Football is back, and it rules Sacramento’s HS sports scene. What to know in 2025
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- High school football fuels school spirit, revenue and community engagement.
- Top teams like Folsom and Grant draw national attention and college scouts.
- 8-man and girls flag football expand access and preserve regional football programs.
High school football is a celebration, a work in progress with teenagers and coaches on full display on fall Friday nights. And it is a sport that has endured.
It takes a unique dedication to crash into other bodies in shoulder pads and helmets, and to engage in drills in 100-degree heat or in a stuffy weight room where the smell is of sweat and commitment.
Football can raise the spirit of a campus and sometimes a community throughout the greater Sacramento region. The curiosity and interest hasn’t waned over the decades amid booming housing growth in Elk Grove, Placer County and up the Highway 50 corridor, stretching from Folsom to El Dorado Hills. The football craving for the player, the coach and the consumer hasn’t stalled a bit.
A school doesn’t have to field a state-ranked team to draw a crowd, nor does a program require a roster dotted with players generating scholarship interest from colleges across the country. The key, history shows, is to have an entertaining team, one that marches up and down the field after a dramatic team entrance onto the field through a blow-up mascot before kickoff.
Football is a collaborative effort on any campus that values the sport. It has become common for a school’s activities director to work hand-in-hand with the athletic director and football coach to make a Friday night scene a festive scene, to get everyone involved.
That is the aim for everyone in education: load up on the extracurricular activities on campus. This includes the marching band, the cheer and dance squads and the student rooting section providing the back-drop atmosphere, all of it providing the totality of Friday Night Lights.
And football is the primary revenue-earning sport, with gate receipts, snack-bar and merchandise sales funding sports programs across campus.
Football rules in the city and in foothills
Football isn’t just for the schools nestled in affluent neighborhoods, where money flows and the stadium sideline fences are jammed with sponsorship signage.
Football is king in the city, too, including in Del Paso Heights, where the storied Grant Pacers were named The Bee’s Team of the Decade for the 1990s and 2000s and where the program competes in the spirited honor of Mike Alberghini, who won a regional-record 282 games and died in February at age 78.
Under an army of former Pacers players who now coach, Grant is a three-time defending CIF Sac-Joaquin Section and Northern California champion with two state crowns stacked in the trophy case.
Football matters in Oak Park, too, where the Sacramento Dragons have played the sport longer than any regional school since it’s the oldest area school, opening in 1856. Football started locally in the 1920s, not that there were many teams blocking and tackling then. The same can be said for Christian Brothers, also rooted in Oak Park with a program that has fielded good to great teams since the 1950s.
Football used to be a big thing in the Sacramento City Unified School District, and coaches are pushing to have their programs rise again, including at Kennedy in Greenhaven and McClatchy, which plays in historic Hughes Stadium at Sacramento City College. The challenges for those programs is to increase roster numbers, to get everyone on board on campus.
And football is king in Placer County, be it at Placer High in Auburn, or at Del Oro in Loomis, or at Rocklin, Granite Bay, Roseville, Colfax and beyond.
This is also true at Twelve Bridges High in Lincoln, where coach Chris Bean and the gang bucked the norm that new schools take it square on the chin strap for years before getting off the turf. The Raging Rhinos fielded an immediate winner after opening in the fall of 2021, reaching a section final in 2023 and then reaching a CIF state final last season.
Football rules in the small communities, too, such as East Nicolaus, Winters, Sutter High and Wheatland. Each of those schools compete on grass fields, leaving green stains on uniforms, unlike the field turf that most schools now have.
Ready to go
Most coaches are eager for the opening of the season on Aug. 22-23 after months of planning.
The weekend will be punctuated by the region’s top two teams facing off before a nationally televised audience on ESPN. Winners of four consecutive section Division I championships and boasting of the region’s top talent and No. 1 recruit in 5-star quarterback Ryder Lyons, Folsom visits Grant on Aug. 23.
How good are these teams? Well, they pass the look test, and that includes the eyes of college recruiters from programs such as Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State and more.
Folsom has 18 players in its program with Division I scholarship offers. The Bulldogs are so deep and talented that some of those offers are for junior varsity players. Grant has 14 football players with Division I offers, be it 300-pound linemen or 6-foot-6 receivers such as Zo Edwards who has a penchant for the big play in the biggest games.
Coaches have worked with their student-athletes since January to get to this point, like a chef preparing a 5-course meal. But the coach of the area’s top team approaches every season with a different view.
“I’m grateful to be a part of this, and I know everyone is excited to get started, but I prefer the offseason, the weight room sessions, watching kids develop,” Folsom coach Paul Doherty said.
Football provides an opportunity to prove that teams can surge when history has suggested otherwise. In Fair Oaks, first-year Bella Vista coach Jason Ott takes over a program that has a roster full of good students and sound players but with little program success over the decades.
“We had 40 kids in the weight room, 6 a.m., since winter,” he said. “I don’t know how good we’ll be as a team, but they’ve bought in. We had a scrimmage and the stands were packed. There’s interest. I’ve been told that we can’t win at Bella Vista, and I love that challenge. We’re excited. We’ll be competitive. I know that.”
Safer than ever, and not thirsty
Coaches say that football is safer than it’s ever been with fewer tackling drills in practice than in decades past. Most concussions happen during a practice rather than games.
“Concussions are down, because there’s more knowledge, more education, and we’re teaching kids how to tackle the right way in youth ball,” said Ron Barney, a retired Mesa Verde High coach who still keeps busy was a league commissioner and as a board member of the National Football Foundation’s Sacramento Chapter.
