“Our first game is very important to us,” stressed De Anza head football coach Bob Pifferini.

Although Saturday night’s contest against arch-rival Foothill College is a non-conference game, the Dons are “determined to put up a good fight.”

This may be a difficult task, considering Foothill has 30 returning players from last year’s squad, while the Dons have but three men who have played any football on the college level. One of these, however, is ex-Homestead High School halfback Dave Brigham, who played freshman football at San Jose State last year. In his senior year at Homestead, Brigham made All-Northern California first team. The 6’1″, 190-pounder “will be the key to out offense.”

Robie Yamamoto, a 230-pound ex-all league tackle from Sunnyvale, and Bill Hartman, a 200-pounder from Fremont High, are the only other players wit college experience.

There is a wealth of material from the local high school ranks of Fremont, Homestead, Sunnyvale and Cupertino. These four teams’ combined record was 23-13 last year, with half of those losses sustained by Sunnyvale alone. Precious little of this wealth, however, will be wearing Don football jerseys this coming season. Amon the former high school stars on the squad will be Cupertino’s Terry Adams, who broke every rushing record in Pioneer history; Sunnyvale’s bruising fullback, Mike Utt; Fremont’s Brad Arba and Bill Harrigan, and Homestead’s Paul O’Brien and Jim Hill.

Assisting Pifferini this coming season will be tennis coach Jim Linthicum and Bill Walker, wrestling coach. They will help work toward what Pifferini terms “a balanced attack, although we might lean a little more towards keeping the ball on the ground. Our basic formation will be an unbalaced T to the right, with variations off of that.”

De Anza will play in the tough Coast Conference against Hartnell, Gavilan, Monterey, Cabrillo, Menlo, West Valley, Solano and Laney, last year’s number one junior college football team in the nation. As of now, three of the De Anza home games will be played at Cupertino High School and the other game at Fremont High. The Foothill encounter is the only non-league game on the Dons’ schedule. There is not a football stadium planned for this year. The matter is not closed, however, for if there is a great enough demand for a home stadium by students and faculty alike, there is a likelihood that one can be attained.

The squad has been practicing since Sept. 1 with two workouts a day to be in top shape for the Foothill encounter. “We definitely urge the students to support their football team,” opined Pifferini, “and help drive their young squad to the top.”

Game time is 8 p.m. Following the game, there will be a dance at Foothill, jointly hosted by the two schools.

Archived from Issue 1, Volume 1.