Dominic Honoré
Staff Writer
The La Verne football team has a new play caller on offense; first year special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach Miguel Reveles was promoted last month to offensive coordinator.
With the recent departure of eight-year offensive coordinator Richard Worsell to Akron for an analyst position, the Leopards were looking to fill a significant hole among their coaching staff.
Reveles says he sees his new role as a tremendous duty.
“I think it’s a big responsibility and a great honor,” Reveles said. “I’ve told some of the players I owe them and the program my best daily, whether that’s on the field or in the meeting room; I want to see this program succeed in the best way possible.”
A 2011 graduate of La Verne, Reveles has had coaching stints at Division I football programs such as Cal and Arizona as a special teams coordinator and assistant wide receivers coach.
He also has brief NFL experience after serving as a coach’s assistant during the Carolina Panthers’ 2014 preseason.
Reveles said he plans to bring the lessons he learned during his high level coaching experiences to ULV.
“The most important thing is having a plan and sticking to it,” Reveles said.
“Always being prepared whether that’s in the meeting room or at practice; having a purpose with everything we do in practice so on game day, the players know what we want to do offensively.”
Head coach Chris Krich gave an inside look into what made him want to promote Reveles.
“When it came down to it, the best guy we had for the job was in our own backyard,” Krich said.
“He did a great job last year as our special team’s coordinator and has coaching experience at all levels from high school all the way up to Division I. Now he’s back here at Division III at his alma mater and he really bleeds green and orange which I think is the biggest thing.”
Despite offense and defense having different responsibilities on the field during game day, defensive coordinator James Stewart said each part of the team still essentially works together.
“At the end of the day it’s about the players,” Stewart said. “Coach Reveles and I are both very compromising men so we’ll do whatever we need to do to complement each other’s sides of the ball to ultimately make our players successful.”
As far as plans for the new offense go, Reveles said he does not expect to change much scheme-wise, but at the same time will have the entire offense recognize game situations better.
“The biggest thing for us is to play fast, physical and with great execution,” Reveles said “I also think it’s important that the players recognize certain game situations so we can execute and have the right tempo based off that.”
The Leopards’ two Second Team All-SCIAC running backs, juniors James Gonsalves and Martaveous Holliday, both said they look forward to the new offensive system under Reveles.
“I think it’s a great move and going to be a great transition for the offense this year,” Gonsalves said.
“He’s got a lot of knowledge from his past jobs and he knows what he wants out of his players. I am looking forward to this season to take what’s ours.”
Holliday agreed with his teammate’s thoughts.
“I feel with his prior experience he will lead us in the right direction,” Holliday said. “Last year we struggled in the passing game so hopefully with the change, it will improve.”
Reveles said he looked forward to working with the entire offense now that he has a year in the program under his belt.
“I want the players to know that my personality isn’t going to change,” Reveles said. “I think that it’s important with whatever you’re coaching personality is, that you stick to it, to the best of your ability.”
Dominic Honoré can be reached at dominic.honore@laverne.edu.
Dominic Honoré
