Prep football: Woodland Christian thumps Delta as the Cardinals look like a giant threat
Mike Paschke grew up in this town. He played sports in the 1990s at Woodland High School, which opened in 1895. He was part of the electrical crew that wired nearby Pioneer High when it opened in 2003, and now he’s at the forefront of an ambitious plan to make the “new” school in town a big player on the regional football circuit.
And not just within Yolo County. He is aiming for the entire Sac-Joaquin Section. Paschke is the second-year head coach at Woodland Christian, a powerhouse in a league it has fast outgrown. His Cardinals were too big, too fast, too strong and overwhelmingly too good against Delta on Friday night, a year after a thriller to the finish between these programs.
Woodland Christian cruised 62-12, allowing the first and final scores and devouring the gritty Saints of Clarksburg whole in between. The second half of this Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League contest included a running clock throughout the second half.
With 240 students in the high school portion of the K-12 campus, Woodland Christian fully expects to return to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII finals, where it lost last November to Le Grand after an 11-0 start to the season. What’s already happened is the Cardinals have outgrown the SMAL, a league of small schools such as Encina, Foresthill, Valley Christian and Western Sierra. All of those teams combined would probably not beat the Cardinals.
Woodland Christian (6-1) seeks its seventh SMAL championship since 2013. The Cardinals have not lost a league game since 2015.
“He’s building something here,” Delta coach Tim Rapp said “Our kids tried. They played hard but we were out physicaled, out speeded, out everything. They were way too good for us. We couldn’t stop them.”
Delta (6-1) trots out a lineup of guys who look the part of small-school pride. There may not be a college prospect in the lot, common for programs of this size, but Woodland Christian had a fleet of head-turners, including transfers. Billy Hinkle is the star, as he was last season, and the do-all senior with speed and moves had a 40-yard touchdown sprint and a 62-yard interception return for a score.
His freshman brother Noah had a 7-yard touchdown run. And the brothers have some large friends as teammates. The leading field-tilting, shadow-casting lineman is junior tackle and defensive end Noah Rico, all 6-foot-5 and 340 pounds of him. Santos Nixon anchors the interior of the lines at 5-11 and 310, middle linebacker Louie Personeni is 5-10, 220, tight end/linebacker Jordan Sacramento looks the part at 6-3, 245 and running back/linebacker Khai Brown was a load at 5-11 and 225.
“We have some big dudes,” said Billy Hinkle, who arrived from Woodland High midway through his sophomore season. “It’s very cool what we’re doing and the atmosphere here. It was a big change for me to come here but it’s been good for me.”
Home games are something like a night at the park, in a bowl setting, with activity everywhere. There’s music, a spirited public-address voice, little kids playing various forms of football and mad-dash chase anyone on grass patches beyond the end zone. Fans sit on the grassy berm on blankets or lawn chairs.
Coach Paschke never anticipated doing anything like this when he was a teenager. He said for years, “I didn’t live a church life,” but he settled down, appreciated his marriage and kids. He has five of them at Woodland Christian now, including a 5-year-old and an 18-year-old. Paschke is deeply invested in the varsity program and the youth feeder program, which he oversees.
“I’m still running it, and coaching here, so I’m an idiot!” Paschke said with a laugh, crediting wife Sarah for getting him into all of it in the first place. “I was addicted to my work. One day, she told me the Pee Wee program needed a coach or the season wouldn’t finish. I got involved.”
Paschke surrounded himself with coaches, including guys who coached at powerhouse Inderkum, a large school in Sacramento. That includes Brian Whitmire, the 1990s Davis High star who lives near campus. He said before the game, “We can do big things here.”
The Cardinals may not lose another game this season. Not if they keep this up. Brown and Gabe Sanchez had two touchdown runs each, and Sanchez fired a touchdown pass at the end of the half to Sacramento, who towered over his defenders to make a touchdown reception for a 53-6 lead.
After the game, mothers of players came onto the field to congratulate their heroes. Some wore shirts that read, “Train Harder. Play Harder. Pray Harder!”
Paschke said the goal for the football program is clear.
“We want to win,” he said. “We want to have a great program. It’ll be a couple of more years when we really reap the rewards of the youth program.”
In an effort to gauge how far his team has come, Paschke was able to schedule a nonleague game against Pioneer, located a mile away. The established Patriots, a Division IV school, won 26-14 and are 6-1.
“We’d like to play Woodland High, too,” the coach said. “We want to play the teams in town and get better and better.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 4:31 AM.