2024 Look Ahead: Legacy Academy Boldly Jumps To 11-Man Football
Three years ago, Legacy Academy coach (and former Lobos player) Bryan Clampitt and school administrators had a dream of fielding a competitive football team. For the past two years, Legacy Academy has competed at the 8-man football classification, finishing with…
Access all of Prep Redzone
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThree years ago, Legacy Academy coach (and former Lobos player) Bryan Clampitt and school administrators had a dream of fielding a competitive football team.
For the past two years, Legacy Academy has competed at the 8-man football classification, finishing with a 7-2 record and earning a spot in the playoffs in 2023. The debut season was in 2022.
But now the Silverbacks boldly dare to go where few teams have gone before – making the gigantic leap from 8-man to 11-man football. They will compete in Class 2A against District 2 rivals Capitan, Cloudcroft, Estancia, Raton, Santa Rosa and Tucumcari.
“The high school has only had three graduating classes, ever,” Clampitt told Prep Redzone New Mexico. “But football was always on the radar. Two years ago, we decided at a meeting to pull the trigger. I was working at the church, so I said, ‘I’ll coach.’ I was able to put together a great coaching staff. It has worked pretty seamlessly.”
Legacy Academy didn’t have a weight room or practice field when the football team was established. Instead, the players worked out at a nearby local gym and practiced at a local park. Eight-man football was the logical starting point. Clampitt said the numbers rose dramatically for Year 2 in 2023, planting the seeds of moving to 11-man football in 2024.
“We almost doubled our roster last season,” Clampitt said. “We had a lot more interest. A lot of young guys wanted to play. We ended up with almost 40 guys on the roster and even played a couple of JV games. Our vision for the school is to keep growing and make a bigger impact. It made sense with the involvement going up to make the jump to 11-man football.”
Legacy Academy plans to build an on-campus stadium but for the 2024 season the Silverbacks will play their home games at Bernalillo High School.
“We believe moving up to 11-man football is going to help get exposure in the community for the school,” Clampitt said. “It helps get our name out there. We think we have a great school.”
From a scheme standpoint, Clampitt says the biggest challenge Legacy Academy faces is depth.
“In 8-Man Football, having a 30-man roster meant we were pretty deep,” Clampitt said. “Now that we’re 11-man, we’re going to be stretched a little thinner. We’ll be praying against injuries and we’ll be trying to get more kids involved. We’re very hopeful, overall, considering we have a couple of years under our belt and we have some good returning players.”
In terms of X’s and O’s, Clampitt believes the difference between 8-man and 11-man football is minimal, so he expects the learning curve for Legacy’s eager players won’t be steep.
“I don’t expect it to be much different,” Clampitt said. “The 8-man game is basically just two less linemen and one less wide receiver. The way we scheme on offense and defense is not terribly different from 11-man. The biggest adjustment is we’ll have to call on some guys with less experience.”
The group of returning standouts include rising junior all-district defensive linemen Zachary Perea Zachary Perea 5'9" | 200 lbs | DL Legacy Academy | 2026 NM , a two-year starter with next level aspirations, RB/LB AJ Quesada, 2026 QB Lorenzo Sedillo-Urban and rising senior TE/DL Noah Sanchez.
Perea has been invited to camps by Montana Tech, Calvin University, Hardin-Simmons, University of St. Thomas and North Texas.
“We have some good weapons,” Clampitt said.
Sedillo-Urban is a dual threat QB who threw for 1,343 yards, rushed for 374 yards and accounted for 28 TD as a sophomore in 2023.
“I’d say we’re going to be pretty balanced offensively,” Clampitt said. “We want to run the ball and establish the run game and be a tough, physical team. But we’ll take our shots down the field as well.”
Legacy Academy is off to an encouraging start in the weight room during the off-season. The Silverbacks finished fourth recently in Class A-3A at the state powerlifting championships.
2024 LEGACY ACADEMY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Aug. 23 at Laguna Acoma
Aug. 31 at Hope Christian (Sat.)
Sept. 7 HOZHO ACADEMY (Sat.)
Sept. 13 at Santa Fe Indian
Sept. 20 McCURDY
Sept. 27 Bye
Oct. 5 RATON (Sat.)*
Oct. 11 at Capitan*
Oct. 18 ESTANCIA*
Oct. 26 TUCUMCARI (Sat.)*
Nov. 1 at Santa Rosa*
* District 2A-2 Game