Senior linebacker Sean Barber, left, teams up with senior cornerback David Smith to take down the Dixie State ball carrier on Saturday night’s thrilling 23-20 finish.
Photo by Steven Mercado
The seniors of Azusa Pacific’s football team played the final home game of their careers on Saturday, Nov. 9 in the win against Dixie State that clinched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship. The 19 seniors on the roster received honors at their Senior Night for what they brought to the program.
Ten of the seniors spent all of their years as a Cougar and the other nine transferred over after spending some time at junior colleges. The four-year Cougars have brought a lot to the program and have endured a lot of success and trials, including last season’s 0-7 start.
“These seniors go way back. This is a veteran crew. They’ve been through the highs and lows, and what you saw was senior leadership helping them out through the dark times. We were 0-7 last year and these guys were a part of that and they were helping to lead us out of it,” head coach Victor Santa Cruz said. “Now, to be able to come to the point now where we’re GNAC champs just a year later, that’s a lot that those guys do. In the offseason, to not get frustrated, keeping people focused on the process at hand and remember what you have in the moment. These seniors bought into that and they did that.”
This year’s senior class boasted 10 consistent starters, while the rest contributed off the bench or filled in for injured players. When senior linebacker Sean Barber got hurt during pregame warmups before the Oct. 12 Homecoming game against Simon Fraser, senior linebacker Marcus Mendillo came in and continued to produce numbers almost as high as Barber’s.
Barber is the leader of the Cougars’ defense. He was out for about half of the season after his injury, but came back on Senior Night with a game-high 13 tackles and one interception. Barber’s four-year career as a Cougar has been a great journey for the captain and in the end, he is grateful for all he has experienced at APU.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Barber said. “We’ve had a few good years, a few bad years, a few injuries — Ethan [Danielson] tore his ACL one year, I tore my MCL — it’s just been a roller coaster ride, but I’ve learned so much and I’m so humbled for the opportunity to play here at a Christian university and putting God first, it’s just awesome.”
Barber has recorded 286 tackles, four interceptions and four forced fumbles during his time as a Cougar and said it’s exciting to grow into a leadership role.
“When you’re a freshman, you look up to [the older] guys and now you’re being that guy people look up to,” Barber said. “It’s also more pressure to be a good role model. There’s more accountability there, which I think is great and it’s another step in life. I love this team, I love this program, everybody’s a close family and we always talk about that.”
Senior strong safety Nick Grunsky said he cannot believe how quickly time has flown by. He looks back on the times when he was a freshman, using that perspective in his senior leadership to give the young players words of wisdom.
“It’s fun to work with the young guys, the freshmen who come in. I tell them all the time that I was there in their shoes not too long ago and it goes by quick, so I tell them just to take it day by day,” Grunsky said. “It’s fun to see how they improve and it’s fun to see them with their wide eyes. They come in trying to do the best they can and they have big hearts for this team, so it’s good to just be around them.”
With only two games left in his APU career, Grunsky said multiple times that his time here has been “amazing.”
“It’s flown by; it goes by so quick. You come in as a freshman and you have four years and you think, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a while. I can settle in,’ and the next thing you know, you’re walking on Senior Night,” Grunsky said. “It goes by, but it’s amazing memories, amazing friends I’ve made here, and an amazing coaching staff that I’ve had pretty much here to mentor me. It’s been amazing.”
Senior center Lance Barker leads the offensive line as the only senior of the unit. The offensive line currently paves the way for the GNAC’s leading rushing offense this season, with 201.9 rushing yards per game and 24 touchdowns. The next best rushing team is Central Washington with 167.7 rushing yards per game and 12 rushing touchdowns on the year.
“I’ve seen a lot of the ups and the downs of this program and really, what it takes to be a champion. Our team works so hard everyday, our coaching staff works so hard and I’m so proud of our group,” Barker said. “We have a lot of young O-linemen and I had to step up as their leader and show them what we have to do as a group. … They step up in every occasion, no matter what someone throws at us, we’re not expecting it, they come up, make the adjustments, do their job and we have a really special running back that we just love playing with.”
The special running back Barker refers to is none other than junior record-smashing Terrell Watson. Barker said the Cougars’ opponents are afraid of APU’s running game. It will tire opponents out and open up the passing game, and after the defense gets comfortable with the passing game, Watson can find the holes.
Watson stated several times throughout the season that without the offensive line, none of his success or his records are possible.
“Terrell does the rest once we spread it open. We make the blocks and he follows them up. He’s the most humble running back I’ve ever blocked for — I love that guy,” Barker said.
The journey for the seniors is soon coming to a close. The Cougars’ final regular season game is on Saturday, Nov. 16 at Simon Fraser and the Victory Bowl, the first bowl game in program history, is on the following Saturday, Nov. 23 in Rome, Ga. The senior leaders know it is no time to get complacent for this football team.
“This senior class doesn’t want to go out and think that we’re champs and not finish the season right. We want to be a prime example to our teammates and the guys younger than us and establish a tradition, a legacy of champion football,” Barker said. “We’re going to go out there, we’re going to put it on these teams that we play coming up, and we’re going to prepare for them as best as we can and finish this thing right.”
Grunsky summed up the year as it comes to a close: “It’s been one heck of a season.”
“I’m happy to be here,” he said. “If I had to do it over again, I would definitely be an APU Coug.”