Sack king

Winslow’s Densmore on track to set record for sacks

WINDOW ROCK

The Winslow athletic program is searching its statistics in football.

They are looking back as far as they can. The main purpose behind this task is to find out where senior Michael Densmore ranks among the school’s all-time sack leaders.

Going into Friday’s home game against Holbrook, Densmore has recorded 16 sacks, ranking him first in the United States, according to Maxpreps.com. Through seven games, he is averaging 2.3 sacks per contest with a sack yardage of 99 yards.

“I’m not trying to underestimate what I’ve done but I didn’t expect to do this well,” Densmore said. “This is something I didn’t expected to do but I’m glad I’m doing it. I like what I’m doing so right now it’s a goal of mine to get as many sacks as I can.”

Going into the season, Winslow coach Brandon Guzman knew his pupil was going to be a force in his senior season but what Densmore has done is beyond phenomenal.

“He’s pretty amazing to watch,” Guzman said. “He’s good at what he does and the biggest thing helping him is his get off. He’s able to see the ball and spin off as fast as possible. What the kids have been seeing from him is kind of unreal for them.”

As one of the Arizona’s top wrestlers, Guzman said Densmore uses his hips as leverage to get by people and he feels that’s one of his biggest assets.

“I think that helps him tremendously,” the Winslow coach said. “By using the skills he’s learned from wrestling it allows him to get off and make those sacks. And once he gets off, he’s physical and he gets after it.”

Last season, Densmore finished with seven sacks and this year he’s more than doubled that. The two-year varsity starter says his knack for disrupting the opponent’s offense is two-fold.

“I think I have a decent ability to read a play,” Densmore said. “That and hand fighting. That is what I do in wrestling so that naturally rolled over to football. It’s getting people’s arms off of you.”

Guzman said he’s unsure what the all-time sack record at the school is but they are currently rifling through the archives. But in his seven years that he’s been with the program, including four as head coach, Guzman said Densmore’s sack numbers are the most that anyone has seen in a long time.

“If he doesn’t have it yet, he’s pretty close to the school record,” Guzman said.

In their second game of the season, Densmore racked up an astounding six sacks against Monument Valley. Guzman said that game really sparked his interest in exerting more pressure on the quarterback.

“I think that game got him going tremendously,” Guzman said. “I don’t think he would have really strived on it but since that game he keeps an eye out on the number of sacks he has.”

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