Some lofty goals have been set for this season by the Dayton High School football team. Among those are five wins (or more) overall for the season, and a trip to the 3A state playoffs in November - which would be two firsts for the program.
And if they achieve those goals, seniors Shane VanZant and Michael Sampang figure to be out front leading the way. VanZant, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards at Dayton last year, picked up right where he left off last Saturday when he rambled for 238 yards and four touchdowns. And Sampang played his usual strong game on both sides of the ball.
"He's our guy, he's our leader," Dayton coach Butch Cattanach said of Sampang. "I think everything starts up front, and he's just a tremendous player who loves football. His motor's running all the time."
That was evident when Cattanach and his staff watched film after the Whittell game.
"He was driving their linebacker back 10 yards off the ball," Cattanach said of Sampang. "There was one play toward the end of the first half where (quarterback Jim) Kepler took off on a bootleg. Michael made his initial block, looked around then went down and laid another one of their guys out."
While the Dust Devils narrowly missed a trip to the playoffs last year - on a 22-21 overtime loss at Lovelock - they hope to get over the hump this fall, even though they are now part of a realigned and very formidable Northern 3A conference.
"It's a tougher league, but I think we're ready to step it up," VanZant said. "We worked harder on the weights this summer and I think that's going to pay off a lot."
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound VanZant had a productive summer, highlighted by his trip to the Stanford combine, where he was one of 150 invited high school players. His time of 4.5 in the 40 ranked seventh fastest among running backs and he bench pressed 185 pounds 22 times.
"Shane doesn't have great size, but he combines speed with strength," Cattanach said. "He is starting to get a tremendous amount of attention. In my mailbox, he gets a letter a week, and in his own personal mailbox, I know he's getting more.
Even though he only cracked the starting lineup in last season's third week, VanZant rushed for 1,043 yards on 147 carries (7.1-yard average), scored 13 touchdowns and wound up with first-team all-division honors. He hopes for bigger and better things this season.
"My line is going to be a lot better, I think that's going to help a lot more. And I've got Pang here for my side," VanZant said, nodding toward Sampang.
Sampang, an all-division linebacker last year, was selected as a team captain by the coaching staff before the season even began.
"Usually, I let the kids vote on it and then we pick our captain for a game, but since he's been so instrumental in the success of our program, he was been assigned as the team captain by the coaching staff back in the spring," Cattanach said.
Sampang has bulked up from last year's playing weight of 155 pounds and now goes 185, and he's improved his 40-yard dash time to 4.7 seconds. He is also optimistic about the Dust Devils' chances.
"We're going to have a great year, I think," Sampang said. "We've got more people with dedication, people who are willing to give that extra umph to be better. We've been working a lot harder in practice. Everybody's been pushing it, so hopefully we'll be able to step it up and do a lot better this year."
