West Park becomes first school to win outright league title in 1st varsity season
When the clock hit zero Friday night in Roseville, some West Park High School football players fell to the turf in relief. Others hugged any teammate or coach in sight.
The Panthers celebrated big time. It didn’t matter what happened in the last two and a half hours. West Park made history in the 36-28 win over Cordova to clinch the Greater Sacramento League title. The Panthers became the first Sacramento-area school to win an outright league title in their first varsity season. A lot of first-time programs win a game, or two, or none. West Park, after an 0-4 start, rolled to 6-4.
Friday’s win wasn’t pretty, with turnovers and mistakes, part of the growing pains of a new program, but the victory was sweet.
“Sometimes you have to win ugly and all that matters is if you win,” West Park coach Jason Tenner said. “Learning how to win ugly is a part of the process. We needed some adversity before we went into next week.”
Players posed in front of the scoreboard with wide grins. The cheer and dance team joined in. The band and cheer team were in full force during the game. Everybody knew what was at stake.
“Our culture at West Park is really good,” West Park junior Jordan Morse said. “All of the sports teams and band (support each other). Our student section is amazing. They always come out and support us.”
West Park quarterback Develle Barksdale ran for two touchdowns and connected with Morse for another score. Judah Jackson scored the go-ahead touchdown on a blocked pooch punt and Julian Niulala had a key interception in the red zone. West Park dominated league opponents up until its game against Cordova.
The win symbolized how far this team had come since the midseason. With a tough non-league schedule, West Park started the season 0-4. Three of the four losses were blowouts.
The low point of the season came against Woodcreek when the Panthers only had four linemen suit up because of COVID-19 contact tracing. It would’ve been easy to fold and use 2021 as a building season for the program because most struggle in their first year of varsity football due to only having sophomores and juniors on the roster.
“I talked a lot with my kids about the process,” Tenner said. “We knew we would take some lumps along the way — we did earlier this season. We learned what physical, hard nose, high-level football is all about. We learned those lessons and that’s part of the process.”
Building a program
When Tenner was hired in February 2020, he created a three-to-four-year plan for the program. People advised Tenner to avoid the job because of the rigorous demands of starting a program from the ground up. That was a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Starting a program from scratch is brutal,” Tenner said. “I had guys who told me don’t do it. That was in normal circumstances. I knew it would be a tremendous amount of work coming into it and then you (add) COVID-19 and school closures. Our school is half-built. We are building out the school physically, adding staff and adding buildings.”
Tenner is already a fixture in the West Roseville community. He also coaches the freshman team and is the head of the social science department at the school. If he isn’t busy enough, Tenner is also the president of the West Park youth football program. The vice president of the youth program is Marco Hanan, who also serves as an assistant on varsity. Hanan also coaches his son Jackson on the 14-and-under team.
The commitment to the program top to bottom has paid off. All four teams in the West Park feeder program had a winning record. The freshman team finished 6-4 and the junior varsity went 7-3 and won the GSL title.
And the West Park program is growing fast. The Panthers have 107 players in the high school program. That number should increase when West Park has all four classes next school year.
“The future is bright,” Tenner said. “We have a lot of reasons to be excited about the future. The best part is usually when you start a brand new program, people are only pointing toward the future. And right now, the present is pretty bright and we are having a lot of fun doing it.”
Tenner added, “We are building something special here. I’m so excited that these kids have an opportunity to come out here in front of their family and friends and make history. This is something that hasn’t been done before. … The process and journey isn’t easy.”
Flashbacks of Antelope High School
John Becker was the founding principal at Antelope High School and now serves as the Roseville Joint Union Superintendent. He was on hand at West Park on Friday.
There was doubt in 2012 whether or not West Park would be built. Construction was delayed for years and the school opened last summer with no in-person learning because of the pandemic.
Becker can appreciate a school building a tradition and culture because he did just that while at Antelope.
“I get flashbacks from when we opened Antelope,”John Becker said. “That initial excitement of watching things go from nothing to blossoming into these great programs. Just like the kids are growing from sophomores to juniors to seniors, those programs grow with them. It’s those traditions those initial kids set that generations of kids coming through West Park are going to follow.”
Becker added, “It was a long process to get this school built. My predecessors said we are going to build a world-class high school out in this community. Watching all of the buildings come to the conclusion of being built — you have this magical place. The excitement is what can this place become in the next five to 10 years.”
Why was West Park placed in the GSL and what’s next?
The Sac-Joaquin Section had a plan when it put West Park in the GSL. The league only had five football teams and needed a sixth, according to section assistant commissioner Will DeBoard.
The section thought putting West Park immediately into the Foothill Valley League without a senior class might present challenges. There were no official realignment talks in the SJS because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next realignment will happen in 2024.
West Park’s move to the FVL was a part of the seven adjustments the section made, which included adding Sutter and Wheatland of the Northern Section. All of West Park’s other sports compete in the FVL. The football team will join them starting next school year. This move was voted and approved by a SJS Board of Managers meeting earlier this month.
West Park will take Rio Linda’s spot in the FVL. The Knights will go to the Golden Empire League in all sports starting next school year. Foothill will leave the Pioneer Valley League and take West Park’s spot in the GSL.
Although West Park has an enrollment of 1,035, which would put them in the Division V playoffs, winning the GSL bumps the team to the Division lV playoffs. West Park will likely travel in the first round next Friday.
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 6:17 AM.