After months of conditioning, early-morning lifts and non-contact drills, thousands of high school football players across the Bay Area are starting the final push for the 2024 season.
Practice officially started this week for schools in the Central Coast Section, a jurisdiction that stretches from San Francisco to King City.
Schools in the North Coast Section, which includes the East Bay, will start Monday.
Both sections will have approximately three weeks to polish their game plans for the opening weekend of play, Aug. 29-31.
That marks the start of a whirlwind 10-game regular season schedule spread over 11 weeks, a grind followed by section playoffs in November, NorCal regionals the first week of December and state championship games across numerous divisions on Dec. 13-14.
Starting Monday, the Bay Area News Group will begin rolling out league previews and all-BANG preseason player lists at all positions.
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To get you up to speed, here are 10 storylines as practices get underway:
Changing of the guard?
Will Serra be dethroned, in both its league and the Bay Area? Powered by a generationally great linebacking trio, a Division I college QB and numerous other high-impact players, the Padres went 24-0 against NorCal opponents in 2022 and 2023 and to three consecutive CIF Open Division state title games. But now that core has graduated, opening the door for Archbishop Riordan to overtake Serra for No. 1 in the West Catholic Athletic League and De La Salle to reclaim its status as the Bay Area’s top dog. Riordan returns blue-chipper after blue-chipper, including junior QB Michael Mitchell Jr., four-star linemen Tommy Tofi and Peter Langi and big-time wide receivers Chris Lawson, Cynai Thomas and Judge Nash. Across the Bay, Concord powerhouse De La Salle has one of its most talented teams in years. Four-star edge rusher Matthew Johnson, track star Jaden Jefferson and lightning-quick QB Toa Faavae are just a few of the gifted playmakers on the DLS roster. As always, the Spartans have loaded their schedule with heavyweights, including an unprecedented trip to England in October to play NFL Academy. – Joseph Dycus
St. John Bosco vs. Bay Area powerhouses
Serra and Pittsburg will have the toughest of tests when the storied Bay Area programs play SoCal juggernaut St. John Bosco-Bellflower. Since 2013, Bosco has won four Open Division state titles and produced a plethora of D-I college players. Serra will play host to Bosco on Sept. 14, and Pittsburg will visit the Bellflower school six days later. Both Pittsburg and Serra are no strangers to scheduling the state’s best teams. “Our goal is to try and get to that same level as those SoCal teams, just like the same thing that De La Salle is doing and Serra has been doing and Folsom’s been doing,” Pittsburg coach Charlie Ramirez told the Bay Area News Group in February, adding, “We see ourselves that same way.” Serra coach Patrick Walsh told the Bay Area News Group last winter that his program is not afraid to lose. “While we want to win we, football for us is a tool to improve lives. The reality of life is that it’s hard and you don’t always win. We welcome all outcomes in all games – especially against the best teams in the state. Game on.” – Nathan Canilao
Clayton Valley back in DAL
Clayton Valley Charter returns to the Diablo Athletic League this season five years after the controversial realignment decision that moved the Concord school to the East Bay Athletic League in football only. The decision was appealed in 2019 by the EBAL, which argued that the Bay Valley Athletic League would be a better fit. That appeal was overruled by the NCS, and Clayton Valley was placed in the EBAL’s Mountain Division alongside the likes of De La Salle, Monte Vista, San Ramon Valley, California and Foothill. Now, the “competitive anomaly,” as the DAL termed Clayton Valley in its original letter petitioning the NCS to move the Ugly Eagles, is back in the league that kicked it out five years ago. Before the move, Clayton Valley had won 14 games in a row against DAL opponents, averaging a 38-point margin of victory. Over the course of five seasons in the EBAL Mountain, the Ugly Eagles went 1-3, 3-0, 3-1, 4-0 and 3-1 in league play. This year, Clayton Valley football moves back to the league the school calls home in all other sports. Though it’s perhaps a more natural geographic fit, there is sure to be discontent if the Ugly Eagles romp through the DAL once again. – Christian Babco*ck
Scotty Brennan’s turn at Los Gatos?
