PAL Lake Division: Mills Vikings

2019 season opener: Oakland Military Academy at Mills, 7 p.m. Friday

Key returners: Dominic Piefer (sr., QB); Tevita Fifita (jr. RB/DB); Vaenuku Vahai (sr., WR/DB); Nick Alvarez (sr., OL/DL); Joey Gauci (sr., WR/DB), Gary Mapa (sr., RB/LB); Paolo Iialio (sr., OL/DL)

Key newcomers: Zach Taltalaeai (so., OL/DL); Donovan Brambila Estrada (so., OL/DL)

Outlook: The last time we saw Mills’ first-year head coach Kevin Thorson on a Peninsula football sideline, he was the coach of the Crystal Springs’ 8-man program a decade ago.

Life intervened after that and after a couple years coaching softball and soccer, he took over the Pinewood 8-man program last season before returning to the 11-man game for 2019.

Thorson said he’s heard all the critiques of the Vikings program: lack of numbers, lack of commitment to coaches and an administration that doesn’t care.

As far as Thorson is concerned, that was then. This is now.

“I just told the kids, ‘They don’t know us, they don’t know you,’” Thorson said. “We can’t change the past. I wasn’t here. We can change the future, not the past.”

The good news is, the present looks like something for the Vikings. They return a number of their top players from 2018, which should give them a shot of confidence heading into the season. Senior quarterback Dominic Piefer proved be a legitimate high school signal caller in 2018, throwing for nearly 1,500 yards and rushing for 250 with a combined 15 touchdowns running out of a wing-T set.

Thorson expects to use some wing-T again this season, but with a whole lot of other sets as well. It will help to have a quarterback with two years of varsity experience under his belt.

“I run everything,” Thorson said. “We may have a wing-T play, we may have a spread, we might compact into a tight run. We may line up right and go left. We’re going to do everything. We’ll be unpredictable.”

It certainly helps to have some players who can help implement such a varied attack. In addition to Piefer, the Vikings return their leading rusher and receiver from 2018, junior Tevita Fifita and senior Vaenuku Vahai. Fifita proved to be a capable two-way threat last year for Mills. He rushed for nearly 700 yards and added another 150 on 13 catches. Vahai finished with 31 catches for 546 yards and five scores.

Thorson, however, anticipates most of his skills guys to be versatile enough to play more than one position on either side of the ball because the Vikings simply don’t have enough athleticism to fill all the positions.

“Running back and wide receivers will be doing both,” Thorson said. “We just don’t have enough. They have to be interchangeable.”

Nick Alvarez and Paolo Iialio, both seniors, gives Mills some experience on both lines. While they will be asked to open holes for the running backs and protect Piefer, they might be more explosive on the defensive side of the ball as they combined for 11 of the Vikings’ 33 sacks last season.

“Paolo, he’s just physical. He should be the best lineman in the league,” Thorson said. “He can do all these different things. Just looking at him and watching him, this guy should be really good.”

Despite the issues facing the Vikings, they are really no different than a lot of teams. And while the present may look bright, Thorson is optimistic about the future as he said 20 freshmen players showed up this season. Now, it is about building a program.

“You don’t have to win to be successful. Success is different things,” Thorson said. “Generally, if you do things correctly, you’ll end up winning.”