CIF: SAD STATE OF OPEN DIVISION
There is a lot of good about high school football in California and plenty that is not so good. Nothing we write here is going to magically solve the issues.
But there is one matter that California Interscholastic Federation officials should start addressing now. It’s the same one that should have been dealt with after last season.
The Open Division state championship game is broken.
Can someone fix it?
This is a game that should be a celebration for CIF, the Super Bowl of California high school football, the biggest game between the two best teams.
Instead, it has become a sad letdown with no sign of letting up.
Private schools have advantages, yes. They do across the state. But Mater Dei and St. John Bosco are not normal private-school powers in football. Haven’t been for approaching a decade.
They are closer to Florida’s IMG Academy than traditional private-school powers. CIF schools are not allowed to play IMG because it doesn’t play by the same rules.
Hard to imagine IMG having more talent than Mater Dei this season or Bosco last season.
The Southern California superpowers have risen to the top by a sizeable margin because they have become all-star teams, with players not just from SoCal but other parts of the state and beyond.
After Mater Dei beat Serra 35-0 for the Open title on Saturday night, a couple of standouts from the San Mateo school posed for a picture with a couple of Mater Dei players, including a four-star running back who scored a touchdown in the game.
Why?
Because they’re all from the Bay Area.
Serra and Mater Dei players, all from the Bay Area, pose for a picture after the CIF Open Division state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023 at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. Mater Dei won 35-0. (Darren Sabedra/Bay Area News Group)
Last year, a receiver for Bosco had transferred from Pittsburg.
Yes, other high schools can jump into the game of filling roster spots with transfers and becoming superpowers, too. Revisions to CIF bylaws starting in 2012 have made it easier to gain eligibility.
But is the transfer game really what education-based athletics should be about?
Should a team like Serra have to go completely unconventional on offense just to make sure the score stays somewhat competitive?
Let’s be clear. Blowouts happen in high school sports, with or without transfers. They happen plenty in the Bay Area. Serra’s dominance this season was well documented. But Serra’s roster isn’t loaded with guys committed to Alabama, Georgia, Texas and so on. Its league MVP is going to San Jose State.
Serra is an exceptionally good private-school team that, even as its own coach has said, should be playing other private schools in the playoffs. It isn’t a national superpower. But because of its success in the North the past three seasons, it has had to play teams far above its weight class in what should be the premier game.
The result: Three consecutive running-clock losses on the CIF’s big stage.
When is enough enough?
Do state games have to always be North vs. South? Should the Bosco-Mater Dei Southern Section title game also be for the Open Division state championship? Should the Bosco-Mater Dei winner move on to some sort of national championship game? What about tightening and enforcing transfer rules?
Or letting Bosco and Mater Dei play a rubber match? Don’t they always split their two games every season?
Anything would be better than what is happening now.
— Darren Sabedra
SERRA: COACH’S THOUGHTS ON SITUATION
Serra coach Patrick Walsh consoles quarterback Maealiuaki Smith after the CIF Open Division state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Mater Dei defeated Serra 35-0. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Serra’s ticket to the Open Division state title game the past two years was all but punched when it beat Folsom and De La Salle to begin both seasons.
The Padres will start against those teams again next year, followed by St. John Bosco.
Coach Patrick Walsh was asked whether it would be more attractive not to be No. 1 in NorCal and play a state game in a more competitive division.
He said no.
“Listen, when we line up in a game and we have an opportunity to play another team, we’re going to play to win,” Walsh said. “If the outcome is this (blowout Open loss), then so be it. That’s the system that we’re in. Some like it. Some don’t. I’ll tell you what, I am not in charge of it.
“I guess the alternative would be to throw a game or to lose a game. That’s not in our DNA. We can’t do that. Watching Folsom, we beat Folsom. They won a state championship. What does that mean? Let people decide that on their own. For us, we have nothing to be ashamed of. For me, this is all about my kids and their hearts in that locker room. I want to make sure that everybody knows, those kids in there know, they didn’t let anybody down.
