Folsom Football

The San Joaquin Section will re-align for the 2010 season. The SJS has released their initial proposal for public discussion and comment. It could be expected that there will be some tweaks to the proposal, but it will be finalized close to the way it exists. Two of the three local teams will be impacted as one team stays where they are, one moves up and one moves down.

The SJS will also release a new football playoff format for the 2010 season. It is likely to be based on power ratings and rankings and will be less reliant on league finish. It may allow for teams to move up for playoffs, so that D1 teams may be able to play D2 or D3 teams.

The revised Delta River League will consist of Folsom, Jesuit, Oak Ridge, Pleasant Grove, Ponderosa and Sheldon. So Oak Ridge and Ponderosa move up from D2 to D1. Monterey Trail will move to the Delta Valley Conference. Florin will move down to D2. This will be a very good move for the local schools as these local rivalry games can be very good for gate revenue.

The other two D1 leagues do not change much. The MEL will keep all of it's current members and will add Rodruiguez. The DVC will keep Davis, Elk Grove, Franklin and Laguna Creek. Valley (Metro) and Nevada Union (SFL) both move down to D2. Grant moves to D1 and joins Monterey Trail in the DVC.

In D2, the SFL keeps Del Oro, Granite Bay, Rocklin, Roseville, and Woodcreek. They lose Oakmont, cut pickup Nevada Union. The SFL may stay the most competitive league in the section.

The Metro keeps all current teams except Grant: Burbank, Johnson, Kennedy, McClatchy, Rosemont, and Sacramento. The also pick-up Florin and Valley.

The former SVC moves to D4, but there is a new league - the CVC in it's place. Bella Vista, Casa Roble, Del Campo and Rio Linda move up to join Christian Brothers and Oakmont in this new league.

The team that gets the worst part of this new aalignment may be Vista Del Lago. Their travel in the new league is horrible. Vista stays in the SVC along with Union Mine and Galt. New schools Consumes Oaks and Liberty Ranch will join the new league, along with River City, and El Dorado. So Vista has no local rivalry games and gets to travel to Placerville (Union Mine and El Dorado), Galt (Liberty Ranch and Galt), West Sac (River City), and Elk Grove (Consumes Oaks). The other two D4 leagues are based in the south, so if they chose to play pre-season games in their same division, they will have to travel even further.

The two state bowl games that featured SJS teams were both excellent to watch. St. Mary's could have won their game vs. Cathedral, but just struggled a little too much on defense. I really liked watching Vaz throw the ball. He showed tremendous poise and was very accurate. I can see why he and David Graves were two of the top passers in the section.

Grant is the team that really stepped-up though. They beat the state #1 ranked team, Long Beach Poly and beat them convincingly. Although the score was close, it was only close because of a few plays - a long pass, a long run and a blocked punt. Grant's defense was the real story in my mind. They just had too many athletes and put too much pressure on Poly. Even though Grant stayed in the 3-5 and played man-to-man defense the entire game, Poly could not take advantage. Grants' speed, their shedding of blocks and their pursuit to the ball are the hallmarks of a great defensive team. Grant's ability to run the ball in the second half allowed them to really control the game.

The win benefits more than Grant. The win, along with St. Mary's showing, really lifted the entire SJS. Outside of the bay area, there has long been a perception that SJS (and NS) football is inferior. It will be much easier to choose teams for future SBG's given the performances. For that, everyone in the SJS owes the Grant team a little thank you.

Fans of De La Salle feel slighted that their team was not selected to play in the open game. There has also been a lot of talk that Centennial should be the #1 ranked team in the state given Long Beach Poly's loss to Grant. I say Grant is #1 and they earned the right to be called California State Champion based on their play on the field. The Open game pitted the two best teams in the state head-to-head. And Grant won. Case closed.

The KCRA Holiday Classic is going to be held on Saturday December 27, 2008 at 1:00 PM at Grant High School. Three local players have been selected to play in the game, David Graves and Andrew Benavides from Folsom and Kyle Gohagan from Oak Ridge.

This is the third annual version of the game. The first two were somewhat entertaining as there some very good players have participated. However, the south team has been blown-out the first two years as the north was clearly superior.

For the third year in a row, the coaches for the game will be Grant's Mike Alberghini and Del Oro's Casey Taylor (Coach Max Miller participated in the first two, but was not replaced after he retired). This is a very nice perk for Grant for two reasons.

First, with the game being played at Grant, they get to keep the snack bar revenue from the game, which can be a very significant sum. Calls to move the game to another venue that might be more accessible to south fans and suburban north fans have been resisted by the out-of-area game organizer.

