Every year high school teams graduate talented seniors and the sign of a good football program is the ability to have young players step into contributing roles.
When a team is able to reload, not rebuild, that's when you see consistency.
With that being said, there are the teams that people may look past but make great strides over the course of an offseason. A team is built from the Freshman level up and most of our sleeper teams began building their turn around 3 years ago with talented B-teams.
Here are our 5 sleepers of 17-'18:
Shadow Ridge - The Mustangs surprised a lot of people last season with their 5-4 record but this year the team should take an even bigger step forward.
Their 2-4 record in the tough northwest division kept them out of the playoffs, so expect them to use their explosive option attack to improve that portion of their record.
Durango - The Trailblazers have a new coaching staff but their young players really showed promise last season. Sophomores played huge roles on the team last season in route to a 6-3 record and another year of experience will only help them.
Don't be shocked to see the Blazers host a home playoff game this season.
Mojave - Mojave has regressed over the past few seasons but this will be year two with Head Coach Abraham Gonzalez and we fully expect the Rattlers to make a significant improvement.
They lose a lot of Seniors from last year's 1-8 team but keep several key linemen, Junior running back Tawee Walker and 6-foot 4-inch John Harper at wide receiver.
Green Valley - The Gators are in arguably the toughest division in Las Vegas, the Southeast, but that won't stop them from snagging one of the four coveted playoff spots this season.
Quarterback Kalyja Waialae and running back Julian Hulse put up huge numbers in their Sophmore campaigns and there's no reason to anticipate that they won't surpass those totals this season.
Eldorado - Unlike some teams on this list, Eldorado plays in a wide-open Northeast The division has been dominated by Canyon Springs and Las Vegas HS for almost a decade but this year's Sundevils team has all of the tools to pull a major upset.
A tough playoff game last season against Basic fueled the team this offseason and they plan on hosting a playoff game this year.
