ROYAL CITY – Following a 14-0 season and the school’s fifth title since 2015, the Royal Knights enter the 2022 season with the departures of many starters from a year ago.

“We try to continue what we’ve been doing,” head coach Wiley Allred said of last year’s team. “Build on work ethic, the commitment level – and the team worked. Those are just core components of our team, and they exemplified it really well on and off the field. I hope to continue that this year.”

Work began to replace the 2022 graduating class early on, putting in hours in the weight room and learning team schemes.

“Same thing as every year,” Allred said of the offseason. “We work pretty hard in the weight room, we go to camp for a few days. When fall camp starts we start working on the details, the fundamentals, the techniques. We reiterate what we worked on a little bit in the spring and last fall, and just continue from there.”

The Knights lost 21 players to graduation from a season ago, a significant number to any team – even one with an allure like Royal’s, which has won 86 of their last 87 games.

“Well, it depends on who you got coming back,” Allred said when asked how the team makes up for that many graduated players. “We did it after 2018 and we haven’t lost since, but that’s not necessarily gonna happen every time. It’s kind of exciting actually, you just go to work with a new group.”

Allred complimented the work ethic of his team throughout the offseason, where they made progress.

“These kids have grown a lot, they’ve gotten better,” Allred said.” They've gotten bigger, faster, stronger and that’s what happens to 14, 15, 16-year-old kids. We’re pretty excited about the growth they’ve made in a short time, since most of them were on JV last year.”

To help create a bond with the new team, Royal attended a camp at Eastern Washington University.

“Probably, No. one, confidence in themselves,” Allred said of what his team learned from the camp. “Confidence, and the chance to work together. Figuring out the roles, we talked about a lot of things with the seniors.”

Although the Knights lost a significant number of players, they return contributing starters from a year ago as well. Under center is Allred’s nephew’s son Dylan Allred, the team’s leading tackler from a year ago.

“Dylan Allred, our quarterback, he was our leading tackler last year and he's in at quarterback this year,” Allred said. “He’s been four years of work ethic every day. Kaleb Hernandez is the same way, he started outside linebacker last year and played a lot as a sophomore when our running back got injured. He’s grown a lot. Detton Jenks, starting guy last year, he’s also improved himself on the D-line, O-line. Edgar Delarosa has improved, big wide receiver that started for us last year.”

While Allred and the Knights had their work cut out for them in creating a new roster, he described the process as “fun.”

“It’s always fun to kind of sort through, sort it out a little bit,” Allred said of what he looks forward to this season. “Bring in more kids that are capable, so we don’t just rely on the top few, that we can keep bringing in more as the season progresses.”

Royal opens its season on September 1 against Toppenish. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Schedule

Sept. 1 - @ Toppenish - 7 p.m.

Sept. 9 - @ Othello - 7 p.m.

Sept. 16 - vs Zillah - 7 p.m.

Sept. 24 - vs Lynden Christian - 2 p.m.

Sept. 30 - vs Wahluke - 7 p.m.

Oct. 7 - @ Kiona-Benton - 6 p.m.

Oct. 15 - @ Foss - 1 p.m.

Oct. 21 - vs College Place - 7 p.m.

Oct. 28 - @ Connell - 7 p.m.

Roster

5 Dylan Allred, Senior QB/LB

6 Benson Jenks, Sophomore QB/SS

7 Edgar Delarosa, Senior WR/DB

8 Caden Allred, Junior WR/FS

9 Case Christensen, Junior WR/CB

11 Lance Allred, Sophomore WR/LB

13 Ezra Jenks, Sophomore QB/DB

14 Paden Livingston, Senior WR/DB

15 Bryan Larsen, Senior QB/LB

18 Alexis Gonzalez, Sophomore WR/DB

20 Carlos Villafana, Freshman WR/DB

21 Jackson Larsen, Sophomore WR/LS/LB

22 Ethan Ellis, Sophomore RB/LB

23 Shea Stevenson, Freshman WR/DB

24 Brody Bishop, Freshman RB/LB

25 Trevor Dorsing, Junior TE/DB

26 Ashton Kynaston, Sophomore QB/WR/DB

27 Diego Hernandez, Freshman RB/LB

28 Sebastien Hernandez WR/DB

30 Jordy Trinidad, Senior WR/DB

32 Kaleb Hernandez, Senior LB/RB

33 Jared Lee, Junior RB/LB

34 Oscar Cervantes, Senior LB/TE

43 Trent Jensen, Sophomore TE/LB

44 Caden Fitzhugh, Sophomore WR/DB

46 Nathan Niebla, Sophomore TE/LB

50 Rayce Eilers, Senior OL/DL

51 Alexander Arceo, Sophomore OL/DL

52 Gustavo Flores, Senior OL/DL

53 Asher Garnick, Sophomore OL/DL

54 Francisco Deras Valencia, Junior OL/DL

54 David Sotelo Rosas, OL/DL

55 Michael Gonzalez, Senior OL/LB

56 Alejandro Orozco, OL/DL

57 Rolando Cedillo Martinez, Freshman OL/DL

58 Wesley Christensen, Junior OL/DL

60 Mario De La Rosa, Freshman OL/D

61 Franklin Castellanos - De La Cruz, Senior OL/DL

62 Adrian Pruneda, Senior OL/DL

63 Alejandro Perez, Junior OL/DL

64 Abel Garcia, OL/DL

65 Eliezer Vivar-Tapia, Sophomore OL/DL

66 Jesus Jimenez, Sophomore OL/DL

67 Javier Tenorio, Sophomore OL/DL

68 Abdon Bravo, OL/DL

68 Roberto Santillan, Sophomore OL/DL

70 Detton Jenks, Senior OL/DL

71 Juan Morales, Junior OL/DL

72 Marcos Chavez, OL/DL

73 Jack Gilbert, Freshman OL/DL

74 Armando Rojas, OL/DL

75 Luis Deras, Junior OL/DL

76 Noel Alatorre, Junior OL/DL

77 Brian Ruiz, Sophomore OL/DL

78 Tristen Trombley, Sophomore OL/DL

81 Ernesto Deras Bustos, WR/DB

86 David De La Rosa, Sophomore WR/DB

87 Bennett Brown, Junior TE/DL

88 Logan Piper, Freshman TE/LB