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When Ben Shapiro took over as the quarterback at Harker School in 2002, the Eagles weren't blessed with a lot of football experience.
The offense featured a very young cast of starters, including the sophomore signal-caller, five other sophomores and a freshman.
That, though, will not be the case for the Eagles in 2004.
Shapiro is one of a dozen comeback starters at Harker as head coach Fred Barnes' crew hopes to improve on last year's 5-4 record and make a run at the Bay League championship.
Shapiro leads the offensive attack for the Eagles. The quarterback returns for his third year as the Harker starter, and he comes back this fall after winning all-league honors a year ago.
Joining Shapiro in the backfield will be returning all-leaguers Jeff Liu, a junior, and Kevin Park, a senior. Park is another three-year starter at Harker and Liu returns for his second season.
Up front, junior tackle Amit Mukherjee and senior tight end Eric Gavarre lead an experienced unit. Both are third-year starters for Harker and both won all-league spots last fall.
Offensive linemen Solomon Awe and Anthony Hsiao each return for a third varsity season as a Harker starter, and Brian Lin is another returning starter in the offensive line.
Adhir Ravipati is back for his third season as a starting receiver for the Eagles, and backs Najm Haque and Allen Lin and tight end Wilson Haung all return for another year as Harker starters.
Players returning with varsity experience for the Eagles include sophomore receiver Grayson Hurd, sophomore back Albert Chen, senior back Michael Nguyen, senior lineman Jason Gutstein, sophomore linemen Anton Sepetov and Akshay Bhatia, and sophomore receivers Jonathan Charlu and Gregg Ringold.
Barnes also welcomes a crew of newcomers to the field this fall. Players up from the junior varsity expected to help the varsity include sophomores Jason Martin at quarterback, backs Adnan Haque and Michael Keller and lineman Eric Tsai.
Freshmen looking for playing time will be tight end Nick Sutardja, quarterback Trevor Sambyal, backs Marvin Ho and Kyle Mui, linemen Spencer Liang, Charles Fang and Brian McEuen, and receivers Ankur Sharma and James Shaver, along with junior linemen Chris Sutardja and Derek Keung and sophomore lineman Garrett Brooks, all first-year players.
Barnes has more than 20 years experience as a football coach—including four as the head coach at Menlo School—and will lead Harker in its quest for a title in the four-team Bay League.
The Eagles don't open the league season until Oct. 22 when they play host to The King's Academy at San Jose PAL Stadium. Harker will face St. Lawrence on Oct. 29 at Townsend Field in Santa Clara before wrapping up the regular league season on Nov. 5 at PAL against Sacred Heart Prep.
Harker will prepare for that league campaign with six non-league games. The Eagles open the season on the road at Hillsdale on Sept. 11, 2 p.m., and at Sequoia on Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m., before playing their first home game on Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m., against Burton of San Francisco at PAL Stadium.
Barnes is assisted this fall by Tim Woods, Nik Stojanovic, Colin Rudolph, Christopher Anderson and Ed Comerford.
Harker Academy 2004 Football Schedule
Sept. 11, at Hillsdale, 2 p.m.
Sept. 17, at Sequoia, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 24, Burton SF at PAL, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 1, at St. Elizabeth, 3 p.m.
Oct. 8, St. Vincent at PAL, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 15, Berean Christian at PAL,
7:30 p.m.
Oct. 22, Kings Academy at PAL,
7:30 p.m.
Oct. 29, St. Lawrence at Townsend, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 5, Sacred Heart at PAL, 7:30 p.m.
* Denotes Bay League game
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