Bee’s Best prep football: No. 4 Elk Grove thunders after 35th playoff entry since 1981
The Sacramento Bee will unveil our Top 25 football rankings from No. 25 to No. 1, at least a team every weekday, right up to Friday’s kickoff.
NO. 4 ELK GROVE
City: Elk Grove
School opened: 1893
Division: I/II
Enrollment: 1,805
2021 record: 8-6
Coach: John Heffernan
Outlook: John Heffernan and his right-hand coaching mate James Pale left a good thing at Burbank High School six years ago for a new challenge at storied Elk Grove. The duo with Bay Area roots settled in quickly, doubling as highly regarded members of the faculty.
The good times rolled on for the Thundering Herd and their coaching leaders, including more playoff trips, more memorable moments and a 2019 Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
“It’s flown by, six years, and you can’t do this job without great help, and that’s been James and the other guys,” Heffernan said. “You can’t do it solo at a place like this with so much tradition, where there are expectations.”
The expectations this season are more of the same: Compete for a Delta League championship and secure the program’s 35th playoff appearance since 1981. Elk Grove’s resume of success is among the best in the valley, including 10 trips to the Sac-Joaquin Section finals with six championships.
Elk Grove returns plenty of bulk, none more highly touted or talented as Stanford-bound lineman star Simi Pale, all 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds of him. The 4.00-GPA student is flanked in the trenches by returning linemen James Minot and Brandon Sullivan for position coach Moe Loller. Elk Grove will pass the look test with these blockers, but who will carry the ball?
At Elk Grove, this is crucial, as the Thundering Herd runs a flex-bone rushing attack, where the quarterback takes the snap, reads the defense and either pitches the ball or keeps it. The school graduated prolific quarterback Ethan Archuleta, who scooted for 1,515 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2021, and 1,500-yard rusher and 27-time touchdown scorer Zeke Burnett. But the Herd have all sorts of options in players eager to assume those lead roles.
It starts at quarterback, with sophomores David Hale and Dylan Archuleta, younger brother of last season’s quarterback.
“We’ve been so blessed to have good quarterbacks and running backs here,” Heffernan said. “We have two guys battling it out. Archuleta has a great work ethic. Puts in the time. Hale is athletic and smooth. Both are good players.”
Hale comes from a football family. His father, David Hale, was a quarterback for Valley High’s greatest team, the 12-1 outfit of 1995.
In the running for running back jobs are returning reserves Jeremiah Rosales and Mason Vazquez, in addition to Wayshawn Parker, an All-Metro runner and linebacker last fall at Rosemont High. Parker’s older brother, Wadus, was an Elk Grove All-Metro star a few years ago.
Vasquez and Rosales combined for 651 yards and six touchdowns in reserve duty last season.
“We’re young, really young, but it’s a good group that wants to prove what it can do,” Heffernan said. “I know we’ll compete. We always do.”
Elk Grove opens at home on Friday against No. 5 Granite Bay and then hosts No. 11 Antelope on Aug. 26.