One of the biggest wins of last weekend came when Everett beat BC High, 35-34. The win improved the Crimson Tide to 3-1 on the season, with the only loss to Xaverian in the opener.

Leading the way for Everett is first-year coach Justin Flores. We wanted to speak to Flores about his experience as the Tide coach, and who some of his best players are.

We spoke over the phone on Wednesday before Everett’s practice.

Here is an edited version of that conversation.

Adam Kurkjian: I was at the Xaverian game (a 32-21 Hawks win). I didn’t get a chance to talk to you then. One thing that stuck out about that game was, you fell behind early, then in the second half played well. Did you see that game as kind of a turning point?

JF: Yeah, I would say that second half. I think some guys were a little nervous that first half. We were a little rattled. We went down. Definitely the turnaround of the second half, that double-pass is where we got that momentum going and where we thought we could get that game won. We felt like we ran out of time. We didn’t get the stop at the end on defense. We didn’t get the offense back out there. It was a little bit of a repeat this past Friday night. I told the guys that at halftime. We’ve been there before. We knew if we had enough time, we’d get it done. We got the ball back, and we got it done.

AK: You’d be really behind the eight-ball in the power rankings had you lost to BC High, wouldn’t you?

JF: They were a high-ranked team. We were, I think, 24th (in D1) at the time. That should help us in the long run. We’ve just got to continue to take care of our business, let everything play out, and hopefully we’re in the playoffs, even with where the rankings are at right now.

AK: You were hired late in the process, and you’ve had to get to know your team very quickly. Do you feel like you know who your kids are? It was a late process, wasn’t it?

JF: It was really late. I really am just getting to know these guys a little bit more. I’m in the school with them now and everything. Every day, just being around these guys as much as I can be. Going through the recruiting process with some of the older guys now. I’m getting to know them and their families a little more in depth. I’m truly getting to know these guys and who they are, outside of football and stuff like that. We always break down as a family, and that’s really important for me to know everybody and everything.

AK: Someone like Christian Zamor has been someone who has been on the recruiting radar since he was a freshman, really. What’s it like coaching him? Seems like he’s not just a great player, but also a great leader.

JF: He’s one of the best humans I’ve been around in general. I made the joke, it’s a joke, but at the same time when I always tell kids, ‘What would Christian do?’ He’s such a good kid. He always does the right thing. He has the right mind state, the right mentality. He just does everything the right way. He’s a model student in the school, and he’s just like that on the football field, too. He does it everywhere, and I’m super-impressed by him. Where he’s going (Boston College), he’s going to be really gifted where he’s going in life.

AK: I’m sure you know coming up the coaching ranks, the kids at Everett are fast. What’s it like coaching this talent?

JF: I’m coming from college, and knowing about Everett growing up, and even on the recruiting trail, just knowing who’s here. You always know there’s athletes at Everett. That’s always the question. Who’s it going to be this year? Who is it going to be the next couple years? So it’s great. It shifted a little bit more since the Xaverian game, especially that second half, more to our speed personnel packages. We get as much speed as we can on the field. That Xaverian game, we were missing (wide receiver) Jaysuan Coggins in the first half. Adding him to the second half obviously helped. He had a big play obviously on Friday night. He’s a fast guy himself. He just gains ground on you, you don’t notice as much. But he gains ground on you with you with his length. We’ve got (Yariel) Ortiz. We’ve got (Jayden) Prophete. We’ve got Christian out there, Damien Lackland. We have a number of guys that can just run by you and that are issues. At the same time, these guys are really physical, and they block for each other down the field, which may be even more valuable in the long run, especially when we’re trying to establish the run a lot of the time.