“I’m sorry. That’s my catchphrase. I keep apologizing for stuff and I can’t stop.”

Meet Coronado’s offensive lineman Marco Castillo. The 5’9” sophomore is like many players on his winless Coronado (0-4) football team–new to the game and wanting to learn but hesitant at the same time. It’s a true case of being thrown into the fire. He had never even touched the gridiron before and now receives varsity reps in his first season.

Castillo was approached by senior team captain Mikel James during physical education class last year. James told Castillo to try out because of his size and how he could add depth to the team. He told James he knew nothing about football.

“It’s really tough sometimes,” Castillo said. “It’s something I’ve never tried before. Something I was afraid to try. I felt like I would just get messed up on the field and he said no need to worry about that. The coaches would teach me everything I needed to know and everything would be ok.”

The training Castillo went through over the offseason was more difficult than expected, almost to the point of quitting.

“It’s a lot pushing yourself through,” Castillo said. “I thought to myself if you give up, what else are you going to give up at? This is something new and there are going to be new things in your life. You’re always going to think am I going to give up or am I going to keep going?

“This is special to me because you have so many people looking at you and having faith in you and believing in you. I didn’t want to let them down and I didn’t want to let myself down. So I kept pushing.”

Castillo is appreciative of the coaches for helping him through with the terminology and technique. He said he didn’t even know what first-team offense meant.

“When I first stepped on this field for spring practice, it was like a foreign language,” Castillo said. “The coaches never gave up hope in me. They always were there and told me what it was and always helped me. It didn’t matter to them that I didn’t know; they just pushed me forward and that got me to this point where I can get on the field and be confident.

Castillo had a teammate by his side to help him through the grueling heat of training and practices. His teammate was senior Luis Esqueda, another first-year player. But Esqueda had experience playing basketball and tennis and was accustomed to conditioning.

“It was their first time working out and they were falling, collapsing, and throwing up,” Esqueda said. “I just said, ‘C’mon, get up and if you finish this, I’ll take you out to eat.’ I motivated them to finish through the workouts and finish through the practice because it’s hot. We just stick together.”

Castillo appreciates his mentor.

“I love Luis. We had some tough practices and he would coach me through them when I was about to ring the bell and tap out,” Castillo said. “He would be there by my side and I appreciate that.”

Even though Esqueda decided to wait until his final year of high school to play football, he is grateful for the opportunity to play both football and basketball.

“Ever since I was a kid, no one in my family has passed high school,” Esqueda said. “In order for me to stay out of trouble, they said to stay in sports. I did football freshman year but I saw someone get hurt and I didn’t finish the season because I got scared. That was not me.”

Upon moving to Coronado in the middle of his junior year, he immediately gravitated back towards football when he saw the brotherly bond.

“I just saw the chemistry,” Esqueda said. “They are basically like brothers. So when I came, they weren’t like, ‘You’re new. You suck.’ They treated me like, ‘This is what you do.’”

Esqueda, who is a tight end and running back, learned to run routes in basketball terms since that’s all he knew.

“We have a slant route, which is basically a three-man weave but with two of us,” Esqueda said. “At first, [running routes] was confusing because I just see people criss-crossing.”

Coach Curt LeBlanc wishes Esqueda had been on his team earlier.

“Luis is an athlete,” LeBlanc said. “He fits in really well. If he had been here for two years, he’d be in all-state contention right now because he absorbs it that quickly.”

LeBlanc understands the players on his roster and adjusts the game plan to them.

“The challenge is that we are trying to adapt what we want to do with what is feasible to do,” LeBlanc said. “If you don’t have veterans and kids are learning things for the first time, you have to scale some things back. That’s not a shot or a negative; that’s the way it is. We’ve had to take back a few things and focus on some more basics.

“You have to be able to adapt to your personnel. You can’t force things. You have to assess your personnel and figure out what is going to be the best fit for what we have that will give us a chance of achieving some kind of success.”

Esqueda may have more sports experience than Castillo but it doesn’t stop him from raising his hand on the field.

“[I’m] still always asking questions. Even up to now, I still don’t know football. I barely know the basics,” Esqueda said.

Castillo is still learning, too.

“It’s been tough. A lot more than I expected with so much hard work,” Castillo said. “But I appreciate it. I love it. I wouldn’t have pushed myself to do anything else and this pushes me and makes me learn a lot of things I didn’t know.”