Staff file photo / Brian Yauger Mathews’ Dom Toto runs for a gain against Sebring McKinley in 2022. Toto will feature in a variety of positions in 2023.

VIENNA — Over the last two years, Dom Toto has been a breakout star at Mathews. Whether it’s baseball season, basketball season or football season, the rising junior has made a big impact for the Mustangs.

This season, with a new coach and new offense, expect Toto to be used in a variety of ways.

Last year, Toto was used almost exclusively as a tailback, but that’s going to change this year. He’s got enough versatility to make an impact in several different ways, and that’s the plan of attack for the Mustangs this season.

“I was very limited the past couple years with just running the ball, but this year we’re exploring a new offense and we have more options,” Toto said. “Everyone’s looking good, so we’re hoping for a good season.”

The Mathews staff has been cooking up a ton of ways to use Toto this season because he’s capable of doing everything.

“Toto is a great player from any position,” Mustangs coach Matt Polta said. “You can put him at tailback, you probably put him at fullback, he can be a great receiver, he’s a good slot guy and honestly if you really had to, he could play quarterback, so his versatility has made our offense (better).

“A player like him, he allows us to run stuff on the inside. We can really get edges with him and his ability to catch passes and run things like sweeps and things like that in our spread offense is just fantastic. Pretty much every play, whether he’s in on it running the ball, or even just getting in the mix on blocking, he’s just been on everything. He’s been really good and allowed us to really spread the ball.”

While he’s already taken on some of the burdens of leadership in the past, as an upperclassman, those responsibilities continue to grow.

For him, it’s nothing different though. Just more of what he’s been doing since he joined the program.

“I feel like I always have been just teaching the new guys what to do, how to act and just teaching them to be successful,” Toto said.

Toto is the lead-by-example type. He doesn’t need to say much to get a point across, but the younger players have taken to that style of leadership.

“He has that quality that you look for in a team leader,” Polta said. “He’s here early every day, asks meaningful questions about everything that we do, and he really studies everything. With how much he watches film and stuff like that, he’s just kind of like a coach on the field. He really knows what’s going on.”

As for what Polta wants to see out of his star, the first-year coach expects to see Toto flourish in the new offense and make a big impact on the defensive side as well.

“Offensively, the sky’s the limit,” Polta said. “We expect him to have quite a bit of yards. His ability to catch passes is going to get him a lot of reps catching the ball as well — out of the backfield or from the slot back, and like a spread look. We expect him to get a ton of yards that way, but also defensively, he’s probably one of our best safeties on the field. He’s just a great tackler on defense as well.”

The Mustangs, Toto included, have a chip on their shoulder this season.

“We definitely want to prove ourselves,” Toto said. “That’s one of our biggest motivations this year is to prove that we can beat these (tough) teams and we can play with these teams and not just the teams in our league.”

It’s not revenge they’re looking for, but Mathews aims to truly prove itself this season

“It’s a redemption tour,” Toto said. “We have to go through all these teams that are higher than us and may think they’re better than us, but I mean with our coaches and staff and our players I think we can put ourselves in a position to beat them.”

The Mustangs open their season on the road against Jackson-Milton.

byauger@tribtoday.com