Bee’s Best prep football: No. 6 Jesuit to build on last year’s ‘unbelievable foundation’

The Sacramento Bee will unveil our Top 25 football rankings from No. 25 to No. 1, a team every weekday, right up to the Aug. 20 kickoff.

No. 6 Jesuit

City: Carmichael

School Opened: 1963

League: Delta League

Division: I

Enrollment: 1,043

2021 spring record: 10-2 overall (6-0 in league)

Coach: Marlon Blanton

Outlook: The Jesuit Marauders only lost to one team last season and that was to No. 1-ranked Folsom.

They played in the first game of the season and got rocked 56-7.

“Playing Folsom at the beginning of last year was an unbelievable teaching tool for my players,” head coach Marlon Blanton told The Bee. “You can’t emulate that level of football, so to play them right out of the gate allowed us to gauge where our team was.”

“You’re either where you need to be, or you’re not and you need to catch up.”

And catch up they did. The Marauders turned around and won 10 straight games, setting up a rematch with the Bulldogs in the semifinal of the Division I section playoffs.

“It’s always a barn-burner when we play them a second time around,” Blanton said of the matchup. The second time, they almost had them, falling only by a single point, 22-21.

“Last year’s seniors left an unbelievable foundation for us to build upon,” Blanton said. “You would hope that translates to this next group. Our players are talking that way so far, but whether they do it or not, it’s a long process.”

Blanton has seen it all in his 34 years of coaching football and is reluctant to read into anything about his team until they’ve played an actual competitive snap.

The 11th year Jesuit coach loathes telling reporters about players he thinks fans should be looking out for in the upcoming season.

“I don’t like leaving anybody out, plus, I’ll never hear the end of it,” Blanton said. “The second-stringer, third-stringer or last dude on the team needs to know that he is just as important as the guys in front.”

Instead, he settled on sharing some names of returning players that were able to log minutes in close games.

Senior Trent Dewar will return at quarterback after stepping in midseason to start eight games for the Marauders. He threw for 1,134 yards with 12 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Blanton said Dewar is also a capable defensive back.

According to Blanton, senior lineman Ike Ikegbu played so well as a junior in their playoff win against Del Oro, that he had to start in the Folsom rematch.

Joining him will be senior interior lineman Josef Mokofisi, who will be playing his third year of varsity football. He last measured in at 6 foot 2 and weighed 335 pounds.

Returning at the skill positions are seniors Cormac O’Flaherty (receiver and defensive back), Tatum Pappas (linebacker and running back), Garrett Risley (tight end), Anthony Sibles (linebacker and running back), Jagger Shaddix (running back and defensive line) and Tristan Canaan (wide receiver).

Outside of the obvious goal of winning his first section title, Blanton said the biggest challenge of every group he’s coached is building a true brotherhood among the players that goes from being conditional at the beginning of the year to one that is unconditional by the end of it.

To work on that, Blanton and his staff focus on the little things and drill them obsessively.

For example, he checks to make sure that the locker room is clean before they can start practice.

“I tell the players ‘It’s yours,’” he explained. “Take ownership. If I can get them to take ownership of their program, I’m a firm believer that they’re going to give more to it because it means more to them.”