Despite capping an otherwise bleak Ballard football season with a 30-7 victory over Garfield High School on Oct. 30, some parents are calling on the school to replace first-year coach John Bowers after the team was outscored by more than 200 points this season and finished 1-8.

Parents accused Bowers of favoring inexperienced seniors - some of them first-year players - over more talented underclassmen. Some also said that Bowers disrespected the players and put too much blame on them for the losses, causing many of them to leave the team.

Sophomore quarterback Dominique Downey, who became the starter after senior Carlos Stanley injured his knee in the second week of the season, said there were a lot of talented underclassmen on the team who weren't given the reps during practice or games they needed to be successful.

Bowers needs to change that next season for the team to turn things around, Stanley said.

Junior lineman Garrett Brenden said the team did have a lot of players quit during the season, but it was mostly the players who didn't want to commit the time and energy necessary for making it work.

The players who quit were the ones who only joined so they could say they were on the football team said senior lineman Jack Valdez.

Bowers said the team had about seven or eight players quit in the first few weeks of the season for nonfootball-related reasons and the roster became a lot more stable later on in the season.

Brenden said the team lost a lot of talented seniors after last season.

Bowers replaced them by recruiting students in the hallways if they looked like they could play football, Valdez said.

This led to far more first-year seniors than usual, Brenden said.

The team included seven Ballard seniors with no previous football experience.

Brenden said there is a worry that the team will lose more players before next year due to the experiences of this season, but he thinks most of the players will stick around.

"Some people have talked about quitting, but for most of them football has been their life, so I don’t think they are going to follow through with it," he said.

Downey said he for one plans to keep playing next season.

Valdez said this season has been especially disappointing because he thought the team had a chance of winning state with the players they had, but the chips didn't fall where they needed to.

There were a lot of factors that kept the team from playing up to its potential this year, Brenden said.

Downey said Bowers' coaching was a big problem for the team.

"We could have had a great team if we had good direction," he said.

Bowers would call the same offensive plays multiple times in a row, so other teams knew what was coming, and only utilized zone defensive schemes, Downey said

"I don't know that we even have a man-to-man defense in our playbook," he said.

Brenden said he feels sorry for the seniors that they had to suffer through this season, but next year should be better after this learning experience.

"I beleive we're going to do better because we know what coach wants out of each play," he said. "And hopefully coach will have learned what works and what doesn't."

Downey said the talented group of underclassmen have kept a positive attitude and will help the team improve next season.

Before the final two games of the season, the current players were trying to keep their attitude positive as well.

The seniors played the end of the season to have fun and enjoy the game because it was the last time many of them would have the chance, Valdez said before a loss to Woodinville Oct. 24.

"I have 96 minutes left in my career," he said. "This is my last chance to make memories."

Michael Harthorne may be reached at 783.1244 or michaelh@robinsonnews.com