El Diamante Football Preview: Miners ride big Saddle victory into 2023 season
The El Diamante High School football team rolled into last season's Battle for the Saddle rivalry game against Golden West with a 0-9 record.
But that didn't matter.
Under the direction of new head coach Devin Ramos, El Diamante upset Golden West 14-12 to claim the Saddle trophy for the first time since the 2017 campaign.
That victory provided confidence and fuel for the Miners all off-season, so much so that they are riding that wave of success into this year.
How big was it to end 2022 with a win?
"I think it was huge," Ramos said. "From my perspective, to see the kids, it was almost like it clicked that day, you know. Everything that we had instilled in them all year long about, 'Continuing to grind. Continuing to work hard. Continuing the process and grow.' And it just kind of clicked and they, I think, that's why we had such a good start to fall camp and through the spring is that they understood at that point that what we were saying was true and they understood that if we can go out and execute things we were asking them to do that we would be successful."
El Diamante will be led on the gridiron by Fresno State-bound Marsel Akins — a 6-foot-5, 265-pound lineman who is expected to anchor the trenches as a three-year starting left tackle.
Kaleb Konersman enters the 2023 season as the team's projected starting quarterback after leading the Miners to a victory in the Saddle game. He started the first game of his career at quarterback in the team's finale last season and is set to take on a larger role as a senior.
More: 2023 East Yosemite League Football Preview: 54 names to know, team capsules, schedules
"He's done a really good job being a leader of the offense," Ramos said. "He calls the plays. He has a full understanding of the playbook at this point, which is nice to have that coach on the field with Kaleb."
El Diamante is in its second year running the pro-style offense that was made popular on the Miners' campus by former coach Mark Rogers.
The Miners averaged only 10.1 points per game last season and scored three touchdowns in a single game only once during the 2022 campaign.
That will likely improve with a year of experience under Ramos and his coaching staff.
"The kids understand a lot more of who we are and what we're trying to do," Ramos said. "As well as just the terminology within the game, so it's been a much smoother start to the season because we're not shoving that basic information down their throats. They know how we talk. They know what we expect of them. They've done a really good job so far."
Defensively, the Miners will be led by defensive linemen John Chavez-Aguirre and Joey Clark as well as free safety Jayden Lopez.
Lopez has emerged as one of the team's top returning starters on the Miners' 4-2-5 defense.
"We expect good things out of our secondary from him," Ramos said. "He leads our defense. He's our play-caller on defense, which is a little bit out of normal for a defensive play-caller to be a DB but he's the leader so that's how it is."
El Diamante has a tough non-league schedule with a slate of games against traditional Central Section powerhouses in Tulare Western (Aug. 18), Tulare Union (Aug. 24), Clovis North (Sept. 1), Edison (Sept. 8) and Stockdale-Bakersfield (Sept. 15).
More: 2023 Tulare County football schedules
The Miners then kick off EYL action against Redwood on Sept. 29 at Visalia Community Stadium.
"We're always going to play good teams," Ramos said. "I don't care who it is. We're always going to go out and scout the same, practice the same. It's good for us to play those top-tier teams to expose our flaws before we begin our second gauntlet, which is the EYL. It's no cupcake schedule there, either. I feel it pushes us to figure out what we have to do to be successful. If you don't do that early on or don't get exposed, that's when things can fall apart in that second season."
El Diamante Miners
Head coach: Devin Ramos, second season
Coaching staff: Casey Rogers (offensive coordinator), Marcus Moore (defensive coordinator), Nic Hawkins, Ryan Hopper, Kurtis Chism, Aaron Sing, Greg Jones, Joe Diaz
Roster size: 55
Base offense/defense: Pro-style/4-2-5
2022 win-loss record: 1-9
Impact players: OL Marsel Akins, OL Cole Robinson, DL John Chavez-Aguirre, DL Joey Clark, QB Kaleb Konersman, RB Caleb Silva, RB E.J. Perez, WR Anthony Noriega, WR Jeremiah West, DB Jayden Lopez, TE Mason Ortega
Projected starting lineup
Offense
QB: Kaleb Konersman
RB: E.J. Perez
RB: Caleb Silva
TE: Mason Ortega
WR: Jeremiah West
WR: Joseph Bediwi
OL: Marsel Akins
OL: Beau Cooper
OL: Sammy Ramos
OL: Sean Vargas
OL: Cole Robinson
Defense
DL: Joey Clark
DL: Max Horta
DL: John Chavez Aguirre
DL: Adrian Galicia
LB: Joseph Pena
LB: Jeremiah Zamora
DB: Jayden Lopez
DB: Frank Martinez
DB: Elijah Contreras
DB: Collin Kane
DB: Oscar Benevidez
Schedule
Aug. 18: at Tulare Western, 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 24: Tulare Union, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 1: at Clovis North, 7 p.m.
Sept. 8: at Edison, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 15: at Stockdale-Bakersfield, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 29: Redwood (homecoming), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 6: Monache, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 13: Mt. Whitney, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 20: at Porterville, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 27: at Golden West (Battle for the Saddle), 7 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 2023 El Diamante Football Preview
