It was easy to see the amount of excitement surrounding the first season of football at Sierra Pacific High School.

The Golden Bears freshman squad lost to Hanford 33-6 in their first game ever Thursday at Neighbor Bowl.

But it didn't matter what the final score was.

The team received a standing ovation afterward from the players' friends and family.

The Sierra Pacific side of the stadium was the loudest when Jaime Diaz scored the first touchdown in school history in the fourth quarter.

The appaulse marked the end of the novelty of being a new program.

With a student body just over 200, all freshman, over a third of the male population is participating in football at the new school.

"I thought we'd get about 25 to 30 guys out here," said Golden Bears head coach Allen Blanchard. "We got about 40 kids now."

It's been a long summer to get prepared for the season for Blanchard.

With Sierra Pacific having no athletic director, he had to do more leg work than a usual coach would have to do.

"I had to order the tackling sled and all of the equipment to start with," he said. "Usually you do that just as you need to replace it."

And with the school still being built during the summer, the Golden Bears had no place to practice for summer workouts.

They found refuge at Armona Elementary School, which let the team practice there with a heavy population of Sierra Pacific's students coming from that area.

The Golden Bears have a lot of players that have no past football experience since they come from an area of town known for being stricken with poverty. Most wouldn't have been able to afford playing Pop Warner football.

Helmets and pads didn't come until late in the summer.

"Other schools have been able to use pads all summer," Blanchard said. "We've just had ours for about a month."

The newest Hanford school will have just a freshman team this season and then add junior varsity and varsity levels as all the students move on to their sophomore, junior and senior years.

As they move up, Blanchard will move up with them.

When Sierra Pacific sports its first varsity team in two seasons, Blanchard will be the coach.

And Blanchard has been around in Kings County long enough to see how to get a program started.

He was an assistant as Hanford West as the Huskies were finishing the transition from having just freshman teams to having all three levels.

He also was able to see West Yosemite League foe El Diamante do the same thing and win Central Section titles.

"I was able to see what those teams did and hopefully we can mirror that," Blanchard said.

When Blanchard looked around the Sierra Pacific campus after practice the day before the season opener, he could envision a stadium. He loves the size and beauty of the gymnasium and thinks the school is something to be proud of.

He wants the football program to be something to be proud of as well.

"The kids have a lot of pride in being the first class here," Blanchard said. "I think we're going to be a tough little school.

"I can see the future being really bright here."

(Sept. 4, 2009)