Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

kickoff 2015:

Moapa Valley wants to follow breakthrough season with another one

High School Football Media Day 2015 Steve Marcus

Steve Marcus

Moapa Valley Pirates, from left, RJ Hubert (11), Nate Cox (12), and Dennis Whitmore (75) during Las Vegas Sun’s High School Football media day, Monday, July 27, 2015.

Moapa Valley video preview

High School Football Media Day 2015

Liberty High football players Tyus Toomalatai, Kaimi Batoon, Calvin Tubbs, and Nick Tapuala before the 2015 Season. Launch slideshow »

Six years felt like an awfully long time between state championships for Moapa Valley.

The perennial Division 1A power from Overton is determined to cut down on the wait between its 16th and 17th state title. Twelve months sounds like a more agreeable interim.

Even though they lost a bundle of key contributors from the team that beat Desert Pines in overtime last November, the Pirates look like definitive state championship contenders once again.

“You’ve just got to realize everyone is gunning for you,” Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis said. “We’ve got a target on our back, so we’ve got to work even harder now.”

Lewis speaks from experience. He led the Pirates to back-to-back championships in 2007 and 2008 before they became all too accustomed to playoff devastation.

Moapa Valley lost in the state championship game in four of the next five seasons until last year’s breakthrough against Desert Pines. The one year without a title-game appearance, 2013, featured a semifinal ouster.

Any conversation of a repeat begins with senior defensive back and receiver RJ Hubert, who had 964 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns during last year’s 13-0 campaign.

“You have to treat everyone like a worthy opponent,” Hubert said. “You know you’re going to get their best game so you have to train extra hard every week and give your best and know everything will turn out well.”

Hubert is the only returning starter among the skill players, though most of those around him received some action last year. Senior Derek Cope, who had six catches for 59 yards, will start opposite Hubert as the other wide out.

Senior running backs Trystin Deal and Sterling Simmons combined to gain 223 yards on 37 carries last season with their workload expected to increase several times over in 2015.

Senior quarterback Nate Cox got the most work out of the shifting starters, totaling 706 yards on 37-for-60 passing in relief.

“It hasn’t been difficult,” Cox said of adjusting to the bigger role this season. “I’ve been playing football with these guys since I was a little kid, so the transition is kind of just one season I didn’t get as many reps as I have in the past.”

As the quarterback, Cox is the rare Pirate who doesn’t play both ways. With depth as an annual weakness, Moapa Valley must keep its athletes on the field throughout the whole game.

Although the program is the lower division’s most accomplished, it’s also one of the smallest schools, which creates an inherent disadvantage.

“We don’t really focus on it,” Lewis said. “We just focus on the league we’re in, the opponents we have and it is what it is.”

“As long as we compete, that’s all that matters.”

Given Moapa Valley’s consistency, competing sounds like a given. Winning a second straight state championship will take a little more.

But counting the Pirates out is never wise. They’re not interested in delaying the delivery of another trophy.

“You have to be glad with what happened but you have to move on with what happened,” Cox said. “It’s good to have won state but now we’ve got to lock up, move forward. We’ve got a new season ahead of us.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.