“If we had played a Division 1-AA game, a 1-A game and if we had won, would they feel better about themselves? Maybe. But that’s not the scenario here. We’ve got to come down here, these guys (Mater Dei) … beat everyone by a lot of points, them and Bosco year in and year out. It’s been that way for the last eight years. I am a common sense guy. Do the math. It’s just really, really hard.”
Walsh said next year’s non-league schedule won’t make his team better prepared if it reaches the Open game again.
“There is only one way to chip away at that delta,” he said. “And that’s not who I am. There is only one way to do it, and it’s in the New York Times article that (the Bay Area News Group) referenced. That’s not in our DNA. It’s sitting out there for the public to read.”
Walsh, of course, was referencing the transfer game.
— Darren Sabedra
ACALANES: THE BREAKTHROUGH TEAM
When Acalanes stepped onto the Saddleback College field Saturday morning to face Southern California Division 3-AA champion Birmingham of Lake Balboa, the odds were stacked against the Bay Area school.
No team from the North had won a state championship at the venue since the CIF moved its upper-division title games there in 2021.
The winless streak reached 12 games when Grant-Sacramento and De La Salle lost on Friday.
But these Dons were a determined bunch, a group led by veteran coach Floyd Burnsed — 76 years young — gritty quarterback Sully Bailey, speedy receivers Trevor Rogers and Paul Kuhner and so many others.
They broke through for the North, rallying from 14 down to beat Birmingham of Lake Balboa 35-23.
Kuhner clinched the win with a TD catch in the final minute.
“They’re an incredible team, Birmingham, a phenomenal team,” Kuhner said. “We had to game plan the hell out of them. We really did. It was hours on hours this week of preparation just because of how good they are. All credit to them. But we just outplayed them today.
“It’s a coin toss a lot of times. Our coach said it’s not luck, it’s falling back on preparation. We just prepared this week and we went out and got the win.”
Acalanes will lose Bailey, Rogers, Kuhner and others to graduation. But its coach said the future is bright for the Lafayette school — and he wants to keep going.
“We’ve got some great young players,” Burnsed said. “Our freshman team was 10-0 this year, beat everybody by about 40 points or more. We have a lot of good players coming up. I think we’re keeping the players now. When they come out of eighth grade going into ninth, they can go wherever they want. We’re getting those players to come to Acalanes.
“This is going to really help, all the publicity we’ve had. We’ve been in the paper every week. I think this is going to really help our program.”
— Darren Sabedra
DE LA SALLE: MORE THAN WINS, LOSSES
De La Salle’s Jackson Barth (77) and Drew Cunningham (18) walk off the field after the Spartans lost to Mission Viejo in the CIF Division 1-AA championship game at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Late Friday night, after another painful loss on the state championship stage, De La Salle shed tears, expressed disappointment and wished it had played better in the game’s key moments.
But following the lead of coach Justin Alumbaugh, who has won far more games than he has lost, the Spartans handled defeat with the grace and beauty that make high school sports what it should be.
The 2023 season was anything but normal for a program that, fair or not, lives under the expectations of its storied past, the era in which De La Salle won a national record 151 games in a row in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Spartans lost their first two games this year, didn’t have much of an identity on offense and had a lot of teams left on the schedule capable of adding more losses to the resume.
The Spartans beat Folsom and St. Mary’s-Stockton and won an overtime thriller over San Ramon Valley. Then came real-life pain when longtime defensive line coach Steve Jacoby unexpectedly died six days after the regular-season victory over SRV.
De La Salle made a great run playing in the honor of its former coach, winning 11 consecutive games to reach its 16th state final in the 17 years that the CIF has held the event in the modern era.
But instead of celebrating, seniors such as defensive lineman Chris Biller and linebacker/tight end Drew Cunningham were left to reflect on a season that ended with a 27-13 loss to Mission Viejo in the Division 1-AA final on Friday.
Their words struck a mature tone.
