By Jondi Gumz
With a 28-7 victory over Jurupa Hills High School on Dec. 8, the Soquel High School Knights claimed the Division 4-AA state championship — the first football team in Santa Cruz County history to do so.
The Knights finished the season 13-2 with highlight sacks, tackles, and touchdown passes.
They defeated Palma, which went on to earn the state crown in Division 4-A.
The Knights, led by Head Coach Dwight Lowery, an eight-year NFL veteran back at his alma mater, made it look easy.
The Capitola-Soquel Times asked: How did he do it? Can it be done again?
Dwight Lowery
Lowery, 37, married with two children ages 10 and 6, explained his approach to coaching, challenges he faced and the highlight of the season.
“You get what you emphasize,” he said.
For his players, he emphasizes sleeping, eating habits, and making good decisions.
“They can eat whatever they want to eat,” he said. “But if you pick chips and soda, don’t be surprised if you have a bad practice.”
For quick energy, he suggests a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, not “something heavy, like a hamburger and French fries. You’d want to lay down after.”
As for sleep, the challenge is that state lawmakers decided high schools can’t start first-period classes before 8:30 a.m.
Teens with a class schedule starting at 9:30 a.m. can be tempted to stay up late at night and think they can still win football games.
“Video games are one of the main culprits,” Lowery said. “You’ve got to shut that stuff down before you go to bed.”
Teenagers — they’re at an age where they feel they’re invincible — so he asks: “What kind of a team do you want to be?”
Lowery played for nine or ten different head coaches in the NFL.
“I learned from all of them,” he said.
Asked about role models, he cited Rex Ryan and Dennis Thurman of the New York Jets, and Keith Burns of San Jose State University.
At times, what he learned was “I would approach that differently.”
He added, “I try to relate my experience to the kids. You might need to work with someone you don’t necessarily agree with. You need to find a way through that. That’s part of the art of football.”
Soquel High staff said Lowery arranged for tutors when needed for his players.
Soquel Elementary students show their support for the Soquel High School varsity football team. • Photo Credit: Patrick Foster
He worked with counselors and tapped into former players now in college to assist.
“One thing about Soquel High,” he said, “if you want help in your class, there’s a lot of people willing to help. There’s a pretty collaborative effort.”
Another challenge is social media with its attention-grabbing short videos.
Instagram, founded in 2010, and Tik Tok, which dates to 2017, didn’t exist when he was in high school. These videos, which can be as short as three seconds and there’s a never-end supply of them, wreak havoc on teen ability to focus.
“Their attention span is very short,” Lowery said. “If you don’t get them in first 30 seconds, you lose them for 30 minutes.”
If he were teaching a class, he said he would try adapting the presentation “so they feel connected with what they’re doing.”
He said “a good number” of football players play a second sport, baseball, track, basketball, volleyball, which is good for two reasons.
“It’s going to keep you active, and it’s going to keep you accountable when it comes to your grades,” he said, noting some students are self-motivated and some just aren’t.
“Playing a sport is fun, but not every job is going to be fun,” he said. “Sometimes you’re going to have to do something you don’t want to do. You tell them. They might hear you. They think they have everything figured out. I had to fail so I could see what isn’t working.”
This is a hard lesson.
He added, “I had a kid who was ineligible (due to grades). He didn’t get to play with his friends his senior year. You will never get back your senior year of playing football.”
Santa Cruz has a Pop Warner football team for younger kids, and some are on the Soquel team.
“It’s always good to have kids with a football background,” Lowery said.
But it doesn’t mean kids who played a position in Pop Warner will play that position as a teen.
“You may be too small in high school to play the position you played in Pop Warner,” Lowery said. “Did you grow? Did somebody else grow more quickly?”
He only played one year of Pop Warner.
The Soquel quarterback, Sam Whelan, is a sophomore who was named All League second team.
He was quarterback for the freshman team last year but he didn’t play any Pop Warner.
“Sometimes you win because you have guys who are better,” Lowery said, emphasizing the importance of developing players. “The team going to games knew we were better than the other team. The players that support those players elevated those players. That’s when you have a championship team.”
He added, “It’s who you practice against,” pointing out that a good player who is never challenged is never going to get better.
On this team, four to five of the seniors are looking to continue to play football in college, from junior college to Division I.
Jordan McCord, a receiver averaging 51 yards per game and scoring 14 touchdowns this season, has offers from San Jose State and Eastern Washington.
The challenge in the week before winter break is finals.
To be in the state championship, hosted by Pasadena City College, they missed two days of school.
Now they are playing catch-up.
“They got to do their part,” said Lowery, who suggested players in the same class together meet in a group to study.
This team did have the advantage of students who transferred in. That’s not unusual.
“Every year I’ve been here, we’ve had multiple kids transfer,” Lowery said. “They’re looking for something else, or had an issue at the school. Not every one got to play. This season we had hungry players.”
He added, “We got some good players this year. We had an influence on making players better.”
Is it possible to have another season like this one?
His answer: “Yeah — things have to fall into place. We were very healthy. All of our better players were available. They understand what we did. Next year’s team won’t have as many difference-makers but our team will have more depth.”
He added, “I want 33 stars, 11 stars on offense, 11 stars on defense, 11 stars on special teams.
If we see a weakness, we can make changes to attack those weaknesses. You’ve got to develop players. That’s what I do that no one else does.”
For example, the punter who made big plays and scored against Palma is graduating, so this is an opportunity for someone else.
“Guys have to work for it, own the position, someone we can depend on,” Lowery said.
That’s hard with teenagers, who might have a girlfriend, a car or some family issue that coaches may or may not know about.
As an alumnus of Soquel High, Lowery is very enthusiastic about the community support for the team.
“All the support we got on this run was awesome,” he said
Not just the people at the game, people watching at local businesses, that’s very cool. It’s awesome to see alumni proud of these guys, their school represented … The sendoff — at Soquel Elementary, they were outside with signs — that was a highlight for me.”
Lowery talks about good decision-making, and so he made the decision to not go to Disneyland after the state championship.
When the championship hoopla ended, it was midnight and driving to the Magic Kingdom would be another 45 minutes to an hour.
He is holding onto the tickets he bought for a future family adventure.
•••
There will be a parade to celebrate the title on Jan 13 at 11 a.m. and the team will be honored at the Santa Cruz Warriors game that evening.
TOP PHOTO: The Soquel High School varsity football team players celebrate their state championship on the field after the game.