Oakmont uprising: Vikings of Roseville on cusp of program history after winless 2023 season
Jake Messina has taken on all manner of football challenges before, knowing bruises to bodies and egos are part of the package.
He coached the Carlmont High School team of San Mateo County to a CIF section final in 2018 after the program endured a 30-year playoff drought. He took over the Oakmont Vikings program in Roseville before the 2022 season and endured lean times: two wins his first season and a grueling 0-10 run last fall, absorbing every defeat as coaches tend to do, losing sleep over what more he can do.
He implored his group to hang in there, including a crop of returning players who sought better results. Their time has arrived. Oakmont on Friday on senior night offered powerful proof that perseverance counts, that rewards are there for those who put in the time.
Anchored by 21 three-year varsity players, including quarterback leader Beau Ogles, the Vikings defeated Marysville 21-13 in a Pioneer Valley League contest dripping of championship implications. A win next week at Wheatland and the crown belongs to the Vikings, which would be the program’s first in 20 years.
“I’m a flipper,” Messina said of his coaching resume of turning sagging teams into good ones. “I’m from a family of fighters. My mother is a Cuban immigrant whose family got out of there before communism. My father got out of Sicily to escape the Mafia.”
The coach added: “We went through hell last year. But we looked big picture. We all had that discussion here, that it will get better and that we had to stay together and keep working, and we did. It’ll be emotional saying goodbye to these seniors. We all get into this with ego and pride, and tough seasons are part of this. I knew I had to weather this storm. I couldn’t quit. We doubled down, after-school workouts. People have come out of the woodwork to watch this team. It’s been great.”
With success come the perks. Friday’s game had the backdrop of a festive good time with the marching band under director Sam Elmore, whose group on Saturday will host a band event on campus. Also on hand: Cheerleaders that sang, “Ain’t no party like an Oakmont party!”, a student rooting section and fans filling the seats, some of them old alums for the school that opened in 1965.
Messina’s challenges as a high school coach don’t rival those real-life challenges like his parents, but football is every bit life in a nutshell. You get knocked down in this sport, and it’s how one responds that counts.
Messina said he has been moved by the commitment and effort of his team, a 40-man roster that has boosted school spirit with their seven victories, the most for the program since the 2005 team went 7-3 team under coach Dale Mortensen and won a share of the league crown but was not picked by a seeding committee for the postseason.
‘It was a ghost town here’
Tim Moore took over as Vikings head coach in 2009, endured some mediocre seasons but also some good ones, including a playoff group in 2019, the program’s first playoff showing in 13 seasons. An alum of the school, Moore led Oakmont to a 3-0 showing in the spring-shortened COVID season of 2021, his final campaign as coach.
Moore remains a fixture on campus, recognized as one of the top athletic directors in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section for his impact and tremendous people and leadership skills.
Oakmont’s realignment back into the PVL starting this academic year is a good fit, Moore and Messina said, and it has boosted the football fortunes.
“When we hired Jake Messina,” Moore said, “I told him that I wasn’t bailing on the program. I’ll be here. We knew that by this season, there would be all of those three-year starters and he’ll win with that experience. It’s great to see. When football starts well, it (is) usually a great start for the school year. That’s happened here.”
Paul Martinez, Oakmont’s championship baseball coach who doubles as an assistant athletic director, said the positive vibes of a good football team resonates across campus. His baseball program includes several football players, including Ogles, the quarterback who also plays catcher.
“It was a ghost town here in the stands last year in the second half,” Martinez said. “The vibe around schools is so good now. Kids are coming to games. It’s been so much better for the school and the athletic department. And we need kids to play multiple sports. We wouldn’t survive otherwise.”
Ogles leads charge
Ogles had 38-yard touchdown passes to Seth Starkey and Jayden Beasley, and a 7-yarder to Starky. He passed from the pocket and on the run.
Ogles comes from a football family. His older brother Tristan was on the 2021 Oakmont team, and their father, Wes Ogles, was a linebacker for championship Del Oro teams in the 1990s.
Quin Duran, another key Oakmont senior, was hard to bring down at running back, breaking big gainers, and a host of others contributed.
And there was this perspective: During a 56-0 win over struggling Mira Loma last week, Oakmont players asked the coaches to put in the reserves because they know what it feels like to get drubbed.
On Friday, the game was capped by another satisfying victory formation knee-down by Ogles, triumph in hand. Messina then applauded his team.
“It feels great to win,” a beaming Ogles said afterward, surrounded by family. “We all stuck together and it’s paid off.”
At 7-2 overall and 5-1 in league play, the Vikings are a win away from stamping this season as one of the finest in the 59-year history of the Placer County school. A home playoff game would be the program’s first since 2002.
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 10:47 PM.