Bee’s Best: No. 15 Pleasant Grove football team returns 18 starters, led by QB star
The Sacramento Bee will unveil our Top 25 football rankings from No. 25 to No. 1, a team a day, right up to the Aug. 20 kickoff.
No. 15 Pleasant Grove Eagles
City: Elk Grove
School opened: 2005
League: Delta
Division: I
Enrollment: 2,570
2021 spring record: 2-2
Coach: Matt Costa
Outlook: With 18 returning starters, coach Matt Costa is a bit more giddy these days than normal, and he is the very example of spirited.
The joy is rooted in having a few of what Costa calls, “dudes.” Some of his players are “serious dudes,” meaning they make plays and are campus leaders.
Leading the Dude Charge for an Eagles team expecting to challenge for the Delta League championship is quarterback Devin Hall, a 4.0 student who can buckle a defense with his passing or running. He has a game-breaking receiver threat in Kasson Kimbrough.
“Devin’s a great leader for our offense, and we have one on defense who’s a serious dude, a throwback,” Costa said. “Both of our linebackers are dudes.”
Those linebacker dudes are Josh Annear and Noah Gula. They will lead a defense that includes another dude in defensive end Nate Sweitzer, whose father Chad was a star lineman for Kennedy High a generation ago and now works in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
Other returning starter defensive linemen include Alex Guajardo, Teukava Makalo and Andrew Sallinger. Offensive linemen back: Pleasure Bryant (the best name in the section, by the way), Chris Falcone, Sai Gonuguntla, Ryder Knight and Daniel Pena.
As coaches like to say, nothing beats varsity returning experience in this sport.
“This is the most experienced group I’ve had as a head coach,” said Costa, in his fifth season with Pleasant Grove after stints at Kennedy and Mira Loma. “We have fantastic numbers. We’re excited.”
Costa was so giddy to even get a spring season amid the pandemic that he plopped a Christmas tree out by the storage shed while handing out gear. Every day is a holiday for Costa, whose team finds out in a hurry how good it is with a season opener at Kennedy on Aug. 20 followed by the Aug. 27 home opener against formidable Christian Brothers. The Delta opener is at Jesuit on Sept. 18.