“Even through all those ugly things, I think the ending was beautiful,” Biller said. “We all became closer as a group. You can’t go forward without taking a step back sometimes. Everything happens for a reason and I honestly couldn’t be happier. This whole program has taught me how to be a better man. If I didn’t go here, I just wouldn’t be the person I am today. I’ve learned so many lessons from coach Alumbaugh. Drew has taught me so many things. All the captains got in my head and really helped me throughout the season.”
Cunningham added, “Coming through this program, I am just so thankful for the relationships that I have gained and all the lessons. Truly having an understanding of how little things matter and just how far a true effort and dedication can take you.”
— Darren Sabedra
MORE DE LA SALLE: COACH’S VIEW
De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh speaks to his players before the CIF Division 1-AA state championship game at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Like his players, Alumbaugh spoke to what his program is all about after Friday’s game.
“Yes, I want to win,” he said. “It’s not a great feeling. But for our program, it’s about a lot more than just winning a football game. It’s about conducting yourself in a great way. These guys, the way that they have responded to adversity and the way that they have stuck together … the way our season started we were a tire fire. We were clawing back and then a beloved coach dies.
“They had a lot of reasons to fall apart or come at one another or question. Instead, they doubled down. It was like they doubled down in to what we were trying to do and what our program means, the camaraderie and love and spirt and hard work and being tough. They showed that.”
— Darren Sabedra
LOS GATOS: SENIORS LEFT THEIR MARK
Los Gatos’ Jaylen Thomas hugs coach Mark Krail after the CIF Division 2-A state championship game at Pasadena City College on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (Brandon Vallance for the Bay Area News Group)
After Los Gatos lost 45-42 to Central Valley Christian-Visalia in the 2-A state title game, coach Mark Krail didn’t spend his last postgame meeting with the team rehashing how the Wildcats’ comeback from down 24-7 at halftime came up just short.
Instead, Krail took time to individually hug dozens of his players and tell them how proud they made him.
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He also took a moment to speak about the team’s seniors, who led the program to both CCS and NorCal titles.
The senior class at Los Gatos began its freshman year under remarkable circumstances, part of the last group to experience the short spring season in 2021 as California found a way to play sports one year after the pandemic began.
“It’s a special group,” Krail said. “We were laughing today at lunch, and we said, ‘Well, we made up for those five games at the end of this year.’”
Running back Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung was among the many Wildcats who lingered at Pasadena City College’s field long after the final whistle, hugging teammates while wearing the uniform for the last time.
“I’m sad we lost, but I think I would have been this emotional if we had won, too,” Kopcsak-Yeung said. “The hardest part of this isn’t that we won or lost.
“It’s that it’s over.”
A.J. Minyard, who was a ball boy for the 2019 Los Gatos team that won CCS, ended his own playing career by accounting for three touchdowns in a frenzied fourth-quarter comeback in the state title game.
“I’m going to take this all in. I’m going to take all the memorabilia I can get and put it on my wall,” Minyard said. “I’m never forgetting this.”
– Joseph Dycus
MISSION VIEJO: “SURFING” STOPPED DLS
Mission Viejo coach Chad Johnson celebrates after his team defeated De La Salle in the CIF Division 1-AA state football championship game at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Toa Faavae showed off his game-breaking speed on the first drive of the 1-AA championship game, where the Spartans quarterback kept the ball on a bootleg and ran for a long touchdown.
But Mission Viejo made a critical adjustment afterward, one that limited the speedster on option plays. Instead of firing into the backfield, the unblocked defensive end “surfed” on the line of scrimmage, waiting for Faavae to keep the ball.
“You can either crash and the quarterback can pull the ball, or you can surf it and make them hand off,” Mission Viejo coach Chad Johnson said.
Though Faavae still got some nice gains on the ground en route to a 162-yard rushing day, Mission Viejo nullified the DLS veer. When Faavae did hand the ball off, Spartans runners had no room to operate in the 27-13 loss.
– Joseph Dycus
