The first game played at El Camino’s Murdock Stadium was on November 24, 1949 in which they would lose 6-0 to East Los Angeles College. However, despite that far distant memory all expectations will be high when the Warriors’ hope to open in its new football stadium.

Last season was not a very successful one for John Featherstone’s team. They salvaged a 3-7 record with two of those three victories coming in conference play. That record gave El Camino fifth in the National Central Conference.

Featherstone added that in the 27 years that he has coached here, there have only been three losing seasons, last season being one of those. Featherstone added that seasons like last season are needed for coaches.

He also added that the Warriors have the “second highest winning percentage of any other JC in the country, other than Mt. SAC.”

Kaeyln Henderson, sophomore ,undecided major tried to elaborate on the team improving.

“As a team, we need to stay together more as a brotherhood and encourage each other more,” Henderson said. “There was a lot of lockeroom turmoil that nobody outside ever saw and it became a distraction.”

This statement would eventually be backed up by Jean Sifrin, sophomore, accounting major, that last year there was “chemistry issues” and said there was “tension” between teammates.

The only two conference wins would be against the teams that the Warriors finished higher than the College of the Desert and Long Beach City College.

Featherstone, who has been named Coach of the Year on two different occasions (2006 and 2012), now has a career record that stands at 169-80-1.

Last year, the struggle seemed to be the Warriors defense. The defense allowed 31.6 points per game all of last season.

“Our secondary was kind of young but this year we have a lot of returners and we’re all more confident,” Henderson said.

Defense was another issue as the turnover differential of negative five was a definite sign that the Warriors needed to work on defense.

The defensive front line showed signs of greatness accumulating a total of 28 sacks all of last season. The Warrios played five games on their home field and disturbingly enough they lost four including the last three.

Sifrin admitted that this year the Warriors will trust their defense more to ensure no team “just scores on us.”

Sifrin went on to say, “Our defensive line is stronger, our linebackers are quicker, and our secondary is smarter.”

One bright spot for the Warriors season was putting 35 points on the board against Riverside. For those who are not aware, Riverside went 9-2 and finished second in the conference only behind 11-1 Mt. San Antonio. During the course of the game the Warriors seemed to be in control until it turned into a downward spiral.

However, the Warriors should not hang their head about letting that game get away from them because in that game they put the most points on the board that Riverside had allowed all of last season.

“After that game we realized the offense works,” Sifrin proclaimed. “We have all the talent in the world, we just need to learn how to [play] together,” Sifrin continued.

Sifrin believes his team has exceptional talent, even comparing his team’s star power to that of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Heading into this season the Warriors should continue to build on their offense led by Bobby Watts at running back.

Before the kickoff of this 2013 season Featherstone summed his team up in one word. That word was family, as he felt this team is like a brotherhood.