Written by Matt Guardabascio, Additional Reporting by Mike Guardabascio<\/i><\/p>\n
We’ve started most of these previews with a little nod to the history of a program\u2014we’d do the same here, but a 4,000 word preview might be playing it a tad long. Besides, as amazing as the road behind this team is, this season might end up being even more memorable. Think that’s hyperbole? Consider: Poly got an early start to their season by traveling to Florida to defeat the Miami Northwestern Bulls, the defending national champions. That victory, plus an impressive nonleague schedule that sees them playing nationally ranked Newport Harbor High and St. Bonaventure, could put them on a lofty path. If they can pull out convincing wins in those games, and keep from stumbling down the stretch in the Moore League (they bring a 73-game win streak into this season), it’s likely we’ll be celebrating the most acclaimed year in Jackrabbits history.<\/p>\n
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. When we asked Poly head coach Raul Lara how he felt about this season, he summed it up in one word: “Worried.” His primary concerns? A brand new offensive line (who looked like experienced in Florida), and a young receiver corps that will need to find an identity, and fast. There are plenty of reliable units, of course, especially with several key starters returning from last year’s stellar defense, including linemen Iuta Tepa, Juwuan Brown, and linebacker George Daily-Lyles. Poly’s rushing attack might also set records this year, with returning seniors Melvin Richardson and Daveon Barber, who combined for more than 250 yards against Miami Northwestern. And that was without one of Poly’s best backs, the junior Cory Westbrook, who didn’t see time last week with a bad knee.<\/p>\n
Still, daunting as it is, other teams in the league don’t shy from their meetings with Poly\u2014words probably couldn’t capture how much Lakewood, or Cabrillo would love to be the team that keeps Poly from capturing a national title. Lara loves the competition, though, telling us, “I hate blowing people out. I’d rather coach an intense game that makes me, and the kids, learn. We like to be challenged.” Any time sights are set as high as Poly’s this year, challenge is likely to be in full supply.<\/p>\n
POLY JACKRABBITS 2008 SCHEDULE \u2013 All games start at 7pm
Aug. 30 at Miami Northwestern (W 29-7)
Sept. 19 vs. Newport Harbor at Vet’s Stadium
Sept. 26 at Carson
Oct. 3 at Lakewood
Oct. 10 vs. St. Bonaventure at Vet’s Stadium
Oct. 17 vs. Millikan at Vet’s Stadium
Oct. 24 vs. Wilson at Vet’s Stadium
Oct. 31 at Cabrillo
Nov. 7 vs. Compton at Vet’s Stadium
Nov. 14 at Jordan<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What can you say about a team that has a legitimate shot at its first national championship? The biggest challenge for Poly this season may be not looking too far ahead, because for all the teams listed above, their meeting with the ‘Rabbits is their<\/i> national championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5630"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5630"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}