Huntington Beach Football ’99

In just his second year on the scene, Tony Ciarelli had the

Huntington Beach High football program back on track as he guided the

Oilers to their first postseason appearance in five years.

Although just six starters from last year’s 6-4-1 squad return,

Ciarelli has high hopes for another successful season.

‘Skill-wise, we’re very confident with what we have on both sides

of the ball,’ he said. ‘But our big question mark heading into the season

is our depth. We have some pretty good sized kids and a lot of them could

be playing both ways, but the one thing we have to do is avoid injuries

in order to be successful.’

Not only were the Oilers hit by the injury bug a year ago, they

were bit hard.

Key injuries set in at midseason and ultimately altered the

chemistry of the Oilers, who had used a staunch defense to run out to a

5-0 preseason mark - which included three shutouts.

Just two starters - Shaun Shuck and Mark Corrales - return from

that unit, but Corrales will be seeing things from a different angle in

‘99 as he moves from tackle to end.

‘Those guys give us a good base on defense, and we have some other

talented players who can help keep us at that (defensive) level of a year

ago,’ Ciarelli said. ‘The problem, though, will be that a lot of these

guys might be forced to play both sides of the ball.’

Shuck is one of them. A year ago, he was the Oilers’ top rusher as

he surpassed the 1,000 yards rushing mark - despite getting the ball just

half of the time in a two-man rotation.

Ciarelli refers to Shuck as the ‘go-to’ guy on offense.

Taking over the reins at quarterback will be junior Casey Ryder,

who gained some playing experience last year.

Ryder, Ciarelli says, is ‘a smart quarterback who really

understands our (West Coast) offense.’

Huntington Beach averaged 15 points a game last year, but the

Oilers might need to up that average if they hope to meet the challenges

of a very competitive schedule.

The Oilers once again face all five of the schools they defeated

in nonleague play last year.

‘Four of the teams we face in nonleague are ranked, or pretty

close to it,’ Ciarelli said. ‘It’s a challenging schedule, and we think

this team can meet that challenge.

‘Our goal every year is to make the playoffs, whether as the

first-place team, or the wild-card team. We divide the season into three

areas: preseason, league, and postseason. If we can string together a few

playoff appearances, then we will begin to develop into solid football

program that can contend year in and year out. That’s what we’re working

towards.’