Prep football: El Dorado rings the bell in resounding win over Bret Harte
It wasn’t a prank. It was supervised good fun — on a school night, even.
It is a timeless tradition at El Dorado High School. After triumphant home football games, players hustle to the famed bell tower less than a mile away on Main Street to give the old ringer a workout. One ring for each point scored, and around 10 p.m. Monday, with coaches, administrators and parents watching in the heart of Placerville, there was a record sound reverberating throughout the town.
The Cougars beat Brett Harte of Angels Camp 74-6 in a nonleague contest pushed to Monday because of smoky air tied to the Mosquito Fire. The output tied a school record for points and, presumably, players working over a bell that’s been a part of town since 1865, initially erected to alert residents of fires. Everyone took turns Monday night because everyone has had a footprint on El Dorado’s 3-1 start. It’s a team 25 players strong, a good many of them pals since elementary school.
“Isn’t this the coolest thing,” El Dorado assistant principal Justin Gatling said, watching the players and coach in their element. “Great tradition here.”
Kevin Placek is in his first year as head coach of the program, an El Dorado County native who played football in the late 1990s at nearby Ponderosa High in Shingle Springs. He spent years as an assistant coach farther south on Highway 50 at Folsom and Oak Ridge, two of the section’s elite programs.
Placek and defensive coordinator Darren Jonutz, a longtime Oak Ridge coach, have infused their ideas and experience with the El Dorado program, mixing in intensity with fun. It is a group eager to maintain momentum. On Monday, Anthony Mahaffey continued his torrid start to his senior campaign, passing for 274 yards and firing seven first-half touchdowns, a school record, with a second-half running clock that featured run plays.
“We’re merging traditional with modern football,” Placek said after his team’s first home victory, and, thus, first chance to visit the Bell Tower.
As El Dorado players finished taking turns with the bell, a Placerville police car inched by, lights and sirens blaring for just a second. More cheers.
Mahaffey is the clear leader and star here but he’s quick to remind that he’s hardly alone. He has a playmaker in receiver/defensive back Deon Hurst, who caught scoring strikes of 61, 29 and 20 yards from Maheffey, who delighted at the view of Hurst returning an interception 67 yards into the end zone. Mahaffey also hit Ethan Hasenmeier for scoring strikes of 28 and 27 yards, and he found Ryan Wilson for touchdown plays of 15 and 10 yards. Mahaffey has 16 touchdown passes in four games.
“We have guys who make plays,” Mahaffey said, downplaying his significant role in all of this.
Hurst joked after the game that he and his quarterback were onetime rivals, playing the same position. He’s now glad to catch his lasers, saying, “He throws a great ball. Right in the bread basket.”
The offensive line is anchored by center Owen Phillips, a 4.0-GPA student and whose best sport is skiing.
“It takes all of us,” Phillips said. Added Hurst, “We love our linemen. We can’t do this without them.”
The players also expressed appreciation to Placek, who is intense during action but is otherwise as jovial as they come.
“Kevin’s doing a great job,” said Jonutz, the defensive coordinator. “He spends 10-14 hours every Saturday with me as we break everything down. He’s a worker, an extreme worker, and he cares.”
Placek needed the approval of his wife, Melissa, to take on a head-coaching gig as it’s a great deal more busy than being an assistant. They are parents of two sons, 13-year-old Kyle and 8-year-old Austin. That Melissa and a lot of her family are El Dorado High graduates certainly helped his cause.
“I’m working my butt off but it’s a great group and we’re having a blast,” Placek said. “The last couple of weeks, we grinded it out in the heat. It’s nice to have good weather again.”
Placek said he had no visions of coaching when he was in high school. He got hooked when he was asked to help out a flag football team 20 years ago after a coach got injured. The tackle stuff is even better. And Placek is showing his wear and tear of the sport as he hobbles about with a troublesome hip. Like a lot of coaches, he’s ignored the pain and gait for too long.
“We’re a stubborn breed,” he said with a laugh. “It’s beyond my wife telling me I need a hip replacement.”
There’s too much work to do first. El Dorado plays at Woodland on Friday and then enters Sierra Valley Conference play as a contender along with Liberty Ranch, Bradshaw Christian, Union Mine and Galt. And there’s the bell tower, with three home league games left to consider.
This story was originally published September 13, 2022 at 10:58 AM.