The Matt Mendonca era kicks off on Saturday at Sequoias Stadium.
Mendonca is in his first season as the College of the Sequoias head football coach.
The Tulare native is a former Giants player who also played at Tulare Union under head coach Darren Bennett.
Mendonca competed at COS in 2002-03 and served as a Giants assistant during his first COS tenure from 2009-13. He most recently served as the Giants defensive coordinator before being elevated to head coach after the departure of Travis Burkett. He has also been the head coach at Lindsay High School and the defensive coordinator at Reedley College.
Mendonca's wife, Cori Janelli, is the COS softball coach.
Mendonca will lead his alma mater on Saturday when the Giants open the 2024 season at home against American River College at Sequoias Stadium. Kickoff is at 11 a.m.
"Honored and humbled to be able to coach at your alma mater," Mendonca said. "COS has given me so much. I just really want to do what's best for COS. I've worked as hard as I possibly can to give everything I can back to COS because they provided so much for me for sure. I'm just honored and humbled."
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COS is coming off a 6-5 campaign, which included a 31-28 win over Sierra in the Golden State Bowl.
The Giants return several standouts from that bowl championship team, including All-Valley Conference left tackle Karson Seaman (6-5, 271).
Seaman, a sophomore from Los Molinos north of Chico, is an NCAA Division I prospect who recently received his first scholarship offer from the University of Akron.
"When you talk about being Valley tough, there's a lot of different dimensions that go into that, a lot of different aspects," Mendonca said. "Karson exhibits all of them — not just from a physical standpoint because he has all the physical tools that you need to play big-time Division I football but it's how you take care of your body, how you do in the classroom, making sure you're not missing a single practice or a single rep.
"Just playing with that relentless motor and that physicality that we want to play with. He exemplifies playing fast and physical. He exemplifies that with everything he does throughout the day, so we're extremely excited about his progress and where he's at right now."
Other top returning players to watch on offense include tailback Dalton Armbruster (5-8, 190), receiver Nick Nelson (6-4, 202), receiver Dontae Gentles (5-10, 149) and tight ends Colin Dickson (6-5, 222) and Allen Danielson (6-3, 245).
Nelson, an El Diamante product, was the Giants’ leading receiver last year with 29 catches for 376 yards and two touchdowns. He was an All-West Yosemite League first-team pick during his senior year with the Miners in 2021.
"He's got explosiveness and he's got really good size," Mendonca said of Nelson. "He's a guy that we could just throw the football to and he's just going to make a play. I think any team out there that’s trying to win in the long haul to be there at the end of the season, we need a guy that you can just get the ball to.
"He's excellent in the classroom. He's a physical specimen. I don't know how much weight he's gained since he's been out of high school but he's thrown on 20 pounds of solid muscle and he's going to be somebody we're going to be heavily relying on this year."
Quarterback Reilly Garcia (6-4, 194), who started most of last season, returns after passing for 1,307 yards and nine touchdowns. He completed nearly 59% of his attempts and also rushed for 119 yards and five touchdowns.
"He has college experience," Mendonca said. "He's helped us win football games. There's a lot to say in that. He's experienced. He's been out here. He's had a really, really good spring and a really great summer and training camp. We're really excited about Reilly."
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Quarterback Payton Faker (6-5, 204), a freshman, has also impressed the COS coaching staff and will likely see some playing time this season, too.
Starting hybrid outside linebacker/defensive end Tovie Martin (6-4, 205) will anchor the defense. He had five-and-a-half tackles for losses and two sacks in 2023. Martin is a Clovis High grad.
Other defensive standouts include linebackers Will (6-3, 224) and Josh Henderson (6-3, 215) and defensive backs Derrick Jones (6-1, 173), Louis Sanders (6-1, 172), Quintin Conley (6-3, 164), Wendell Ware (6-4, 170), Michael Boone (5-11, 158) and Marcus Aparicio (6-0, 181).
The defensive line will led by DeShawn Jenkins (6-1, 308) and Andres Rodriguez (6-1, 300).
"Those guys are going to be really good players in this upcoming season," Mendonca said. "We expect to have a really stout defense."
Leo Blumentritt will handle the kickoffs and punting, and Lucas Cords will do field goals and extra points.
COS is 1-3 in its last four season openers. The Giants' last victory to open the season came during the 2022 campaign when they won 39-33 at Butte.
"We want to play fast and physical," Mendonca said. "We want all of our guys to be Valley tough, so that’s been something that we've preached and our guys have really taken ownership of it. We just don't preach it. We work on it at practice every day."
Schedule
- Sept. 7: American River, 11 a.m.
- Sept. 14: at San Francisco, 1 p.m.
- Sept. 21: San Joaquin Delta, 11 a.m.
- Sept. 28: at Feather River, 1 p.m.
- Oct. 5: at Butte, 1 p.m.
- Oct. 19: Sacramento, 1 p.m.
- Oct. 26: at Contra Costa, 1 p.m.
- Nov. 2: Reedley, 1 p.m.
- Nov. 9: Fresno, 1 p.m.
- Nov. 16: at Modesto, 1 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 'We want to play fast and physical': COS football kicks off Matt Mendonca era on Saturday
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