Coyotes ready to see run of futility come to an end

Duo showing their teammates the commitment that it takes to become a winning program


BACK ON TRACK—Junior quarterback Kevin May, left, and senior lineman Andrew Greenfeld are co-captains of a team determined to snap its program’s 21-game losing streak. As a sophomore, May threw for 671 yards and six touchdowns before going down with a broken ankle. Greenfeld said the Coyote offensive line, which features four seniors, is confident it can give their starter the time in the pocket to realize his potential.

BACK ON TRACK—Junior quarterback Kevin May, left, and senior lineman Andrew Greenfeld are co-captains of a team determined to snap its program’s 21-game losing streak. As a sophomore, May threw for 671 yards and six touchdowns before going down with a broken ankle. Greenfeld said the Coyote offensive line, which features four seniors, is confident it can give their starter the time in the pocket to realize his potential.


Just a few days into practice and the Calabasas football team is already looking like a group that’s ready to put an end to the program’s 21-game losing streak.

Potential and personnel aside, the Coyotes are starting the season with a revamped sense of confidence and desire after an offseason of hard work that demonstrated just how badly the team wants to get things headed in the right direction.

If any two players are at the forefront of this positive attitude, they are senior offensive lineman Andrew Greenfeld and junior quarterback Kevin May, who returns after making seven starts for the Coyotes in 2004.

Both players earned the role of team captain largely because of the example they set in preparation for the upcoming season.

“These are guys the other players can look at to see what it takes to excel at this level of football,” said second-year head coach Wayne Quigley. “They have the type of commitment you hope will rub off on others.”

May, who threw for 671 yards and six touchdowns last season despite suffering a broken ankle against Royal in his team’s sixth game, said the Coyotes hit the weights hard this summer to better prepare themselves for the rigors of Division IV football.

“We spent a lot of time in the weight room just getting bigger, faster and stronger,” May said. “Last year we were undersized and understrengthed a lot. I don’t see that happening this year.”

The 6-0 quarterback said the Coyotes are also benefiting from one of their best summer passing leagues in recent memory in which the team went 16-16-4 and won the majority of their games before top receiver Matt Field (13 receptions, three TDs) went down with a hand injury. Field has since recovered and is expected to start the season.

“We did real well in passing league. We really proved to ourselves that we can compete against these other teams,” May said. “The offense demonstrated some chemistry we didn’t have before.”

While the Coyotes were almost exclusively a running team last season, expect them to throw the ball more this year with returning wideouts like Field and David Spatz, and a hard-nosed quarterback like May to lead them.

May, who played the final two games of the season last year with an air cast on his broken ankle, is so respected by coaches for his strength and toughness that they are seriously considering starting him at inside linebacker as well.

“He’s got the size and ability to do it,” Quigley said.

The junior said he’d love the opportunity to be one of the only quarterbacks in the Marmonte League to play two-way football.

“I think I could help the team out by being another solid defensive player,” May said. “Plus, if I want to play college football somewhere, I think I have better chance at linebacker than I do being a six foot quarterback.”

Much of May’s success this year will depend on the protection from his offensive line and guys like Greenfeld, who is one of two returning starters upfront—the other being fellow senior Darryl Dadon.

In all, four seniors and one junior are expected to start on the Coyote offensive line.

“I think all of the linemen are confident and I know we all want to block for (May),” said Greenfeld, who is in his third year on the varsity team. “We have so much confidence in him that we want to give him the chance to show his potential. He’s a true leader and we’re going to do all we can to protect him.”

Though Calabasas doesn’t have any real giants (Greenfeld is one of the biggest at 6-2, 250 pounds), Greenfeld said the Coyotes’ O-line has enough strength to be a force.

“We don’t have any of these guys that are extremely overweight. We have a bunch of strong, athletic guys,” he said. “Plus, coach (Larry) Edwards is a great coach and he’s teaching us all the technique. I believe technique and strength will win out over size.”

Greenfeld also said the line is getting very good at working as a collaborative unit.

“The communication is so much better this year,” Greenfeld said. “This group feels more together than any we’ve had the past two seasons.”

The longtime Calabasas resident who took up football when he was just a freshman, said there’s no truth to the statement that the Coyotes have struggled to win because they can’t get physical athletes who want to play a contact sport.

“I think that’s a complete myth,” Greenfeld said. “Every year I’ve played with some of the toughest guys I’ve ever seen. Even when we weren’t winning, we had tough guys who loved to play football.”

May, who used to be Greenfeld’s neighbor, said much of the team’s confidence comes from its strong core of seniors, a handful of whom are in their third year on varsity.

“Seniors like Andrew have really challenged the team to put everything they have into this season because they don’t want to go out with a horrible senior year,” May said. “Andrew hates to see people lag, he’s always getting on them to work harder. But he also builds up peoples’ confidence and tells them to believe in the ability in they have. He won’t let us believe we can’t win this year.”

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