ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Heading into his fourth year as head coach of the Wolfpack, Martin Billings has been able to turn things around for the program. 

In his first two years in charge, the Wolfpack missed the playoffs but was able to reach the quarterfinals last season. 

A challenge that Billings and the Wolfpack will face is their youth, as they’ve graduated 16 seniors.

Despite having a young team this year, Billings has the opportunity to take the Wolfpack back to the playoffs and potentially farther than what they’ve done with him as a head coach. 

Team strengths: For Billings and the Wolfpack, their biggest strength will be speed. He said that they want to play fast both defensively and offensively at the skills position with wide receivers, defensive backs and linebackers. 

They’ll be able to do this due to the work the players put in during the offseason, Billings said. 

“Strength,” Billings said when asked what his players bring to the table to be able to play up to the speed he wants. 

“They had a great offseason of building their bodies up, getting faster and working on technique of tackling and running, footwork and working on their technique to catch the ball and technique to catch offenders.” 

Team Unknowns: As they graduated 16 seniors last year, the biggest unknown for the Wolfpacks will be their youth. 

“Definitely the youth, being a young team, we’re going to have to struggle, which is fine, which is great. We have a tough preseason schedule, so it allows us to struggle, which is what I want to prepare us for a tough Delta league,” Billings said. 

Slated in the starting role at quarterback is junior Joshua Garcia, who came up at the end of last season and is also going to be a part of this Wolfpack youth. 

“He finished out his JV career against Jesuit with a great game, so we decided to move him up and get the wheels turning during his sophomore year,” Billings said. 

The youth will have both coaches and players rely on each other in order to be successful this season, Billings said. 

“You know, we're really going to have to depend on one another, coaching staff and players, trust one another and really depend on the goals that we created for our team and really make sure that we're following through with those things,” Billings said. 

Overall outlook for this season: The outlook for the Wolfpack is to develop in every aspect of the game, Billings said. 

“The overall outlook is to really develop, being so young,” Billing said. “Also, accomplish some preseason goals going into the Delta League, so just really preparing our foundation, offensively, defensively, special teams and coaching.” 

Schedule: As Billings already mentioned, they will have a tough pre-season schedule to be able to allow his young team to learn and struggle. They will take on the Vanden Vikings, Pitman Pride, Amador Valley Dons and the Inderkum Tigers. 

“We’re seeing physical teams, we’re seeing fast teams and that will prepare us. These are teams that will have athletes, fast athletes and big and strong athletes, and that will prepare us for what we’re going to see in the Delta,” Billings said. 

Since Billings has been the head coach, he said they have never played Laguna Creek or Monterey Trail, the newcomers to the Delta League, but will keep the same mindset that they have for the rest of their league opponents. 

“We’re going to have to treat Monterey Trail and Laguna Creek like it’s a playoff game. We need to win that game in order to reach our goal of making the playoffs and having a deep run,” Billings said.

The Wolfpack will open its season at home against the Vanden Vikings on Aug. 23. 

*=Delta Conference game

8/23 vs Vanden

8/30 @ Pitman

9/6 @ Amador Valley

9/13 @ Inderkum

9/27 vs Elk Grove*

10/4 @ Laguna Creek*

10/11 @ Sheldon*

10/18 vs Pleasant Grove*

10/25 vs Monterey Trail* 

11/1 vs Franklin*