Brent Brennan left San Jose State football to coach the University of Arizona, but his son Scotty Brennan is still in the Bay Area. He’ll compete for Los Gatos’ starting job and should be well-positioned for it in his second season on varsity. Los Gatos has had an enviable succession of quarterbacks over the last few seasons, which has led to great success for the Wildcats. Los Gatos broke through and won the CCS Division I and CIF NorCal 2-A championships in 2023 after years of close playoff losses. The NorCal title was the Wildcats’ first in program history. Last year, it was senior quarterback A.J. Minyard leading the way. The year before that, Jake Boyd led Los Gatos to an 8-3 record, including a perfect 5-0 league mark. Brennan is the senior incumbent now and appears to be the next heir apparent to the throne. He split some time with Minyard at QB last season, even leading the Wildcats to a 35-34 comeback win over Liberty, and is poised for a bigger role in 2024. The ‘Cats will have plenty of challenges to contend with in CCS this season, but they’re hoping Brennan can continue their consistent run of play at the quarterback position. – Christian Babco*ck
Danville a hotbed for college prospects
Between San Ramon Valley and Monte Vista, the two Danville schools have a treasure chest of Division I college talent. Four-star edge rusher and Texas A&M commit Marco Jones spearheads the SRV defense. The team also fields three-star players Owen Scott (receiver) and Kaleb Pleis (edge/linebacker). SRV’s rival, Monte Vista, is led by Fresno State commit Brayden Turner (quarterback), Washington commit Julian McMahan (running back), Arizona commit Kellan Ford (tight end) and three-star defensive lineman Dakota Dickson. SRV came close to ending De La Salle’s three-decade plus unbeaten streak against NCS opponents last season. Maybe both Monte Vista and SRV will give the Concord powerhouse a test this fall. – Nathan Canilao
Potential surprises
Piedmont won a league title and made the section playoffs after coming back from the dead last season after not having a varsity in 2022. It’s doubtful that another team will have the same kind of rise in 2024, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few surprise programs around the Bay Area. … Take Tennyson, for example, a team picked to win the MVAL-WACC Foothill in preseason last year but that floundered to a 2-8 record. With do-everything sophom*ore Lamont McDonald back, the Hayward school could be primed for a bounce-back campaign. … Coach Kelly King Jr.’s Leland team has the talent to turn heads. A year after barely making the playoffs in the BVAL Mt. Hamilton, the Chargers can lean on ace WR/DB/K Luke Whitson to make plays in the less-harsh BVAL Santa Teresa-Valley Division. – Joseph Dycus
More McClymonds dominance?
Serra’s dynasty might be in peril, but in the East Bay, McClymonds’ grip upon the top spot in the Oakland Athletic League is ironclad. The Warriors appeared mortal for a few months, when longtime coach Michael Peters retired after hinting about it for a year. But the Mack alum couldn’t stay off the sidelines. He returned on April 25, just in time for spring ball. Since he took over the program in 2013, McClymonds has won 11 consecutive league titles. The West Oakland powerhouse blew the doors off its OAL foes in 2023, outscording them 251-0. As is usually the case, McClymonds only has a roster of 25 or so players, but those make up the vast majority of the most talented athletes in the OAL. It’s still Mack, an expansive gap, and then everyone else. – Joseph Dycus
Branham begins season amid AD turmoil
Football is a hard enough sport to find success in with a stable athletic administration. But succeeding in football after losing a longtime athletic director? That’s a unique challenge. That’s what Branham will try to do this fall amid the mysterious dismissal of former AD Landon Jacobs, who headed up Branham’s athletic department for 14 years. Head coach Stephen Johnson has a team capable of contending, one moving up to the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division after a 9-3 campaign in the BVAL’s Santa Teresa-Foothill Division in 2023. The Bruins will be led on the field by a dynamic receiving corps featuring Zayne St. Laurent, a Bellarmine transfer who holds multiple Division I offers. Branham should have the potential to compete in the Mt. Hamilton Division, where several different teams have a shot at the league championship. But the drama off the field could overshadow or affect at least some of what is accomplished on it. It remains to be seen just how much the front-office turmoil might factor in. – Christian Babco*ck
Rebuilding year at El Cerrito?
El Cerrito’s past two seasons have ended in heartbreak, with losses in the CIF regionals, and the road back to the mountaintop might be even more challenging this fall. The Gauchos were a senior-heavy team last season and will lose many of their productive players from 2023, including four all-Bay Area News Group players who have since graduated. Three–star athlete Dominik Calhoun has transferred to Pittsburg, leaving holes throughout the Gauchos’ roster. That said, there is still talent on the roster. Quarterback Jonathan Craft, a Fresno State commit, has transferred in from James Logan. While it is unclear when Craft will become eligible, he figures to make an impact at some point this fall. El Cerrito returns high-impact defensive players such as junior safety Savion Bandy and senior edge Lamarion Jones, who will look to lead a defense that held opponents to just over 10 points per game last season. Coach Jacob Rincon, who is entering his eighth season, has had just one losing season and has amassed a 60-18 record. – Nathan Canilao
New-look playoff formats
Changes are coming to the football playoffs this season, notably in the NCS, which will have its own version of competitive equity. The section’s new format has seven base divisions determined by enrollment. The top eight qualifying teams as ranked by MaxPreps’ computer – no matter one’s enrollment – will be placed in the Open/Division I bracket. From there, the remaining six divisions will be positioned by a combination of MaxPreps’ computer ranking and enrollment. In the new format, teams will be prohibited from moving up or down more than two brackets from their base division. Campolindo, for instance, has a base division of IV, which means the Moraga school can go no higher than D-II or lower than D-VI unless it is elevated to Open/D-I. The NCS will continue to have a seeding committee, which has the OK to deviate from the computer ranking if there are head-to-head results and strength-of-schedule factors to consider. The CCS, meanwhile, will no longer allow “A” league teams to drop to D-V and “B” league teams to jump to Open/D-I and D-II. In the CCS’s new format, D-V will now be exclusively for “B” and “C” league teams and Open/D-I and D-II will be for only “A” teams. “A” and “B” teams will fill the D-III and D-IV brackets. – Darren Sabedra
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