Prep notes: No Folsom players in All-Star game; Del Oro coach out; Grant vs. De La Salle
The 64th Optimist All-Star Football Classic may be a muddy good time on Saturday at American River College, a nice venue with an otherwise pristine grass surface that is ready to be invaded by an army of cleats.
Rain is in the forecast, which may call for a heavy dose of the run game for the North senior stars and the South senior achievers. But there won’t be any Folsom Bulldogs suiting up to block, tackle, catch or run for several reasons. Folsom players declined invites mainly because their season was so long, concluding with a CIF state championship to cap a 15-game schedule, not including an intrasquad game and a scrimmage a week before the Aug. 18 kickoff.
Grant also played in a CIF final and has just one player in the game in North linebacker Hakim Reynolds. The Optimist game kicks off at 1 p.m. Tickets are $13 and can be purchased at the gate or through any participating players.
Maben out at Del Oro
The offseason means coaching changes, some of it by their own doing and some of it not so much.
Mike Maben was relieved of his Del Oro football duties after four seasons and three playoff teams at his alma mater, including semifinal berths in 2022 and 2023.
No one from Del Oro or the Placer Union High School District would discuss it, referring only to the email Del Oro principal Nick Zerwas sent to Golden Eagles football families. It read, in part: “After careful consideration and discussions with the athletic department, administration and Coach Maben, it has been decided that we will be making a change in leadership for our varsity football team. While Coach Maben will no longer be the head varsity coach, we are grateful for his dedication, leadership, and tireless efforts on behalf of our student-athletes. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors, and we hope that his path brings him continued success and fulfillment.”
Maben will remain a teacher at the school.
Rapp out at Delta
Tim Rapp has stepped down on his own accord at Delta High in Clarksburg after five seasons at his alma mater, including playoff teams in each of the past three seasons. He also stepped down as baseball coach, despite leading back-to-back playoff teams.
A longtime teacher at Delta Charter, located across the street from the high school, Rapp said he wants to spend more time with family, which includes watching multisport daughter Ayren Rapp, a junior who leads the girls basketball team in scoring (16.9 points per game), rebounds (12.5) and steals (8.1).
Tim Rapp last weekend was among a group of locals who laid out new grass on the baseball field. His heart is still in the school.
Ryder Lyons All-State honor
Bee Player of the Year Ryder Lyons was named by CalHi Sports as the Sophomore of the Year after the quarterback powered Folsom to a CIF state crown.
Lyons passed for 3,578 yards and 38 touchdowns and rushed for 929 yards and 23 TDs while piling up scholarship offers from across the country.
Grant vs. DLS, at last
The teams tried to schedule a game in the 1990s and 2000s to no avail, but at long last, Grant will play decades-long national powerhouse De La Salle in Concord early in the 2024 season.
DLS has in previous seasons played Folsom. The programs mutually agreed to pause that series for at least a year.
Folsom will have early 2024 games against storied Long Beach Poly and will continue its series with Serra of San Mateo.
Blankenship bows out
After 50 years of high school coaching, including at Mira Loma and Nevada Union on the local circuit, Randy Blankenship has called it a career. His final 14 seasons were at Aptos High in Santa Cruz County. He heads into retirement with 313 victories, which is ninth on the all-time CalHi Sports list.
Blankenship is a graduate of Mira Loma of the San Juan Unified School District, which produced several remarkable football coaches with 200 or more victories, including: Kevin Rooney of Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks (316 wins); the retired Mike Alberghini of Grant (282); Terry Stark of Mira Loma, Natomas and Inderkum (231); and Dave Humphers of Mira Loma and Nevada Union (204).
A man not looking to retire any time soon is the spirited and fun Roger Canepa of Central Catholic of Modesto. This past season, he won his 283rd game to set a new CIF Sac-Joaquin Section record, one more than his pal Mark Loureiro, the retired Escalon coach, and Alberghini.
Hoskins, over and out
Dave Hoskins, a regional coaching fixture for 57 years and a master of line play and one-liners, has called it a career. He’s done this before only to return, the sounds of guards and tackles crashing into blocking sleds too hard to ignore. Not this time. His creaking and aching body pleads for a change, though he reminds that he is still “tall, dark and handsome.”
Hoskins started coaching in the mid 1960s at Christian Brothers and was later the head coach at Valley and Elk Grove, winning championships, and has been an assistant coach across the region, including last fall at Pleasant Grove.
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 12:22 PM.