Section football finals menu: All public schools and just one returning champion
The room filled up in a hurry Monday morning at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi.
Coaches and players gobbled up seats and then worked over the buffet line.
Good eating and good living was the theme of the 10th Sac-Joaquin Section Championship Breakfast, including Oakdale coach Trent Merzon relishing and salivating at the idea of a “bacon-eating contest.”
Teams here devoured opponents on their way to this weekend’s title games, and everyone beamed at the prospects of having practice on Thanksgiving, the king of all eating days. There were new faces and school colors dotted among the familiar ones. Of the 13 programs in attendance spanning seven divisions, only Hilmar is a returning section champion.
“It’s good for area high school football to have new teams here,” said Elk Grove coach John Heffernan.
Said section commissioner Mike Garrison, “We have a different look this season, new people, new teams, new blood. It’s exciting.”
And another twist: For the first time in 19 years and for just the third time since 1992, all of the finalists are public schools.
“I love that!” Placer coach Joey Montoya said.
Division I heavies
Monterey Trail (12-1) is back in the D-I finals, facing second-seeded Oak Ridge (10-2), which is in first title game since 2013. Seeded fifth, Monterey Trail denied Folsom its 10th successive trip to a section final with a stirring 35-23 semifinal victory Friday. The D-I championship is Saturday at Hughes Stadium at 8 p.m.
Oak Ridge got here by zipping past unbeaten Inderkum in the other semifinal behind fast-rising quarterback star Justin Lamson.
Unsung grinders
The upstart bowl is in D-II where No. 9-seeded Whitney has bounced back from an 0-10 season to reach a final for the first time since 2008. The Wildcats (7-6) are 3-0 in the playoffs and on Friday night at Hughes will play No. 6 Elk Grove (9-4), which finished in a three-way tie for second place in the Delta League then overcame the loss of key players from a skirmish against Oakmont in a playoff opener and has rolled since.
Hearty Hillmen
Placer is in a section final for the fourth consecutive season, having lost a heart-breaker in the D-III title game a year ago. It’s a credit to tireless coach Joey Montoya, whose second-seeded Hillmen play No. 4 Manteca after eliminating previously unbeaten Buhach Colony. Manteca is fresh off an upset at top-seeded Capital Christian.
Standing tall
Center is the lone unbeaten of the section finalists at 12-0. Coached by one-time Center quarterback Digol JBeily, the top-seeded Cougars play Ripon (12-1) for the D-V championship on Saturday at noon at Hughes Stadium.
Center has achieved with a 25-man roster, typical of small schools that play big.
“We’ve got guys who go both ways and three ways,” JBeily said. “We’ve avoided the injury bug. We went through the hot days, the tough days, and here we are. This is a special group.”
League strength
The finals include three teams from the Valley Oak League and three from the Trans Valley League. The VOL programs are Manteca in D-III, and Oakdale and Sierra of Manteca in D-IV. Sierra upended top-seeded Rio Linda last week.
The TVL teams are Hilmar and Escalon in D-VI and Ripon in D-V. Those teams each went 11-1 overall and 5-1 in league play.
Speckman speaks
The guest speaker was Mark Speckman, one of the sport’s great champions, mentors and success stories.
Born without hands, Speckman amused the crowd with his story on how he learned to brush his teeth, the challenge being getting the paste on the brush with the theme of “find a way.” Now the assistant head football coach at UC Davis, Speckman stressed that everyone has potential as players, coaches, teams and in life beyond school and sports.
He also stressed that in-game brawling doesn’t make sense, saying, “Why fight? You get cheered to smoke people in games.”
Speckman recalled his first section coaching stop at Livingston High decades ago and how losing in anything can sting, but it’s how one bounces back that counts. He recalled a coin flip to decide Livingston’s playoff fate was held in “tule fog, in a Turlock parking lot. The other team brought a priest. We lost the flip. They had a priest! Don’t blame me!”
As the Merced coach in 1988, the Bears had their 13-0 season derailed by upstart Davis. Merced peeled off 14-0 seasons in 1989 and ’90 in winning back-to-back D-I section banners.
“We had the 1989 Merced reunion, and wide receivers now look like nose guards,” Speckman said. “What we all have in common are the great memories. That’s what makes it all so great.”
Coaches relate
Head coaching is a fraternity that only head coaches can understand and appreciate – the anguish of losses, the thrill of winning, the pressure to win, the good parents and the bad ones.
“No one understands our pain,” Sierra coach Chris Johnson said. “We win because of good players and lose because of the coaches.”
Some coaches had players transfer out of their program during the season, the theme that it’s never good enough. Some are coaching the schools that they once played for – JBeily at Center, Merzon at Oakdale, Montoya at Placer – and each has myriad up-and-down pressures within.
Mostly, the coaches are thrilled to be coaching, and still have a season.
“I thank all the coaches here because our kids need us,” Monterey Trail coach T.J. Ewing said. “Like when we all played, we looked up to our coaches. We needed them. I have so much respect for coaches.”
Montoya said he doesn’t take success for granted at a school and in a region used to it.
“People take for granted how hard it is to get to the finals, let alone win it, and they expect you to do it,” he said. ”When you don’t win, it’s, ‘You’re not doing a good job, coach. We know how hard it is to get here. We don’t take any of that for granted.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 3:59 PM.