Douglas returns home, finally

Thursday night, the Douglas High School football team will literally celebrate homecoming, returning battle-tested, road-weary and, oh yeah, victorious after 11 consecutive games on the someone else's turf.

The Tigers come home as champions, having rattled off wins in their last six games and having clinched the Sierra League title for the first time since 2003.

Obviously, this simply isn't the same team that Tiger fans last saw in Minden, decimated by injuries and suspensions while losing to Reno 41-14 last October.

These Tigers are older, tougher, stronger and simply more mature.

This is the type of team that characterizes the program that head coach Mike Rippee has built over the last 22 years.

They are everything you've come to expect from a Douglas football team. They hit hard hard, block hard, run hard and play hard.

For those who've never seen a game at Douglas High, this would be a good one to get acquainted with the Tiger football program.

Put aside for a second that Douglas has a defense that ranks among the best in program's history (12 points allowed per game, 101.4 yards rushing, 123.4 yards passing and a total of 29 takeaways, 29 sacks, 20 interceptions, and four defensive touchdowns scored), an emerging standout at quarterback, two electrifying running backs, and one of its biggest and strongest offensive lines in recent memory.

Put aside that Douglas clinched the league title last week in a thrilling 24-21 win over the favored Reno Huskies.

Put aside that it will also be the school's homecoming and senior nights rolled into one big celebration.

The big story Thursday night will be that the Road Warriors are finally coming home.

The Tigers will be playing their first game in the newly-renovated Keith Duke Roman Field at the $1.6 millon Big George Sports Complex.

It brings to an end a long wait for new field, complete with artificial turf, orange endzones and a large Tiger at the 50-yard line.

Other completed facets of the project include paving around the bleacher area and rocks under the bleachers to keep the dust from kicking up. Chain-link fencing has been installed around the perimeter of the track and new goal posts were installed late last week.

The project began back in March and all that remains is for the new all-weather track to be installed.

Crews for that part of the project are expected to arrive next week and it should take two to three weeks to complete.

Crews from the Sportexe artificial turf company have been fervently working away at completing the field in the last two weeks and have done a phenomenal job in a short amount of time.

The field received its final clearance Monday afternoon, allowing Douglas to commence its "home-opener."

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. against Wooster. The freshman team kicks off at 4:30 p.m. and junior varsity squad will not play because Wooster does not have a JV team.

It will be the last regular season home game for Tiger seniors Ryan Pruitt, Julius Bailey, Sean Molina, Niko Saladis, Cole Hamzik, Trevor Jarland, Devin Barker, Tyler Tinstman, Raymond Feldmiller, Phil Mannelly, Reese Kizer, Brent Koontz, Nate Whalin, Kevin Rogers, Ben Johnson, Keith Lowe, Cody Hannah and Steven Passalacqua.

For 36 players on the Tigers' roster, it will be their first varsity home game.

Kizer, a punishing power back, leads the team with 576 yards rushing and four touchdowns, while Tinstman - the team's speed threat - had 542 yards and five touchdowns.

Junior quarterback David Laird has thrown for 851 yards and five touchdowns and junior tight end Kevin Emm leads the team in receiving with 13 catches for 212 yards. Junior receiver Kyle Heidt has 10 catches for 160 yards and Passalacqua has come on as of late with seven catches for 71 yards and a touchdown.

The defense is led by its strong interior line of Anthony Alvitre (eight sacks, one fumble recovery), Jeff Nady (seven sacks, two fumble recoveries) and Molina (five sacks, one fumble recovery) and senior ends Whalin (five sacks, one fumble recovery) and Mannelly (five sacks).

Koontz has been a field general at middle linebacker with one sack, one fumble recovery, one forced fumble and four interceptions.

He's flanked by Pruitt (one interception) and junior Brock Peterson (one interception) on the outside.

The defensive backfield has been solid through the last four or five games with Sean Peralta and Saladis leading the team with five interceptions a piece. Hamzik, the senior safety, has three interceptions and is arguably the team's best pass defender.

Wooster comes into the game winless on the year at 0-9 overall. The Tigers have not lost to Wooster in four years.

-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.