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Newcomers working together on BHS offense

By Jared Green Daily Planet Staff
Friday August 24, 2001

A new head coach. A new offensive coordinator. A new quarterback. The Berkeley High football team has a lot of obstacles to overcome if the Yellowjackets are to score many points in the upcoming season. 

But the outlook is better than it was a month ago, when incumbent starting signal-caller Mohammed Nitoto decided to transfer to McClymonds. Berkeley was left without a single quarterback on the roster who had taken a varsity snap. Luckily, an old face has returned to run the offense: senior Raymond Pinkston, a transfer from Detroit who spent his freshman year at Berkeley. Pinkston played quarterback on the junior varsity that year, and was a starter at his high school in Detroit last year, so he brings instant experience to the position. 

Now all Pinkston has to do is learn the multiple-set offense of new offensive coordinator Clarence Johnson. Johnson, formerly the head coach at Mt. Tamalpais High, is encouraged by the progress made so far. 

“I’ve been very suprised at how good the learning curve has been to this point,” Johnson said Thursday. “We’ve installed 42 plays, which is almost the whole playbook.” 

But if Thursday’s practice-ending scrimmage against the first-string defense was any indication, there is still a lot of work to be done before the season opener on Sept. 7 at Foothill High. While there were some spectacular individual efforts, such as wideout Lee Franklin’s cutback run on a reverse that totally fooled the defense, the offensive line provided lackluster protection for Pinkston, who was constantly scrambling away from pass-rushers. 

With weapons like Pinkston, Franklin and tailback Germaine Baird, Johnson has some weapons to use. In addition, three starters return on the offensive line. 

Johnson said he expects to lean heavily on the passing game in the early going, as the ground game has more intricacies to learn. 

“We have some great athletes at quarterback and receiver, and we’ve got some complicated blocking schemes, so we’ll probably do more passing right at the beginning,” he said. “But the line will come along.” 

Both Johnson and head coach Matt Bissell said the team is helped greatly by the large number of players on the squad, which means almost no one has to play both ways. That means Johnson can have his offensive players for the entire practice every day, teaching them his system with free reign. 

“The best thing is that we have more kids than I’m used to, so we’re able to platoon. That has helped the learning curve speed up,” Johnson said. 

Bissell has been encouraged by what he has seen of Johnson’s offense, which will incorporate several successful local schools’ systems. He considers Johnson is a good communicator who has brought the offense along nicely. 

“I can tell you that as a head coach, you don’t get to do that much actual coaching. You do a lot more overseeing, dealing with eligibility and that kind of thing,” Bissell said. “I know that Charles really wanted to get back to coaching the kids closely.”