Woodcreek hopes for a bounce-back season led by junior quarterback Garrett Krupp

Garrett Krupp knew what it was like to play quarterback even before he stepped foot on the Woodcreek High School campus as a student.

Older brother Carter was one of the best quarterbacks to come out of the school, which opened in Placer County in 1994. Carter led Woodcreek to the school’s best record at 8-3 in 2018, which is Woodcreek’s only winning season. He’s committed to play football at BYU after he finishes a two-year Mormon mission trip in Missouri.

Garrett and Carter email and talk on the phone weekly about life, faith and football. After starting a handful of games as a sophomore in 2019, Garrett wants to create his own legacy.

“He influenced me a lot,” Krupp said of his brother. “Having an older brother who went to Woodcreek and led them to a winning season makes me want to do better and do, way beyond what he did here as a quarterback. I think I can do that with our team. We are really talented.”

“(My brothers and I) are really competitive,” Krupp added. “We like to trash talk to everyone, and any time we can, we will trash talk each other.”

The Timberwolves will also rely on receivers Tyler Roberts, Nico Nielsen and Nicolas Guerrero, linebacker Mitchell Sarmento and lineman Drake Hill and Donovan Thomas. Woodcreek opens up March 19 against rival Roseville.

Woodcreek is focused on making adjustments. The biggest move Woodcreek made last summer, when teams were only able to work in small pods, was taking the entire weight room outside.

“It was a little bit chaotic,” Woodcreek coach Brad Hunkins said. “I looked at my administration and asked them what I could do to get my kids lifting. Initially, our weight room was underneath the bleachers at the stadium. When we had stations, one of our teachers came out to help us do some speed and agility work. All of our kids helped move all of the equipment outside (to the blacktop) and we have been able to lift ever since.”

Another adjustment is seasons are bunched together. Multi-sport athletes will be engaging in multiple games and practices at once, if their school allows it. At Woodcreek, it has been a team effort by Hunkins, basketball coach Drew Hibbs, volleyball coach Brian Jew, baseball coach Joel Manfredi and others coaches and administrators to allow their athletes to play multiple sports at once.

“We have a lot of multi-sport athletes, especially at the lower levels,” Hunkins said. “Name the sport, we have a kid doing it. All the coaches at Woodcreek got together with the goal of how can we make this work. Kids have been sitting at home for 14 months. This is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and as coaches, we have to be flexible.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 7:32 AM.