The Arizona College Prep Knights finished the season with a record of 1-9, but you wouldn’t figure that when talking to them.

“We showed that we belong,” junior linebacker Eric DeCoster said, “If we work hard enough in the offseason, we play with the right mindset and focus on winning, we could run the table next year.”

On paper, the Arizona College Prep. Knights’ season seems pretty disheartening, but this team will not let their record tell their story.

“As a team, I think we realize how much potential and talent we have on our roster,” junior linebacker Saar Zutshi said. “Overall everyone has a positive outlook, and everyone is feeling good about where we are as a team going into this offseason.”

The Knights have one of the younger teams in the state and coach Myron Blueford has said the Knights have guys fresh out of junior high facing against 18-year-olds who have been lifting weights for years.

The Knights had three games that were tough loses and they had a serious chance to win: 38-35 vs. the Tanque Verde Hawks, 40-23 vs. the Coronado Dons and 31-16 vs. the Fountain Hills Falcons.

“After every game, I’d get from coaches, ‘Man, you guys don’t look like a 0-6 or 1-9 team,’”Blueford said.

“There were a lot of those games where one or two plays make the difference,” Zutshi said. “At the end of the day, those plays don’t swing your way, and our record goes down as 1-9 when it easily could have been 4-6 or 5-5.”

Blueford said: “In every statistic, we have actually improved. It’s kind of hard to do that going up a division since the competition is a lot harder.”

With such a young team there is much room to grow at ACP. Blueford said this team this season has also vastly improved in their football knowledge whether its scouting reports, matchup and film discussions or just football terminology.

“I think a lot of schools are nervous about us for next year,” Blueford said, “because most of our kids are coming back, and we’ll be much, much improved.”