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Westminster Readies for Football

Wildcats begin season with state playoffs hopes

The football team is ready to begin the 2011 season with a good blend of returning and new players.

The Wildcats, who went 8-4 last year, will be returning six starters on offense and five starters on defense, mostly on the line, according to assistant coach and director of football operations, Joe Sturniolo.

“We had the hardest schedule in the state last year,” Sturniolo said. “It’s going to be close to the same thing this year. But we expect this year, as we do every year, to be able to compete for a state title.”

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Head coach Gerry Romberg, in his 20th year leading the program, took the Wildcats to the state playoffs last year and battled for the Region 6-AA championship. Westminster defeated North Oconee in the opening round of the playoffs, marking the 12th season that the Wildcats have won at least one playoff game. Romberg is the winningest coast in school history, with a record of 140-79-0. 

Two of the four losses last year came at the hands of the eventual AA state champion Buford, which has won the state title four years in a row.

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While the team is returning 11 starters, it is still in the hunt for its quarterback. There are three players vying for the starting spot: seniors Danny Catan and Will Rugianao, as well as sophomore Jake Forte. As the team travels to Heard County Friday for a AA scrimmage, Sturniolo said that could be the deciding factor as to who will get the start in the home opener again St. Pius next Friday.

St. Pius is a AAA school that hasn’t played against Westminster since making the jump up one division, but Sturniolo said that last year when the two teams played, it was a battle until the end, with Westminster coming out on top.

“They ended the game with the ball on the 2-yard line,” he said. “If they had scored on that final play they would have won. I expect another great game from them this year.”

This year’s schedule will be just as daunting as last year’s, he said. Two of the teams Westminster lost to last year have been replaced by schools from Florida: Providence and Baker County, both in the Jacksonville area.

But Westminster also has quite a few talented players as well. Some of the senior linemen have been recruited by the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Duke and Princeton.

The team was No. 1 in Subregion B of 6-AA last year and No. 2 overall in the region, with its goals set even higher this year.

“Our goal is the state championship,” Sturniolo said. “We think it’s definitely possible. With how we finished last year, it is definitely our goal to be playing in the championship game this year.”

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