Prep football: Top teams benefit from transfers, while less-successful schools make do

The Rosemont football team will be good this fall. Ranked 23rd by The Bee, the Wolverines have a strong running game and a stout defense.

The Wolverines went 11-3 last fall and they could be even better this fall – if they can bounce back from the loss of one of their top defenders. The defender led the team in tackles last fall with 135; he transferred to Elk Grove to play this season.

That’s not unusual. Coaches say athletes commonly will start for a smaller school like Rosemont, which has an enrollment of 1,000, before moving to a larger high school to finish their careers. The result for the young athlete is more varsity playing time and more recruiting visibility.

Though the Sacramento area produces at most 25 Division I football players every fall, coaches say parents widely believe their child is going to earn one of those golden tickets.

“Fifty percent of the roster thinks their kid is special,” Rosemont coach John Straw said. “They’re putting them in camps and hiring specialists. If they just took the money they spent on camps and put it in a Roth IRA, they’d be a lot better off. But they want to brag to their friends they got a scholarship. My son was a pretty good athlete and he played Division II football. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Finding a winner

The Bee reviewed varsity football rosters for every team in the Sierra Foothill League and checked four years of data from the Sac-Joaquin Section to find how many kids moved into a school’s football program after they already had started high school. Folsom had 18 kids on their roster last year who transferred into the program. Whitney had the second-most with 11. Granite Bay had seven transfers; Oak Ridge and Del Oro had six; Rocklin had four transfers.

By contrast, West Sacramento’s River City High School is comparable in size to the SFL schools, with more than 2,000 students enrolled, but had just one transfer on its roster last fall. River City went 1-9 last fall.

Folsom’s 18 transfers are an eye-popping number, but the quality of those transfers is also impressive. They include the team’s top receiver, two quarterbacks and starting tight end.

It’s perfectly legal to switch schools. Open enrollment is a reality throughout much of the Sacramento area. The Sac-Joaquin Section reviews transfer requests and decides how long transfer students have to sit out before they play for a new team. Kids who have a verified move are eligible to play immediately.

Opposing coaches routinely say Folsom isn’t actively recruiting football players, knocking on doors or making phone calls to persuade a kid to change schools. That would be a major breach of section and state rules. And Folsom doesn’t have to do any of that. Coach Paul Doherty said the athletics, academics and extracurriculars are enough to draw any student to Folsom.

“I think Folsom’s a great school,” he said. “We field phone calls all the time and we have an administration that supports a lot of things on campus. The music department is really incredible. The math department is incredible. It’s a huge school. The basketball facility is incredible. The theater is incredible. Regardless of where your talent lies, parents are going to want to send their kids to Folsom.”

Especially parents with an interest in football scholarships. Doherty says his program had seven kids sign scholarship offers last season; he expects nine to sign offers this year. Folsom has been ranked the No. 1 team in the Sacramento area to start the football season in every year dating to 2012. The Bulldogs finished third in the SFL but caught fire in the playoffs, winning a Sac-Joaquin Section title and playing for a state title.

There is no bigger stage in the Sacramento area for high school football players. But not every kid who transfers to Folsom gets to make a big contribution, Doherty said.

“At the end of the day, parents want to see their kids happy, they want to give kids their opportunity to pursue their dreams but I think there’s a huge naivete as to what that is,” he said. “If you look at our roster, we have a bunch of D-I guys that don’t get on our field at Folsom because there’s so many different dynamics.”

Doherty gave the example of quarterback Ari Patu, who came to Folsom because Doherty is a known quarterback guru. Doherty has tutored top Division I quarterbacks from myriad high schools. Patu was a backup in his junior year at Folsom because starter Jake Reithmeier was entrenched. His senior year was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. It worked out: Patu is on scholarship at Stanford; Reithmeier plays for San Diego.

Moving on

Folsom is far from the only school to benefit from transfers. Whitney had 11 transfers on its roster last season. Division III school Capital Christian had 10 transfers on its roster. Jesuit, a private school, had five transfers. Elk Grove, another football powerhouse, had four transfers on its roster last fall. By contrast, Pleasant Grove, which has more than 2,500 students and a 3-7 record last fall, had just three transfers.

Because kids – and their parents – can easily switch schools, coaches such as Casa Roble’s Chris Horner are always a little on edge. Horner, at the start of his sixth season, said he hasn’t lost a kid to transfer. But he’s thinking about it because he’s surrounded by powerhouse programs and legendary coaches.

“I’m in a unique situation where the Orangevale community is uber supportive of Casa,” he said. “I try to create an environment where kids are excited about Casa. From how I run practice and everything, I gear everything to keeping my kids and they want to come to Casa.

“It’s a lot of hard work and effort but I’m well aware, man. There’s a reason why I’m year-round fundraising as much as possible. (Longtime head coach) Joe Cattolico is five minutes away at Granite Bay. I gotta do everything I can.”

Over at Rosemont, Straw has been busy cranking out conditioning sessions with his team as they get ready for the start of practice Monday. The loss of a key player hurts, but life goes on. Rosemont has been here before, Straw said. The team lost a star quarterback to Folsom.

When a star player leaves, there can be a little bemoaning among the players who remain about what could have been, Straw said. But it can also be a motivator.

“It puts a chip on their shoulder,” Straw said. “We have some key players that are staying, they’re bought into Rosemont. Let’s show him what they’re missing.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.