By Zach Braziller
For all the success Flushing has enjoyed in the short time since Jim DeSantis resurrected the football program, there is still one mammoth hole in the program’s list of accomplishments.
Zero playoff victories.
DeSantis isn’t happy about it, and he’s made sure his players are aware of the need to change the recent past. When DeSantis isn’t happy with a certain drill, he’ll remind his players of their recent postseason failures.
“We need to turn the corner,” said the eighth-year coach, who has guided Flushing to the PSAL City Championship division playoffs all three years it has been in the league’s highest level.
DeSantis sees promise to get over the postseason hump, led by arguably his best group of linemen yet. Senior Daryl Webster leads Flushing in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The 6-foot-3, 315-pound mountain of a senior is an interior force and is joined by fellow two-way linemen Nick Prosper and Devin Harris. DeSantis said Webster dominated Kennedy’s Francisco Mendez, voted an All-City offensive tackle, last year and got the better of Beach Channel’s UConn-bound lineman Folorunso Fatukasi at the High School Player Development camp this summer.
“He’s the best defensive lineman and offensive lineman in the city, and nobody knows about him,” DeSantis said. “Here we go again.”
Webster, indeed, is following in the anxious footsteps of recent Flushing standouts Jay Bromley and Andrew King in terms of recruiting, or in their case lack thereof. Last year, he narrowly missed being named All-City on offense and defense, finishing behind players who graduated. Webster said he heard from Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Duke, Rutgers, Illinois and Michigan early in the process, but nothing lately.
“Every day I think about college,” he said. “I think I’m doing something wrong. I have to work harder. I have to dominate.”
Webster and Flushing’s other lineman will be key to the Red Devils’ success on offense as playmakers King and quarterback Jason Gonzalez graduated. Schlonzo Peterson will attempt to replace the workhorse King while Adam Singleton and Terrence Chavis are battling it out for the starting job under center.
The junior varsity quarterback last fall, Chavis is the better thrower and Singleton, ineligible a year ago, has shown the ability to make plays with his feet. Whoever gets the nod will have weapons in the speedy Peterson and dynamic junior slot receiver/tailback Deandre Ross-Lomax.
DeSantis would like to settle on one of the two, and the player who wins the job, will determine Flushing’s attack, whether it will be run or pass-heavy.
“If I had my druthers, I’d like to run the ball, but a mix of both is always good,” DeSantis said. “We’re up in the air of the direction we want to go in.”
Lockdown cornerback Jevon Gooden returns to anchor the secondary and Peterson will lead a stout linebacker corps on the defensive side of things to form what DeSantis thinks should be a typical stingy unit. Again, the guys up front — namely Webster, Harris and Prosper — will be instrumental to the group’s success.
DeSantis played down what playoff success means to the future of the program. He figured sending Bromley to Syracuse and King to Army would land him top talents, but his roster will be in the mid-30s, and he’s still struggling with depth.
Winning a playoff game, however, is extremely important. Three years ago, Flushing dropped a heartbreaker to DeWitt Clinton and the last two years it was hammered by a combined 48-7 by Boys & Girls and Curtis. It’s a memory the current players would like to erase, and for those who weren’t on the field for those disheartening setbacks, they are often reminded of them.
“It’s motivation for us,” Peterson said. “Nobody here wants to go out of Flushing without winning a playoff game.”
