Father-son matchup takes center stage in Downey-Pitman CCAL football contest
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pitman hosts Downey Friday in a CCAL league game that pits father vs son.
- Jeremy reaches his 200th game as Downey head coach while son leads Pitman.
- Game carries CCAL title implications; a Downey win preserves league contention.
Conversation at Sunday’s dinner at the Plaa household was different than every other week.
The talk is usually lighthearted, fun and oftentimes includes father Jeremy and son Braden talking about the latest news across the Central California Athletic League football scene.
Sometimes they talk X’s and O’s, other times about matchups. They ponder which teams will produce good matchups and talk about results from the previous week.
Though this week’s dinner had all of the lighthearted moments, the football talk was sparse.
Jeremy and Braden Plaa did not talk much football because they will face each other Friday night for the first time as opposing varsity head coaches.
Jeremy and Braden obviously are family, but they are also at all times head coaches. Jeremy, in his 19th season as the lead man at Downey, and Braden, Pitman’s first-year head coach, did not want to give away any secrets.
“It was kind of hush-hush,” Braden said, laughing. “We know what (the matchup) is and we know it’s going to be fun. We respect each other in that sense because we know it’s a tough job.”
Braden hosts the first matchup this Friday, an advantage he is gladly embracing, as Pitman (4-2, 1-0 CCAL) and Downey (3-3, 1-0 CCAL) take the field at 7 p.m. at Turlock High’s Joe Debely Stadium.
While there have been some father and son head coaches in the same area throughout California’s high school football history, most don’t play each other. Those coaches probably prefer to avoid the Plaas’ upcoming fate.
“I don’t know what to expect from an emotions standpoint,” Jeremy said. “My wife gets kind of emotional thinking this could be the first and we’re lucky to have one. But who knows how many we’ll have.”
California high school sports guru Mark Tennis, who owns CalHiSports, estimates that over the past 40 years, there haven’t been more than 10 father-son head coaching matchups on the gridiron.
But Friday night is a league game and a matchup they can’t work around.
Jeremy is approaching a milestone
The matchup will be Jeremy’s 200th game as Downey’s head coach and Braden has been there for most of them.
It started as a ball boy in the early days, then transformed into a player-coach relationship for Braden’s junior and senior seasons on the Knights’ roster. After graduation, Braden and Jeremy turned into colleagues, with Braden coaching the lower levels in Downey’s program.
Just a few seasons after taking over in 2007, Plaa had the Knights knocking on the door of the playoffs. His most successful seasons have come recently, leading Downey to three straight 10-win seasons, including a perfect regular season record in 2022, a CCAL title and a first-round playoff bye. The Knights won first-round playoff games in 2023 and 2024.
Since the CCAL’s first season in 2018, Downey has two league titles and multiple runner-up finishes.
In a season where Downey used nonleague games to find its identity, it enters the game with wins over Elk Grove, Amador Valley and Gregori.
“Friday night will be a test to make sure our kids can rise up and play Downey football,” he said.
Braden is a young coach on the rise
Those early days laid the groundwork for Braden to take over a varsity program at just 26 years old.
He always knew he wanted to be a coach. Growing up around the game, he naturally picked up on his father’s habits, learning how to run a program and motivate the next generation.
“It’s all just human nature,” Braden said. “You kind of just learn. I like to pick up on things and we went to coaching clinics once I graduated from high school. As a kid, as a player and as a coach now, you’re always trying to get better.”
After graduating from Downey in 2017, Braden was back as a coach that fall. He worked his way through the ranks at Downey while attending Stanislaus State. After four years, he got a teaching job at Pitman and was hired by former varsity coach Eric Reza to be the junior varsity head coach.
In his final year at Downey, Braden led a league title-winning freshman team with future Division I athletes Ethan Woodmansee and Noah Sacuskie.
“I try not to offer advice unless he asks for it because I don’t want to be that type of dad,” Jeremy said. “But even the few times I have said something, he’s already ahead of the game.”
Braden started coaching at Pitman in 2022 and his time leading the JV laid the groundwork for this year’s success. He coached this year’s junior and senior classes at the lower levels. They are used to his voice, schemes and tendencies and already know what he expects from them in practice and in games.
Pitman already has its most wins in a single season since 2018 and took Hughson and Atwater down to the wire, losing both by a combined six points.
They don’t want it to be about them
The league implications are there, making this not only a family reunion but also a key game in the CCAL race.
A win for Downey keeps it in league-title contention. For the past few seasons, the Turlock-Downey matchup has determined the CCAL champion. Usually, both teams enter that game undefeated and the winner puts itself on the fast track to a crown. To get to the Turlock game unbeaten, Downey has to beat Pitman on Friday night. But Jeremy knows his son. The Pride aren’t a team they can just overlook. They will be ready.
“We played them twice this summer in 7-on-7 and they beat us both times,” Jeremy Plaa said. “Our kids kind of had the attitude that this is the Pitman of old, and they didn’t respect the game and lost because of that.”
Pitman is still on the rise, looking to mirror the days when it was vying for league titles. In the Pride’s days as a Central California Conference member, they consistently won multiple league games and in the CCAL’s first year, they won four league games and made the Division I playoffs.
“I want our kids to compete,” Braden said. “I’ve talked to our kids about mindset a lot. We’ve talked about our three words: smart, dependable, tough. … I want to see them get off to a good start and prove to themselves that we are a team that can compete in the CCAL.”
Dozens of family members will be in attendance all over the stadium Friday night.
“Braden thinks there’s going to be a lot of people on his side,” Jeremy said in jest.
Some will be in the bleachers, others will bring their own foldable chairs and join Jeremy’s wife, daughter and mother-in-law while they work the end zone camera like they have at nearly every game. While conversations after will likely be lighthearted, during those 48 minutes of game time, both head coaches will be focused on getting a win.
“It’s a little awkward because everybody wants to make it about us and I’m sure it’ll continue to happen, it’s a natural thing to do,” Jeremy said. “I just want to make sure my kids aren’t distracted and I’m sure he wants to make sure his kids aren’t distracted.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM.
