Prep football: New section power Sutter outlasts Center in OT to remain undefeated
The Sutter Huskies, newcomers to the Sac-Joaquin Section this season, hadn’t lost a league game since 2014, but they received a scare Friday night from the visiting Center High Cougars in the first Pioneer Valley League showdown between the programs.
“We’ve had some playoff overtime playoff games, but not league or early-season playoff games,” head coach Ryan Reynolds said. “It was unique, to say the least, but awesome.”
The Huskies hung on to get a game-winning, 21-yard field goal in overtime from Josiah Thompson to win 23-20 and improve to 8-0. It came in uncharacteristically sloppy fashion, which included four turnovers in front of a typically packed house at Wayne Gadberry Field.
“Regardless how this game turned out tonight, it was great to get challenged and tested like that. My hat’s off to Center,” Reynolds said. “I give them all the credit in the world.”
The outcome was surprising given Sutter had won all its games this season by an average margin of 40 points, which isn’t normal for a program that’s one of the oldest in Northern California.
A program rich in history
The town of Sutter is unique to Sacramento’s urban sprawl. The high school is centrally located in a town roughly 50 miles north of the state capital, featuring just under 3,000 people. Most of which show up to each game Friday nights.
The annual fundraiser, called “Meet the Huskies,” is a dinner on the field that draws roughly 1,000 people. Even a recent fundraising event for the Junior Huskies, the youth football feeder program, drew 150 people. The Huskies haven’t lost a league game since 2014. They were a power in the Northern Section, winning six titles from 2012 to 2020.
The crowds aren’t limited to friends and family of current players. The town of Sutter’s pulse can be found at its football games, where familiar faces congregate to relive the glory days or simply keep tradition that dates back to the 1960s, when the team’s stadium was built. The community prides itself on its connection to the football program.
“In a small-town community, it kind of brings everybody out,” Sutter athletic director Rick Giovannoni said Friday. “It’s the glue that holds everybody together. They all show up for Friday night and it’s still an old school setting. It’s something that people look forward to.”
The program is what keeps the community in lock-step, and the intensity surrounding it resembles something more like the deep South than Northern California, even for a football-loving area like Sacramento and its suburbs.
Not much has changed at Wayne Gadberry Stadium over the years. There’s a tower, fondly called the “Crow’s Nest,” at the 50-yard line that splits the rickety bleachers on the home side. Its foundation is made of rusted steel, and a trip up the steep stairway to get to the coaches’ booth and press box might come with a flurry of bats escaping underneath the tower.
The sunset to the west is reflected off South Butte Mountain, which can be seen to the north side of the stadium. A wrong step in the parking lot might result in a shoe covered in horse manure, which makes sense given the horse trailers that line an adjacent parking lot.
The trailers are part of the tradition to have a pair of horseback riders hoisting American flags make a lap around the stadium during the national anthem. It’s a reason the track surrounding the football field hasn’t been modernized with rubber. It’s dirt surrounding a football field that’s natural grass. The decision to keep dirt on the track is no accident — not having horses make their pregame laps would not be a particularly popular decision.
“We have a lot of alumni, a lot of people who have been around a long time who come to the games, and actually travel with us to all the games,” Giovannoni said.
One of those Husky alums is Bud Bagley, is an 83-year-old former offensive lineman and linebacker who graduated in 1957. He started and remained on the chain gang for 55 years.
“I’ll put it this way,” Bagley said. “I started the chain gang in 1964 and I’ve never missed a game. Home or away. We went to Texas, Idaho, Utah, Oregon. It means a lot to me. It’s very important to me. ... The community involvement is what makes the Sutter program what it is.”
One of Bagley’s favorite stories about Sutter football was a trip the program took to play Ferris High in Texas in 2008.
“They expected a little California team,” Bagley said. “(But) we walked all over them.”
Sutter won that game 38-9, leaving the home fans in Texas stunned a small school from a small town in California packed so much punch. Given its 8-0 start to its first season in its new conference, perhaps the Sac-Joaquin Section should take notice, too.
This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 11:19 PM.