Second, the murky selection criteria and process continues to favor Grant athletes. This year, seven players from the Grant squad have been included on the initial roster. The schools with the next most players on the roster include Burbank (from the Metro with Grant), Granite Bay (from the SFL with Del Oro), Inderkum (a school near Grant), and Laguna Creek. Six schools have 2 players on the roster, including Folsom.

To be fair, the 2007 roster had (4) players each from Del Oro and Grant, while several other schools had (3) players including Del Campo and Inderkum. Naming your own players to the roster is one of the perks of coaching an all star game, so the practice is understandable. The seven players may seem excessive, but consider that Grant was also selected to play in the Open game of the State Bowl Game. Having seen Grant play, they do have some phenominal athletes.

You may have noticed from my tone that I have some minor issues with the Holiday All Star Classic. It has nothing to do with the players.
- The Optimist Game (held during the summer) benefits Camp Ross Relles, a terrific charity. The finances and benefactor of the All Star Classic are unknown. We do know that the game is organized by an Idaho-based promoter (the same who brought 4 SJS teams to Idaho for games this fall).
- In my opinion, the Optimist Game should be held during the winter and not the summer for a bunch of reasons (player availability and conditioning among them). The Optimist Game has a deep and rich history in the area. If the Optimists moved their game to the winter, the All Star Classic would likely fold.
- Ryan Rau, clearly one of the best defensive players in the section last year, was inexplicably denied a roster position. While other players who made the roster certainly deserved to be included, Ryan's exclusion and the explanation offered were . . . not comprehensible. Yes, this may seem petty, but two other linebackers were added to the roster during the practice week. It certainly made me wonder about the selection process. As one of Ryan's coaches, I am certainly biased . . .
- The All Star classic coaching position is not rotated among area coaches as is the normal practice with Optimist coaches. The game has been exclusive property of Grant and Del Oro coaches for the third year in a row. This could possibly lead to roster imbalance.

So now that I have finished my whining about the organization of the game, let me encourage you to go the game. David Graves, Andrew Benavides and Kyle Gohagan are all excellent players who deserve support. Also, there will be plenty of talent on both teams that will be worth watching.

Not only did Folsom and Oak Ridge lose in the playoffs this weekend, but their losses may have had longer-term impact. Making the playoffs in 2009 just got harder for our local teams.

In the last realignment, the San Joaquin Section created playoff brackets that contained 3 leagues for both the Division 1 north and Division 2 groupings. Each year, 2 of the leagues send 3 teams and one league sends 2 teams to the playoffs. For the first three years of the realignment, the leagues rotated in a pre-determined structure.

This structure has lead to a lot of criticism. For example, this year a 7-3 (5-1) Ponderosa team did not advance in the Sierra Valley Conference, while a 6-5 (4-2) Rosemont gained a playoff berth based on a third automatic spot for the Metro. Worse, a 3-7 (2-3) Monterey Trail team gained the third Delta River playoff spot, while Franklin 4-6 (3-2) did not get a chance. (While the records are similar, Franklin played a brutal pre-season schedule and has a much higher ranking.)

For the fourth year of realignment, the leagues with the best playoff results from the first three years would gain the third playoff spots. In Division 1, the DRL is 3-7, the DVC is 6-6 and the MEL is 9-4 after the first round of the playoffs. Even if Pleasant Grove goes on to win out, and the DVC loses both of their remeaining games, the DRL cannot match the winning percentages or the total wins of the DVC. Therefore, the leagues with three playoff spots will be the MEL and DVC in 2009.

In Division 2, the SVC is currently 3-8, the SFL is 9-5, and the Metro is 6-5. There is no scenario which would allow the SVC to overtake the Metro with both Oak Ridge and Christian Brothers being eliminated this weekend. So, the leauges with 3 playoff berths in 2009 will be the SFL and Metro.

There is hope that the section may replace the current structure with a power ranking. The way it would work is both of the #1 and #2 seeds from each league would gain playoff spots automatically, The last two playoff spots would then be determined by power ranking of the each of the leauges third place teams. Maybe.

I've run into a lot of former players this season, and the question that I regularly get is how it is going at ___ High School this year. Just in case any are checking this site - I am NOT coaching this year. I helped out at one school this summer, but never joined that staff. Instead, I chose to take a year off.

It's been both hard and very enjoyable. I miss a lot of things about coaching. I don't miss a lot of things about coaching. But come Friday nights, I always feel like I should be someplace other than watching Numbers.

Sitting in the stands is rough. Especially listening to the parents. Some of the comments are as brutal as they are lacking insight. I guess its a right of fans to second-guess coaches, scheme, strategy, players, officials and play calls. I find myself doing it. Sometimes. But I mostly have empathy for the coaches.