Howard Langley insists he wasn’t playing possum at this time last year when he said his DeWitt Clinton football team was one large question mark.
The Governors went on to enjoy their best season yet under Langley, the ninth-year coach, going 6-3 and reaching the PSAL City Championship division semifinals. Football practice has begun and Langley is saying the same thing.
“We lost all our skills guys and we’re starting over,” he said, serious as ever.
Clinton, indeed, is a work in progress, its greatest strength an experienced offensive line that make up four of the team’s six returning starters. Quarterback Ryan Camilo, fullback Ashton McKenzie and running back Jeremiah Obeng-Agyapong all graduated, creating an open tryout at the skill positions.
Diego Walters, Camilo’s backup a year ago, will step under center. Langley has been impressed by the senior’s accuracy and said he can also make plays with his legs. Speedster Kerion Clarke, ineligible a year ago, will be Clinton’s homerun threat out of the backfield, Haleem Livingston will start at fullback and 6-foot wide receiver Josh Edwards, new to the program, has shown early glimpses of being a lethal perimeter threat.
The offense, however, will be led by the offensive line and its four returning starters, Chad Vickers (right tackle), Ruby Mendoza (right guard), Danny Mejia (left guard) and Arsenio Quinones (left tackle).
“They’re unassuming, quiet, they know their role and they just want to do their jobs,” Langley said of the undersized yet quick and smart group. “These are workmanlike guys. That is the key to our offense, the strength to our team right now. If the skill guys can mature and run what we do, then we’ll have a chance to compete.”
Mendoza, a 6-foot, 230-pound defensive lineman, and middle linebacker Xavier Worrell key a revamped defense that lost just as much as the offense, notably its entire secondary. To replicate last year’s success will be a tough task, especially since Clinton find itself in Group A of the PSAL new rating system with the likes of Tottenville, Curtis, defending champion Lincoln, Erasmus Hall and Fort Hamilton.
“We welcome the challenge,” Langley said of taking on the established powers. “We’re proud to be in this position, considering where we started a few years back, not really having a feeder program. I always say that we start out with kids from scratch and teach them.”
He added: “We take it how it is and play the schedule. At the end of the day, we’ll have to play these guys in the playoffs anyway.”
Langley’s goals for this group are the same at they always have been: beat rival John F. Kennedy and reach the playoffs relatively healthy with a chance to make noise. Despite the inexperience, he didn’t use the “R” word — rebuilding — once.
Maybe he’s playing coy yet again.
“That’s yet to be seen,” he said, laughing. “That’s the beautiful thing about what we do. Kids surprise you. They work out and somebody blossoms.”