes as a wide receiver and batting them down as a defensive back; junior Mike Keller will be carrying the ball on offense and roaming the middle as a linebacker; and junior Adnan Haque will also carry the ball this season and play as a defensive back.
Aside from the nine returning players, there are seven coming up from the frosh-soph squad who will be forced to make some plays this season.
Junior Grayson Hurd will be catching passes as a wide receiver and picking them off as a defensive back, senior Derrick Keung will be leading the line as center and back in the trenches as a defensive lineman, junior Akshay Bhatia will be a part of both the offensive and defensive lines, sophomore Victor Chen will spend his first year of not only varsity but football in general on both the offensive and defensive lines, sophomore Kyle Mui will be a running back and a linebacker, junior Albert Chen will be running the ball and stopping it as a linebacker, and sophomore Roland Jiao will be yet another member of the offensive and defensive lines.
Harker is to open up with a preseason game against Hillsdale on Sept. 9 at PAL Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
Assisting Barnes this season will be Tim Woods, Karriem Stinson, Nic Stojanovich and Mike Saltzman.
KEY RETURNERS
Jeff Liu, Sr., OG/LB all-league
Amit Mukherjee, Sr., OL/DE all-league
Wilson Haung, Sr., FB/LB all-league
Jason Martin, Jr., QB/DB
Eric Tsai, Jr., OL/DE
Chris Sutardja, Sr., OL/DL
Gregg Ringold, Jr., WR/DB
Mike Keller, Jr., RB/LB
Adnan Haque, Jr., RB/DB
HARKER 2005
FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sept. 9, Hillsdale at PAL Stadium,
7:30 p.m.
Sept 16, at Sequoia, 7 p.m.
Sept. 23, Sobrato at PAL Stadium,
7:30 p.m.
Oct. 1, at Sacred Heart Prep, 2 p.m.*
Oct. 8, Stone Ridge Christian
at Foothill College, 4 p.m.
Oct. 14, St. Elizabeth, 7:30 p.m.*
Oct. 21, at King's Academy, 7 p.m.*
Oct. 28, California School for the Deaf at PAL Stadium, 7:30 p.m.*
Nov. 4, Berean Christian at Las Lomas, 5:30 p.m.*
Nov. 11, Salesian at PAL Stadium,
7:30 p.m.*
* Denotes Bay League game
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