Friday, August 13, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Wildcats have new look on sidelines, same drive on field

By DAMON SEITERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Chris Faircloth conducts his first practice as Las Vegas Wildcats head coach. Photo by Gary Thompson.

The more things change, the more they stay the same for Las Vegas High School's football team.

The Wildcats have a new head coach this season after Kris Cinkovich left to take an assistant coaching job at UNLV. But new head coach Chris Faircloth, a 12-year assistant who was Cinkovich's defensive coordinator, said the rest of the staff stayed intact and not much else will change.

"Coach Cink had this pretty figured out," Faircloth said after the team's first official practice on Thursday. "He tweaked it a little bit each year. He's got it this far. We're going to try and keep doing the same thing that he did. There's no reason to fix it if it's not broke."

The Wildcats posted a 79-24 record in Cinkovich's nine seasons, including a 37-3 mark over the last three years. And the players know that hard work is the key to continuing that success.

"It's pretty much the same program," senior linebacker Dante Fielder said. "It's a little more strict and that's going to help us be a little more disciplined and hopefully give us that extra drive we need."

Faircloth said players were a bit unsure when Cinkovich left in January. But after a summer of training, he thinks the players are confident the program will still be a strong one.

"I think they were pretty worried when Coach Cink first left; everybody was kind of upset," Faircloth said. "I think as we got through this summer, they could see the ship's still sailing and we're going to be OK. We've just got to keep working hard."

Offensive linemen Cameron Busby and Arturo Rodriguez said the main difference this season might be a subtle change in attitude.

"He's going to change our offense to playing with a defensive mentality," Rodriguez said.

Busby said: "He's a defensive coordinator, so he likes to play smash-mouth football and make sure everyone's physically ready to play."

No matter who is in charge, the Wildcats' returning players have one goal: returning to the state title game. Las Vegas lost 26-23 to Reno last season.

"It kind of left a bad taste in our mouth, that last game, but we're getting ready," Busby said. "We've just got to keep working hard. Putting on the pads and doing two-a-days is part of what that is, getting ready physically to play."