Commentary: Small-school football endures, and a Dixon game is a trip down memory lane
The webbing is still there.
Strands of the grayish material snake off the goal post at Finney Field at Dixon High School, some of it straight as an arrow, dancing in the soft breezes. I studied this phenomenon Thursday night as the sun set, before the Rams kicked off against the Casa Roble Rams for the Golden Empire League championship. Webbing and gold posts. It brought me back.
I remember this view from a generation ago, when Dixon played games at the Fairgrounds just down the road, and then later at its old home campus, the stadium lights illuminating the texture of the gray material that looked like an early Halloween addition.
“It’s a Dixon thing,” a longtime local resident explained. “You see it all over the farming country, too. It’s kind of our thing.”
It is a Dixon thing, to be sure, and Dixon football is still every bit a thing in Solano County. Thursday was a full-circle adventure for me in a career that has gone by in a flash. I’m a sucker for small-school ball, having found some of the best storylines in my 32 years at The Bee at places such as Bear River, Colfax, Delta, East Nicolaus and Winters. The beauty of our coverage region is the depth of programs. Since 1989, the region has expanded by 31 high schools, but nothing can push aside the small-school appeal. They endure because the players, coaches and communities insist on it.
High school football remains the most consistent, reliable and most entertaining sports entity in this region. Or as Rocklin High principal Davis Stewart says, “Football is king.”
‘Who’d ever want to work so close to the cornfields?’
Dixon hits home for me. I got my first paying newspaper job at the ripe old age of 18, in 1984, fresh out of Enterprise High School from the northeastern corner of Oregon. I moved to Davis to live with my father Jack and stepmother Fran, to go to college and to chase down a sports journalism career. My stepmother reminds me that I once bemoaned, “Who’d ever want to work or live so close to the cornfields?”
I kept invading The Davis Enterprise office, insisting I could help. Finally, managing editor Debbie Davis and sports editor Tim Oglesby gave me a shot rather than have me thrown out. The Enterprise expanded its coverage into Dixon in those days, and I was tasked with covering the Rams.
I was giddy. The coaches were warm and welcoming. The kids appreciated the conversations and coverage. The farmers climbed off their tractors and arrived at games in work boots to cheer on their kids. It reminded me of my stepfather Bob in his farm garb watching me play football, box or run laps in track in high school. Dixon was small-town cozy then, with some 500 kids on campus.
Even the coaches had cool names. Arch Yelle was a longtime football coach, all levels, when I was on the Dixon beat from 1984-87. A source of information and charm was Red Finney, the famed coach who led Dixon to championship success in the early 1970s and whom the field is named after. He started coaching at Dixon in 1950 and stepped down nine years later to sell insurance, explaining to me many years ago, “I had to make money! I returned to coaching because I had to coach kids. There was more value in that.”
Doug Elf was small in stature but large in presence, coaching baseball and football in the 1980s. George Skezas was the basketball coach, larger than life, a prince of a guy who taught me that there are stories to be told beyond wins and losses and the box score. He let me ride the team bus. In victory, players spoke glowingly. In defeat, he insisted players talk about what they learned. May that good man rest in peace.
The kindly Bob Watkins coached the varsity football team during my Rams coverage time, and he tolerated me asking, “when will you win a game?” The Rams lost all 17 varsity games I covered. It boggles me still that they let me come back for more.
Dixon still has cool names
Dixon went from playing at the Fairgrounds to its home campus to its “new” campus that opened in 2007. It’s a sparkling palace. New housing surrounds the school, which has doubled in enrollment size to 1,000 since I first checked out the Rams, and that still qualifies as “small school.” And the school still has players with cool names and fun bits of self promotion. The quarterback star is junior Jett Harris. That’s not a noseguard name. That’s a skill-player name.
Jett tossed two touchdown passes Thursday to Mark Bernard, who makes up for a lack of size with great burst and playmaking ability. On the back of his shirt, just above his waist line, it reads in stitched lettering, “It’s too late.”
Explained the playmaker, “That means if you’re reading it, it’s too late to catch me. I’m gone!”
Bernard was gone on Oct. 15, off to the races, after blocking a last-play field goal attempt, scooping up the ball and racing 75 yards for a touchdown and a 13-7 win at Pioneer. Against Casa Roble, Bernard caught two Jett touchdown passes. Every title team needs a grinder, and for the Rams, that is senior captain Malakai Martinez. He blocked Casa Roble’s game-winning field goal attempt in the final seconds to secure a 14-13 victory, and the Rams were in full dance mode. It had been decades since I’d covered a Rams victory celebration.
“We’ve always been the underdog, but we play big,” Bernard said. That’s been the theme in Dixon for generations.
The head coach is an alum, Wes Besseghini. Ten of his assistant coaches are Dixon graduates. His father, Jim, is his “Get back now!’” assistant coach taxed with maintaining sideline order. He’s been a staple in the region for 50 years and a focal point of the family Besseghini Construction firm.
‘A lot to be proud of’
When this Dixon win was over, Wes was hugged by his little kids, Carli Mae and Joshua, and wife, Jessi. He didn’t even try to avoid the Gatorade water dump. It’s been a long time coming. This is his 10th playoff team and his second league championship.
“The kids are amazing, Dixon kids!” the coach said. “We had a tough go with it with COVID and a slow start to the season, but it’s a credit to the seniors and the guys who kept getting better and better. That’s why we coach.”
Coach Besseghini credited his offensive coordinator. A.J. Bernhardt was a star quarterback in the early 1990s for the Rams, and I covered some of his games — league championship victories for the Rams that I had never experienced before.
“I moved to Dixon when I was a freshman, from Davis, and I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but I loved it,” Bernhardt said. “It’s still a special place. Great kids. There aren’t many one-school towns any more, but we’re one of them, and we’re proud. Football still gives kids and a town a lot to be proud of.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 6:03 AM.