‘Mighty Mats’ bounce back. Mira Loma caps 12-0 season with first section crown
In the 1960s and ’70s, the Mira Loma Matadors stood as a shining example of high school football excellence in the Sacramento region, a legacy that stretched into the early 1980s.
The program was led by grizzled and famed coaches Don Brown and Gerry Kundert, The Sacramento Bee’s Coaches of the Decade for the 1960s, and they were big on the tricky wing-T run game and all-out effort in a glorious era of the “Mighty Mats.”
Somewhere, those coaches are looking down with pride this Thanksgiving weekend.
Kundert died in 2017 at age 86 and Brown in 2021 at 96, but their impact lives on. The Matadors slumped into gridiron misery with dreadful losing streaks, including skids of 28 in the late 1980s, then of 29 and 31 in the last 10 seasons, but this has been a season of rebirth that maybe only members of the San Juan Unified School District program could dare even fathom.
On Saturday afternoon at Hughes Stadium, an alum of Mira Loma led the celebratory charge for the Matadors’ emphatic return to relevance. Behind coach Jesse Collins and anchors in quarterback Deangelo Keys, receiver Keion Kado and running backs Francis Arizmendez and Wema Kyubwa, top-seeded Mira Loma rolled past Foresthill of Placer County, 48-14, to carve out their niche in school and CIF Sac-Joaquin Section history.
Mira Loma capped the season at 12-0 in winning the first section Division VIII championship, which is for 8-man football. This was the first year the section fielded 8-man ball, as compared to the traditional 11-man game, as this change allowed struggling programs with small roster numbers a chance to play.
Collins didn’t mind the 9 a.m. kickoff at Sacramento City College. He and the fired-up Matadors would have played a 6 a.m. game in a gravel pit if it afforded them a chance to compete. The coach was equal parts proud, ecstatic and relieved. Mira Loma surrendered 400 points and scored just 12 in a seven-game winless league showing last season in 11-man competition.
This season, Mira Loma outscored opponents 582-133, and the roster included scores of players who endured the trying 2024 campaign.
“We knew we’d have a team that could compete this year in 8-man,” Collins said. “Extremely proud of them. Really, really proud and happy as an alum. We’ve been through a lot of downs in this program, and to finally get it back up on top is outstanding.”
He continued, “We’ve had a lot of football history at this school that people forget about, and it’s a great feeling to bring it back to Mira Loma. I’ve been on the other end (of this kind of score), getting my butt kicked for years. But never quit, never gave up on the kids, and they never gave up on us.”
Mira Loma was in its first section final since its 1981 team lost to Placer in Division II. The section playoffs started in 1973, just after Mira Loma’s finest teams — the 10-0 group in 1968 and the 12-0 team from 1972, each listed in a 1995 Bee ranking as among the Top 10 greatest in regional history.
8-man football? ‘We’re still hitting’
Keys, Mira Loma’s crafty and quick junior quarterback, had a 75-yard touchdown sprint to open the scoring. He had a 16-yard score for a 22-6 lead and a 26-yard TD strike to Kado on the final play of the first half for a 32-6 lead.
Kado’s 22-yard interception return for a score made it 40-14, and Francis Arizmendez’s 66-yard run capped the scoring at 48-14. Wema Kyubwa ran for five 2-point conversions for Mira Loma, which produced its first non-losing season since 2009 when the Matadors went 6-6 under coach Matt Costa. Keys finished with 36 total touchdowns.
On Keys, coach Collins said, “He’s been amazing. He’s a sponge. He’s a fantastic leader. He holds everybody accountable. I can’t say enough about the kid. His heart is tremendous.”
Keys said 8-man ball was a joy.
“It’s still football,” he said. “We’re still hitting. We’re still in pads. It’s still football.”
On his coach, the quarterback said, “We’re really excited for him. He’s been coaching a long time. He deserves this.”
Foresthill finished 10-2, its two losses coming to Mira Loma. The Wildfires also benefitted from the 8-man experience as a small-enrollment school in which sports really matter. Foresthill produced just its second winning season since 2013 and was in a section final for the first time since 2012, in Division VI.
The Wildfires are coached by an alum of the school in Nick Gleason, and he had one of the region’s top running backs, regardless of division. Vincent Navarro rushed for 144 yards on 32 carries and a touchdown, giving him 2,700 yards on the season to go with 25 touchdowns.
Teams in 8-man do not advance to CIF Northern California championship games, which is about the only downer for the Matadors in this bounce-back season.
This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 2:04 PM.