Cautious optimism surrounds high school football’s return. Here’s what they’re saying
Life looked normal at Downey High School on Friday during the Modesto City Scrimmage.
As the sun set, six football teams rotated on and off the field. Four played at a time in two 40-yard, 20-minute games switching between offense and defense.
Whistles rang in the air and fans sat in the bleachers with few limitations.
After a roughly 18-month roller coaster ride tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, football on a hot August night brought great comfort to players and coaches.
“I’m much more excited for the season because we know it’s gonna be a full season, and you have that real full school effect,” Downey quarterback Conner Stoddard said. “We’re going to be able to have our student section there. This season feels more like a normal season, even though we still have COVID, whereas last season it just felt like we were getting this warm-up season.”
Last spring’s five-game shortened season included mask mandates, crowd limitations, last-minute cancellations, the lack of playoffs, and, of course, testing.
Getting a football team through a that regimen that included tests anywhere from once to three times a week wore on some coaches and players.
“It was only a five game season but it was like one of the longest five game seasons,” Davis High coach Tim Garcia said. “We laugh about it all the time. We call it the longest shortest season ever.”
Played in March and April after the postponement last summer and fall, football joined a number of other sports that had their seasons moved because of the pandemic. Most schools played five games, although some played fewer because positive COVID-19 test results forced a few cancellations, some within hours of a game.
Central Catholic coach Roger Canepa, whose team hosts Merced on Friday, said his approach didn’t change during the shortened season.
“We’re always trying to win to be honest,” he said. “Why play if you’re not trying to win? I want to win at anything I do.”
Canepa and other coaches used the spring to work on incorporating new players into offensive and defensive schemes. In planning for this season, they brought sophomores up to varsity to give them experience.
Downey leaned on sophomores in spring
Downey head coach Jeremy Plaa, whose team plays at Manteca on Friday, had a small senior class. Then, COVID cut his numbers even more, so he brought up 15 sophomores.
Now juniors, those players have extra varsity experience they wouldn’t have gotten without a shortened, faster paced season in the spring.
The Knights started 0-2, but won their last three games.
“They’re almost like seniors this year even though they’re only juniors because of the experience,” Plaa said. “It’s going to serve our team well in the long term.”
Still, as teams faced low numbers and with more players rotating in and out, changes had to be made to playbooks to cater to a team’s strengths.
Plaa estimates that in a normal season, he throws the ball 60 percent of the time. That changed in the spring. New players were not able to get a large amount of reps and that resulted in running about 65 percent of the time.
As uncertainty remains with the growing concern around the delta variant, Davis head coach Tim Garcia is trying to get his team focused on what’s ahead, and improving after the team’s 1-4 spring season.
“We’re gonna worry about what we can control and so everything else that you can’t control you can’t waste your energy and time on,” Davis head coach Tim Garcia said. “We’re just doing the best we can and being excited about the opportunities that we have in front of us, and then let the chips fall where they fall.”
Gregori coach Wallace upbeat
After going 2-3 in the spring, Gregori opens its season at Buhach Colony.
Head coach Lamar Wallace said while it’s exciting to get a season this year, it also is somewhat of a “double-edged sword” as some uncertainty still looms. One minute everything is going great then there is a hiccup with contact tracing or a positive test.
“But the energy on the team? They’re excited,” he said. “They’re not hearing all the outside buzz so for them, they’re getting a 10-game season.”
At Friday night’s scrimmage hosted by Downey, there was a typical mixture of great plays and obvious areas of needed improvement. Among those participating with Downey were Enochs, Central Valley, East Union and Sonora.
Also there was Beyer, which is led by Mike Young, who was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach in July after Greg Bockman moved out of the area. Although he lost several players who recently transferred to other schools, Young remained upbeat as he spoke about his team before the scrimmage.
It was typical of the vibe on Friday night – a return to normalcy.
“Now you got something to play for your 10 game regular season with playoff hopes and league championships on the line,” Davis’ Garcia said of the upcoming season. “These are the best times of your life until you get married or have kids.
“So, I’m just very happy that these kids get to experience it all over again. There’s no doubt the energy, the enthusiasm is super high right now.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