“We have to take care of our sport, and football has never been bigger locally than it has been in recent years. I will fight to the death for this sport because of what it can do for kids and schools.”
Unlike decades past, the norm the last 20 or so seasons is to water athletes regularly during practice. It used to be that water was frowned upon by cranky old coaches, that the need for water was proof of weakness. Somewhere along the line, everyone learned that a hydrated athlete is a better performing one.
8-man rising
Small roster numbers have sunk teams, including Florin and Valley of the Elk Grove Unified School District, programs that folded varsity programs on the eve of the 2024 season.
But those schools are back in action, thanks to the governing body CIF section office introducing 8-man football this fall (football is otherwise 11 guys taking on 11 opponents, for those unaware). The section office has taken it seriously enough that it will crown 8-man section championship teams. The CIF office under executive director Ron Nocetti said that if 8-man ball becomes a thing across the state, there could be a state tournament, maybe as soon as 2026 or 2027.
Among the regional schools that field 8-man are Delta of Clarksburg on the Sacramento River, Encina, Mira Loma and San Juan of the San Juan Unified School District and Valley Christian of Roseville.
“Eight-man is the only way to save some programs, and football is worth saving,” Barney said.
Flag football
Football isn’t just for the guys anymore, either.
Girls have gotten into the act as flag football has soared to become the most popular girls sport in the country. This season marks the third year California has had flag football, and the girls compete without shoulder pads and helmets in defensive slug fests or scoring fests.
Some flag teams play on Thursday night under the lights with the varsity football team in the stands to cheer them on, knowing the girls will return the favor on Friday nights. Cosumnes River College has hosted section finals for three divisions and will continue to do so.
Flag teams have rosters full of girls who play multiple sports. Some teams are coached by former tackle football coaches, including Steve Birch at Del Oro, Eric Cavaliere at Oak Ridge, Tony Martello at Colfax and George Smith at Cosumnes Oaks.
Who are the powerhouse programs?
Folsom Bulldogs: Winners of five CIF state championships and 11 section banners since 2010, Folsom has emerged as the elite program, a lot of it rooted in youth feeder programs. The Sierra Foothill League school has also become a destination for scores of transfers, though most have to sit out 30 days per CIF transfer policy.
Grant Pacers: Winners of 10 section championships, including three in a row, and winners of two of the last three CIF state crowns, Grant continues to live by its motto of “Pacer4Life.” The Pacers appear to be as talented as ever.
Oak Ridge Trojans: A force in El Dorado Hills since opening in the early 1980s, the Trojans have an all-timer coach in Casey Taylor and a team eager for another shot to topple Folsom in the Sierra Foothill League and in the section Division I finals.
Granite Bay Grizzlies: Seeking their 27th consecutive playoff showing, the Grizzlies are led by one of the section’s terrific coaches and staffs, headed by Joe Cattolico, a winner when he coached in San Jose and in the Elk Grove Unified School District with old-fashioned values of running the ball. Fourth-year starting running back/defensive back Isaiah Ene leads the charge.
Rocklin Thunder: Yet another SFL heavyweight under another proven coach in Jason Adams, the Thunder are smarting from a last-second section D-II championship loss to Grant. Leading the way is three-year starting quarterback Reeve Slone.
Twelve Bridges: The Raging Rhinos stormed onto the scene as a new school, including a 14-1 showing last season that ended with a CIF State championship game appearance, a credit to 2024 Bee Coach of the Year Chris Bean and his staff and an army of players who don’t realize new schools normally do not do this.
Jesuit Marauders: Under longtime classy coach Marlon Blanton, Big Red has flexed its muscle since the late 1980s. After decades of day games on its Carmichael campus, Jesuit has in recent seasons basked in the light of Friday night fun. Blanton said football saved him as a boy growing up in the East Bay.
Monterey Trail Mustangs: The Mustangs of the Elk Grove Unified School District are led by throwback coach TJ Ewing, whose teams run opponents ragged with a throwback rushing game and a ferocious defense. The Mustangs could again be the class of the Delta League.
Inderkum Tigers: The Tigers of Sacramento have a new coach and a familiar face taking over as previous offensive coordinator Justin Reber leads the way. The team is bent on getting another shot at reaching the section D-I finals after getting ousted by Folsom in 2023 and 2024.
Placer Hillmen: Placer aims to continue its tradition of hard-nosed, championship football that dates back some 50 years, a credit to longtime coach and alum Joey Montoya and staff that seeks an 11th league title in 13 seasons and a 17th consecutive playoff berth.
Casa Roble Rams: There is no coach more fired up to seize the day, any day, than the spirited Chris Horner, and the Rams of Orangevale delight fans with a wide-open offense. Casa hosts Placer in an opener.
West Park Panthers: The Roseville school emerged as an immediate factor under coach Jason Tenner, who admits to having “a great situation” with 12 on-campus football coaches who also teach. It could come down West Park and Grant again to decide the Metro championship.
Destiny Christian Academy Lions: The former Capital Christian Cougars are in Year 2 as DCA. With coaches Aaron Garcia and Antuan Simmons, two all-time regional players from yesteryear, this bunch wants another Metro League championship shot at Grant.
Elk Grove Thundering Herd: Rising to power in the late 1980s and fielding some of the area’s greatest teams in the 1990s, Elk Grove has shown remarkable staying power, including under coach John Heffernan.
Roseville Tigers: Home of former New England Patriots star linebacker Tedy Bruschi, named in 2000 by The Bee as the greatest prep player in regional history, and current Las Vegas Raiders tackle Kolton Miller, Roseville has perhaps its best team this season in years.
This story was originally published August 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.