Prep football: The Sierra Foothill League dominates. Why does it rule the Sacramento area?
In this league, the preparation starts months in advance, well before anyone hands out helmets, shoulder pads and any marching orders.
The Sierra Foothill League, or Super Football League, if you will, warrants such attention to detail. It is the deepest, most competitive and most accomplished lot of teams of conference in the vast Sac-Joaquin Section. And if teams don’t get a head start on the rigors of rivalry games, they run the risk of opponents wiping their cleats on their collective facemasks.
“We start lifting weights in January so we can get to this stage, so we can compete, have enough depth for these dog fights, and to have enough left to still throw haymakers,” said coach Jason Adams of defending SFL champion Rocklin. “It’s just a great league.”
You know the cast: Folsom, Granite Bay, Oak Ridge, Del Oro, Rocklin, Whitney. Those teams are Bee-ranked Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 15.
Folsom is 4-1, with a loss to Northern California No. 1 Serra of San Mateo and a fresh victory at storied De La Salle. Entering Friday’s SFL openers, Granite Bay, Oak Ridge and Rocklin are a combined 19-1, and Whitney is 3-2 with no local losses. Each of the programs have won section championships in recent seasons, except for Whitney, which has played for one. In the past 10 years, Folsom, Del Oro and Granite Bay have won state championships.
It just might be the best league in Northern California. Said Del Oro coach Mike Maben, “You can make that argument.”
Folsom boosted SFL in 2014
The SFL was already strong when Folsom joined the mix before the 2014 season, and then it got even better. Folsom proceeded to win seven consecutive SFL championships without losing a single league game. There were rumblings within the league and the administration offices of member schools in 2018 to have Folsom removed from the SFL. The Bulldogs were deemed too good to compete with.
Folsom didn’t leave. The league closed the gap. Last season, Folsom’s regional-record 54-game league winning streak was crunched in a showdown when Rocklin rolled past the Bulldogs 40-7. Never mind the injuries to Folsom. It was Rocklin’s time, and the Thunder finished 12-1. There were tears of joy and relief after that game for Rocklin players who had never beaten Folsom at any level, ever.
The lone Rocklin loss last year? That was to Folsom in the section Division I finals, 20-3. Folsom placed third in the SFL in 2021, with Granite Bay capping the regular season with a 31-21 victory over the Bulldogs. But Folsom wound up being the only regional team to reach a state final.
“I don’t know if teams closed the gap on us, or if there really was a gap in the first place,” Folsom coach Paul Doherty said. “We had a ton of success, but so did the second-place teams. Del Oro was winning section and state titles after losing to Folsom in the regular season. Granite Bay was winning section titles. That’s how good the league is.”
‘We’re terrified’
Doherty grew up in the Bay Area and lists two conferences as especially good in Northern California: The West Catholic Athletic League, with schools such as Serra and Saint Francis of Mountain View, and the SFL. With one significant difference.
“NorCal football is really, really good, and it’s a unique thing in the SFL because we’re all public schools, and all so strong, and that’s not the case in the Bay Area or Southern California, where the best teams are private schools.”
Doherty added, “We played a tough preseason schedule this year to get ready for this schedule.”
On Friday night, Folsom visits Oak Ridge, having won 16 consecutive games in that series dating back to 2006. Doherty in his best coach-speak said, “I can’t call it a trap game because Oak Ridge is really, really good, and the kids know that. We’re terrified we won’t be able to rally again (like other wins this season). Oak Ridge will be full-tilt, bells and whistles, feeling like it’s their year, and they’re probably right.”
How good is the SFL? It’s conceivable if not highly probable that all six teams make the playoffs, as some will be in Division I and others in D-II.
“I would argue that all six teams should make the playoffs, based on the strength of the teams,” Granite Bay coach Joe Cattolico said.
Why so good?
What makes the SFL the best?
Each program fields large rosters with an array of talent in the trenches and at the skill positions. Each SFL school has a freshman, junior varsity and varsity program, while a lot of section schools do not field freshman teams. Each program has youth feeder programs, so players grow up playing ball and striving to be varsity stars. Each of the SFL football programs is backed by school administration, with large community and student following. And each school is rooted in a relatively affluent area, where there’s money to pay for specialized training and camps that help players excel, and fund raising has resulted in the best scoreboards and facilities around.
Home games for SFL programs are an event, a festive good time, a cash cow for revenue.
“The home games have a great, great high school atmosphere,” Maben said.
And each of the SFL head coaches are on-campus coaches, deeply linked to their region. About that coaching: It’s as good as it gets anywhere in Northern California.
Cattolico earned a reputation as a top coach when he led championship teams at Pleasant Grove and Sheldon in the Elk Grove Unified School District. He joined the SFL before last season as coach at Granite Bay, drawn to the challenge of competing with the best.
“There is that for sure,” Cattolico said with a laugh. “Not to take away from any other league, but if you want to face real stiff challenge every week and test your program and your mettle, this is the place to do it.”
Maben played at Del Oro in the 1990s and lived the SFL experience. He now coaches in it. Maben is so into his school that he has a vintage Volkswagen van that is painted with Del Oro colors.
Adams of Rocklin was a longtime defensive coordinator at Rocklin before taking over as head coach. His son, Austin Adams, used to race down the sideline as a kid during SFL showdowns. The kid is now a star on defense for the Thunder.
Cattolico is also coaching his son, Joseph, a receiver. Coach Cattolico’s father Butch is on his staff, having won more than 260 games as head coach at Los Gatos.
Doherty infused new life at Sacramento High a decade ago, coached Whitney to two playoff berths and made it a seamless transition when he took over at Folsom as head coach before the 2019 season, including becoming the first program to defeat De La Salle on its home turf in consecutive seasons since Salesian of Richmond did it in 1978 and ‘79.
Zac McNally of Whitney cut his teeth at De La Salle as a player and witnessed elite-level football. His first Whitney team went 0-10, in in 2018, and his second reached a section championship. The Wildcats had to get better or keep getting trampled.
“It was brutal,” McNally said of the winless campaign and the climb back. “Makes you question everything on the field and off the field, and you look within. It’s what you do after every loss, only, we had 10 of those, over and over and over. What we did is wonder, ‘What’s between the ears and in your chest.’ It’s a mindset. We had to get better and we did.”
And there’s Casey Taylor. He coached Del Oro to section and state championship glory at Del Oro over 15 seasons and left for new challenges, eventually ending up at Oak Ridge, his alma mater. He is in his second season at Oak Ridge. His team has pitched four shutouts, with Folsom rolling into El Dorado Hills next. He replaced a highly regarded coach in Eric Cavaliere, who stepped down in hopes that Taylor would take over to further elevate the program.
“Casey Taylor may be the best coach in the section,” Doherty said of Taylor. “He didn’t blink, not for a second, when he took over at Oak Ridge.”
Taylor said there’s a formula to success in the SFL.
“The tradition of the league, all great programs, are in communities where football is important,” he said. “Every team is well-coached with a lot of good players. And teams work year-round. It’s a tough league, a great league. No days off. There’s been years where the SFL had section champions in Division I, II and III.”
As for the rivalry showdown against Folsom, Taylor said, “We’ve got to win a game to make it a rivalry. Folsom’s beaten Oak Ridge 16 straight times. We have a lot of respect for them. We just want to get it into the fourth quarter, a close game, and see if we can pull it off.”
Added McNally of Whitney, “The beauty of high school football is you don’t know what’s going to happen, so many X factors. We’re still all a work in progress. Our program isn’t where we want it to be. That’s everyone in the SFL. No one’s satisfied.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.